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Support Contract?
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Whew! Based on Bob’s clues I would almost never had guessed that the client he was discussing was Walter. And having seen Walter’s facility first hand — even prior to the new machine room — I can report that technically it is clean, cool and elegant. So much so that when I returned home I immediately began began cleaning up wires and bundling runs.
All that said, I think Bob is in a somewhat different business than Scott, the original poster. If it was a once in while question with large projects as a routine source of income, sure it can and should be comp’d, but week in, week out support and hand holding, that’s a different matter. Scott, by his good nature, has been backed into the support business and needs to find a way to either get paid for it or shift it off to others without alienating his client.
As to asking for $10,000 a year, I don’t think that will fly too many places these days. It’s ALWAYS easier to get someone to agree to $833 a month because that gives the impression that they’re only committing to several hundred dollars at a time.
[walter biscardi] “He doesn’t just give you one idea, he gives you about a dozen”
Whether it’s someone with Bob’s depth or knowledge or other COW posters, finding solutions often comes down to a fresh set of eyes looking at a problem. In fact I think I have a permanent flat spot on my forehead from going “D’oh! Why didn’t I think of that earlier?” We have a great community going on here and the more we can help each other succeed the better off we all are.
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One thing I’ll add is that while I agree with Bob’s method of doing business and it’s virtually the exact same model we use. Running your business that way DEMANDS that you charge accordingly when you do the paying part of the gig.
What I mean is, you can’t undercut, underbid or leave ANYTHING out of your esimate/bid if you’re going to provide the freebie help along the way.
One problem we run into is occasionally we’ll bid a job with a first-time client that turns into a much bigger job AFTER they see the level of customer service, quality and speed they’re getting. We’re going through the right now with a client that did one small job…(that turned into a bigger job mid-project), and now a flood of jobs are coming our way from them.
When that happens, you have to IMMEDIATELY discuss the changes with the client and point out that the project specs have changed and that it means re-estimated the project and getting new contracts and P.O.s issued.
When we run into these situations, pricing and estimating on all of the work is a constant give and take with the client (who is thankfully understanding about it), because they keep “upping the ante” so to speak on content, quality etc…mainly because they realize how much more responsive we are than the people they used to use. On the first project, as soon as we started going overbudget, (mostly due to the client not providing work they promised to move the project along) we made them aware of the changes and extra work at every stage. They were actually appreciative of the way we handled it.
So…you have to set your pricing at a rate than can sustain all the little “extras” you throw into the mix, like being ready to help at the the drop of a hat. And…you have to continually be upfront about any changes in the project specs and discuss budget adjustments. What gets a lot of people in trouble is they’re so eager to please a client, they blindly agree to whatever the client wants even if it’s way beyond the scope of the original project, and they fail to discuss that if they’re doing a LOT more work, they should be paid more money.
For some reason a lot of people are afraid to discuss money and budgets in meetings. I ALWAYS discuss it in detail and I also always immediately bring it up when project specs change significantly in the middle of a project. It eliminates a lot of problems and animosity down the road and I find that our clients rarely object to it, in fact, the opposite is true, they like keeping the issue of budgets up front.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
Just wanted to say thanks again Bob for your help yesterday. The show is well at hand and the colorist has been cranking all weekend.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
Credits include multiple Emmy, Telly, Aurora and Peabody Awards.
Owner, Biscardi Creative Media featuring HD Post
Biscardi Creative MediaCreative Cow Forum Host:
Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, Apple Color, AJA Kona, Business & Marketing, Maxx Digital. -
No I don’t.
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