Transcripts
1. Intro: Every person has had a
moment in their life where they hated their
job and needed a change. Every person has also
fantasized about working for themselves and not having
to answer to anyone. If you clicked on this class, then you're probably
one of these people. I remember having
a nine to five job and wanting to do
something different. I went to school for filmmaking and that's what I
wanted to work in. I remember the nerves
and fear of completely quitting my job to pursue
my work as a colorist. Also, doing this in New
York City where rent in the cost of living
is among the highest in the world didn't
help those nerves. Well, I've now been running
a post-production studio, beam box Studio for
over ten years. And I'm here to tell you that
it's totally possible to start a career in a
creative industry. The hardest part sometime
is getting started. This class is for anyone who has ever wanted to
go out on their own, start their own
creative business, go freelance and be
successful at it. You might be doing work
on the side right now, are thinking of adding
another stream of income. Or maybe you've been a
freelancer now for awhile, but you're stuck in a rut. If this sounds like you, then you're in the right place. In this class, you're going to learn both what to do and what not to do to run a successful
creative business. I'm going to give you lessons
I've learned from why it's important to know your worth
to why freelancers fail. I'm Fred Trevino and
I've been at colorist in New York for over
a decade and I've gone from doing jobs for friends and family to working with large brands like HBO,
Prada, ESPN, Google. And I've worked on over
50 feature-length films. I'm also a street
photographer and a top teacher here
at Skillshare. What I hope you get
out of this class is the courage to do
what you love and get paid well for it and feel personally fulfilled and
proud of your hard work. I hope you put these
lessons into practice, used the class materials
I'm providing and start a journey you've
always wanted to take. So if you're ready,
let's get started.
2. Find Your Niche and Become a Specialist: In this lesson, I want to
go over finding your niche. So what that basically means
is having a specialty. I know it might sound
like common sense. Maybe you haven't started your own creative business yet or even started
getting work yet? Well, this is mainly for
you and I would say, let's say you love photography. Don't just tell people
you're a photographer. Maybe market yourself as a portrait photographer or a head shot photographer
or a food photographer. If you're wanting to work
in the film industry, may be say you're
a cinematographer, but you specialize in
short form corporate work. Or maybe you specialize in feature-length films and build your reputation around that. And the most important thing about finding your niche though, is don't make that choice based on money and what
you think is going to make you the most
money or what you think. There's a market for, which it's a good way
to think that way. But the most
important thing to do is first figure out what
you're passionate about, what you love doing, and select your niche
based off of that. So if you love photography, e.g. and maybe you love taking
portraits, then choose that. So that's the important
thing to remember. Because what will happen
if you don't do this, which I've seen a ton of
times is people might say, Oh, I'm a photographer
and just start doing, you can say odd
jobs here and there and maybe you're
taking pictures of this person's head shots
and maybe that person needs photos for their new
restaurant and you start doing all
these random jobs, which is good just
for experience. But you don't want to
fall into the trap of, Oh, my friend's neighbor
opened a restaurant. They want pictures of their restaurant in their
food and you go and do that. And then before you know it, you're known as a
food photographer or a restaurant photographer. And you really don't
like doing that, but it's paying the bills. And before you know it, to 34 years down the line, you're back where you
started having a job. You hate doing something
you don't like, and you've turned your passion
into something you hate. You loved photography, you
wanted to have a career in IT. And now you're doing this
stuff that you don't like and you're wanting to get out of it but you
can't and you're just kind of cotton this
vicious cycle, which I've seen a lot
of freelancers do. And it's very common to
fall into this trap of ticking all the
work you can do and then you fall into something
you don't like doing. So, pick your specialty
or your niche, whatever you wanna call it, makes your first and foremost that it's something
you love doing, something that you're passionate about and don't be afraid, especially when you're starting out and you have
nothing to lose. Don't be afraid to
turn down a job. If you get offered a
job to go and take someone's head shots for their LinkedIn profile and
that's just not your thing. Then don't do that. Go out and tell people, Oh, I'm a real estate photographer or whatever it is you're
passionate about, or maybe you're just a
head shot photographer. So pick something you love, pick what you're
passionate about and go based off of that.
