Best Business Practices for Photographers [39]
Fact #5. If you charge for your time at an hourly rate, the better you get at completing an assignment, the less you are being paid for your talents. Although an hourly rate may work when you are covering a luncheon or an all-day conference, it doesn't work on most other assignments. Banish "day rate" from your vocabulary before it costs you.
Fact #6. Just because a client says they won't pay for something, that doesn't mean you must accept and work under those terms. You have the power to say no.
Fact #7. When you are working for just one or two clients, the loss of their work would have catastrophic effects on your revenue stream. You are overly beholden to them and their whims. Diversify your client base for long-term stability.
Fact #8. If a client signs your contract and then demands after the fact that you sign theirs to be paid, you do not have to agree to sign or actually sign their contract. Simply point out that you already have a contractual relationship for the assignment. They must pay, pursuant to your contract, or be in breach of contract (or copyright, depending upon the language in your contract).
Fact #9. Operating your business without insurance is akin to gambling every day with the likelihood of being able to continue to do the job you love the most. A stolen camera bag or an accident on assignment could easily put you out of business.
These facts may be inconvenient, but that doesn't make them any less real.
PLH: Photographer Learned Helplessness
There's a concept called Consumer Learned Helplessness. The Consumerist website notes about this "affliction":
After getting shocked from every angle for so long, with credit cards' shrinking due dates, flagrant violations of our privacy, rebate scams as acceptable business models, and "it's company policy" as the magic wand to excuse it any time a company screws us, we just lie down and accept it.
So too does this apply to photographers. Thus, PLH.
When your client or a proposed client says things like:
You're the first photographer who's ever raised a question about our contract.
We require original receipts for all expenses.
Our contract is nonnegotiable. We haven't modified it for anyone else, so we can't for you—sorry.
Of course we own the reprint rights to the photos and article. We paid you for the assignment.
We can't pay in 30 days. I know your contract that we signed says that, but we pay in 90 days.
We can't promise adjacent photo credit or that it will be accurate, but we'll do our best.
We don't pay a digital processing fee. Don't do any processing; just burn the photos to a CD and send it to us. My assistant can pick out the photos and work on them.
Simply lying down and accepting egregious terms results from PLH. It's as if there are no clients out there who you think respect you, and so you just have to take whatever scraps and morsels of assignment work this client has.
Don't believe these things. I have drawers full of contracts from clients that counter the above. I have FedEx receipts from clients who paid in 30 days (and I have collected administrative fees from those who have not paid within 30 days). I have clients who respect me and what I bring to the table. Did they take time to become my regular clients? Sure. And I surely declined assignment offers where the deal did not show me the respect that a reasonable person should expect.
Avoid PLH. Don't accept deals you know are bad. Sometimes it's easier than others. But in the long run, it's what will sustain you.
Zen and the Art of Photography
A lot goes into that first call. Not the call you make, but the call you earn. Before your phone rang, lots of things had to happen: The client had to decide they needed a photographer, and where there's an ad agency, PR firm, or design firm involved, they had to convince their client they needed photography. Then, they had to decide on candidates for the assignment. And that's where you come in.
There are five Zen-like stages that your clients