15 interior renderings for $100.00 to $150.00

[innerdream]

Thanks TJ. I don't want clients anymore, you're right there is no more fun in this for me.

Not sure if that is still Gensler policy but it was when I worked there.

[skala67]

Yea 10 an hour is un-acceptable!! Especially you being in LA which is a crazy market. However, I look at places such as steelblue which is located in the California market and it gives me hope that with the right business plan, a great product, and the economic vitality of a boomiing city such as San Fran/ The Bay area...working in a larger firm is the way to go imo.

 

I visit Steel Blue every time Im in SF. They have a talented, forward thinking team. I wouldn't consider it a large firm, but the skills and their deliverables/portfolio gives them that feel. We have to remember that (almost) every firm started in the same place as the rest of us. How did they get to where they are now?

[innerdream]

I visit Steel Blue every time Im in SF. They have a talented, forward thinking team. I wouldn't consider it a large firm, but the skills and their deliverables/portfolio gives them that feel. We have to remember that (almost) every firm started in the same place as the rest of us. How did they get to where they are now?

 

I don't have a clue. How much are top Viz houses getting for an image? Unless they and others are doing high volume I just don't understand how they're doing well? Maybe the big Viz places aren't that profitable and only have a staff because of the work load? There's a difference between having a lot of people and work and being profitable.

[himanshuchoudhary]

I don't have a clue. How much are top Viz houses getting for an image? Unless they and others are doing high volume I just don't understand how they're doing well? Maybe the big Viz places aren't that profitable and only have a staff because of the work load? There's a difference between having a lot of people and work and being profitable.

 

We are a small studio in Prague, and have a team of 8 people. I would say we produce around 15-20 images per month and make enough profit that everyone on the team is paid on time and happy. Mind you, average income in Prague is not that much, and i would say we are all above that grade. But then again, as TJ mentioned, this involved a lot of relationship building with the steady clients who keep giving us work. Our clientele is only big architecture studios and this keeps us always busy with projects because of the size of the firms we collaborate with. If the architecture studio is processing 20 projects a month, we have no stress on finding work, which is profitable.

 

I am sorry to hear your situation. I hope things turn out well for whatever lies in the future for you.

Good luck!

[innerdream]

We are a small studio in Prague, and have a team of 8 people. I would say we produce around 15-20 images per month and make enough profit that everyone on the team is paid on time and happy. Mind you, average income in Prague is not that much, and i would say we are all above that grade. But then again, as TJ mentioned, this involved a lot of relationship building with the steady clients who keep giving us work. Our clientele is only big architecture studios and this keeps us always busy with projects because of the size of the firms we collaborate with. If the architecture studio is processing 20 projects a month, we have no stress on finding work, which is profitable.

 

I am sorry to hear your situation. I hope things turn out well for whatever lies in the future for you.

Good luck!

 

Thanks for the reply. I looked up salary in Prague as an example IT Administration/ Operations Euro's per month 1 400 minimum salary. That doesn't cover my rent. The problem I run into here in Los Angeles is clients want to pay China (as an example) prices and get American convenience, meaning location, response time, speaking the language etc.

[Josef Wienerroither]

We are a small studio in Prague, and have a team of 8 people.

 

Would you mind sharing a link to your studio? As i'm here in Austria/Vienna we are sort of neighbours and not too far away from each other ;-)

[Scott Schroeder]

I would imagine most places have a pay out when we get paid policy for their contractors. However, in the case of contractors like graphics and rendering people we'll bring on in times of high need for work, we pay them the typical net 30. All I had to do was explain to our accounting team that freelancers are a lot smaller and can't afford to front their cash like our larger contractors such as a civil engineering firm. It was as easy as that to get them to change. Most of the times, people just don't fully understand how freelancing works (and not because they are evil), so you have to explain it to them in a normal manner. It's not like at every architecture firm the principal architects are all sitting in a dark room lit by a single bare lit bulb, they are all smoking cigars they just lit with $100 bills, and they are forming a plan to forever deal with these pesky freelancers.

 

The big viz places have their bread and butter renderings that help bring money in. These are the ones that you never see online, but they have such a great process to produce these images that their profit margins are really high on them. Those non-sexy renders are what fronts them the money to do the higher end ones that may not have as much profit. If you do enough of these and build up a working relationship with your client, you get yourself into the spot where you can start to command your price. If someone is going to SteelBlue or MIR to get work, they know they are going to get a quality product but they are also go to pay a fair price for it. Those studios have established themselves to say, "Thanks, but no thanks" to the low wage requests. These studios also outsource most of their repetitive work to free up their US based staff from burning money on tedious tasks. If they have to cut out a bunch of people, outsource it. The global market is here to stay, so use it to your advantage.

 

Are their bad clients out there, of course. There are bad clients in any industry. There will always be a need for bottom level work in any industry, as Judge Smails points out, "Well, the world needs ditch diggers too." It is up to you and you alone to get yourself off the bottom. If after some time you are still there, the fault is on you. Not your clients, not your competition, not the global markets.

 

Anyone reading this, go read Mike Monteiro's books "Design is a Job" and "You're my Favorite Client". There is a lot of great information in there about how to make it, stand up for your fair price, and how to get away from the scraps of the industry. Here's a hint, all of it has to do with your building a relationship with your client and helping them understand your process.

[himanshuchoudhary]

Would you mind sharing a link to your studio? As i'm here in Austria/Vienna we are sort of neighbours and not too far away from each other ;-)

 

Sure

 

http://www.va-render.com

 

How about you!?

[innerdream]

If after some time you are still there, the fault is on you. Not your clients, not your competition, not the global markets.

