{"id":101377,"date":"2018-04-30T07:00:14","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T12:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/?p=101377"},"modified":"2018-04-27T15:37:03","modified_gmt":"2018-04-27T20:37:03","slug":"turn-down-freelance-video-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/turn-down-freelance-video-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Freelance Tip: How Do You Know When to Turn Down a Job?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Learning how to find steady freelance video production gigs is hard enough, but what about knowing when you shouldn’t take the job?<\/h2>\n

Cover image via VADL<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

As a freelance editor, I sometimes have to turn down work, even if I have nothing else going on, because I know that\u00a0the job is likely to be a disaster. By this, I mean the client might be so difficult to work with that it will just be too stressful, or\u00a0the project involves so much work that it really won\u2019t be worth it in the end \u2014 or it\u2019s just\u00a0beyond my capability.<\/p>\n

Depending on where you are in your career, your income\u00a0for the\u00a0month, and your general work pipeline, saying no to any<\/em> job might be a luxury you can\u2019t afford. That\u2019s okay \u2014 we\u2019ve all been there, and sometimes you just have to knuckle down, grit your teeth, and push through. Plus, work is work \u2014 I’m always happy to have some.<\/p>\n

But, if you are in\u00a0a position to say no when you\u00a0suspect that the whole thing could be a nightmare, how do you know when to say no, and why?\u00a0I recently had to do this, and without revealing who the client was, I\u2019ll try to break down my thought process.<\/p>\n

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Connection \u2014 How Well Do You Know The Client?<\/h3>\n

\"Freelance
\n<\/a>Image via Hiroshi Teshigawara<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

In my case, the job came through a phone call out of the blue from a client of a friend. Normally, I would be totally up for expanding my client network through my friends \u2014 or finding a way to service their clients when they’re too busy. The call came\u00a0based on a recommendation, but whenever I’m talking to someone on the phone for the first time, I’m always trying to get a sense of who they are; how much experience they have;\u00a0what kind of budget\u00a0they have; and any other factors that will help me understand how to tackle the job, the client, and the offer.<\/p>\n

If the call had been from a previous client\u00a0of mine or even an agency I had heard of, I might have felt differently. But this was just “some random” who, when I looked them up, was also the star of the video and didn’t seem to have much experience in video at all.<\/p>\n

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Budget \u2014 Do Your Expectations Match?<\/h3>\n

\"Freelance
\n<\/a>Image via Focus and Blur<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The second alarm bell was that our budget expectations were wildly out of alignment.<\/p>\n

They were offering less than half my usual day rate, for what would easily have been a full day’s work (if not two). Plus, they wanted to sit in and run the session.<\/p>\n

It’s worth quickly talking about a daily rate. Yes, it’s how much you get paid for a day’s work, so it should\u00a0reflect\u00a0what you need to live, but it should also be indicative of your experience level, your professionalism, and your abilities. We usually expect to pay more for something if it’s higher quality \u2014 or if there’s more of it. So the same should be\u00a0true of hiring a freelancer. The more days you\u00a0work, the more it costs \u2014 the more experienced the artist, the higher the fee.<\/p>\n

That said, it’s totally up to you what to charge, whether you want to offer discounts or\u00a0“elastic” pricing<\/a>. (Bear in mind that your daily rate can also\u00a0filter out clients who can’t afford what you have to offer.) 9 times out of 10, when a client asks me to lower my rate and I decline, they just accept the rate, and we work happily together. (So don’t be afraid to say “No.”)<\/p>\n

If someone is asking you to work for less, then there is a mis-alignment in understanding either what the project involves or what your time, skills, and expertise are worth.\u00a0Often, this\u00a0is due to inexperienced clients who don’t know what they don’t know (which is fine: we all start not knowing anything), but part of your job will then be managing their expectations to keep things from spiraling out of control \u2014 and\u00a0over budget.<\/p>\n

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Opportunity Cost \u2014 Are You Missing Out?<\/h3>\n

\"Freelance
\n<\/a>Image via Fedorovekb<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

In my case, the job they could afford should have taken half a day or less. They job they wanted would have taken a lot longer, but the opportunity cost<\/a> was minimal. I was available to do the job, but I decided not to. Instead, I wrote this post.<\/p>\n

But sometimes when you’re trying to decide whether to say no, it’s worth considering what your best alternative might be. On a long job, the client might offer you a lower daily rate given how many days\u00a0they’re paying for (again, you can always say “no”) or a buy-out fee for the job, meaning you just have to do it as quickly as you can to make it worth your while.<\/p>\n

But if that job is going to take up a lot of your time, or\u00a0move you in a career direction you don’t want, you may\u00a0want to decline\u00a0so you can keep your options open for other projects.<\/p>\n

This is tricky as a freelancer, though. What if nothing better comes up?\u00a0What’s more, it depends on\u00a0your typical work-engagements. If you’re used to working for different clients every few days or weeks, then a three-month job might seem like a whale.<\/p>\n

If you’re used to taking on feature film work that lasts for months at a time, then taking on a couple of weeks of work might be no big deal \u2014 unless you need to start on the next film right away.<\/p>\n

So this is one of those “Hindsight is 20-20” situations, but it’s another small indicator that, when\u00a0combined with the other two,\u00a0might mean you should pass on the job.<\/p>\n

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Growth \u2014 There’s Only One Way to Learn<\/h3>\n

“A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.” \u2014Mark Twain<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the end, if you take on a job, and it ends up being a disaster,\u00a0then at least you will have learned something. And that learning isn’t just “silver-lining” thinking \u2014 it’s valuable experience you can’t get any other way.<\/p>\n

If you choose to pass on the job, hopefully something better will come along, or maybe you’ll hear from the person who did take it on that it was a disaster, or a triumph. Or you’ll never know.<\/p>\n

But over time, you’ll develop a gut feeling for these things that you should choose not to ignore.<\/p>\n

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Looking for more video production tips and tricks? Check out these articles.<\/p>\n