Creating Profitable Proposals: Pricing, Presenting & Closing with Confidence with Lindsey Borchard

Season 8 of The Interior Collective Podcast is brought to you by Loloi.This episode is brought to you in partnership with Dezign Assist. Welcome back to The Interior Collective. I’m your host, Anastasia Casey, and today we are diving into a topic that every single interior designer has to master if they want a profitable, sustainable business and that is creating proposals, pricing projects, and confidently selling the bid. Because here’s the truth. You can be the most talented designer in the room, but if you cannot build an accurate quote, present it with clarity, and hold your ground when pricing pushback comes up, your business will feel reactive instead of strategic. And this is not just about choosing hourly versus flat rate. This is about understanding your numbers. Gathering real data from your past projects. Accounting for your team’s time. Structuring a proposal that protects your profit. And then having the confidence to walk a client through that number without shrinking when they raise an eyebrow. So I invited back someone who I trust deeply on this topic, Lindsey Borchard, Principal of Lindsey Brooke Design and my co-founder of Design Camp. Lindsey has been incredibly transparent about how her pricing has evolved, what she has learned through trial and error, and how she has built systems in her studio to create accurate, timely, and profitable quotes. Today we are getting very tactical. We are talking about how to calculate flat fees behind the scenes, how to blend hourly and flat rate models, how to turn around proposals efficiently, and how to handle negotiations without discounting yourself into resentment. If you have ever hesitated before hitting send on a proposal, if you have ever wondered whether your number was too high or too low, or if you have ever reduced your fee just to secure the project, consider this episode a mini-masterclass from what you can expect at Design Camp.