3. Know Your Worth: In this lesson, I want to cover the topic of knowing your worth. Now, this topic can mean
two different things. It can mean how
much do you charge? And it can mean how much value do you provide that client? When people are getting started, it's very common for them to not know what the
charge and for them to be afraid to charge too much or to be your friend
charge anything whatsoever? I remember when I
was getting started. I didn't know what
the charge and then I also was afraid to
be turned down. So I would typically throw out a semi-random number that I knew they would
probably say yes to. But what would typically happen is I would throw out
a random number, like say, I'll do it for 500. And they would either say, okay, or they would say, Oh, I only have 300. And so then I would not only shoot out a low random number, I will then get that
number cut down even more and the night end up
overworked and underpaid. So the point of knowing
your worth is one, doing research in your city
to know how much things cost. But then also being aware of the value that
you provide that client. If you're doing a
job for someone that you know is going to
heavily benefit them. And maybe making them
a lot of money and maybe making them successful
and increase their exposure, whatever it is you
might be doing, you have to remember that. Which is why a lot
of bigger companies, and I've seen this
a ton of times. They don't have a rate. If someone comes in and says, I need this job, XYZ job or whatever it might be. They don't say, okay, well, let me think of the hours and add up the math
and this and that. And they know they don't
say that they know that this company
or this person, this is important to them, or this is going to make
them all out of money, or this is going to
increase profits, whatever the reason might be, that restaurant is going to get a lot more
exposure or whatever. And then they just say, okay, well, you want photos
for this or that? $40,000, $50,000, 2060,
$80,000, $10,000. If you're starting out,
those might sound like crazy numbers, but it happens. It happens all the time. And it's basically
not pricing yourself. It's more value-based pricing rather than time based pricing. And I'm going to start that
right out of the gate, especially if you're new. It is good to have a rate,
have an hourly rate, have a daily rate,
have a weekly rate, whatever it is, and do that. You'll probably do
that most of the time. But don't shoot yourself in
the foot by only doing that. Once you get a say a big break and get
a successful client, don't do the math and send
them that just realized what that job is in their world. And based on the typical
plants that they work with and just send them a number that you know is worth that product or that service. Because something you
have to remember is that you do have a specialty. You do have something
that people want. You do have a value
and a service. You can provide that
only you can provide. And the reason that they're reaching out to you or
they want you to do something for them and work for them is because
you have something that they need and there's
a lot of value in that. So always remember that you
do have a value to provide. You have a specialty
that you know, and only you know, and you have something that people need. And it's very easy to forget that and just be
afraid of the jaw, be afraid of the client, just being afraid to
lose a job and just throw out small numbers are
not known what the chart. So remember, you have a
specialty, you have a value, and that's very important in having a successful business. That's what's going
to keep you going. Because you don't just
want to pay the bills. You want to pay the bills
and have extra income for other things to grow your
business by better gear, have a bigger office
or eventually get an office, have faster Internet. All of those kinds of things are part of knowing your worth and knowing the market
rates in your industry.
