Who are our members?
Our members are individuals or companies of any size within the design, decorating and architectural community who specify or purchase products for their clients.
Right now we are catering to the residential market. In the future we plan to cater to the contract market, but no timeline is forecasted at this time.
How can a membership with The Designing Link save me time and money?
Whether you are a Sole Proprietor with no employees or a large firm, a membership with The Designing Link will save you time and money. In the past, when sourcing products and materials, it required a phone call to your vendor's rep or Corporate office to get answers before knowing if you could propose, specify or purchase an item for a client. As designers, we spend countless hours on the phone and on the Internet doing research - trying to track down these answers that we constantly need. It is possible that in one week, tens of hours could be spent on this task, racking up nothing but unbillable time. If your rates are between $100-$150 per hour and you spend as little as ten hours in a month performing these tasks it equates to an average of $1,250 of what could've been billable time. Now you can get a membership with The Designing Link and turn those wasted hours into billable time.
How can a membership with The Designing Link help me meet my deadlines?
As you know, when you have a product you are interested in proposing to a client, there is a bunch of criteria the product needs to meet to be able to use it for your project, and most of the time you need to know this immediately so you can continue designing the space. Pricing, quality, lead time, shipping charges, customization options, etc. - all could dictate your ability to use the product. So you know the drill; before, you would have to contact the rep or company directly, and most times wait to hear back, or try to get as much information from their website as possible. Until you got this information you would either continue designing in the hope that it will work out, or put the project on hold until you got the information. Now, you can go to one place and immediately get these all these answers and more.
Who can benefit from using The Designing Link?
Anyone who specifies, proposes or purchases products for their clients and have been faced with the following situations and beyond:
- Those who would prefer to be performing tasks that are billable rather than spending hours on end contacting vendors to know if the company terms, lead times, customization options, pricing, shippings, etc. will allow you to propose the product to your client.
- Those who include cancellation and return policies, warranties, lead