David Andrew Furniture

The honest answers — including the awkward ones.

Three objections come up on almost every $100K–$500K engagement. The corpus has them on record. The answers are below — DAF's actual scripts, not marketing prose. The rest land in your discovery call, where the conversation deserves to live.

Three honest answers

The questions buyers actually ask before they sign.

First objection
“Why 20% when others charge 5%?”
What the buyer sees

The buyer is comparing two different things and calling them the same. Trade rep commission runs around 5% — paid by the manufacturer, embedded in the MSRP, invisible to the buyer. Full-service procurement runs 18–25% — paid by the buyer, on a separate transparent line. Two models, two prices, two jobs.

DAF's answer

The 40-year hospitality FF&E firms — Benjamin West, CCS Hospitality, Mathisen Hospitality — charge 18–25% flat. That is the industry standard for full-service procurement. DAF's 20% is in the middle of that band. The rep model is cheaper because the rep is not doing the same work.

“If you want to manage trades yourself, the rep model is right for you, and we shouldn't work together. If you want to hand it off and bill your time to the design side instead, we're a fit. What feels right for this project?”
— How the conversation goes
Source · library-sales-negotiation.md
Second objection
“What if we don't like it when it arrives?”
What the buyer sees

Eighty thousand dollars, fourteen weeks of production, a container on a ship. The buyer is signing for pieces they've only seen rendered. The fear is real — what arrives is not what was promised.

DAF's answer

The solution is workflow, not rhetoric. Your engagement letter sets sample-approval gates at the points where a piece can still be changed — fabric, finish, dimension. Sign-off is required before full production starts. Sample requests, sample review, and change-management documentation are scoped into the engagement under Schedule C. The reject-on-spec workflow and exact gate language are in your engagement letter — drafted before the deposit.

Source · library-sales-negotiation.md · daf/legal/schedule_c_engagement.md
Third objection
“Can you do it without the markup if I pay you cash?”
What the buyer sees

Sometimes phrased softly — a discount for a friend, a side arrangement, the supplier invoice padded so the savings stay between us. The ask is always the same: take part of the fee off the books.

DAF's answer

No. Always refuse. Always document the ask. Both versions of this are illegal — tax evasion on one side, fraud against the end client on the other if the markup is undisclosed. Reputationally it is the move that ends a procurement firm. DAF will not participate, and we will tell the rest of the room why the answer is no.

Source · library-sales-negotiation.md
And the other four

The corpus references seven common objections. Only three are on record.

The rest get answered on the discovery call, where the answer can be specific to your project, your timeline, and the room in front of us. That feels more honest than pretending a webpage can stand in for that conversation. Send the brief — the call comes with the plan the next morning.

The operational questions

The fee, the plan, the timeline, the rest.

The fee
  • What does the 20% cover?

    Procurement. Sourcing pieces through DAF Global Connect. Supplier negotiation. Purchase order issuance. Freight and customs coordination. Last-mile delivery to your specified receiving location. Warranty administration. Project management. One flat 20% fee on landed cost. Install is coordinated by your own team.

  • Is the supplier price the real workshop price?

    Yes. The number on the plan is the number on the supplier's invoice. We do not mark it up before we add 20%. The supplier invoice goes in the project file. Ask to see it.

  • Does DAF take anything from the supplier on the back end?

    No. No rebate, no margin share, no referral cut from the factory. The 20% line is the only line we make money on. The fiduciary line in the engagement letter says it plainly: DAF holds no commission relationships with manufacturers and earns revenue only from the disclosed procurement fee.

  • When do I pay?

    Fifty percent on contract. That starts sourcing. Fifty percent on delivery confirmation — after the order lands and you have signed off. Late payment past fourteen days from delivery accrues a 1.5% monthly finance charge. If a piece arrives wrong, the balance holds against that line until the fix lands.

  • Where do my deposits sit between contract and supplier payment?

    Deposits are used to fund sourcing and supplier purchase orders on your project. DAF does not operate a client trust account. Payment terms for your specific engagement are set out in writing before you sign.