4. Don't Work for Free: Okay, so let's talk
about working for free. I'm going to say something
that a lot of people are probably going
to disagree with. And what I'm going to tell
you is, don't work for free. And the reasoning
behind that is because once you work for free, you will always be
that free person or that person who does it for cheap or does it
at a discounted rate. And the quality of your work or the value of your work goes
down when you work for free. If you are doing this
because you hear this, a lot of people will say, Oh, you're just getting started, go out and do a couple of free projects just to, you know, do develop a portfolio or
whatever, that kind of thing. Well, I would, what I
would say to that is, if you do want to
build a portfolio, do that on your own time. Do your own photos, your shoot your own videos. If you do portrait, shoot, portraits of a friend
or an aspiring model. So it's mutually beneficial
for any professional jobs. I would say, don't
work for free. If you have experience, which most people who want to go out and start their
own creative thing there, freelance or a business. Because they already do
have some experience. They may not have experienced
getting paid for it, but they have been doing
it for a few years. And in a lot of cases
that can deliver something that is on
a professional level. If you can deliver something that's an a
professional level, and I would say
you have to charge on a professional level. If you do something for free, this is what's going to happen. Let's say you find,
you, go around, you talk to businesses
or whatever, or however you get that job. And you tell them, Hey, I'll do this for free, or I'll do this at a discount
or whatever it might be, that person will see your
work as less valuable. They'll see you as less
talented, less specialized. And the next time, next time it comes around, then they will never
want to pay you again. If there is another job, they'll want a massive discount. Because when you charge nothing or you
charged very little. There's this reflection on your work and on
you that you're not a true professional or a real professional or you
know what you're doing. I would say if you're
getting started, try to charge a market rate, maybe a lower market rate, but don't throw the
word discount in there. Don't throw the word,
I'm doing this for free or this is my first
project or whatever. Don't do any of that
and just do the job, do it the best you can and
start your career that way. Because the word spreads
quickly and a lot of towns, and you do not want to become that person that has
the reputation of like, oh, this person who
did it for me and they did it for free,
that it achieved. Because if you start doing
things for free or cheap, then you'll start getting work. But you'll start getting
a lot of work with the expectations that you do it cheap or that
you do it for free. And that's where you
don't want to get. That's why you don't want to be. Because remember, you do have
a skill and it has value, and you don't want to just
give that away for free.
5. Don't Fear Contracts: Alright, so let's
talk about contracts. It's very common
when you get started to be afraid of contracts,
to put it simply, and to think that if you bring up a contract or ask a
client to sign a contract, that somehow that's being
rude or they're going to get mad that you maybe don't trust them or
something like that. And so you work. And then before you know it, at some point you're going
to have a miscommunication. You have no contract, and then you don't get paid or things don't work out well. So a huge piece of advice is, have a contract, even if
it's a basic contract, that will just say who
you are, who they are, what you're doing, how
much you're getting paid, when you're getting paid. And then when the job is done, I won't go into contracts. That could be a
whole other course, but that's my bit of advice, is definitely have at
least a simple contract. They're very easy to find. I'm sure a lot of people
don't want to go the whole the whole thing of finding an attorney
in drafting contract. But this day and age, Google it, find a template contracts, example contracts and have that. And again, it's kind of goes against what a lot
of beginners think. If you bring up a contract, people will be offended
or something like that. And what ends up happening is if you actually bring
up a contract, you come off as
more professional. People will trust you. More people will
typically be happy to sign a contract that will
have more respect for you. They'll treat you more
like professional. There'll be happier
of the whole bill, will have a much happier
experience overall. And there'll be happy to
pay your rate and the call you back and you just come
off as more professionals. So have a contract, don't be afraid of them. They actually help you
a lot more than they hurt you and they really
don't hurt you that much. So have a contract.
6. Stay Strong: This lesson has a
pretty dramatic title. That's what I basically
mean by that, is that once you been freelancing and working
for yourself for a while and have your
own creative business. You have to stand
up for yourself. It's that simple. I sort of alluded to
this in other lessons. But the basic idea
behind this is once you have your rate
in your value, and once you have a
contract, stick to it. Okay? Because it's also very easy and very common
to have a rate, have a contract, and then
you don't stick to it. Let's say you're charging $500 a day and you have a contract. Well, a client comes around. It's common that you
are going to negotiate, but also you don't want to, on every job have a rate and then charge them
huge amounts less. Iv rate is 500 a day. You don't want them
turnaround and then oh, I'm only getting 300 a day
or 250 a day or 200 a day. You want to have a
rate, you want to have a minimum rate that you're going to work
for it Let's say you are rate is 500 a day. Well, you want to say, I don't care what the job
