Re: Raising my rate?

Hi Roger,

I'm in a similar position -- although, I'm still in college. Actually, I haven't had any major problems with raising prices with existing clients. However, they're mostly business people -- they understand that I do need to make a profit, gear cost money, and expertise is valuable. YMMV. If you're on good terms personally with your clients, explain to them why you need to charge more, but explain to them how they benefit.

Have you heard a variant of this? "Well, a friend of mine's uncle has a video camera. He'll do it for us for $200! I don't understand why we have to pay you so much..." The reason you can charge what you do is not just because you know how to run a camera. They're paying you for your expertise. They're paying you for your degree. They're paying you to know that it'll get done correctly the first time. So, how can you explain or show this to your clients, in a way they value?

For instance, one of my clients used in-house house to get a project done, and the employee took basically two weeks of work time to complete the project, to a mediocre quality level. I took over the project as a sub-contractor one year, for very cheap ($600, I think). That was two years ago. Last year, I raised my rates, and the project cost $1,500. This year, the project was $3,900 (including duplication). I already told her that I had raised my rates again this year, but she still had difficulty understanding why I charged that much. So, I explained to her the value of my experience, even over the past year. I used SmoothCam and color correction to fix almost all of the video they shot that I was given to edit. I showed them how to deal with paying royalties for the music they used. We were able to quickly compare the value of my rate, compared to the former employee's salary & benefits (plus time off of doing what he NORMALLY does at the company). Paying my rate for the project, and paying that employee for two weeks was comparable. And, I didn't disrupt the flow of work in the office during production, the product was better, and the final presentation flowed more smoothly.

Again, YMMV. It depends a lot on the personality of the client and your relationship with them. Try adding in something that has a great perceived value, but little effort or cost to you -- maybe offer to throw on a Magic Bullet filter for free in one segment, use a slick Motion template for the intro titles, add SmoothCam, do a custom label design for free, give 5 free copies of the DVD to whoever is writing the check for the whole project, something like that. The value comes in the presentation. e.g., "I'm sorry, I can't drop my price any more than $____, but I'd be willing to throw in (extra) for free. Normally, my rate for something like (extra) is around $__, but since you've been so great to work with and gave me a start last year, I'm happy to add that in for you." Maybe it'll work, maybe it won't.

Or negotiate for an intern, to drop crew prices -- maybe there's a young eager student related to someone in the dance group who wants to learn how to make videos. Tell him about what you're doing, and get him to help carry gear. (That plan can also fail miserably; again, YMMV.)

I'm just trying to figure how how this works, too. This is just some of what's worked for me.