Clients That Don’t Pay, Sending Proposals, and Traveling Rates

Podcast

Feb 17

On this episode we’re answering your questions regarding clients who refuse to pay your invoices; when to follow up on sent proposals, and your traveling rates. These are some of the hot topics that I’ve been asked throughout the years. Long story short, make sure everything is clear from the get go. Of course it’s easier when you have the experience of doing it for some time, but I think it all comes with the growth. You have to fall and get back up. It’s ok to make mistakes in any of these areas. Don’t let those mistakes keep you down. Anyways, hope this episode is an enjoyable one for everyone. The business of video production is so much fun, but with growth comes the business side of it all. Some people might not think it’s fun, but I personally love to see where I was and where I am now. To God be the Glory!

Ariel (00:01):
Welcome back to another episode of the ifilmmaker podcast. My name's Ariel Martinez. And we're back with another episode. This is episode 199, if I'm not mistaken and yes, for those of you that are watching on YouTube, this is a once again another setup. I know, I know I changed setups like it crazy, but uh, never content. And I'm just always kind of trying to play that fine line between making it easier and convenient at the same time, making it visually appealing without adding the stress of kind of having to have a set up every single time. So this is just the next one and I'm really liking this one. So anyways, that's just for visual purposes and yes, I haven't been posting as frequently as I would like as I used to. Um, I guess to be fair with all of you guys, I am in the middle of sort of a transitional period with my business.
Ariel (00:58):
I'm going to talk more in depth on that once it's fully completed and once it's done, uh, but just know that my business is going through a very, very big transition in the form of a rebrand. I'm completely rebranding my business, my approach to marketing, et cetera. So, um, it is quite a process though, and I didn't take a decision like this lightly. Uh, I'm doing this after hours of meeting and talking with advisors, counselors, pastors, other business, people that are just well fine tuned in, in their industry. And I would actually advise anybody that really, which should be probably more, most of you listening here to kind of do that, um, ask for advice, business advice, and it doesn't have to be with people that are in your industry. It could just be a regular business owner. Um, and if you find some relative success in their business, they might have a, a trick or two up their sleeve that you might be able to take advantage of.
Ariel (02:03):
And so that's kind of what I'm going through right now, and I'm very excited about it. It is a ton of work. It is a lot of work and, um, but I'm very, very excited about it. Uh, if you're, I mean, if you've seen, I guess my Instagram and follow me on some other platforms, you've probably seen it take some effect, but, uh, it's not fully completed yet still making some tweaks and final, uh, preparations on that. And I will make an actual official announcement. Um, it might even affect this podcast even in terms of like the hosting and platform of where it's gonna live under. So it's just, I'm doing a very different sort of approach here. But in the meantime, uh, I am going to continue to answer your questions. You guys have submitted some, a few good ones and I wanna go ahead and answer those.
Ariel (02:56):
Cause I think that they're pretty important. And with all that out of the way, oh, by the way, don't forget to like subscribe. If you enjoy this content anyways, here we go. Question number one, I am currently in a situation where off the bat, I got into business with a client and agreed to do all this work, but the problem is we never discussed the price. Ooh, I know that was a big mistake. However, now my client saw the invoice and he was appalled at how high it was. I tried to explain to him that the video shooting and editing is quite expensive. Now he refuses to pay my invoice and I've already done all this work for him. Do not know what to do at this point. Any advice would be helpful.
Speaker 2 (03:38): Oh,
Ariel (03:39):
That's a tough one. That's a, that's a very, very, uh, tough one. Um, so in this situation, obviously you understand, you kind of sort of drop the ball on this one because yeah, you'd never want to go into business with a client without setting the parameters without clarifying, not only your services is about how much your services are going to cost. So you're in the situation where things were not clear or there were, I guess, misunderstandings, um, what I would do if it, if this was me in this situation, I mean, if you've already delivered work, there's really much not much you can do outside of kind, going to a claims court and trying to get your invoice paid for, but that's gonna cost you much, you know, more money. Um, personally, personally, listen, if I'm not owing anybody money, this is to be honest with you.
Ariel (04:36):
And it really kind of depends on how much it, it ends up being. But if I don't, if I didn't hire other people to complete this job and it's just my time wasted, put it that way. Um, I would either try and settle with the client for a much lower price, something that they would be willing to pay, to get something out of it, if they're really adamant about this. Um, or if it's, if the invoice is enough, uh, I would sort of take them to small claims court, maybe get something out of that. But even then, I'm not sure that that would even help because you guys never discussed a price to begin with. Now I'm no lawyer, but if there, if there was no price to begin with, I mean, that, that would make it real difficult. And I'm not even sure who a judge might side with.
