How To Accurately Price Your Video Projects

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Every project is unique and it’s vital to know how to price your work in a way that is both fair to yourself while remaining competitive. Your pricing structure should reflect your skills, the equipment that you’ve invested in and your experience in the industry.

High profile past projects will immediately increase the prices you can charge as will a good portfolio of work that you can use to showcase your talent and achievements; whereas if you are relatively new to videography then you will have to accept lower rates at the start.

Pitching Your Talent.

In most cases before you secure a contract with a new client you will have to pitch your services to them. A pitch is a type of presentation which can be done in person, by a team or using emails and other online platforms. In your pitch you will present yourself to a potential client with links to your portfolio and explain why you are the best candidate for the project.

A major factor for your client in determining whether they will work with you is the price that you set for your work. You will need to pitch a competitive price but still demand a high enough sum to turn a profit and pay for any expenses you are likely to incur.

How To Determine the Price of Your Work – What Factors Do You Need To Consider?

Every freelancer needs to have a clear idea of how much they should be charging for their work. One way to get a rough idea of the range you should be working within is to take a look at what your competition is doing! So if you’re a freelance wedding videographer then you can take a look at other wedding videographers in your area to quickly get a broad estimate of the going rate.

However, your price will also be determined by the exact range of services that you offer. There are three main parts of the process that you need to keep in mind:

• Production – the actual filming of the footage.

• Post Production – any work that takes place after you have finished the filming of the event or project.

• Extra Costs – related costs that are incurred during the project.

The Big Picture – Your Daily Rate.

Once you have established a rough ballpark figure for your work you can get down to the details. Using a spreadsheet, or even a pen and paper, you can start to break down your costs. This will include your own cost of living, how much you want to save and your tax bill. You can then divide this by the total number of days you expect to work per year and then you’ll have a very approximate figure for your minimum daily rate.

Ideally, you should be seeking to earn more than your bare minimum rate but this gives you a baseline which you cannot afford to go under unless you feel that the project will deliver unique opportunities in the future which may make up for a lower rate. For instance, if you were offered a volunteer position as an assistant to a world famous videographer this could open so many doors in your future career that it would probably be worth it! However, generally speaking, for your regular work with clients, you should always make sure you are paid enough to cover your basic costs.

Questions to Ask Yourself When Establishing Your Price for a New Project.

• Pre-production. Will you be charging for any pre-production work that you may have to undertake? Pre-production work can include things like research, script writing, the set up of your equipment on the shoot and even concept meetings and consultation with your client. Pre-production work will vary enormously from project to project. You may have to do much more conceptual and scripting work for a music video than for a client in the real estate space and this should be reflected in your price.

• Cameras and equipment. For most gigs in the freelancing space you will be expected to arrange your own equipment and for certain projects you may have to hire specialized equipment or studio space. If you do then you should include this in your price because you won’t be expected to cover this yourself. If you are going to be buying a new specialized piece of equipment, such as a light box for product photography then you can spread that cost throughout the year because you will recoup those costs in your work.

• Post production. It’s very important that you clearly understand what your client expects from the post production phase of the project. Will you be responsible for editing and producing the final images? If so, the easiest way to estimate a cost for this is to work out an hourly rate and then approximate the time it will take to complete the job.

• Travel costs. If you need to travel for a job then you should include any costs associated with that in your price. This will include parking costs and any accommodation that you need to pay for while working on the project.

• Are you working alone or will you need to take on other videographers to work with you? Of course, if you need to hire others to work on a project with you then you will need to cover their costs as well. Many corporate events and team building weekends will want multiple camera angles and even footage of several locations at once. In this case, if you’re managing the entire project, you’ll need to establish their price and include it into the overall price projection of the project for your client.

• Insurance. It’s essential to be properly insured whenever you are working with a client and you should always include these costs in your fees. You should also have insurance for your own equipment but you may also want to take out health insurance, general liability insurance – especially if you’re working amongst the public – and other specialized insurance policies for particular events.

For each project you take on you’ll need to decide whether you’re going to charge for the whole project, by the day or per hour. To establish your hourly rate you simply divide your daily rate by the hours you work. When you’re figuring out a rate for the whole project then you will need to accurately estimate how long it will take you and then add up the costs for that period.

Other Factors To Take Into Account When Pricing Your Videography.

• Actors.

• Animation and custom graphics.

• B-roll footage.

• Audio editing, music and extra sound effects.

• Set and Props.

• Catering costs.

• The total length of the video.

Negotiation – An Important Skill in the Freelancer’s Toolbox.

As a freelance videographer you will need to learn to deal with a wide range of clients and negotiation is a skill that can have a huge impact on your future career prospects!

Negotiation is not always appropriate though and you need to be wary of when to use it. For a lot of the freelance work clients expect you to have a preset price list rather than haggling over the price each time. If a client comes to you for a family portrait they will prefer to be shown a price list from which they can choose a package rather than having to haggle over the cost of the shoot.

Remember that return business and recommendations through word of mouth are vital parts of a freelance business in the long term so you should cultivate your relationships with clients and provide a fair price list – especially since many of your clients may not be sure of the market rate for your services.

In other cases though, particularly if you’re working with a client who might have a more flexible budget then negotiation is entirely appropriate. A large corporate client will have a lot more room to negotiate a price which means that you have more scope to get a better rate for your work than you would have without a bit of negotiation. Naturally, your ability to negotiate successfully will be largely dependent on your experience, the quality of your past work and how much demand your services are in.

Pricing Your Work Correctly is Critical For Your Long Term Success.

It’s always going to be a fine balance when it comes to pricing your own services and if you get it wrong it could spell disaster. On the one hand, if you try to be too competitive and price your work too low you won’t be able to pay your bills but on the other hand if you go too high you’ll never find any clients!

A good place to start is to check what the going rate is for the services you provide and then to match that while still taking into account the various expenses that any project might incur. You need to factor in your costs and the value of your equipment as well as the quality of your work. These are most concisely indicated to a potential client by your prices and so getting it right is fundamental to creating a successful long term business.

How do you go about pricing your projects?

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