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“Overtime” rates for rush jobs?
Hi:
I wanted to get a sense of whether, as post-production professionals, you think it’s appropriate to charge time-and-a-half of your hourly rate (or more) when a client essentially forces you to work outside of normal business hours to meet an insane deadline.
My wife and I have been operating a motion graphics studio from our home for around seven years. We’re not getting rich, but we’re doing much better than we were working for “the man” at local network affiliates. We have a fairly stable group of clients, creating motion graphics and 3D animations, mainly for corporate and direct response productions. Our niche often involves taking overflow work from agencies, work that their in-house desginers are too busy to complete. We have a very good relationship with our clients, and we think we offer a good value.
When we first started on our own we’d take most any job and work any time to meet a deadline, charging either a flat rate or, preferably, an hourly rate. We didn’t charge a premium for having to work nights or weekends when the deadline demanded it. (This, as opposed to working nights or weekends because we chose to, so we could do other things on weekdays.)
For the past few years, as our business has been as stable as it will probably get as freelancers, we’ve been telling clients who give us a project on a Friday afternoon and want to see a rough sample on Monday that we’d be charging them time-and-a-half of our hourly rate to meet their deadline, or we’ll build that rate into estimating a flat rate. Our biggest client, an agency with whom we’ve worked for eight years, hasn’t objected.
Is this an unreasonable stance to take with newer clients, those who don’t know us as well?
This issue really come to a head for us the past few days. A fairly large direct response agency, with whom we’ve worked occasionally, handed us a LOT of work last Friday that HAD to be completed by Monday to meet their deadline. Their in-house artist had to attend to another aspect of the project, so it was up to me to set up and render a bunch of 3D environments for their product shoot to composite back at their facility. At no point did anyone ask us up front how much we would charge to do all this work; it simply had to be done by Monday. So on Friday, Saturday and Sunday I worked from around 10am until between 2:30am and 6:15am to get the shots set up and rendered. We met their deadline.
All those hours add up to a good chunk of change for us, especially if we charge time-and-a-half, but now I have the same concerns about presenting the bill that so many others have had: is the client going to freak out and never come back to us again? If they ask why the bill is so high, and we tell them that we charged a premium rate to meet their deadline, would their complaint be justified? FedEx costs more than regular mail. Plane rides cost more than bus rides. Is it unreasonable to charge more to get their project done over a weekend?
I’m hoping this is just my insecurity that pops up now and then, and that this will be much ado about nothing. They HAD to get this done, and we made ourselves available to help them out. We should be fairly compensated.
Right?
Wrong?
Thanks for your insight.
Shawn Marshall
Marshall Arts Motion Graphics -
18 Replies
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[Shawn Marshall] “They HAD to get this done, and we made ourselves available to help them out. We should be fairly compensated.”
Shawn,
You are certainly well justified in charging a premium, but next time you really should be bold and mention it up front, even at the risk of losing the gig. Its always better to know where you stand as you’ll spend a lot more time being productive and a lot less time worrying.
This time, just bill them what you think is proper and see where the chips fall, but don’t sweat it one way or the other. Whether they are willing to admit or not, no one hires a crew over a weekend to meet a deadline without understanding that they will pay a premium.
David
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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I agree…. let the client know upfront what your rates are, and what overages there are for work done above and beyond the call of duty.
Here we bill our usual rates for M-F work done in the 9am-5pm window. Anything within a couple of hours earlier or later than that window is time-and-a-half. Anything outside of that window (say before 7am or after 7pm) and you are getting into double time.
It’s rare, but every now and then an “emergency” project will come in that requires overnight weekend work… even though I hate working those hours we love the jobs because then you are getting into the triple-time neighborhood.
We’ve never had a client complain about the rates… although we’ve had some decide they actually didn’t need it all that quickly after all and “emergencies” became somehow magically not so urgent (“Hmmm, you know, we can probably wait until Monday to do this”) but the rates themselves have never been an issue.
Just be upfront. If a client expects you to move mountains for them, let them know you will be happy to do it, but that it will come at a price.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Sorry Shawn but I’m not sure why you’re even asking unless you feel guilty. Anyone who thinks that your evening and weekend time is the same value as your 8-5 time is a grinder and a thief. We have a weekday rate and an after hours rate.
However, you should have stated so when you took the work on. So, you might have to eat part of it this time but in the future, state it up front. Remember this: if they got a rush job this time that took up your whole weekend, they have every right to ask for that from now on.
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
2-Sony EX-1 HD . -
Hi:
Thanks for all your replies. It helps me to know that it’s not unreasonable to charge more for working strange hours, though I don’t think I’d feel comfortable charging triple time, at least not this time. I think we’ll be content with time-and-a-half, even though it turned me into a zombie for a day.
