What you guys will do in a situation like this? Client Money Related

[Andy Corleone]

OK I will try to be shot on this. I have a client which give some odd jobs here and there but he is really hard with the money . for example if I quote for a job I need to keep the price till the end, but I always end up doing more days of work because he keep asking for little changes. I recently edited a project for him that he showed on a event. he was happy with the final product but a few days later he asked me if I can change the song (The original song was his request but is a copyrighted one) so he now can upload the video to youtube, etc.

I said Sure but there is a cost for this (I'm getting a bit tire of his payment ethic). He respond saying He can't paid more money so He ask if I can send him the Final edit without music.

This get me really upset, Not sure if is only me but I find his request abusive, what you guys will do in a situation like this. Thanks

 

[Nick Fury]

Hi Andy,

You could make him an offer, going forward...

Simple really, if you don't have some other reason to want to do the work, independent of compensation, calculate your net hourly rate and weigh that. No one changes, really.

Thank you very much

Fury

 

[Matt Gottshalk]

You dont have a client, you have a grinder.

http://library.creativecow.net/lindeboom_ron/clients_or_grinders/1

 

[Glen Powell]

I have a list of clients that I've 'Fired' over my years in the business... Sometimes the money isn't worth the headache and you have to move on.

 

[RivaiC]

Dear Andy

Unfortunately this type of individual seem to be always there all over the world and never disappeared.

It is better to avoid or reject such client, but before doing that i advice you to look for a better one until you got it before you fired this one. But remember reject it in a nicer way. You will never know what can happen in the future, he could have a better project in the future that needs you. Oddly this happen to me once.

Good luck

Rivai

 

[Dr. Sassi]

Use the time to find new clients, or areas for your work, instead of working for free.

In the past I included three "correction session" with my offer, after that my offer was based on a "per hour" work for the project. No discussion.
If you get weak in your position -- you are responsible that the client might takes advantages.

A good client wants you to do kind of well, so you have your intention on the work and not on your finically survival.
Good clients are rare -- some might say, but if you don't search them, you don't get them.

 

[David Battistella]

Mr. Corleone.

Make him an offer he can't refuse.



Sorry, I just could not resist.

Battistella

 

[Craig Parkes]

The best solution is to introduce a change policy up front. Clients are hard to change but if you set their expectations to the right place at the beginning then they do generally start to plan around those expectations.

Basically if they are relying on you to budget for the job, it's important to make clear what they expect as deliverables and include a reasonable buffer for the unexpected so both of you plan correctly.

If the client still pushes their luck after having everything put down in writing as clear as day at the beginning of the jobs, then as others have said it might be time to fire the client.

 

[Kristin Stewart]

Well, Andy, here's another point of view :

1) You shouldn't put this kind of professional issue on a public forum, it's always better to keep this private, for your own business future

2) He paid for the editing of this piece, he would like the Final Edit without music, just send him want he wants, it's not a big deal, we all know here that it doesn't take long to export the final edit without music.

3) Next time he'll come back, because like you said he's happy and you did what he asked, just rise your fees a little bit to take into account these final changes, without telling it.

For every job on this planet, we often have to make a little bit more than we're supposed to, it's not a big deal, nothing to worry about. It's summer, just smile ;-)

Cheers,

Kristin

 

[David Kuhn]

If he's the type of client who will have trouble sticking to the number of edit sessions in the contract and you like working with him then Kristen's approach is what I'd do... adjust the quote on the next job to cover the expected additional work.

 

[ericyoung]

Well, Andy, here's another point of view :

1) You shouldn't put this kind of professional issue on a public forum, it's always better to keep this private, for your own business future

...

He didn't name names, and any client who would object to this legitimate question is a client we don't really want anyway.

 

[NOSA OBAYIUWANA]

Well, Andy, here's another point of view :

1) You shouldn't put this kind of professional issue on a public forum, it's always better to keep this private, for your own business future

2) He paid for the editing of this piece, he would like the Final Edit without music, just send him want he wants, it's not a big deal, we all know here that it doesn't take long to export the final edit without music.

3) Next time he'll come back, because like you said he's happy and you did what he asked, just rise your fees a little bit to take into account these final changes, without telling it.

For every job on this planet, we often have to make a little bit more than we're supposed to, it's not a big deal, nothing to worry about. It's summer, just smile ;-)

Cheers,

Kristin

Great advice. I do disagree with point one though. He did not mention any names and we all get to benefit from his experience (or at least discuss it) - however I do get your point here Kristin.

 

[Andy Corleone]

Nice comments here, That's why I love this Forum

 

[Björn Benckert]

Thats what clients do... The only way to remain sane is to have a large enough client base so that you can tell any of your clients to go fuck them selves. If you are in a situation that you are depending on a clients line of work, well then you are in really bad shape.


My tactic has always been to not focus to much on happy clients, instead try to do good work, as good work bring new clients like nothing else and new clients means that you don't have to crawl on all four to please your old clients.

Clients tend to try squeeze more and more and also they want to pay less and less. The only way to actually keep a balance and have long term clients and not fall into that pattern is to frankly turn them down. If you say yes every time then the client will ofcourse try to go lower and lower, and the best excuse to not take on their work is to have better paying jobs in the pipe.

So saying something like "No, we can not do it we are fully booked" is the only cure for a grinder kind of client.

I was in really bad shape about 10 years ago, I had 20+ people on the payroll and needed to bring in about 300k USD a month to pay salaries and SGI leasing... And simply in that situation I did not have the balls to do anything else than bring in every project that came our way.... Well that did not fly to well in the long term, now I know better and run a small shop and make sure I got more than enough long finger money that I would not need to work in years time if needed. That's a setup that works much better when it comes to client relations.

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

If he wants to do it himself, he never pays you more and he's clearly not taking your work elsewhere (if he won't give you a penny to update it)... give him the project file. You won't be financially any worse off and you'll be happier. Everybody wins.

 

[Scott Crawley]

You dont have a client, you have a grinder.

http://library.creativecow.net/lindeboom_ron/clients_or_grinders/1

Good link Matt.

Under cutters and grinders are the same people, just on opposite sides of the fence. They deserve each other.

Some under cutters are completely ignorant of their costs but most know that they are giving away their time in the hopes of building up referrals and repeat business. Again, they deserve the bottom feeders and that is mostly what they will get. I have heard many rationalize this "business strategy" by claiming that they are OK with giving away their time because they love what they do... which is of course ignorance or complete bullshit because this excerpt from the article is absolutely true:

and no matter how well you do, nine times out of ten there will almost always be something wrong with the job you did.

That is how they grind you down. Grinders will rob you of your joy, your pride and your money. If you love what you do and need to take pride in your work you absolutely do not want to work for these people, even if money is not a consideration for you.