Design Water Gardens - $350 Per Hour

If you have read any of my articles before, you know I specialize in sharing my knowledge and experience in the water

garden business over the past 26 years. Because I don’t own or promote a water garden supply store, I can therefore present

unbiased and balanced information – whether it is advice on the best construction methods for a water garden, or which

models of U.V. or pump have the best warranties or the are the most energy efficient.

I have shared with you before about the incredible financial benefits of offering clients digital designs. Even if you are a

do-it-yourselfer homeowner, a digital design is a low-cost and effective way to get your ideas and vision across in a brilliant,

vivid, virtually real way. It is the most important first step of any water garden project.

For several years now I have been presenting virtual designs to my customers. Googling “digital design ponds” or “digital

design water gardens” will result in seven cad cam or 3D-type design programs. These types of software produce stilted,

unnatural, unrealistic results. In the past 26 years I have designed and constructed well over 1,900 water gardens for

commercial and residential clients. Until recently, most of these designs were produced the “old fashioned” way, by hand

drawing them.

Unless the architect is an artist, their drawing is generally a floor plan with an accompanying side view of individual

components or features. The end result would be that the client does not have a realistic view of the proposed project.

Another negative aspect of the old way of doing things is the investment of time in making the drawing. Consequently, I had

to charge $500 to $2,500 for a design drawing.

A few years ago I discovered that I could scan various water garden photos, then download them into Adobe’s Photoshop

program, and cut out objects or portions out of the photographs. By downloading a photo into Photoshop, I could then take

these “jpg” cut-outs such as rocks, plants, portions of waterfalls and ponds, into the photo. By moving the item around,

resizing, cloning and adjusting various aspects, I could create a virtual realistic and natural water garden that would look the

actual photo of a completed project.

Soon, by repeating this process one object at a time, I created a Library of water garden related images that allowed me to

create thousands of variations of an actual water garden design. Amazingly, 8 out of 10 prospective clients paid me $350 to

get a digital water garden design of their back yard. It was not long before I could produce a design in as little as 15 minutes,

with the average being about one hour.

My clients can now see exactly what they are getting with no confusion, misunderstandings or misconceptions, such as

those you could get from a typical hand-drawn architectural floor plan. Plus, the client has a specific water garden design

photo with which to procure additional bids. I tell the client that if they go with me, I will deduct the $350 from the labor cost

of the proposal. However, if they decide not to hire me, I have been compensated for what little time I have invested in this

sales call. In most cases the client is so impressed with my digital design, they opt to go with me. This design program has

increased my closing ratio by 38% be setting me apart from my competition.

Photoshop currently costs $700 to purchase, and has a very long learning curve. I discovered a program for only $129,

“Microsoft Digital Image Suite.” It produces similar results as Photoshop for a fraction of the investment of both money and

time learning it. It is amazing how such a small investment can bring such a large return! If you decided to create three to

four designs a day, it would probably only take you half a day. Working five days per week, this would give you an annual

income of over $300,000 per year! To show how this is done, I have placed a presentation video and demo video with sample

designs on the internet for your convenience at: http://www.watergardenauthority.com/Digital_Design.html

There are other helpful free articles at ezinearticle.com

Douglas C. Hoover; CEO of Aquamedia Corp, Master Waterfall Builder, architect, engineer, freelance writer, author, designer

& builder of well over 1,900 waterfall and ponds in CA (26 years). Author of "Waterfall and Pond Construction Manual" and

developer of the "Water Feature Digital Design Library5.0" Free downloads, no sign in- http://www.askdoughoover.com

Article Source: http://www.comeletsjoin.com/articles

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