Ariel (05:25):
So I, I couldn't even give you advice on that one in this case. I think I would just cut my losses, do not deliver any more work. If you have any kind of power or any kind of work that you still have to deliver, that they're still waiting on, don't deliver it. Try to get things squared away with that, with that it, because yeah, I mean, it, it wouldn't make sense to continue if they're not willing to pay, uh, even, yeah. I, I think both sides, both parties dropped the ball on this one. You for not giving your price them for accepting work without even asking how much it's going to cost. I feel like that's not, that's kind of like business 1 0 1, uh, you, you don't get a service without knowing the price of it first. It only makes sense. Um, but yeah, definitely avoid this in the future.
Ariel (06:15):
Be clear about what giving what the tasks are, what your responsibilities, where they begin, where they end kind of try to have a rundown of absolutely everything. And if possible, if it's a big project, have something in writing as well. I think that it's super important to make sure that your clients absolutely know what they're getting into and you to know what you're getting into as well. Um, I'm not sure. I wonder how long it took to get all this stuff done, how long you've been working for them and how long, you know, it's just, yeah, I'm not sure that I would even continue doing any kind of work for this client. It doesn't seem like a very, very, uh, good relationship just cuz it didn't start that well. So I, I, I wouldn't be able to advise you to continue. Um, I would just cut my losses and hopefully try to get something out of the client if anything, and just don't deliver anything else.
Ariel (07:15):
Uh, but yeah, it's, it's kind of like what I would do at that point. All right, next question. I have a client that I sent a big proposal to. I was actually quite nervous on this one and hoping I would get it. I know they were checking out other options as well. They told me they would get back to me with their decision soon. It's already been a week and I have not heard back from them. I don't want to seem desperate it, but I would like an update. How would I proceed? All right. I mean, you've done your part.
You did the hard work you sent that estimate. I would just be confident, you know, I don't know how long you took on your proposal. Uh, I, I, I take quite a long time on my proposal cause I look at it. I look at it again.
Ariel (07:57):
I, I take a day, I look get it one more time just to make sure that the numbers add up to make sure that it's relatively fair and something I would consider is what are, what would another relatively similar production company charge for something like this and just make sure it's profitable and worth it. Uh, but yeah, be confident in what you send them and, uh, know that job has been done. So I have followed up with a client that has not returned a decision, uh, to me and all I basically, the way I kind of approach it, I just send a follow up email and you know, I'll write them, you know, Hey, uh, the, the, the, the name of the contact person that I have for that company, you know, I'll hope, you know, Hey, Stephanie, uh, hope all is doing well. Uh, I just wanted to follow up on the proposal that I sent you.
Ariel (08:46):
I wanted to see if I can help clarify anything. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the proposal. Um, anything that I can help clarify, just let me know. That is not me asking for them to give me a decision already. That's indirectly kind of asking to gimme a decision, but also trying to do it in a friendly way, trying to sort of, kind of lead them to kind of realize that I'm still waiting on the decision. So just about every single time the response is, Hey, Hey, thanks so much. Uh, I appreciate it. We're definitely gonna have an answer for you very, very soon, whatever it is, you know, by this, by end of day tomorrow or something, I don't know, they'll usually respond with sort of a, a timeline for a decision that they're going to make. And they're, you know, they usually say they're, they're, uh, they're discussing it internally and kind of, uh, check all the, all our options, et cetera, et cetera.
Ariel (09:37):
But it's kind of a way to sort of let them know that you're still waiting for a decision. Um, and you know, you're not being kind of pushy. You're just trying to be friendly at the same time. So you never know, maybe they do, actually, one of them did come back to me with a question that they needed to answer. Uh, and I was able to help clarify a few that they and concerns that they had. Um, and so I, that was pretty helpful, but yeah, I mean, just be confident in your proposals and, um, definitely don't take longer than 10 minutes to make a proposal. Uh, it should be it for me, it takes several hours to, to create a proposal just because just wanna make sure everything's just right. And, uh, yeah, that would be the advice I would give you. All right, next question.
