[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey James,

Ignore all the out-of-townie-experts and listen to someone who have been through the British Tax meat-grinder (and still is enjoying it) 😉

One disclaimer to my opinion below: If in doubt get an accountant, although such can be expensive they are to spare you from fines, jail and paying too much tax!

Are you a registered self employed person with the HMRC?
Do you invoice multiple clients for your services? (If you only have one client, they must pay you PAYE and offer you things like holiday pay and pension)
Do you pay your own National Insurance?
Do you file your own income accounts?

Provided that you are a professional working in the business of making videos and films, there are a number of things that you can legally claim expenses on for production purposes. Such as R&D, phone calls, insurance, transport, hire of equipment, asset purchases etc. Any expense that you can prove was for the purpose of making films for business and not hobby. Just make sure to have the argument for the expense, before showing HMRC the video of your best friends wedding…
(Example: I once managed to claim tax back on a Playstation 2 – I also had a lengthy report to show how I had taken part in a research project for developing new software and hardware for it)

Although crew and actors are an expense too, I did not include those in the above list as it could be a minefield – like your customers, those people you engage to work for you, may suddenly become your employee. So be careful on that point as to who you hire and for how long. Websites like https://simply-docs.co.uk/Home are a cost effective way of getting legal forms/contracts to be modified and signed by you and your freelancers.
(Not many people knows this, but the UK employment laws are amongst the toughest in the world. Even tougher than those in places like Denmark (my home country :-)))

As a closer. In any case, you said it yourself:
[James Quinn] “Consider that the films I make are made with the purpose of hands-on-training and a form of advertising for my skills, can the money I spend on their production be counted as losses in my tax returns?”
In the UK tax system it is unlikely that a sole-trader can claim back on training and university courses unless you can prove that these are necessary for a specific project. However, it is possible to claim back some marketing and advertising expenses if those are to help you promote the business.

If in doubt, ask an accountant. Who may suggest that you set up a Limited company to protect yourself. (Do NOT do that unless you have turnover of £45K+ a year and/or very complex productions)

You could also consider signing up for an accounts package that will ask you to separate out personal and business expenses. I migrated from Quickbooks (off-line) to Freeagent (online) which is really good for managing my mixture of personal, PAYE and self-employed accounts – my referral link for it is here: https://fre.ag/42m3rdrm

Good Luck and don’t hesitate to ask if there was anything that I didn’t cover.

All the Best
Mads

@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Ty,

I’m with Mark on this one – cross out what you don’t like in the contract, maybe add a clause for the publication having to send you copies of all their publishing past, current and future that includes your work.

Sadly it is the way that the publishing world is going. For you it is a question of whether you need them more, than they need you? Or if you can make more money through self-publishing?

Next step after you’ve signed the (current on offer) contract will be that you have to produce the double amount of words for half the price. And preferably if you can take your own pictures too – that seems to be the way that many publications are going.

All the Best
Mads

@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

I would add to Mark’s great answer:

Rather than thinking of it in terms of licence, do consider asking your client whether they would make the introduction to the manufacturer. Once in there, offer them to make as many different versions/variations as they need with as many different logo’s and graphics on it as they need. Give them a fair rate, and they may come back for more.

If there are actors (or presenters) involved, music etc, then maybe one could argue that each video needs a separate license.

All the Best
Mads

@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Cassidy,

Unless your client wants to launch their own shopping channel or do full on Direct TV infomercials, then you are better off integrating any studio in with their sales operation.

My suggestion would be to use their sales room to double up as a studio. If you have the right height, you can easily fit in ceiling LED lights that won’t make people sweat.
And if you need a white or chroma background, then this can easily be fitted too + customers loves a bit of “TV Glamour” when looking at the product. Not to mention the benefit of creating a sound-proof sales / demonstration / TV-studio room.

Production wise it also helps when making demonstrations of product or even better, get clients/resellers involved on camera too.

Any pack-shots can be done in a garage or the corner of the room.

My 5p.

All the Best
Mads

@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

I would add to Mark’s post:

1) Client must settle the unpaid bill before any discussions can take place – after all, it is unfair of them to ask for footage when they haven’t even paid for the masters.

2) By all means, no one else including you can use the footage so you might as well pass it to the client for a technical and administration fee. In the old days one would get residual payments each time the footage is used, however that is impractical for the client and you to manage. So go for a one off fee that is high enough for you, and small enough for the client to agree to it.

3) Do remind them that you continue to hold the copyright on the filmed footage and should rightfully so be credited on any future videos that have your footage included – i.e. don’t let another production company take the honours for your work.

All the Best
Mads

@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Shane,

I think you need to read my post again before getting your knickers twisted.

It is up to the individual employer as how they deal with out-of-work work by employees. As some employers in this thread have already mentioned, they won’t allow their employees to work for old clients (competitors).

About the legaleese: Depending on what country you are in, the laws are different. And HR departments are all over the world a real pain to deal with when it comes to the rights of employees and employers.

