Hi, everyone, and welcome to our first lecture. So in this section we'll be talking about meeting and interviewing the client. And also some design contract considerations. I do realize that many of you are taking this course for your own purposes. But the ones that are thinking about opening your own practices, I think there's going to be some valuable information here for you too. There are also some PDF resources that you can download, and you can modify them and use them to your own purposes.

So let's move on and talk about meeting the client. So before you start the design process, you need to have a meeting with a client that's going to be willing to pay you for your time and for your creativity. Please note that this is a very critical step of the process. You have to be willing to work with the client as much as they want to work with you. So it's very important to keep very enjoyable work. In relationship and also keeping the lines of communication open for the whole project.

So this lesson will provide you with some guidelines to get your project going in the right constructive, positive direction. And these guidelines will talk about the initial meeting with a client, presenting your portfolio of work and also the necessary following steps that are required to develop the garden design proposal. The initial contact can come from different sources. It can be a phone call or an email about your services. It can be a face to face meeting with a potential client. What you have to understand is that many people don't know how designers work and what the scope of work is that you provide.

So this is your first opportunity to to interview the client, create a working relationship and see if it's actually someone that you want to work with the last time thing you want to do is to end up with a client where your ideas are not listened to. And the client is basically telling you how to design the garden. So how do you establish this professional look? First, know your scope of work? are you providing design services only? Or are you part of design build team.

If you plan on doing design only, then I'd suggest that you get to know some landscape contractors that would build your gardens. This is a value added service that clients love. A second charge a consultation fee. As a professional, you need to charge a fee. And it's due and payable at the time of the meeting, whether it's just a little to cover your travel costs, or charge something. If a potential client has a problem to pay your consultation fee, you might have problems with them to pay a design fee as well.

And they'll just run away with your suggestions and your ideas for free. So let them know that you have a fee Whether it's hourly or set price, then set the time for the meeting and go from there. Okay, let's go to the next lesson. I'll see you there. Bye