Featured on this episode:

• Join the wait list for my revamped course, The Designers Edge
• Access the full video interview with Elana Steele of Steele Appliance here
• Sign up here to join my panel discussion at High Point

What you will learn in this episode:

• How to identify and eliminate the “invisible work” that’s quietly draining your profits—like untracked calls, site visits, and weekend texts that never make it into your proposals.
• The difference between billable and educational hours—and how knowing this distinction can help you protect your time while still growing your expertise.
• Why clarity in your proposals directly impacts profitability, and how simple language tweaks can turn your scope of work into a confident, client-winning document.

Every designer knows the feeling—you wrap up a project, your client’s thrilled, but something’s off. You worked twice as much as you got paid for. Somewhere along the way, the hours disappeared.

Welcome to the invisible work that’s eating your profits. These are the hours that never make it into proposals—the “quick” client calls, the weekend texts, the short site visits that somehow take half the day. If you’ve ever wondered why your profit margins feel razor-thin, this may be why.

The Real Cost of Invisible Work

Designers often search for a single big reason profits vanish—maybe you underpriced, maybe a client added extras, maybe the project ran long. But in reality, the money leaks out through a thousand small cracks. It’s the five-minute client call that derails your focus. It’s the “quick question” from a contractor that takes two hours round trip. These moments feel minor, but together, they can represent weeks of unpaid labor across your projects.

When I worked at top design firms in New York City, we tracked every 15 minutes. At the time, I thought billing a client for a five-minute call felt excessive. But the firm understood something I didn’t yet: every interruption has a cost.

Later, when I started my own firm, I swung the other way—I didn’t bill for quick calls or texts because it felt polite. What I didn’t realize was that every one of those interruptions pulled me away from billable work. By the time I regained focus, 20 or 30 minutes had disappeared. Multiply that by multiple clients, and the lost hours became staggering.

The truth hit me hard: at my old firm, I was earning them profit by tracking my minutes; in my own firm, I was losing it for myself.

The Hidden Cost of “Quick” Visits

Here’s a familiar scenario: your contractor texts, “Can you swing by? Just need your eyes on something quick.” You head over—after pulling drawings, rescheduling a call, driving there and back. That “quick” visit can cost two hours or more. Yet many designers only bill for 30 minutes, if that.

This is how invisible work silently drains profitability. It’s not just about undercharging—it’s about under-accounting for the true scope of what you do.

The Difference Between Educational Hours and Billable Hours

Now, not every hour should be billed to your client. Some time belongs to you—what I call educational hours. These are the hours you invest in expanding your expertise: learning, researching, improving your craft. They’re valuable because they build your professional mastery, but they’re an investment, not a client expense.

In The Designer’s Edge, the program I created for interior designers, we track these separately. As your experience grows, your educational hours should decrease while your efficiency—and your profits—increase.

Where the Profit Leak Begins: Your Proposal

Invisible work doesn’t start mid-project—it begins in the proposal. Too many designers lose money before they even start because their scope of work is vague or filled with “feel-good” language.

For example:

“We’ll be available throughout the construction process to ensure everything goes smoothly.”

Sounds professional, right? But to the client, that reads as always available, anytime. It sets an expectation that’s nearly impossible to walk back.

Clarity is profit. One designer in my program recently overhauled her proposal after feedback like this. She added clear limits (“up to two options”), defined her role (“design intent only”), and removed her hourly rate to focus the client on deliverables instead of hours.

The result? She landed a dream client who called her proposal “the most professional” of the four he reviewed—and paid in full the same day.

The Power of Clarity

Clear boundaries aren’t just for your sanity—they’re for your profit. They communicate confidence to your client and protect your time. And when you know exactly what’s included (and what’s not), you stop apologizing for your fees.

The designer above almost quit the industry. Instead, by tightening her proposal and claiming her value, she reignited her business. That’s the power of clarity.

Your Challenge: Name the Invisible Work

So here’s your next step—and it might sting a little. Open your calendar, texts, and emails from your last project. Add up every client call, every “quick” favor, every site visit that didn’t make it onto an invoice. Then ask yourself:

What would your bottom line look like if you had built those hours into your proposal?

You can’t fix what you don’t measure. The invisible work will keep growing until you shine a light on it.

Turning Invisible Hours into Intentional Profit

When you start acknowledging your invisible hours, everything changes:

• You stop feeling resentful because your time is valued and compensated.
• You stop dreading client and contractor calls because you’ve already accounted for them.
• You stop defending your fees because you know exactly what those fees cover.

That’s the difference between a designer who’s surviving and one who’s thriving. You can’t build a profitable business on invisible work—you can only build it on intentional work.

Ready to Take Back Control?

If you’re ready to claim your time, tighten your proposals, and finally get paid for the work you actually do, join the waitlist for The Designer’s Edge. Enrollment opens this November—and it’s the last window for 2025.

Click here to find out more. Join before October 20th to receive special surprises and early access.

Because the truth is, when you stop working for free and start working with intention, everything changes—for your confidence, your clients, and your bottom line.

Like this Episode?

Be sure to check out Episode #231: The One Question That Will Transform Your Proposals

Be sure to check out Episode #223: Doing It All—And Getting Paid for Half

Be sure to check out Episode #214: LuAnn Nigara on Leadership, Profitability, and Owning Your Role