Strictly Business: Clients and Their Budgets

In remodeling, the punishment can routinely outweigh the crime. Take preliminary budgets, for instance. If you forget to ask one question — what a client’s budget is — you’ll waste hours planning a project that will never be built because it costs twice what the homeowner can afford. Just as bad is suggesting a preliminary budget that’s too high, because it may disqualify you from a job that you’re actually a really good fit for. The worst case, however — and possibly the most common — is to venture a budget that’s too low, then have to backtrack later. Not only does this undermine the client’s hard-won trust, but if the true cost of the project