Ariel (10:24):
I'm just starting out and I already have a client that wants me to travel with them for a bunch of different shoots. That's pretty cool. I've never priced out my travel rates or anything like that. How do I normally price out? How do you normally price out travel, traveling shoots? Should it be more more because you're traveling or is it the same as local shoots? I'm completely lost here. Thanks. When I travel, my rates are essentially, my shooting rates are essentially the same kind of nothing changes there. The only thing, if anything changes outside of those parameters, it's always expected that the client has to cover that. So for example, if the client needs me to shoot in, in LA for any, for whatever reason, let's say they got three days of shooting. There that's three production days, plus whatever gear you're bringing to the table.
Ariel (11:16):
And that's normally kind know if what you would do if it was local, but add that your flights, right? If sometimes the client will book the flight for you or you book it yourself. Um, the hotel, the food, all that has to be covered by your client, different ways of doing that. Again, sometimes the client books it for you or, or you book it for yourself. Now, if you have to book this stuff yourself, now you're gonna want to add on some sort of producing fee, because now you're kind of sort of doing all this coordination for your client before the shoot. So that's kind of, sort of a producing fee. Um, you know, anywhere between a hundred, 200 bucks would, should do the trick, but, um, it's really up to you and what your hourly rate is worth. Uh, so there's those things. And now traveling travel days, I have to be charged for.
Ariel (12:14):
Uh, my normal rate for a travel day is half of my rate. So for example, if your rate is $800, that's for you by yourself without doing anything, no gear, that's your just your body rate or whatever. Um, half of that would be 400 bucks. So hundred dollars would be a travel day. So 400 for, to go over there and then 400 to come back. That's two days already that you cannot really book anything because you're traveling for this client that has to be accounted for. So you got your normal shooting days, you have your gear, you have your food. Sometimes they pay per diem, or they'll just, they send us all your receipts and we'll add it to the invoice at the end. Uh, so I don't, it really depends on the client personally. I think it's just easier to do a per diem.
Ariel (13:04):
It's just faster. That way I don't have to send receipts or any, anything like that. Uh, normal per diem is like 65 bucks per day. Um, and I just add that for food, uh, on a daily basis, uh, the hotel, again, they'll either book it and just send those receipts or whatnot, make sure you keep 'em by the way, oh, something that gets overlooked a lot, baggage, your luggage, how much stuff are you taking that you have to check? So be aware of that for the, uh, for, you know, adding, make sure you're adding those expenses into your invoice and transportation as well. And pretty much just about anything out there, not souvenirs, you don't, you don't expense souvenirs, uh, just about anything that would really entail sort of having expenses for this shoot, you know, even for, for your time, you want to expense that time to, to make appropriate accommodations and reservations and bookings.
Ariel (14:03):
You wanna make sure that you're adding that to your invoice. So technically yes, you're getting paid more, but it's because you're working more. So you're essentially getting paid your no your normal rate, but you're doing more work in preparation for these travel shoots. There's a lot more to think about you do. You don't wanna forget your chargers and all that stuff, your media, um, whatever it is that you're gonna need, you have to account for all of that, whether, and, you know, for transporting all that equipment to your next shoot and you know what some people sometimes even do, I don't do this, but some people will add on an insurance fee on top of that in case anything gets damaged or broken on this shoot, they'll add on. I don't know what, something like that would look like. I don't normally have that on my invoices.
Ariel (14:47):
Maybe I should, but I know some shooters do that. So there's a lot of different things that you wanna, uh, add onto your invoice. Like those that I just mentioned and, you know, just make sure that you're being compensated for your time, your effort, your expertise, and all that stuff. So, um, it's very
important that you don't miss it out because that's kind of how you'll end up feeling like you didn't get paid enough for, uh, tra for, for, for work travel days are very kind of stressful. Sh traveling with all that equipment takes quite a toll, making sure everything is properly packed, cuz that's another thing you have to pack all your stuff to make it travel friendly. Um, and if you're not traveling with an assistant or anybody else, it, it could get taxing cuz you have to take your own clothes and all that stuff as well.
Ariel (15:35):
So it's quite a few things to take into the airport. So consider all those kinds of things that you wanna do, um, that you would like to have. If you wanna take a PA with you to help, uh, during the airport or whatever, um, add that fee as well. So different things that you might want to consider or when, um, doing travel shoots, but that's it that's all the time I have for it today. I gotta get back to work on this rebranding, uh, some other business stuff. Thank you guys for passing by and stopping for this episode. Don't forget to check us out over on YouTube, iTune, Spotify, everywhere you consume a podcast. We are there. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button, hit that like button and make sure that you share this with a friend until next time my name's Ariel Martinez. I'll see you on the next episode.