is or what's going on. The minimum that I
will work for is maybe for 25 or 450 a
day and stick to it. And if you have a contract
that has terms that say, Oh, I'm maybe going to
get the first half of the payment
before I begin work. You have to stick to that. If the job is scheduled to begin tomorrow and you
still haven't gotten paid, don't start on that project. And again, people are, people tend to be
scared of like, Oh, I'm going to start
out, I want to be rude or mean or
anything like that. But it just comes down
to being professional. If you know that the jaw begins tomorrow and you
still haven't gotten half of the payment. Well, you probably
should have emailed them yesterday or
the day before, told them, Hey, I still
haven't gotten half. Just a reminder that I require half of the
payment for beginning. And what typically
happens is people, It's nothing, It's
just they forgot. They have other things to do. They have other
things going on too. They usually will just be
like, Oh, I'm so sorry. Okay. I'm gonna send that now. It's that kind of thing. But if you go down a path
where it starts getting a little shady maybe and
it's like, Oh, yeah, yeah, I'll pay you and then they don't then the day comes when you're supposed to start and they don't and you bring it up again, then maybe that's red flags and that's a whole other lesson, a whole other class maybe. But again, this lesson is
all about having your rate, having your contract,
having your terms, and sticking to it. Be professional about it. Don't be afraid to stand up
for yourself because again, if you don't do this, you'll go back to square one. Before you know it. Your work and cheap people
are pushing you around. You work for a cheap rate and then you're always
the cheap person, you're always the
discounted person you are, and that's
what you'd become. And then you get to
the point where you hate what you're doing and
that's not what you wanna do. You wanna get to the
point where you love what you're doing and you're
getting paid well for it. And you can't believe
that you're doing something you love
and making a living.
7. Attract Your Dream Client: Okay, So this next lesson is an interesting one
and it's all about finding your dream client
and working with them. So here's what that means. It's not necessarily
meaning a specific person. Like maybe you want to work with this specific celebrity
or something like that. It's really, the idea behind it, is grabbing a sheet of paper, writing down all of the
traits of your dream client. Some people get as detailed as, you know, giving them a
name, how they dress, where they shop,
that sort of thing, and building your
business around that. Now you actually
already see this a lot, whether you realize it or not. And a lot of bigger
companies do it. Sometimes it's known as
something like lifestyle brands. Let's take a company
like Nike, e.g. who is Nike's dream customer? Okay. Or their client? You could say it's
obviously athletes, young people, stylish people. They even have things
like customer makes between this much
and that much money. And that's who they mark
it towards that to they build their brand Towards
take another company, maybe someone like,
I don't know, say Ralph Lauren or J.Crew,
that kind of company. Well, they might
mark it more towards like preppy or people, you know, people who make X
amount of dollars a year. People who like
this kind of style. Maybe they like sailing, they like outdoorsy things,
that kind of thing. So that's what the concept is. What who is your client? Who do you want to work with? And on a sheet of paper, writing all of that down
and building your business, building your website,
maybe your Instagram, and creating a kind of
dream client scenario. I found that when I
started doing this, I was actually shocked at how well it worked and
how quickly it worked. Once I started kinda tweaking my marketing and
website and hordes. Feature film directors or maybe fashion and beauty
industry or maybe, you know, corporate
clients and whatever. I tweak my website too
and market towards. And even in a subtle way, I start getting that client. Again, it's connected to the finding your niche
and your specialty, but almost kind of pushing that and putting
a finer point on it. And not only having a, a passion or something
you love doing like say being a
portrait photographer. But maybe you specifically want to be a portrait
photographer for, I don't know, let's
just say athletes should throw out a
random thing out there. So if you start building your business
around something like that, maybe on your portfolio,
on your website, you start taking photos of athletes and
putting them up there, and you start developing
a style for that. Well then all of a
sudden, maybe one day, a brand like Adidas or Nike
or some newer brand might stumble upon your portfolio or your website and they'll see, oh, this person is a
portrait photographer. And I see they've taken a
lot of photos of athletes. They're perfect for us. And so you've
attracted that client. Consider a comparison,
something else like maybe you have on your website
pictures of food, pictures of restaurants,
pictures of real estate, pictures of portrait pictures
of all this random stuff. Well, if that same dream client comes to your website or your Instagram or
whatever it might be. They'll see that you do a
little bit of everything. They see that you don't
really have a specialty. And they won't see that it's
like a perfect marriage. They'll just okay, this guy is good or this girl's good,
whatever it might be. But the scenario is
completely different and you'll start attracting all kinds of different people, not your dream client, with the dream projects
that you want to work on. So I would say definitely
takes into consideration, think of your dream client and build your business around that because I think you'll be shocked at how well
it actually works.
