Best Business Practices for Photographers [150]
You may make policy exceptions to a rate structure, a pro bono client, a late payment penalty, and such, but make sure you consider the exception and let the client know that you are making an accommodation and why.
The problem is, too many photographers fail to believe that they can have policies in the first place. Several seemingly silly policies that you probably have are:
I will not set up the lights and adjust the camera to its proper settings and then hand it to the client to make the photos.
I will not give a prospective client the names of my competition who will do the job for less than I will.
I will not shoot an assignment naked. (It may be just me who has this one.)
I will not be treated like a child or an imbecile by any client.
With those in mind, you undoubtedly have other policies that you've not stated, put in writing, posted for clients to see, or otherwise formalized. Once you outline your policies and you feel that, outside of the scope of a specific assignment's dealings, they are fair and reasonable, then you can begin to live by them. You'll be surprised by how a client reacts when you say, "It's not our policy to…." As was evidenced in Chapter 13 with an editorial magazine and elsewhere in this book, clients understand policies—they have them, too.
Deal Breakers: What Are Yours?
Everyone has deal breakers. Mine involve my "no naked photography" policy and no WMFH. Back in the dot-com era, I learned that high-tech companies need to pay in full before an assignment is completed, so my deal breaker for high-tech companies is "no pay, no play." This also extends to my work for political campaigns.
Deal breakers are similar to policies, but they are usually encountered in the negotiations process. Setting aside ethical, moral, and legal policies, which are given deal breakers, here are a few more:
I won't work for a company that sells tobacco products or things I consider addictive. Having had loved ones die from cancer-related illnesses makes this a deal breaker for me.
I won't sign a contract that includes a clause requiring binding arbitration unless, in rare cases, I feel it's in my best interests to do so.
I won't sign a contract whose governing law is not workable for the client and me.
I won't sign a contract that requires "all rights throughout the universe." That's just a stupid and offensive clause.
* * *
NOTE
Dictionary.com defines stupid as "marked by a lack of intelligence or care, foolish or careless," and goes on to another definition of stupid as "pointless; worthless."
* * *
I won't deal with a client who thinks a photographer is an overpaid button-pusher.
Those are some of my deal breakers, among others. In the end, it's necessary to define your terms and what you will and won't accept and then to stick to it.
Why "No" Is One of Your Most Powerful Tools
It's true: If there weren't any no's in a negotiation, then you'd have an agreement. Your position is different than prospective clients', and your objective is to overcome as many of their no's as possible while minimizing the no's that you concede to. There are few true negotiations in which no's can't be surmounted. Sometimes a prospective client says, "Sorry, the contract's nonnegotiable—take it or leave it." Then you've been given an ultimatum, and if you aren't prepared—you have a zero bank account and an empty pantry—then you're at a steep disadvantage. You might as well take it…or leave it. Your fear of losing the assignment will reveal itself in how you discuss the assignment with the client, and your negotiations will be handicapped.
* * *
NOTE
A "take it or leave it" contract is not a meeting of the minds and can become what was mentioned in a previous chapter—a contract of adhesion.
* * *
Saying, "No, I just can't accept the assignment on those terms," or "No, I won't ask my assistant to