not getting paid or not getting paid in time is where i'm struggling right now after 7 years freelancing it became a habit for some clients to hold on the payments for as long as they can and there's not much we can do except not working with them again .. i really enjoy your videos ,great pieces of advice that you're providing ,thanks a lot !
Yea that’s certainly a problem in the world of freelancing that I struggled with for a long time. I still have clients with my production company that sometimes take months to pay
Great video. I love the content. I want to add a few things to this. Everything you mentioned comes down to perception. Perception is the key. Perception of yourself and your business. How your clients, business partners, and employees will treat you, trust you, and behave towards you comes down to how you are perceived. Since you became a company, you carried yourself better, focused on the larger picture, and built relationships from a stronger foundation. People tend to view you more as an authority in this space rather than an inadequate aspiring worker. In my opinion, it's not if you're a freelancer or own a production company. It's about how people perceive you. If you can make effective psychological changes for people to see you differently, it doesn't matter if you have a company or not. Their behavior towards you will be better.
Yeah, I'm a filmmaker that relocated to Chicago after years living in LA and in Chicago as a freelance I stop doing individual video cause of the hassle of getting by day rate (which I refuses to lower) I mainly hire myself out to larger Company that pays me to go shot the Job it's pays a little less, but chasing clients down for the balance due is even worse
Dude I appreciate your videos and your maturity so so much. You are explaining things well by telling your story and it's literally helping me in real life rn... It's making me think a lot about my future and planning... and setting goals! Now I think about goals because after watching a video of yours I realized I didn't really have any goals. Things are taking off for me now.
Thanks for your great videos. They help me a lot. I am now 17 years old and I want to be a freelance filmmaker someday in my life. And you help me a lot. Such nice information. It's hard because everything is different in Austria where I come from. But you are just amazing. Thanks for the good content.
Great video as usual! So many thing I can relate. Regarding avoiding not getting paid, I would suggest to always do a post phone call email where you put everything that you agreed on and ask them to confirm in an email. After that it's much easier to resolve it legally. People are so scared to take legal actions but most of this situations are easy money and any decent attorney will agree to take it to court for the percentage of the asked fee, and usually if you take to court it ends up becoming more money if you have ok lawyer. The feast and famine is I guess problem with any business owner, that is the worst part of creating your own business. I've been doing this for 13 years now and still feel it each year :( Undercutting is a big problem world wide :( I try to fight it openly talking about my prices, and trying to teach colleagues the problems of undercutting on the long run. The problem with that approach is that they know your price and can offer a bit less to compete with you, I think that is not a big problem since little is still better than undercutting a lot, and usually I compensate the difference with quality and experience, but I think this type of content is really important to improve awareness of thinking long run.
@@luxurybuzz3681 that is not completely correct, the price is a big part of deciding process, especially on a higher lever where the quality level is not that different among the offers. When I send an offer for example to a big client like T-mobile or Red Bull I compete with people that are on the same quality level and usually the client or a creative agency that approach me and other competing offers chose us based on the similar style that we can provide to match the look and feel of the clients aesthetics. Then the deciding factor is only the price and maybe if they worked with you your reputation that you build with them through previous work. I got jobs few times just cause they enjoyed working with me as a person compared to other offers. Quality is important but also smart pricing. Also you have to consider that the clients and even creative agency don't see the gradation of quality as we filmmakers, photographers and videographers see it. to them a lot of work looks similar or even the same.
Just wanna mention it would be mega helpful in a video like this if you added chapters in the description so it's easier to find your different points. The information is in this video is great! Just wish it was easier to navigate.
A customers did this to me one day. I was send by another filmmaker to a gig. And the Client told me he could call me directly next time. I felt bad about it. I think I will give the other filmmaker something if the Client Choose to call me directly.
Hey Saj, good information. I am a wedding videographer, and I'm thinking of expanding the business by doing corporate video little by little. I was wondering if you are selling your contract, or know someone reliable selling their contract? Thanks man.
I’m gonna include some simple contracts in my course but there are contract bundles I’ve seen online that are decent. You just need something simple to get you going. I usually just send a statement of work contract that’s 3 pages
Glad there's people like you within our community to help us along the way. Really appreciate the time and effort you put into your videos!
not getting paid or not getting paid in time is where i'm struggling right now after 7 years freelancing
it became a habit for some clients to hold on the payments for as long as they can
and there's not much we can do except not working with them again ..
i really enjoy your videos ,great pieces of advice that you're providing ,thanks a lot !
Yea that’s certainly a problem in the world of freelancing that I struggled with for a long time. I still have clients with my production company that sometimes take months to pay
Wow feels great to find a channel that provides actual value and experience!
Great video. I love the content. I want to add a few things to this.
Everything you mentioned comes down to perception. Perception is the key. Perception of yourself and your business. How your clients, business partners, and employees will treat you, trust you, and behave towards you comes down to how you are perceived.