8. Create A Portfolio: When people reach out to me, maybe there's someone
who's wanting to be an intern or they
reach out to me. You want to know if they
can work with me or come in to help in some way. The first question
I always have is do you have a portfolio
or do you have a real, It's important to
remember that people want to see your work. They care a lot less about where you went to
school or anything like that. They just want to see your work. So my bit of advice for
you in this lesson is creating a portfolio or a
real or whatever you call it, as soon as possible and
don't fall into the trap. Well, I haven't
worked on anything, so I don't have
anything to show. So how can I make
a portfolio or a real well to that, I would say, don't wait for the
work in getting a catch-22 where you can get work because you don't
have anything to show. Go out and do your
own illustration, shoot your own video, shoot your own photos, do your own drawings, whatever creative
field you're in, and put a short concise
portfolio together. And also remember that it's
about quality, not quantity. And other thing that I
see a lot is people will, they'll know that, oh, I've only worked on these three things. And so they include
those three things, those three projects
in their portfolio. But then they include
all this other stuff in their portfolio that's
bad too mediocre. And it's because they're afraid that people are going to know that they don't
have much experience. And so they filled a portfolio
with a bunch of junk. And it shows, I think it's much better to see less work
that's higher-quality. And then a ton of
work that's mediocre. Focus on quality, not quantity. Make your portfolio
as soon as you can. And I think you'll find that
the work will start coming.
9. Don't Just Have an IG!: This is gonna be a short lesson, but it's one that I
definitely wanted to bring up and that is to create a website. And the reason I say this is because it's getting
more common for people to just create an Instagram
and that's all they have. But I promise you that you
will be taken more seriously. You'll probably get paid
more and you'll get a lot more respect from
your clients if you can send them to not only
an Instagram account, which is great to have
social media accounts, but also a website. I think you have a
very different tier of client who wants a website than those who are happy just checking
out your Instagram. You can also put a lot more
information on your website. You can cater your website to the kind of clients you want. The stuff I've been
mentioning before, you can put more
information about who you are, how you work, your process, your rates, all this kind of stuff
than you would ever be able to put on any
social media account. A website is still
very important. So definitely do that. Because I think if you do, you'll be very glad you did.
10. Run Don't Walk: So this lesson is for people
that are more like me, who are the kind of very
methodical over planner, over analyzers, kind of people. What I want to say in this
lesson is to remind you to take risks and invest in
yourself, gamble on yourself. Because I think it will work out more than you think
it will, e.g. for me, I think I probably had a home studio or worked from home a lot longer
than I needed to. And because once you start, you are that kind
of methodical over planning person who
you're thinking like, Oh, should I move it out to like
a bigger studio because then I'll have additional bills
and rent and utilities. And but when I finally did, I realized it wasn't that scary. I realized that you might
be noticing a trend here, that those things that seem scary now are the
things that once you get through them actually bring you better client
and more clients. And I found that at once. I also left my home
studio and got a bigger studio
where I could bring clients and just make
it a full-blown studio. I found that my business kinda like grew much
faster after that. I'm not saying for you
to immediately do that, but I'm saying to take risks
in gamble on yourself. And there's basically
two types of people. There's those that are over
planners and very methodical. And then there's the kind
that kinda running headfirst. Don't look before you leap, move fast and break things type. And for those of you, I have the next lesson.
So I'll see you there.
11. Walk Don't Run: Alright, and now for those of you who are a little bit more adventurous and dive
in headfirst for you, I will say, to maybe think
before you leap a little bit. And even though these
traits you have are awesome and more
people should have them, and it's probably the
trait that makes you more successful than any other traits is taking risks on yourself. I have also seen that
hurt a lot of people. Situations where, you know, me working in the film industry, rather than having someone say by the gear that they need, they may be go out and
immediately by a 60,000 dollar camera package and
then immediately rent out a 5,000 square foot studio. And they have very
little experience. They have no clients. They spend all this
money on building this amazing website
and then get lawyers and do this contract
and they build this thing. And then they're just
sitting there losing money month after month after
month after month. And even though it's great to have that very
adventurous spirit, had they just kinda like pump
the breaks a little bit. Maybe bought a $10,000 camera
package and maybe worked at a smaller studio and grew
at a more organic rate. They probably would have
been a lot more successful. So if you are that type that tends to get excited and go out and do all these things, I would say definitely put a little bit more thought into it. Be a little bit more
cautious because one of your greatest strengths
can be your enemy. So for you I would
say maybe slow down a little bit and think
before you leap. And I think you'll be very successful in any sort of
business you do honestly, especially a creative business.
