Freelancing by the hour - Billing for canceled sessions, etc

[jdk11211]

When possible I bill by project or day rate, but one particular corner of the market - VO recording for corporate jobs (audiobooks, museum tours, etc)- pays strictly hourly. (Ironically, the clients with the most revenue- maybe not so ironic, it's how they KEEP it...)

The clock starts not when you arrive to set up (work) but when the client begins. Bookings are routinely canceled or run considerably shorter than originally planned, and you are paid for the session hours as clocked only. I've put up with it because of the economic climate, but it isn't feeling worth it. Considering saying I won't work unless I'm going to be paid for the BOOKED hours, which includes cancellations of less that 24 hours, but I realize this will just get me off the call list. I'm at the point of not giving a shit, and that'll start affecting the quality of the work.

Anybody else want to weigh in on this?

[hank alrich]

Your time is your time, and also your money, and theirs, too. No need to tell you some of those "corpo" folks have an exploitative approach to your time. If you can survive without their crap and are ready to tell them you work for the time that has been booked, I can only offer you two thumbs up.
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ha

[Gentleman Jim]

This actually touches on a few different experiences I've had recently.

The first, and most obviously analogous, was a live mixing gig that I was told was going to be relatively steady. The venue where I was working, (as an outside contractor), is a very non rock room attached to a restaurant. The company that owns the place also owns other restaurants, some of which have live music. Basically, the place is pretty dysfunctional when it comes to the live performance end of things, and the money wasn't worth the aggravation of the repeated double booking of sound techs, or flakiness about whether a particular shift needed a sound tech at all. My approach with them was to raise my rate substantially and call for a 50% cancellation fee if they cancel within 72 hours of when a shift is supposed to start. I also put a $50 last minute booking charge in effect if they call to book me within 24 hours of a shift. I'm pretty sure the net result will be that they won't call me unless every other mixer they work with isn't available. C'est la vie. My sanity is worth more than that.

I also do corporate VO work, and I produce audio for business to business marketing. Yes, there are times when I feel like clients are acting like jerks, but in my previous life I was in their position; they're getting caught up in whatever pressure they're being fed from the other end. Whether I have a freakout on them or I just smile and assure them that the project will be delivered on time is my choice. Over time, I've proven myself reliable enough that at least one of my clients now has a good sense of humor about her worrying. This makes my life easier.

Would you feel better if you were paid more? If so, raise your rate. Of course clients will moan a bit, but if you can honestly show them that it's better for them to pay you a bit more and get your quality of work than it is for them to search out new VO talent just because they want to save a nominal amount of money, then it shouldn't be a huge problem. Hey, the reason those sessions end so quickly is because you're so good and efficient. If they can't meet you part way with a reasonable rate increase, then you're just going to get more bitter over time, which will work against you. Better to fire them as clients.

[jdk11211]

I agree with you Jim, I see where the corpos are coming from, I guess I just think they have to be more accountable with time estimates. I'd like to take credit for sessions going quick, but it's usually inexperienced producers or celebrity talent wanting to knock off early to make a pilates class or whatever.

I went up in rates a couple years ago, which worked, but things are pretty bad in NYC these days, and I had to agree to old rates, putting me on bad footing as far as negotiations... I barely have any work right now, but it feels sort of worth firing them just to not feel like a tool. Averaged over the year, I'd do better in retail, for 08-09 anyway...

[Snarl 12/8]

What if you put into your contract a bonus for yourself for ending early. Ending early has got to have benefits for them, project comes in under budget, but you could make it win-win. I've seen this in construction projects, makes sense to me.
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You can hear my stuff @ snarlnet.com. Use any of these beats for whatever purposes you like. <url>

[@¶,*ƒƒƒ&™]

Hang on, are you proposing billing extra for 'under-time' and not 'over-time'?

I think I've heard it all now.

Totally ridiculous.
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"Learn 12 songs, then get back to me"

[Gentleman Jim]

Think of it as locking out a room, Jeff, but instead of booking the room the client is booking a VO talent. When someone books your studio for a week to record five songs - but then bangs them out in two days and calls it done - how do you handle that? Now imagine that happens on a regular basis. That's what jdkeith is dealing with.

Anything constructive to add?

[Gentleman Jim]

jdkeith wrote:

[cgarges]

Maybe you just need to start asking them for sure how much time they think they're going to need because you have some other stuff pending. If, after explaining to them that you can be using that time for something else, they still manage to book a bunch of time and not use it, tell them that that's hurting your business, because it is. At some point, you may have to make the decision about whether or not they're worth your time and figure out if you want to keep dealing with it.

I did the same thing recently with a guy who was hiring me for a lot of playing gigs. The gigs paid great and he got a fair amount of work, but at one point, I managed to lose eight gigs in one month because he had all this out of town stuff that bagged and he didn't get contracts or deposits. When I quit working with him, I hated losing all that work, but it was getting to a point where I was really losing out by turning down other stuff and then having his stuff fall through, too.

That's part of the reason why the deposit scenario works so well, but I know that the ad agency folks are used to terms and whatnot, which sucks for the people getting paid (or not getting paid). I have a lot of respect for people who do what you do because it's just about the worst possible scenario for somebody who's into low-stress recording.

Where's dwlb?

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC
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www.chrisgarges.com

[cgarges]

Maybe you just need to start asking them for sure how much time they think they're going to need because you have some other stuff pending. If, after explaining to them that you can be using that time for something else, they still manage to book a bunch of time and not use it, tell them that that's hurting your business, because it is. At some point, you may have to make the decision about whether or not they're worth your time and figure out if you want to keep dealing with it.

I did the same thing recently with a guy who was hiring me for a lot of playing gigs. The gigs paid great and he got a fair amount of work, but at one point, I managed to lose eight gigs in one month because he had all this out of town stuff that bagged and he didn't get contracts or deposits. When I quit working with him, I hated losing all that work, but it was getting to a point where I was really losing out by turning down other stuff and then having his stuff fall through, too.

That's part of the reason why the deposit scenario works so well, but I know that the ad agency folks are used to terms and whatnot, which sucks for the people getting paid (or not getting paid). I have a lot of respect for people who do what you do because it's just about the worst possible scenario for somebody who's into low-stress recording.

Where's dwlb?

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC
_________________
www.chrisgarges.com

[@¶,*ƒƒƒ&™]

[superaction80]

[Gentleman Jim]

@¶,*ƒƒƒ&™ wrote:

[@¶,*ƒƒƒ&™]

[dwlb]

[dwlb]