I don’t think at any point this agency has asked us what our hourly rate was, and I didn’t feel super compelled to volunteer that information. Maybe I should have. Maybe I assumed that if the price was important to them they would have asked ahead of time. I guess I thought what does it matter if we charge 1.5 times our normal rate when they don’t know what our normal rate is? Perhaps it comes down to a common character flaw that it’s better to ask for forgiveness after the fact than to ask for permission ahead of time.
And it’s not that I feel guilty like we’re overcharging them. Logically I know we did good work in a very short timespan, and that we should be rewarded for our knowledge and talent. But I also get insecure sometimes when we present a large bill that amounts to a month’s usual income for three (very long) days work. It’s a totally illogical emotion, but what can you do?
Thanks again for your insight.
Shawn Marshall
Marshall Arts Motion Graphics -
It’s actually a very logical emotion that I think we all feel. I have a steady client who more often than not calls me last minute. Since it’s a pretty steady gig I will do whatever I can to accomodate him. He also knows if I have to switch something in my schedule for him that there will be a premium to pay. More than one time I’ve shown up for the shoot only to find it had been cancelled. The first time it happened I politely told him “no problem, but I will have to charge you 50% of my daily rate”. I have to tell you that was a hard thing to do. Tell a client your paying me to do nothing!! But this guy is a reasonable dude and understands that if he books me, I’ve reserved that time for him and noone else, whether he uses it or not, he still has to pay.
My business coach and I were just discussing this very thing last night. Bottom line, if YOU don’t respect your work enough to charge properly for it, then surely the client won’t respect it enough to pay properly for it. But man it’s hard to do sometimes ain’t it.
Mick Haensler
Higher Ground Media -
As a public service, I have opened up a business specifcally for those of you that feel you are charging too much. Just send me the overage money and sleep like a baby tonight, with a clear conscience. I take PayPal.
🙂
I agree with Todd; your only “problem” is being afraid to call it like it is up front, and you really should be doing that, so as to eliminate any misunderstandings later that could be worse. You also need to formalize your OT policy, set one rate schedule with clear parameters and stick to it.
Clients can sniff out inconsistencies in your policy and that will lead either to bad feelings that you’re playing favorites, or to attempts to exploit you or bargain down your rate based on an earlier, lower rate. If you can’t point to a formal document or clause in your billing statements, you have a weaker bargaining position.
Your bottom line should be: it costs what it costs because its worth what its worth. I can buy a gallon of milk for three dollars at the Aldi’s if I wait until Saturday afternoon. If I need that gallon at 3 AM on a Sunday, the local quickiee mart has it and I know I’m paying an extra two dollars for the fact that they do and are open at that hour. The counterman there in no way feels guilty, I assure you. Sleepy, maybe, guilty, no.
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If I am reading your story correctly, it sounds like you are planning to bill the client a higher rate without prior notice. In my opinion you can’t just charge whatever rate you feel like after the fact, even if it is a fair rate given the circumstances. You absolutely MUST tell the client in advance that you will be charging a rush fee, and give them the opportunity to approve that rate or find a different provider. You can count on never getting work from them again if you do, and to be honest with you it’s a little shady. I would eat it this time, chalk it up to “lesson learned” and put together a policy that you apply to all future work.
On the issue of rush fees in general, it really depends on the situation. I have only charged clients rush fees in a few circumstances, mostly where they were adding new requirements to a project in progress, were presenting them very late in the game and odd hours would be required to complete the work. This is the kind of scenario that most reasonable people would expect to pay a premium for.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
One saying I’ve always been fond of is “Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on MY part.”
Another thought…
A friend of mine is a highly-regarded audio engineer, who tells people he’s happy to work on the weekends, at 3X his normal rate. When I remarked “Wow…that’s high!” he responded. “I don’t like to work on weekends. This rate separates the men from the boys. And if they DO hire me, then at least it’s well worth my while.”
Steve
The Video Business Advisor
http://www.VideoBusinessAdvisor.com -
That’s all true for sure, but you still need to tell the client upfront that you charge extra in these situations, as your audio engineer friend does.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
I agree with you Brendan, but the poster seems to be in a unique situation. The client never asked for his rate, so they have no idea that 1.5x what he normally charges is 1.5x is actual rate. As far as they’ll know, it’s his normal rate.
On the other hand, I believe it would be underhanded to present your rate increase as your standard rate. If they talk to any of your other clients…and they will if they can find them…they’ll realize really fast what happened and it may be the last time you work for them and probably anyone else they talk to.
Not much to do here except charge your normal rate and learn from it (as Brendan suggested), or charge 1.5x your rate and explain why it’s so much more and hope they understand.
Good luck. Let us know how it turns out if you can.
Michael.
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