Reply To: hourly rate for small side jobs

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

You have to have the reputation and portfolio to get $150 per hour. She just can’t claim it. And if she has no portfolio she has to get the work to build it – no design sale =  no portfolio. If she is asking, she’s not there yet.

 

The other side of the coin is all the landscape architects who can’t get land any jobs that they bid on. They complain that contractors, engineers, and architects are taking there work.

 

If someone will get no work by having high rates, they need to lower them. If you can get higher rates, you need to charge them. The notion that the letters RLA after our names sets our fees is totally unrealistic. It is client base, geographic location, reputation, and portfolio of built work that gets your rate whether you are self taught or have a Phd.

 

You have to know where you are on all of those counts in order to sell your rate. It does not just happen by decree.