12. Don't Take Feedback Personally: Alright, so now we're going
to talk about feedback and a bit of advice that I will give you if you're
starting out and working with clients
for the first time, is to not take client
feedback personally. Don't take notes personally. Because you'll find out very quickly that
it's very different to create something for someone else than it is to create
something for yourself. A lot of us come from, we might come from
a background such as myself or maybe you went to school for
some sort of art, fine arts or film or photography or illustration
or whatever it might be. And you're used to being a safe space where
you make something and then you have constructive criticism in
front of the classroom. And sometimes
you're going to get pumped up a little bit more
than you probably should. Then you go out into the
world and you are taking on your first project or
your first projects and you send something for
the client to check out. And they're not rude, they're not anything like that, but they just give
you feedback and say, I don't like this,
I don't like that. Maybe change this, change this. They actually, most
of the time there'll be super nice about it and they'll just tell you what they don't like and what they
want you to change. And I have seen this a ton of times that when
you're starting out, you take things too. Personally. You maybe you'll get defensive. Maybe you'll try to over-explain why you
did a certain thing. So just remember that if you're doing work
for someone else, you have to make them happy. And in the end, it's really, what you'll
find is that you, to be successful in
a creative business, you have to be able to adjust to 1 million different styles. If this client maybe has a very bright,
colorful, happy look, you have to be able to create
that if this person has very dark blacks and whites, gritty look, you have to be
able to create for that. And you have to be very flexible because that's
really what makes you very successful
as an artist, especially as a working artist. And having a
creative business is adapting to different tastes, adapting to different clients, and not taking
things personally. If someone wants to
change something, then just change it
and be done with it. That's one thing you'll find is a lot of times these nodes will actually make you
better at what you do. And after you have a certain
amount of experience, you'll be able to take any kind of job and know
exactly what they want. And if they give notes, you'll know exactly what they're wanting to
change and you'll start working in much faster
and much more efficiently. So just remember that. Let comments and things
kind of roll off your back. And I think you'll be a
much happier person for it.
13. Having a Process is Important!: Okay, so we're
approaching the end. And in this lesson, I want to go over
something very basic that kind of dive deep into
the why you want to do this. And what I mean
by that is having an overall workflow and process and method when
you're working with a client. And to put it bluntly, it's basically like
be professional, have a professional workflow. And here's what I mean by that. I mean, I remember when I was getting started and when a lot of people
are getting started, a typical job might be, you meet someone, they say, Oh, how much do you charge? You tell them. And then
you get started on the work and you do the work and then you
get paid at the end. And everything is very
kind of word of mouth. There's no contract, there's no estimates,
there's no invoices. There's no process of any kind where you're
guiding the client into. This is what we do
first and then we do this, then we do that. Let's say a client approaches
you and they say, Hey, can you do this job for me? You might say, okay, well, can you explain a little
bit more about that job? Give me a little
bit more details. What exactly are
you looking for? And then from there you send
them in official estimate. And that's one of the
things that I'm getting at, is don't just throw out a prize and an
e-mail or via text, you want to say, okay, well, let me get an estimate together and I'll e-mail
you and estimate. Give me your email,
that kind of thing, and then you send them
an official estimates. So one reason you
want to do that is to avoid miscommunication. Maybe you've told
them, Oh, yeah, I'll do it for 500 bucks
or something like that. Then they just
forget or something. Maybe they asked another
person for the same job and that person said 300 and they confused you
with that person. And basically, if you
don't have something like an official
estimate and writing, things can get very messy. That you want to send a
professional estimate and then they approve that
estimate and then you Okay. Here's my contract,
Here's the terms, part of the payment upfront. And then in the second payment, this point in the
third payment and this point and all your
terms, they sign that. Then after that, you send the invoice for the first
part of the payment. Again, in official
