When I have raised the issue of charging for design services in my seminars, I usually hear the familiar response: "Oh, I could never charge for design in my market. That's just the way it is." Well, my retort to that line of thinking is: does your lawyer or doctor give you free advice?
While consumers may have read a few articles about products or visited a manufacturers Web site, they still don't know as much about the properties, installation and maintenance of the product as you do. And while you may think you don't know much about design because you don't have an educational degree on the subject, you've still seen more floors installed (good and bad) than the customer. That might seem like a flimsy statement at this time, but think about the last time a customer said to you, "We just can't make up our minds between these two designs. Which do YOU think will look better?"