Working with third party clients
From Principles of Applied Arts
Third Party Clients
Designers, Architects, Contractors
These people can be your biggest ally when you are trying to get big jobs. These are the people who know what needs to be done next, and who is the best at it. That is what they are paid for.
If you form a business alliance with a third party, you need to know how to maintain it with integrity and loyalty; don’t undermine their efforts and don’t be unethical. This means when they get you a job in a home, don’t pass out your business card for future use, pass out theirs. They are the reason that you are there in the first place, and they aren’t ever giving you another job if you cut them out of the picture.
The client may not understand this concept and beg you to “Just come in and do the dining roomâ€, but their decorator may have plans for that room already and you just wrecked it.
Likewise when you bring a decorator into one of your jobs, they should show the same integrity and pass out your card, not theirs. Business ethics can be complex, that’s why there are complete college courses on the subject. Just use your common sense – would you do something to someone that you wouldn’t want them to do to you? Be fair, and remember to be grateful! Give your decorator a card or gift if they help you out. That can only help, referrals are your friends!!
If your client is asking you for more decorating advice than you are comfortable with, recommend that we bring in a color expert or a designer. That’s what they’re for. It may get you extra jobs because the designer talks them into doing the whole house.