Since you became a company, you carried yourself better, focused on the larger picture, and built relationships from a stronger foundation. People tend to view you more as an authority in this space rather than an inadequate aspiring worker.
In my opinion, it's not if you're a freelancer or own a production company. It's about how people perceive you. If you can make effective psychological changes for people to see you differently, it doesn't matter if you have a company or not. Their behavior towards you will be better.
Yea that’s a great point. I think I also got more confident overtime as I acquired more skills and experience and it helped with perception
Yeah, I'm a filmmaker that relocated to Chicago after years living in LA and in Chicago as a freelance I stop doing individual video cause of the hassle of getting by day rate (which I refuses to lower) I mainly hire myself out to larger Company that pays me to go shot the Job it's pays a little less, but chasing clients down for the balance due is even worse
Dude I appreciate your videos and your maturity so so much. You are explaining things well by telling your story and it's literally helping me in real life rn... It's making me think a lot about my future and planning... and setting goals! Now I think about goals because after watching a video of yours I realized I didn't really have any goals. Things are taking off for me now.
Awesome! Happy to hear that
Thanks for your great videos. They help me a lot. I am now 17 years old and I want to be a freelance filmmaker someday in my life. And you help me a lot. Such nice information. It's hard because everything is different in Austria where I come from. But you are just amazing. Thanks for the good content.
This video has be quite helpful as i'm currently a freelancer and these are my worries.
everything you talk about is bang on it's depressing and inspiring in equal amounts
Great video as usual! So many thing I can relate. Regarding avoiding not getting paid, I would suggest to always do a post phone call email where you put everything that you agreed on and ask them to confirm in an email. After that it's much easier to resolve it legally. People are so scared to take legal actions but most of this situations are easy money and any decent attorney will agree to take it to court for the percentage of the asked fee, and usually if you take to court it ends up becoming more money if you have ok lawyer.
The feast and famine is I guess problem with any business owner, that is the worst part of creating your own business. I've been doing this for 13 years now and still feel it each year :(
Undercutting is a big problem world wide :( I try to fight it openly talking about my prices, and trying to teach colleagues the problems of undercutting on the long run. The problem with that approach is that they know your price and can offer a bit less to compete with you, I think that is not a big problem since little is still better than undercutting a lot, and usually I compensate the difference with quality and experience, but I think this type of content is really important to improve awareness of thinking long run.
You should watch watch Flash Film Academy. How talks about how you should never compete on price. But on the value that you give.
Great input. My goal is to provide as much awareness as possible and hopefully have some impact on solving these issues that we all face at some point
@@luxurybuzz3681 that is not completely correct, the price is a big part of deciding process, especially on a higher lever where the quality level is not that different among the offers.
When I send an offer for example to a big client like T-mobile or Red Bull I compete with people that are on the same quality level and usually the client or a creative agency that approach me and other competing offers chose us based on the similar style that we can provide to match the look and feel of the clients aesthetics. Then the deciding factor is only the price and maybe if they worked with you your reputation that you build with them through previous work. I got jobs few times just cause they enjoyed working with me as a person compared to other offers.
Quality is important but also smart pricing.
Also you have to consider that the clients and even creative agency don't see the gradation of quality as we filmmakers, photographers and videographers see it. to them a lot of work looks similar or even the same.
@@TomislavMoze interesting 🤔
Great content. Thanks for the insight
Just wanna mention it would be mega helpful in a video like this if you added chapters in the description so it's easier to find your different points. The information is in this video is great! Just wish it was easier to navigate.
Ok will do. Thanks
Hey Saj, watch a lot of your videos great content and thanks for the information. Could you do a detailed video about the sales and marketing aspect?
Yep will do
@@Filmmakingmentor Awesome! Thanks
Thanks bro great info
Welcome
A customers did this to me one day. I was send by another filmmaker to a gig. And the Client told me he could call me directly next time. I felt bad about it. I think I will give the other filmmaker something if the Client Choose to call me directly.
SUBSCRIBED ! u rock!
Hey Saj, good information. I am a wedding videographer, and I'm thinking of expanding the business by doing corporate video little by little. I was wondering if you are selling your contract, or know someone reliable selling their contract? Thanks man.
I’m gonna include some simple contracts in my course but there are contract bundles I’ve seen online that are decent. You just need something simple to get you going. I usually just send a statement of work contract that’s 3 pages
I would also suggest separating your two businesses. Have one website for weddings and another for corporate work
@@Filmmakingmentor Thanks a lot of man! I really appreciate the advice!
Little off topic, but is there a difference having “Films” vs “Productions” in the title of a production company?
I don’t think it matters. I have films in my title but we don’t actually do any narrative film work and only production work
Or you got outshot.
Like always thank you so much