Nice Job Alex, this really helps people who are starting out, looking for work and what to expect. I learned this from a good friend of mine, and I was even making this mistake for years, charge a kit fee. A lot of times we will charge a day rate but that would only include labor or they would say $500 for everything. As you advance in your career you have to incorporate that kit fee for your day rate. A great tip I learned was make a spreadsheet with all your gear, go on share grid, search each item you own. Pull the numbers for like 6-9 listing of that item and take the average cost. Write all of them down on a spreadsheet, and you know your numbers and when people ask for a kit fee it's easily accessible. Also you know what you need to charge right of the top of your head since you did the math, but again all of this is flexible. These are just numbers to get you to know where your prices are and how to be confident in telling someone a price. I made a lot of mistakes starting out, for a real long time. We should all be talking and sharing business more and more, it's the only way we can become proper business minded individuals.
Hey Sean, thanks so much for your input! I love the tip of charging a kit fee and using sharegrid to get those numbers. Another tip I would add is that if the client is a huge corporation and they're going to be making a lot of money off of your work, I use Samy's rental catalog which generally has much higher prices than Sharegrid. This would be a great video topic in the future... perhaps a future collab video? :) Depending on the prospective client, my kit fee is either built into my day rate or charged separately. I'll generally feel it out and see where they raise pricing objections. If they need me to handle the whole project, most likely they'll just see my higher director/DP rate with the kit fee included. If my client is a producer managing the productions, I'll likely quote them my camera operator rate with a separate kit fee line item. Like you said, these are all just starting numbers that are flexible, but you hit the nail on the head that it's meant to help people feel confident in their pricing. I used to think charging $80/hr was so high, even 3-5 years into my career. I wish someone showed me the math as simple and straightforward as I did. Now it's easy to plug in different numbers to figure out the equivalent price.
@@fabian_mSt I totally respect that, but have a different approach that has worked exceptionally well for me. I’m a huge fan of giving things away for free, especially when I have the means to do so. To me, whether I spend money on paid ads, or give away a day or two of services at no cost to customer, it’s all the same to me. At the end of 2023, I gave away a free minute long video that took me half a day to shoot and half a day to edit. It resulted in connecting with a client that led to about $10k in revenue for 2024. The client ended up paying me a license fee to use my video again for the holidays. Getting big talent on my portfolio has also benefited me in so many ways. It brings instant credibility when meeting new prospective clients. All because of one free video!
@@itsalexoh Yeah that could be true of course, and it sounds like you have done it the right way! I think it´s great in the beginning but if you are a working pro (5+ years) I think the work should speak for itself. For me, freebies have been a way to actually make my work less valuable in the eyes of the customer or potential customer, or myself for that matter..
@@fabian_mSt I completely agree, especially for anyone that’s got 5+ years under their belt. Taking a read at my comment, I should’ve clarified that when I do free work, it’s only because I have an idea that I want to try and I’m the one that offers it to a client. I definitely will not take on any unpaid work if the client is the one asking me to do it for free! On that note, for people that find my prices out of their budget, I added consulting as a core offering recently and that has been a great way to generate more revenue in my business from clients I would’ve had to turn away last year!
Nice Job Alex, this really helps people who are starting out, looking for work and what to expect.
I learned this from a good friend of mine, and I was even making this mistake for years, charge a kit fee. A lot of times we will charge a day rate but that would only include labor or they would say $500 for everything. As you advance in your career you have to incorporate that kit fee for your day rate. A great tip I learned was make a spreadsheet with all your gear, go on share grid, search each item you own. Pull the numbers for like 6-9 listing of that item and take the average cost. Write all of them down on a spreadsheet, and you know your numbers and when people ask for a kit fee it's easily accessible. Also you know what you need to charge right of the top of your head since you did the math, but again all of this is flexible. These are just numbers to get you to know where your prices are and how to be confident in telling someone a price.
I made a lot of mistakes starting out, for a real long time. We should all be talking and sharing business more and more, it's the only way we can become proper business minded individuals.
Hey Sean, thanks so much for your input! I love the tip of charging a kit fee and using sharegrid to get those numbers. Another tip I would add is that if the client is a huge corporation and they're going to be making a lot of money off of your work, I use Samy's rental catalog which generally has much higher prices than Sharegrid. This would be a great video topic in the future... perhaps a future collab video? :)
Depending on the prospective client, my kit fee is either built into my day rate or charged separately. I'll generally feel it out and see where they raise pricing objections. If they need me to handle the whole project, most likely they'll just see my higher director/DP rate with the kit fee included. If my client is a producer managing the productions, I'll likely quote them my camera operator rate with a separate kit fee line item.
Like you said, these are all just starting numbers that are flexible, but you hit the nail on the head that it's meant to help people feel confident in their pricing.
I used to think charging $80/hr was so high, even 3-5 years into my career. I wish someone showed me the math as simple and straightforward as I did. Now it's easy to plug in different numbers to figure out the equivalent price.
Huge value in this!!! I am like you and so wish I would have heard this and implemented this back when I was 21!
I would say charge for everything; hourly rate, your equipment, travel, insurance etc.. and never give out anything for free.
@@fabian_mSt I totally respect that, but have a different approach that has worked exceptionally well for me.
I’m a huge fan of giving things away for free, especially when I have the means to do so. To me, whether I spend money on paid ads, or give away a day or two of services at no cost to customer, it’s all the same to me.
At the end of 2023, I gave away a free minute long video that took me half a day to shoot and half a day to edit. It resulted in connecting with a client that led to about $10k in revenue for 2024. The client ended up paying me a license fee to use my video again for the holidays.
Getting big talent on my portfolio has also benefited me in so many ways. It brings instant credibility when meeting new prospective clients.
All because of one free video!
@@itsalexoh Yeah that could be true of course, and it sounds like you have done it the right way!
I think it´s great in the beginning but if you are a working pro (5+ years) I think the work should speak for itself. For me, freebies have been a way to actually make my work less valuable in the eyes of the customer or potential customer, or myself for that matter..
@@fabian_mSt I completely agree, especially for anyone that’s got 5+ years under their belt.
Taking a read at my comment, I should’ve clarified that when I do free work, it’s only because I have an idea that I want to try and I’m the one that offers it to a client. I definitely will not take on any unpaid work if the client is the one asking me to do it for free!
On that note, for people that find my prices out of their budget, I added consulting as a core offering recently and that has been a great way to generate more revenue in my business from clients I would’ve had to turn away last year!