  • Is there a project minimum?

    Eight thousand on the supplier line for residential. Twenty thousand for commercial. Below that the coordination cost eats the savings.

The plan
  • How fast does the costed plan come back?

    One business day. The first reply is the plan — not an acknowledgment, not a discovery call. Every piece, every supplier, every number, in your inbox the next morning.

  • What if my brief is rough?

    Rough is fine. A screenshot, a budget, a room description. Send what you have. Follow-up questions come on the call. The plan still lands inside a day.

  • What if nothing on the plan works?

    We revise any line. The plan is the proposal, not the contract. If nothing works, you owe nothing.

Delivery
  • Who manages delivery?

    DAF coordinates a single freight forwarder per project. Pieces consolidate and ship to the destination port. Last-mile brings them to the door, unboxed. You arrange hands-on placement; we advise on local labour options.

  • What if a piece arrives damaged?

    DAF files the warranty claim with the supplier. You don't. The QC photos, hide tags, and freight manifest go into the project file at the start so the claim has evidence the day it goes out.

  • What if the container slips?

    You hear about it the day we know. If the slip pushes past the install deadline, we either fly the smallest critical pieces or stage the room with what landed. The credit on the room stays with you.

  • How long does the project take end to end?

    Production and shipping runs 8–14 weeks origin to destination. Most international rooms land in 12 weeks. The signed plan names the expected date and freight terms before anything ships.

Lifeware
  • What is Lifeware?

    Lifeware is the exclusive long-arc layer on top of procurement. It includes design direction, colour selection, AR mockups, and sourcing plans — things that are not in the flat 20% fee. It also includes a 3–7 year exchange window: pieces you bought through DAF can be swapped for new pieces through DAF at parity. One-for-one. No re-brief from scratch.

  • What does Lifeware cost?

    The current founding enrollment is $499 one-time. This is an exclusive early offer — the price will go up after DAF launches publicly. Most clients are procurement-only. Lifeware is for clients who want the full design and advisory relationship over years, not just a single order.

  • Is Lifeware right for me?

    Probably not — and that is honest. If you have a project, send the brief and run it as a procurement engagement. Lifeware is for clients who want design direction, colour input, mockups, and an exchange relationship over the long arc. If that is not what you need, the 20% line is all you need.

Trade and commercial
  • Can you handle FF&E for hotels and restaurants?

    Yes. FF&E is the core commercial scope. Furniture, fixtures, soft goods — one plan, one contract, one point of contact. We coordinate freight timing around the construction punch list.

  • Can you coordinate with the architect or GC?

    Yes. We work off the specifier's spec list or draft one alongside them. DAF does not appear in front of the client. The architect's name and the designer's name stay on the front of the project.

  • Does DAF appear in front of the designer's client?

    No. The designer keeps the markup and the client relationship. DAF stays on the back of the contract.

About DAF
  • Who is DAF?

    David Andrew Furniture is a furniture procurement service. Solo founder — Ben Lafreniere. Early stage. Pre-revenue. The supplier network — DAF Global Connect — is real and growing. If you want to understand what DAF actually does before sending a brief, the sample plan is the fastest way.

  • Why use DAF instead of going to the supplier direct?

    You could. What you take on is the language, the time zone, the QC process, the freight manifest, the customs broker, and the damaged-on-arrival claim. DAF takes that off your plate for 20%. If the project is two pieces and you have time, going direct may be cheaper. For a full room on a deadline, the math usually breaks toward us.

  • Is DAF's supplier network vetted?

    DAF Global Connect is a growing list. Manufacturers can apply at /suppliers/apply to be added. We are transparent that it is early — we will not name a workshop we haven't engaged, and we will not imply scale we don't have.

  • What insurance does DAF carry?

    DAF carries Commercial General Liability insurance — $2M per occurrence / $5M aggregate, including products-completed operations (Tokio Marine Canada, via Zensurance). A certificate of insurance is available on request.

Question not here? Put it in the brief.

The costed plan comes back the next business day. Every supplier named. Every number disclosed. Supplier price plus 20%.