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When you start getting more projects, hiring a design assistant is essential to meet project deadlines. Here’s how much you can expect to pay an interior design assistant.
How Much Does a Full-Time Assistant Designer Cost?
If you have multiple projects at a time that you need assistance with, it may be best to just hire one or more design assistants. Designer assistants work to save you time by taking care of tasks such as communication with clients and vendors, making sure contractors are on the same page, doing the introductory consultation with a potential client to ask the necessary questions, gathering images, helping with the project estimates, and more.
The average salary of an assistant interior designer ranges from about $35,000 to $45,000. Or if paid hourly, this equates to about $17 to $22 per hour. If this isn’t an expense you can take on, but still need help, you can also look into hiring a design assistant on a part-time basis as well, and then pay depending on the hours you need them.
Why Should I Hire an Interior Design Assistant?
Besides the time-saving points mentioned above, design assistants are a great resource so you can have more eyes on a project. We’re all human and even an experienced interior designer can make mistakes, and it’s good to have someone else that you can count on to catch those mistakes. Hiring a design assistant is also a great way to set your business up for growth. Not only will you have someone to help with projects so that you meet client deadlines and expectations, but you gain a team member that you can train over time to take on projects entirely by themselves, effectively letting you take on double the number of projects at the same time.
When a client reaches out to you and then finds out that there’s a 3-4 month wait time because you’re busy, there’s a high likelihood that they will look elsewhere for quicker service. With more people on your team, you can provide a shorter wait time, and win over leads that would have otherwise slipped away.
Where Do I Hire a Design Assistant?
The obvious choice here would be to put out ads and job listings online but there are better ways in our opinion.
If there is a design school near you, you can reach out to a professor or the department head to ask if they are looking for business internship programs. You can use this to find a designer who has an interest in the field and put them in an internship position to see if they are a good fit for your company. If you end up being a good fit for each other, you can offer them a job opportunity at the end of the internship and this is a great way to scout for talent.
Another great option is to keep an eye on image-heavy social media platforms like Instagram or Pinterest for people who could be designers. This may be people tagging their photos with #designer or #interiordesigner for example. If these people don’t have a job listed in their profile and you like their work, you can reach out to them and ask if they already have a job, or if they’d be interested in working with you.
If you already have an interior design business or are planning to start an interior design business in the near future, feel free to contact us and we can help you in whatever way we can. If you need a company to help with your bookkeeping and/or taxes, we can do that as well.
