On Ask Us Anything, BOH editor in chief Kaitlin Petersen taps former Trade Tales guests to answer real, confidential designer questions, offering a safe space to discuss business challenges. Have a question of your own to ask? Send an email to start the conversation.

This week, interior designer Shaun Crha answers a question from a designer whose clients want to know exactly what she’s paying for product. This designer gives clients the full rundown on how she works—and yet it feels like there’s still a disconnect when it comes to pricing. Now she’s wondering how other designers invoice and talk about money.

Crha, the founder of Long Beach, California–based firm Wrensted Interiors, jumps in with advice on using a budgeting guide rather than fully itemized pricing to prepare clients for the costs of furnishings, and explains why some information always remains proprietary to his firm.

Crucial insight: When searching for an analogy for the ways in which designers make money, Crha finds that if he puts himself in his clients’ shoes, retail typically resonates the most. “I try not to distance myself from the retail parallel, because consumers and clients already understand that,” the designer explains. “I do share with them when I talk about purchasing that these are internal costs, I’m working with vendors, some are better than others, sometimes I lose money—and that transparency of saying, ‘Sometimes you’ll get something for a great deal and I end up losing out on it … if we have to fix something or make it better, and it ends up costing us money.’ They do understand that when you return that thing to Target, Target takes a loss sometimes because they can’t resell it or it’s damaged. I have that happen too. It’s just like a retail store, except things are more expensive.”

Key quote: When clients push back on the cost of a particular item he has proposed, Crha no longer takes it personally. “Usually it’s a value problem: They don’t perceive the value, or it’s just something that is not personally important to them to invest in,” he says. “And oftentimes, I’m not going to be the person who’s going to convince them that that is how they need to do it. I don’t want to convince someone. I would rather spend my time making sure that the client is really in love with the other items they’re willing to invest in.”

This episode was sponsored by Four Hands. Listen to the show below. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.