 

That is a broad brush there. There are two basic types of US based Viz houses that I see. One is the company that does houses for $395.00, just Google 3D renderings to see, the other people like Labtop, DBOX etc. There is not a lot in between. The in between work for the most part meaning better than the $395.00 guy not as pricey or good as DBOX is being outsourced most of the time.

 

As far as using overseas talent in my own work I didn't get into the Architecture field to be a broker. If I wanted to do that it wouldn't be in Architecture.

Edited May 30, 2017 by innerdream

[innerdream]

I would imagine most places have a pay out when we get paid policy for their contractors. However, in the case of contractors like graphics and rendering people we'll bring on in times of high need for work, we pay them the typical net 30. All I had to do was explain to our accounting team that freelancers are a lot smaller and can't afford to front their cash like our larger contractors such as a civil engineering firm. It was as easy as that to get them to change. Most of the times, people just don't fully understand how freelancing works (and not because they are evil), so you have to explain it to them in a normal manner. It's not like at every architecture firm the principal architects are all sitting in a dark room lit by a single bare lit bulb, they are all smoking cigars they just lit with $100 bills, and they are forming a plan to forever deal with these pesky freelancers.

 

The big viz places have their bread and butter renderings that help bring money in. These are the ones that you never see online, but they have such a great process to produce these images that their profit margins are really high on them. Those non-sexy renders are what fronts them the money to do the higher end ones that may not have as much profit. If you do enough of these and build up a working relationship with your client, you get yourself into the spot where you can start to command your price. If someone is going to SteelBlue or MIR to get work, they know they are going to get a quality product but they are also go to pay a fair price for it. Those studios have established themselves to say, "Thanks, but no thanks" to the low wage requests. These studios also outsource most of their repetitive work to free up their US based staff from burning money on tedious tasks. If they have to cut out a bunch of people, outsource it. The global market is here to stay, so use it to your advantage.

 

Are their bad clients out there, of course. There are bad clients in any industry. There will always be a need for bottom level work in any industry, as Judge Smails points out, "Well, the world needs ditch diggers too." It is up to you and you alone to get yourself off the bottom. If after some time you are still there, the fault is on you. Not your clients, not your competition, not the global markets.

 

Anyone reading this, go read Mike Monteiro's books "Design is a Job" and "You're my Favorite Client". There is a lot of great information in there about how to make it, stand up for your fair price, and how to get away from the scraps of the industry. Here's a hint, all of it has to do with your building a relationship with your client and helping them understand your process.

 

Curious where do you work? What's your experience as a sole proprietor?

[SkylineArch]

I am running into clients and associates I have done business with for decades lying to me about retainers and final bills, nickle and diming me over everything to the point where I spend more time chasing them for money than working on their projects.

Those are the clients that I add the special "you suck to deal with" tax to their next estimate. So either I get paid extra to deal with them or lose them all together, either way I'm fine with it.

[innerdream]

Those are the clients that I add the special "you suck to deal with" tax to their next estimate. So either I get paid extra to deal with them or lose them all together, either way I'm fine with it.

 

I heard that! Sometimes when you're hungry though you gotta take it up the pooper.

[skala67]

I would imagine most places have a pay out when we get paid policy for their contractors. However, in the case of contractors like graphics and rendering people we'll bring on in times of high need for work, we pay them the typical net 30. All I had to do was explain to our accounting team that freelancers are a lot smaller and can't afford to front their cash like our larger contractors such as a civil engineering firm. It was as easy as that to get them to change. Most of the times, people just don't fully understand how freelancing works (and not because they are evil), so you have to explain it to them in a normal manner. It's not like at every architecture firm the principal architects are all sitting in a dark room lit by a single bare lit bulb, they are all smoking cigars they just lit with $100 bills, and they are forming a plan to forever deal with these pesky freelancers.

 

The big viz places have their bread and butter renderings that help bring money in. These are the ones that you never see online, but they have such a great process to produce these images that their profit margins are really high on them. Those non-sexy renders are what fronts them the money to do the higher end ones that may not have as much profit. If you do enough of these and build up a working relationship with your client, you get yourself into the spot where you can start to command your price. If someone is going to SteelBlue or MIR to get work, they know they are going to get a quality product but they are also go to pay a fair price for it. Those studios have established themselves to say, "Thanks, but no thanks" to the low wage requests. These studios also outsource most of their repetitive work to free up their US based staff from burning money on tedious tasks. If they have to cut out a bunch of people, outsource it. The global market is here to stay, so use it to your advantage.

 

Are their bad clients out there, of course. There are bad clients in any industry. There will always be a need for bottom level work in any industry, as Judge Smails points out, "Well, the world needs ditch diggers too." It is up to you and you alone to get yourself off the bottom. If after some time you are still there, the fault is on you. Not your clients, not your competition, not the global markets.

 

Anyone reading this, go read Mike Monteiro's books "Design is a Job" and "You're my Favorite Client". There is a lot of great information in there about how to make it, stand up for your fair price, and how to get away from the scraps of the industry. Here's a hint, all of it has to do with your building a relationship with your client and helping them understand your process.

 

I agree pretty much 100% with all of this. Even at a smaller sole proprietor level, with consultants on stand by for any overload, I have several clients that fulfill that "bread and butter". I've done more quick Holiday Inns and Hampton Suites than I'd like to say. These are actually more lucrative than the larger showcase animation jobs. I still can not demand any price like a Steelblue/MIR because my work is not as good as theirs but I do know that I fit somewhere in the middle and have established a good pricing wheelhouse that works for the clients and myself. I have turned down some clients because they think I charge too much, but honestly, I don't want those projects because that client sees the value of the product in different terms, and they tend to be the tougher client in the end.

 

I like the imagery of a bunch of fat cats in a room smoking $100 bills. They are all in agreeance that all we do is hit a "Render" button and should be paid accordingly.....

 

Thank you for the book suggestions. Will check those out.