When to ask for more money

A

AdobeCS

Active member
Hello!
I've been repeatedly hired by a company and they've been paying me $200. I was wondering how you guys go about asking for more money? Should I be sticking it out until they offer more? If I do ask them, what would be a fair price increase? Should I be asking for $250-300 for example? Or would it be more of a gradual increase (say, $10 more every couple of gigs).
 
Sorry maybe I should have clarified that it was $200/gig (usually a couple hours shooting and a couple hours editing). :tongue:
 
What's your experience level, what are you shooting on, what are you shooting and for whom? Most shooters, at least in my circle, labor only(to just shoot) rate is $500-$600/day(0-10 hrs).
 
I would not raise your rate until you've got other clients to fall back on, as you run the risk of losing their business if they feel you can be easily replaced. ( sometimes this is a good lesson for the client to learn that you can't be replaced at the same rate )
 
I guess the general answer, not knowing your particular market, is that you should ask for more money when you feel you deserve more money. This can be hard to do if you've been working with someone for a while. You should also be prepared to hear "no" and make sure you can handle it. A good employer will always try to pay you as much as he or she can, and if they don't, you shouldn't work for them if you can afford not to.

I'm going to elaborate a bit because the above point may be debated. A "good employer" in my mind, thinks of employees as family. The boss will charge the client as goddamn much as possible, then will pay him or herself a healthy rate, and then budget to also give the employees as much as possible.

Many employers, however, will believe they are supposed to pay as little as possible to maximize their own profits, because... capitalism and stuff... and have no hard feelings about it. These are the guys you should negotiate hard with ("no more Mr. Nice Guy"). If you're not a human to them, don't treat them like an authority figure. It's human nature to feel subordinate to whoever is paying you... but most of us don't have regular jobs because we'd rather forego security to avoid ever doing this.

All this is different if you're working for a good cause, in which case working for free or cheap shouldn't be seen as a bad thing. (Again, imho.)
 
The way to ask for more money is to ask for more money. Just educate yourself a little beforehand.

Look at what it costs you to do the job (including all your accumulated overhead, broken out over your average shoot days per year), that gives you your break-even point BELOW WHICH IT COSTS YOU MONEY TO DO THE JOB. Figure out a reasonable wage (for you) and tack that on top. There's your target rate.

Compare your work to the work of others doing the same job (they should have other online examples you can access since this is a bulk video production house). Are you better or worse? Obviously being better increases your bargaining power. How much do they appear to value quality? If much of the work is very beginner-level, they may just be aiming to meet profitability goals with tight margins: you could be Janusz Kaminski and they'd still only have $200 to pay you.

Let's say they can't budge: can you alter your gear or shooting style to accommodate that rate? Maybe you cut back to a DSLR and monopod with shaped natural lighting vs. hauling out the Steadicam, F3, and Kino-Flos (overkill example). Maybe you figure out ways to cut time off your shoots and edits; small-town network news often looks the way it does not because the videographers are bad, but because they're so poorly paid and strictly deadlined that they have to rush through and stick to canned approaches on each shoot and edit. Maybe you have too much overhead and need to cut back somewhere.

Just please, don't undercut yourself for the sake of someone else's profitable venture.
 
I was given some wise advice many years ago when I started out freelancing, once you complete good work for very poor rates you will never be able to get that client to pay a significant increase no matter how good you continue to be or better you become.

Poor paying clients rarely have the budget to pay for high end operatives and will probably only consider minor increases in rates say $15-$25 but ask for $100 dollar more and they will probably pass. If you feel your skill set warrants better rates, or rather doesn't warrant $200 all in gigs then best look for clients with a bigger budget rather than expect much of an increase.

It is never a nice feeling producing top dollar work for poor fees. Use the best examples of your work from what you have done to look for better rates elsewhere.
 
One bit of advice I got from a salesman: When you give a price, give the number and then don't say anything until the client responds. The client is more likely to accept the price if they have to speak first. Too many people give the number and then keep talking about what they're getting and justifying the price.
The other part of this method is that it's a good way to suss out the cheapskates and get a feel for how the client relates to money.
 
$200 for a couple hours shooting and a couple hours editing has become "the rate" for national companies that hire freelancers to do business profiles and similar one or two minute videos without special lighting. If your client is one of these companies, asking for more money will simply result in them moving on to the next hungry videographer. About the only case where they will pay more is when they have no shooter in an area and need one. Then they may pay $25-$50 for you to drive there. Since that usually involves a couple hundred miles of driving times two, you may just break even after gas.

A lot of pro videographers are upset at these rates. To me, $50 an hour isn't insulting and I really enjoy the jobs. I don't have to go out and find them- they come to me. The process has become streamlined (originally a lot of time was taken up with paperwork and putting the files on a DVD to mail- now it's just a quickie upload). it's a challenge using available light to get a good looking interview, but as with anything else, experience helps. And so do fast lenses.
 
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