Unbeknownst to him at the time, while Seth Kaplowitz was in law school at Syracuse University, his future client, designer Andre Mellone, was studying architecture on the same campus. At that point, Kaplowitz had no awareness of the design industry—a former political speechwriter, he went on to work as a corporate attorney, then got into private equity abroad. But after returning to the States and building a home, he developed an interest in working with makers and designers.

“Whether it was visual art, or interior design, or architectural drawings, or a vase, or anything—I just wanted to work with creative people,” he tells host Dennis Scully on the latest episode of The Business of Home Podcast. “I felt like I could be a good translator for them, but also I suspected that people who were in creative enterprises or endeavors had gotten into them because they wanted to be creative, not because they wanted to be a contract specialist or an HR manager or an office administrator. I thought that maybe we could start putting together something that would solve for that problem and empower creative people to be truly creative.”

He founded his company, the Kaplowitz Group, in 2013 to provide legal services and strategic guidance to the design world—he currently has more than 100 active clients across the country, ranging from solo designers to AD100 firms. Regardless of size, says Kaplowitz, all tend to run into the same issues, including the big one: how to bill. With more than a decade of data from past and current clients, he has the answer. “We know that studios that bill on an hourly basis and are diligent about tracking their time and invoicing their clients at the same time every month make more money than studios that engage in other practices,” he says. “In particular, in a flat-fee arrangement, somebody is always going to win and somebody is always going to lose. We feel that 9.5 times out of 10, the person on the losing side of the equation is going to be the service provider: the designer who doesn’t want to say no, or who doesn’t want to say, ‘I’m not going to give you a second or third or fourth specification.’ Economically, [hourly billing is] better.”

Elsewhere in the episode, Kaplowitz shares his take on design honor rolls, best practices for employee retention, and what role AI will play in the industry.

Crucial insight: Many of Kaplowitz’s clients typically want to be published in shelter magazines—he argues that another kind of media exposure is more likely to net new business. “We do have a data-driven understanding that there are places that designers do better in terms of attracting potential clients, and those places tend to be the places that high-net-worth to ultrahigh-net-worth people are interacting with,” he says. “For example, we prefer [HTSI] in Financial Times; or Off Duty in The Wall Street Journal; or T magazine—we’ve seen clients get more inbound traffic out of a one-paragraph mention about stair runners in The New York Times than we have clients who have had a 15-page editorial in Architectural Digest.”

Key quote: “Anytime somebody walks into my office, I know the first three questions that they’re going to ask me. Question number one: Is my contract correct? Question number two: Am I billing the right way for my time? Question number three: Is my organizational structure the right structure for what I want to do? Although there are a lot of great industry organizations, I don’t see a lot of pure mentorship out there. I think a lot of people are just kind of wandering around hoping that they’re doing it the right way.”

This episode is sponsored by Ernesta and Sixpenny. Listen to the show below. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

The Thursday Show

Host Dennis Scully and BOH executive editor Fred Nicolaus discuss the biggest news in the design world, including the results of the Food52 bankruptcy auction, why designers are embracing electric kitchens, and how cold weather might heat up the real estate market. Later, designer Bella Mancini joins the show to talk about elevating a partner at her firm.

This episode is sponsored by Loloi and Morris & Co. Listen to the show below. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.