Why Providing a Budget Upfront Leads to Success

WHAT’S YOUR RATE? WHAT’S YOUR BUDGET?

A Threads post popped up that prompted this post.

This is very important because it comes up many times during discussions on creative work.

A Threads user, who is a business owner, asked two videographers for rates on a project. Both did not provide a “number” upfront and this person was not pleased with this and further went on to say that as creatives, we should all have our costs ready.

After doing this for 10 years, and once being a newbie myself and doing all the wrong things to get to get to the right best practices, here’s what I can tell you.

Providing a quote is more complex that just spitting out a number.

How much for photos?
How much for a one minute video?

Getting to the quote involves asking some questions to discover the needs, but if you’re the one wanting a quote, it would be extremely helpful to be upfront about a budget.

“I want 5 photos of my products to use on my website and social media. I have $1000 to spend as a budget.”

From there, it’s more efficient and cuts down on communication to get to the nitty gritty of what the deliverables and requirements are and even helps to know if this is viable to proceed.

Many photographers and videographers, including myself, have a minimum level of budget for us to take on the work.

By providing a budget upfront, we can let the potential client know that either they need to change the deliverables required to match the budget, or simply that the budget is not in alignment with the calibre of work that is required and that they would need to source another provider who would be more in alignment.

This saves everyone time.

Providing a quote is more complex because we need to know what’s all involved.

What’s your expectation of the edits?
“I want them to look magazine-ready”.
That’s going to cost more because it will take more time.

What’s your expectations of turnaround time?
“Next day”.
That’s going to cost more because of rush fees.

You’d like models in your video.
Who’s sourcing the models?
What about hair and makeup? Are you providing that or are you wanting us to source that?
This all takes up time in managing and pulling all that together so there needs to be a cost attached.

Are there motion graphics in your video?
Essentially, the more work invovled, the costs increase in relation. This makes sense.

Where is this work going to be featured?
If the reach is further such as state or province-wide or nationally, the value in the work has increased and licensing should increase in relation to the value provided.

Who is managing the creative direction on this?
“We don’t have a team”.
This means that more production team members are required and more hours in pre-production is required to execute and plan out what it looks like and the logistics.

The list goes on.

That’s why it’s more complex to answer “How much for photos or a one minute video”.

To put it into perspective:

When well-established brands like Nike or Apple want to produce any kind of campaign, they already have creative briefs completed, desired outcomes for results, where the ad is going to be featured, and ultimately, they know what they’d like to spend on achieving these goals.

Being prepared helps the work achieve the desired results so in the end, it helps out everyone when you know what you want out of the work you’re asking for.

 

About Vivid Ribbon Photography

We do commercial photography and video.

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If you think you may have a larger scope for your marketing needs, we have a marketing agency, Disruption Digital Marketing, that can support you. Please visit https://dsrpn.ca to connect with us there.