When To Buy New Gear, When To Send Invoices To Clients, Building Your Crew [Ep198]

Podcast

Feb 1

I answer your questions about buying new gear, tracking the money you make on said gear when I invoice my clients after a shoot and building the production crew I work with. These are the decisions that I would consider before making a gear purchase. The variables today regarding these decisions are very different than just a few years ago. There’s a point in our career where we need to stop thinking “fun” and start thinking “business”. Also, invoicing clients can sometimes be a burden to many of us. We either do not do it correctly or do not do it at all. I have a vender that I usually work with a lot and he just seems to always forget to send me invoices so that I can pay him out. I mean, good on him, he’s so busy that those small tasks may go by the wayside. However, the result is that I just forget that I need to pay him and when my client sends me payment for any given job a couple of weeks down the line, he will go unpaid. Until I remember it and it’s kind of a downer to pay at that point just because I am here thinking I have everything squared away with everyone.

Ariel Martinez:
Welcome back to another episode of iFilmmaker podcast, my name's Ariel Martinez, and you guys have been loving the Q and A episodes that we've put out and kind of, I, I love answering your questions. I really, really do, especially the unique ones. Um, I would heard you guys, as you continue to send me your questions really get in depth, get don't, make it as specific as possible. Something that you went through with a client, send it over. I would love to know about it, and I would kind of give you my 2 cents on how I would deal with the situation. And guys, if you are new here, go ahead and click that subscribe button. I would definitely appreciate the at if you're really liking this content, go ahead and give us a follow over on YouTube. Subscribe there, iTune, Spotify, wherever it is that you consume your podcast we're on there. And I appreciate you guys sticking on and with all that outta the way, let's go ahead and get to some of these questions.
Ariel Martinez:
When does good gear begin to matter? It really depends on your definition of good gear and kind of, you have to sort of evaluate what it brings to what you can offer to your clients. There's a couple of things that I would consider before considering new gear. Can I make more money off of it or does it allow me to provide a service that I cannot otherwise provide without it? So for example, I got the SU for, for the longest time, I've been sort of going back and forth, whether I should get the Sumo 19 monitor, I thought, man, is this a purchase? That's gonna just something that I want, or is it a purchase that it's really gonna add value to my work? Is it gonna make my workflow easier? Is this something that's gonna provide value for my clients? Are they gonna wanna pay extra for me to have this?
Ariel Martinez:
And those are the questions that I, I sort of needed to answer. And for the law longest time when I say longest, I mean like a year and a half, I've been back and forth, it's really been no, it's really more of a self-fulfilling sort of purchase. I just want it cuz it's an awesome, awesome monitor, but I really found no need for it. My clients weren't really asking for a big director's monitor and I just didn't find any use for it. You know, a $2,000, you know, monitor until recently I started getting more inquiries to do multicam shoots. And I know that the sum 19 has a multicam switcher. And I said, well, there's an idea I can offer onsite editing onsite, video switching, cuz I know it records the XMO and all this stuff. And this is another service that I can provide my clients.
Ariel Martinez:
And you know what, I started offering this on these multi cam shoots and every single client, a hundred percent of them have said, that would be amazing if we can add that, you know? Um, so they want that service. Then it became valuable to me. Then I can start charging extra for it on my set and let it literally pay for itself. So that's sort of a way that I would evaluate a purchase. Now cam shoots means multiple cameras. So now I need multiple cameras. Now I need an extra camera. So things like that is what you wanna start to evaluate. Now, another thing, another thing, if you are, let's say you're a beginner, maybe you're working with a Canon T seven I or something like that, a beginner, good entry level camera. Um, and you're one wondering, should I get a red, should I go cinema?
Ariel Martinez:
Should I kind of really start asking like what do those cameras have that I don't already have with this? And let me tell you a good indicator of whether or not you should upgrade is if you can answer that question, right? If you can really answer the question yourself saying, this camera has this, this, this,
and, and this, then yes, it is more valuable for me. I should be able to, I wanna move into that direction. Now. Be very honest with yourself. If you need a better image, quality, if you need, you know, more B depth, if you need the internal NDS, if you need ex Lars, if you really wanna start going into that territory, then yeah. Maybe it's more valuable and then start weighing the options. When you get to that level. On the other hand, are you being hired to do all that?
Ariel Martinez:
You know, there are other alternatives. Some people just simply get an audio recorder to get those XR ins and just record externally and sort of sync it later. So I did that for a little while, you know, really, because I couldn't really afford to send 'em a camera at the time. Um, and so those are just things that you definitely want to consider, consider how much value it brings to your business. Is it making you money? Are the clients requesting it? So sort of things like that is what you really want to evaluate when considering new gear. And that's kind of when you, you start to see better gear does matter. And not only that as you grow in your business, you want reliable gear, you want stuff that's gonna stick with you. That is not gonna break on you, that you can trust from a reliable, uh, manufacturer.
Ariel Martinez:
And I think that that's very, very important not to say that other products would never work. It's just for me, I just like to rely on, what's been tested and what's been proven and that's sort of, kind of my method of evaluating all that. How do I know if I'm heading in the right direction with my career, I've made great progress, but I want to analyze to see if it's where I should be. That's awesome that you're even thinking that way. That's really, really good. Um, a good indicator is really, did you do better than you do today than you did last year? Really? Right. Cause that's always the goal. Um, I would definitely not look at other people and see where they are. Maybe you use it as motivation, but don't compare yourself to where anybody else is. That's something that would really kind of sort of depress you.
Ariel Martinez:
It really depresses me. Um, if I started to do that, but what you always want to know is am I doing better than I did last year? And am I closer to reaching my goal? If the answer is yes to both of those questions, then you're in the right track. Look at your numbers. If you guys are not analyzing your numbers, you really should start doing that. That's a very good indicator of how you are doing, how are your profits last year or what are your profit margins based on how you're charging. Do you have more clients from last year? How many more inquiries did you have this year than you had last year? How many of those inquiries turned into conversions? So things like that you really wanna start keeping track of and yeah, it's kind of tedious, but there that's how listen, if, if you want to get to, to be a big successful company and whatnot, depending on where you want to go.
Ariel Martinez:
Every successful company has a, a metric system has a way to measure their success. And the only way to do that is to write down and record and document their progress. And that can mean anything. It could be by the amount of phone calls that they see on a daily basis on a weekly or monthly basis. How many of those phone calls turn into actual work? What are their pricing margins? Are they charging more this year than they did last year? What does that result in? So I think that those are things that need to be tracked in order to really see progress and any, any sort of, I think is good progress. So yeah, in my opinion, and this, I mean, this is my own opinion. Uh, take this with the light grain salt. If I'm charging the same today that I was charging a few years ago, I might be doing something wrong.
Ariel Martinez:
Um, my goal is to increase is always increase, get better, provide a better service, uh, be able to just do a lot more for my clients than I was not able to do just a few years ago. So I think that always measure your progress and your success in that manner. Are you doing better than the year before? Again, you have to start tracking your progress, tracking all those little things that I had mentioned. Do you have any tips on finding good crew? I mean, the only thing I I can really think about is kind of connections, re referrals, contact the people that, you know, ask 'em if they know anybody. Um, I do that all the time. Most of the people that I find are come all off of referrals. And once I find somebody, once I find good crew, I'm talking audio, camera operators, gaffers, PAs, anything I try to keep 'em you really want to start keeping a good list of your good, uh, shooters, your good audio guys, your, those are the people that you want to continue to work with.
Ariel Martinez:
And you know what take care of them do not treat them wrong. Always treat them with respect, pay them on time, make sure you're treating your crew as you would want to be treat you did, right? That's sort of the golden rule in pretty much anything in production. These are things that we absolutely need to be practicing to kind of keep a nice tight knit group of good people that you like to work with. I hate when I get paired up with people that are just so unpleasant to work with, there's so many people that I've had the opportunity to work with. I just end up being like awful, awful, and just awful. I hate the word vibes, but it is just bad vibes. Like I really don't like working with them. It's I like to have a, you know, good peaceful atmosphere, a good, uh, time on set, you know, having a good time doing what I love of to do, even though it's not my project.
Ariel Martinez:
I, I enjoy every aspect of it. And I want to share it with people that I enjoy just hanging out with really. So it makes your experience, it makes your career that much more enjoyable. So definitely keep that list of crew. Keep that list of people that you really like to work with. And you know, what, if they're good at other things have camera operators at no audio. I use them as audio people too. So I they're just great people to work with and make sure that you're taking care of them, um, making, make sure that they have a good time on your set, you know, and, and ask for feedback. Hey, you know, how, what did you think of the shoot? I thought it was pretty enjoyable. What about you? You know, so, uh, just have good time and make sure that everyone that you work with and that work with you are enjoying your shoots and your sets the same way.
Ariel Martinez:
How long after your shoot do you send your invoices? I try to send my invoices almost immediately. Really. I try not to delay on that because most of the time I'm operating, we all operate on like net 30. So usually it'll be net 30 after your invoice has been sent. Yes. Sometimes I'm like so busy that I get bogged down and I forget to send those invoices, but try to go back and, and send them also a REA another reason why that's a good practice to have is you don't wanna free get anything. You don't wanna forget to charge something because either one you'll lose money. If you don't go back out of a principle that you have, sometimes I have it that, you know, you forget to charge something and it's so far into it. You don't wanna start adding fees on top of the invoice that you sent a couple weeks ago. So you always want to do it while it's fresh in your head. I think that that's a great practice and great thing to do for you and your career.
Ariel Martinez:
Is there any way to track and see if more gear is worth purchasing? What really depends on the gear that you're purchasing, but absolutely the way that I like to do it, my method is directly on my QuickBooks. I have a line item and this is why I've said it. I think it was in a previous podcast. I said, go ahead and put a line item for every piece of gear that you have, your, your camera, your each individual camera, your is even, um, your lighting equipment, your audio equipment, everything that you bring on, set your teleprompter, your slider, your gimbles, everything individually and give it a percentage, charge a certain fee for the rental of that gear. Even though you're the one using it and keep it all separate that way. At the end of year, you can go back and see how much money has each of those pieces of gear made you.
Ariel Martinez:
I think that's proper grammar, but yeah, so I, that is awesome. I get excited every time I go at the end of the year and look at my books and see what service, what equipment has made me the most money and some, my FX nine to AFX three, the teleprompter, how much each of this, all this stuff has made me on their individual basis. I can then make educated decisions as to what my next purchase will be. It's gonna be a return on investment, cuz you can quantify the purchases. You can literally quantify. This is a reason why I need to buy this equipment is making me so much money. And maybe if I had to, maybe I can make more money. I could offer more or whatever. Also track how much stuff you're how much money you're spending on rentals. Maybe that's money that you could be pocketing.
Ariel Martinez:
So consider those when kind of doing those. The return on investment on equipment is I think it's astonishing. I think it's incredible. There is your own fee and then there's rental fees. I truly believe that's a great way to work and a great way to be even more profitable. All right guys. Well, there you have, those are the questions that we have for this episode. I hope you guys found that useful and valuable. Again, send me your questions, anything specific. I would love to know about how you guys are doing what you have going on and how I can help assist and help you be a little more successful, a little bit more profitable and you know, get your career up and running nice and making great progress toward the goals that you're trying to reach. So that's all I have for you today. My name's Ariel Martinez. I'll see you on the next episode.