Bottom-line is, that if you are a new employee joining a firm in a full-time position, don’t automatically assume that you carry out paid work on the side. Likewise, if you are, as the original post suggested, an employer taking on a new full-time employee, don’t automatically assume that you need to let them keep all of their old side-jobs. As I’m sure you’ll agree, there are plenty of posts here opposing my black & white description of the proposition.

All the Best
Mads

@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

[Andrew Kimery] “I keep asking this question but no one has responded to it yet, if the employee is meeting or exceeding the expectations of their employer what is the problem? If the employee is *not* meeting the expectations of their employer does it matter if the low performance is related to a stamp collecting hobby instead of side projects?”

That my friend, is up to the individual employer to answer. However, it is easier to dismiss someone who are having a paid job on the side, rather than a hobby, such as stamp collecting or even making videos.

There are no such thing as having a 100% job and working 125% 😉

All the Best
Mads

@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Mark,

I agree with all of your comments – but this thread has turned into the editing-suite equivalent of the boardroom bingo game. Let’s all shout “BINGO!” each time we get a right word such as creative, new, thinking, fun, right etc…

However, not to spoil the excitement; Rich’s original issue was “As an employer I am more traditional and appreciate loyalty to the goals of the company and its team. But the young guys might have been editing and creating animations for several years and may even have a small side business already set up as they seek full time employment.”

Responding to that, I say that an employee can only have one full-time job.

The splitting of that cake goes both ways: You cannot have a full-time job and then demand to be able to do paid work outside of that job. Likewise, you cannot have a happy employee if you don’t motivate the person with possibilities of doing more and better work.

The point is, that if you have multiple pay-masters then you are no longer in full-time employment. And depending on your job, if the outside personal jobs, family, life etc have a negative impact on being able to concentrate on the job. Then you might even put you own, and your colleagues health at risk. Not to mention the business of your employer.

By all means, one should take inspiration to do better from any parts of life – but when it comes down to the job market, most of what is on offer is about being a good crafts person and knowing your tools and how to use them. And not about re-inventing the wheel into a different shape every minute of the day. And yes, even crafts people have to continuously train and gain new skills – that part is for most employers a tax deductible expense, where as moon-lighting could become a competitive loss and/or increase of insurance.

As an employer, just be careful as to what you encourage your full-time employees to do outside of work, opposed to managing what you find agreeable without taking the cost or responsibility. Because once the genie (multi-jobbing employee) is out of the bottle, you’ll find it difficult to put it back in. Not to mention any other employee who wants equal rights…

My 5p 😉

All the Best
Mads

@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Andrew,

Interesting comments, although I think that Shane nailed it better in his follow on post to yours. But here is my observation on your post:

Family is not work – unless the person in question have got their priorities wrong and think that it is.

The point of having a full-time job is exactly just that; it is a full-time job. Strictly speaking there are no way’s, if’s and but’s about that description. So a full-time employee should not treat any full-time employer as part time employment.

Some countries out there, in particularly in Europe, have a very short working week of 35-37.5 working hours. And yes, in such circumstances there might be more “space” than in other places for hobby activities outside of full-time employment. And if that includes editing pet-projects then I’ve got no problem with that. The same goes for family life, collecting stamps, walking the dogs, playing ping-pong or building LEGO.

However, in the time that an employee is at their full-time job, one would expect them to give it their best, and not having “dumped” all their creativity on a late night video project that they find more inspiring, but won’t pay their mortgage…

[Andrew Kimery] ” If someone is cutting the same type of content day in and day out” And if they are tired of doing that (burned out), then it is their responsibility to themselves and their families to change into a more rewarding job. But do not blame the boredom on the company that pays the bills, when there are a long list of CV’s in the filing cabinet ready to fill that hole.

Just an alternative opinion 🙂

All the Best
Mads

@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Please allow me to play the Devil’s Advocate here:

As much as I am all for people in the team being eager and getting experiences from other work, I am also concerned about suddenly finding a employee or freelancer suddenly being a direct competitor – that has happened, and sadly is likely to happen again.

However, if an employee works for 40-50 hours a week and then goes off to do other work, then there this does raise the issue about that employee being tired and not able to give you and your clients their best?
Insurance wise, it also raises the questions of an employee driving on a job whilst being to tired to do so – who is liable if there are an accident?
Or the editor developing repetitive strain injury (a recognised disability) whilst putting in 18 hours editing shifts for you, and other activities.

As one very bright person told me a long time ago: “Your employees problem is not their problem (personal or otherwise), it is your problem whether you like it or not”.

There are no black and white with this one and in particularly with a new younger generation of work-force, whose expectations to work is very much different to what the previous generation(s) grew up with. But there is an aspect of you making clear your expectations, whilst being approachable and thereby being able to mentor (manage) any moon-lightening without getting a nasty surprise.

All the Best
Mads

@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk