[Nick Griffin]

Sorry to say this, Roger, but the simplest way to raise your rates is by winning new business. The theory I’ve discussed here before (OK, in the REALLY old archives) is to actively recruit new clients while raising the rates so you end up adding at the top while the bottom drops away over raised prices. Of course this only works if you’re successful in getting new business.

That said, I agree with Greg. Approach them about your costs — hey first time you didn’t understand the scope of their needs, but you wanted to deliver a top notch product and did so at your own expense. This year you’re able to have a better handle on the scope of the project so you have to get a better match between your time and expenses and what you charge them. Reasonable people will go along with this. Usually. OK, sometimes. Actually there is no substitute for adding new clients who are given the new rates right up front.

[Nick Griffin]

[grinner hester] “I still use word, I am embarrassed to say.”

Well I’m not embarssed to say that I still use Filemaker Pro with two custom templates for the two types of invoices we send out. For overall business we use QuickBooks Pro, but I don’t like its relative inflexability on the invoicing side. So I first do the invoice in Filemaker using auto-look-up, auto-dating, auto-serial numbering, the various pull down and radio button menus I put in and then manually enter that into the invoice in QuickBooks.

I guess the biggest single advantage offered by FileMaker (or Word for that matter, Grin) is that you can take an existing invoice duplicate it and change just the stuff that’s different from the last time you sent it.

But do get QuickBooks. At $200 it’s so cheap that what it saves in time for your tax preparer / accountant will pay for the program almost right away.

[Nick Griffin]

[Mick Haensler] “Most people around here won’t know the difference but anyone outside of this area will.”

I wouldn’t bet on this degree of sophistication within the client base. Certainly other editors and some producers will recognize stock effects, out of the box motion graphics, JumpBack backgrounds, and so on. But clients? That’s not the sort of thing that falls within their world typically. (Your mileage may vary.)

[Nick Griffin]

Good for you, Adam. Being restricted from working for ANYONE else is absurd and even if signed would be unlikely to stand up in court.

Occasionally when we hire freelancers we use a purchase order which specifies that they are not to contact the client directly either during the engagement or for a two year period thereafter. That’s simply to protect us from a writer, art director, producer, etc. saying to our client “Psst. Hey you can get this cheaper by using me and bypassing these guys.”

Frankly, there are only a few people with whom this has ever been a legitimate fear. For the most part we work with people we know and trust. I should also point out that the only time this kind of non-compete is even needed is for a writer, art director or producer whose job it is to really dig in and learn the client’s business. Cameramen, grips, etc. rarely would have to learn enough about the client’s business for this ever to be an issue.

[Nick Griffin]

[walter biscardi] “I don’t know anyone who puts up a Rate Card anymore.”

I agree fully with Walter. (Big surprise, there.)

I don’t know your market, so I can only guess, but your quoted rates seem low for the quality of your work. So take down the rates and start bumping up the new clients.

Nice site and even better art direction on the retro look and feel.

[Nick Griffin]

[Hamish Boyd] “The expression that is used constantly
“Only in America…””

Please don’t assume that this kind of stupidity is all that widespread in the US — at least the parts of the US where most of the people I know live and work. That said, some of the more serious nut jobs gained power in the wake of Clinton/Lewinsky. In the early days of the current administration it got so stupid that John Ashcroft, Bush’s first Attorney General, had drapery put up to cover the naked breasts of Greco-Roman statuary in the foyer of the Department of Justice. Sure made me proud to be an American.

But it will change. There’s an expression about politics and social culture that goes: “the pendulum never stops in the middle.

[Nick Griffin]

And here I thought selecting Codecs was complicated. Thanx!

[Nick Griffin]

Hey Steve, thanks for giving all of us vidiots such in depth and well explained tax info. I’m certain we all hope you’re enjoying the COW and learning a lot.

As to 1099’s I have one question. While I take very seriously the requirement to send 1099’s out to my sub-contractors (individuals) every year, I’ve been ignoring and not forwarding to my accountants the one and only incomming 1099 I receive from a client.

They are a not for profit trade organization, so maybe they have to send it. Yes? No?

As an S-corp I assumed that it didn’t matter since we were already declaring the income for all of our clients. So… can I continue to ignore the form I’m sent or does it have some relevance to our corporate taxes?

[Nick Griffin]

I’m afraid that much of this discussion leaves the impression that the 1/3rd or 1/2 rule is the only way to go. Sure that makes sense for one time, transient, walk-in, ‘don’t know them from Adam’ clients. But I doubt I’m the only one here with on-going client relationships wherein standard net 30 terms are used.

Regular, credit-worthy businesses must be treated like that. We, like any other vendor send them invoices on a regular basis and they pay them. I’m not going to ask someone who gives me business on an on-going basis for a 1/3rd up front deposit.

Isn’t standard billing done by many others as well??

[Nick Griffin]

I’m also set-up as an S-Corp, for 20 years now. Not sure the LLC option was even available in 1988 and really not sure what it means for Bruce to be both an LLC and an S-Corp. I like others here, took the advice of my accountant and attorney, assuming that they knew their jobs at least as well as I knew mine.

And umm, hey guys, at the end of the year there are worse things than taking a chunk of cash and paying the tax on it. It does however make sense to also use a bank line of credit to smooth out those lean months. IMHO.