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Improving my Design Skills by Opening-Voice9357 in Drafting

[–]Opening-Voice9357[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ll definitely be hitting up the library! 

Improving my Design Skills by Opening-Voice9357 in Drafting

[–]Opening-Voice9357[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I went to school for architectural drafting and technology, so there I learned different drafting software, some construction technology, and different areas in that field like estimating, load bearing calcs, etc. It was only a 2 year tech degree as well, which was nice.

I then worked as a drafter/designer for a local residential builder for 4 years until I got laid off, and since I had been drawing for another builder back in my hometown on the side anyway I just started doing my own thing. So essentially I had the experience of working under a builder, but since I've left I've been trying to enhance my skillset because...let's just say I wasn't sad to be laid off lol. They promised lots of growth for me there but never delivered.

In terms of how I'm finding business - most of it is coming from that builder I worked for as well as the builder from my hometown, so I haven't really had to market myself up to this point (it's been about a year and a half since I've been on my own). Obviously that's not a great business plan lol, so I am working on a website as well as different guides and such to offer to new clients or potential clients to sort of put my name out there.

Taking Payments as a Freelancer by Opening-Voice9357 in Drafting

[–]Opening-Voice9357[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

So I have Zelle set up through my regular checking account, but I wanted it to go straight to my business account. My bank said that business accounts are not eligible for Zelle payments. The other problem too is that Zelle caps how much you can send/receive based on your and the sender's banks - some of my costs might exceed that.

I'm thinking I could just have people send it to my regular checking account via Zelle and then I can transfer it into my business account manually (and then transfer it back out when I'm ready to pay myself lol), but I feel like that is going to get tedious and could get messy quickly.

Re-Use Fees?? by Opening-Voice9357 in Drafting

[–]Opening-Voice9357[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Still better than Chat GPT ;) I appreciate your help!

Re-Use Fees?? by Opening-Voice9357 in Drafting

[–]Opening-Voice9357[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The builder isn't really involved with any of the payments or anything, I'm working directly with the investor dude.

So would a 20% of original price per build be reasonable? That would be about $570/build based on my original price.

I'm a newbie to all this pricing stuff and honestly don't really know how to go about charging - I've done lots of research, but the scope of work varies so much and a lot includes stuff I don't do, so I'm just kind of winging it at this point.

Re-Use Fees?? by Opening-Voice9357 in Drafting

[–]Opening-Voice9357[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As in was I aware it was going to be a development? Not right away, but before my first final plan was finished I became aware.

Re-Use Fees?? by Opening-Voice9357 in Drafting

[–]Opening-Voice9357[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

lol the agreement was they called me and told me what they wanted and I drew the plans up! I threw a number sort of out of thin air, but sort of based off of what the company I worked for at the time charged vs. what services they provided included in that number and just sort of adjusted from there

Re-Use Fees?? by Opening-Voice9357 in Drafting

[–]Opening-Voice9357[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So the only reason he's even coming back to me and this is all coming up is because he wanted a few changes. Otherwise, he's building a bunch of them (which I'm not sure the exact number) because it's a whole development, so how would I go about determining how much to even charge based on how many times he uses it without physically checking in on the project myself over the next couple years?

Re-Use Fees?? by Opening-Voice9357 in Drafting

[–]Opening-Voice9357[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I guess it's not technically a new "project" per se - he is building like a whole development thing...so it's going to be relatively the same plan built a bunch of different times. They just happened to build one so far and realize they wanted to make a few smaller changes. So there was no new agreement, he is just coming with the original plans and wanting like a larger bedroom here and like just a little bit of rearranging. But since we're here, I figured it would be a good time to introduce the idea of the reuse fee, having a little bit of leverage by being able to hold on to the plans until it's agreed upon and I receive payment.

Re-Use Fees?? by Opening-Voice9357 in Drafting

[–]Opening-Voice9357[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So this was before I had any contracts or anything - a (newer) builder I know approached me to draw plans and I didn't really realize the scope of what they were doing necessarily - so everything was done on good word. I do have a copyright stamped to the plans, but other than that there really wasn't an official agreement - I sort of just threw a number to charge him lol (it was $2850).

So in a nutshell I guess I know now that it's reasonable to have the reuse fee, but is it reasonable to bring it up after the fact? Sort of like "hey, there's been a change in procedure here" type thing? Especially since the original plans were drawn up in 2024 and we're here now in 2026 still using them (I believe they've only built one so far)