invoice is a lot more professional and people
will take you much more seriously than if
you just e-mail someone, Hey, can you send me
part of the payment, it's this much and then it just gets the most confusing
things get lost in the mix, things get lost in emails. But having a
professional invoicing, estimating service is
a much more helpful, much more professional to keep clear communication
about everything. And then you send
out an invoice, you get paid for that invoice, they sign the contract, and then you get started. And then the next landmark comes and you get
paid for that part. And that's what
you want to have. As you want to keep
everything heavier process, have your workflow, keep
everything professional. With clear communication. You don't want to do the thing like I
mentioned originally, that a lot of people getting
started do where they simply thoracic array the
other pairs like okay, cool. And then you get started and maybe you text
them like, Hey, can you send me part of
the payment or email them and then just it's just
not a very good way to work. And the benefits of doing
all of that is one, you have a record of everything to your taken more seriously. Three, it's just more professional and you're
much more likely to have return clients when you work
that way and they're more likely to refer people to
you when you work that way. Especially for
higher end clients. They have bigger
jumps, better jobs, jobs that will look
better on your portfolio, on your website,
jobs that pay more. People like to refer,
workers like that. So that's my bit of advice
to you, is do that, get used to working that way and I think your life will be way easier working with
all sorts of clients.
14. Why Freelancers Fail: Okay, so you've
made it this far. Here's the last lesson, the last bit of
advice that I'll give you when starting a
creative business. And that is why freelancers or a creative
business will fail. And what I've seen in my
experience is the ones, the businesses who
fail are honestly the ones who are
not professional. Don't communicate
well with clients. They charge too little. They get defensive
when it comes to client feedback or any
notes they might receive. And it's just all of these
things come together. Also. They try to grow too fast. What happens is they end up in this vicious cycle
where they go out, they buy all this
expensive gear. They end up in this vicious
cycle where they're dealing with clients who don't want
to pay you a full rate, they end up in this
bubble where they did their first job really
cheap or they did it for free. And then that person
recommended someone to you and they are paying
you very little. And then the next client
is paying very little. And you go out and you
overspend on gear, and then you're in debt,
you're not making much money. And this is only
sustainable for so long. And then on top of that, maybe you don't have
a clear workflow, you don't communicate, you'd
also don't have a contract. This might sound like a
lot of craziness to you, but a lot of people
work this way. They do work for way too little. They work way too long on it. They don't have a contract, they don't send
estimates are invoices. And they spent too much
on gear and equipment, and then they're overworked, they're underpaid,
they get grumpy. They get to the point
where they start hating. They start taking they start hating the clients
that they're working with. They start grabbing
any job because they're charging so little that they then have
to take every job. You see, then they're doing all this work that
they don't like it, I'm not happy with. And then before, you know, a year goes by, two years goes by where
they're just kinda sick of it. And then they get
a nine to five, they quit. That's
the end of that. So that's my last tip for you, is to go through the steps that have gone
through, do follow them. It's easy to, like I said, have a rate, have a contract, but a lot of it has to do with
sticking up for yourself, following through
with your rate, following through
with your contract, knowing what you're
worth doing good work, bringing in clients
that you want to work with and only those that
you want to work with. So there you go. That's the last lesson. Hopefully that was
helpful and we have one last final thoughts
coming up next. So I'll see you there.
15. What's Next?: Okay, so that's the class. I really hope that you
got a lot out of it. I really loved making
this class and I really hope that it helps you go out. Start your own career, your own freelance,
your creative business. And hopefully what you learned in this class will help
you along the way. Definitely comment down below in the class discussion any
questions you might have. And hopefully you
got a chance to do the class project and took
advantage of the notes in all of the
different documents that are created for you. Do leave a review. I always love hearing
what you have to say. Thanks again, and
I'll see you all.
Fred Trevino, DP/Colorist & Top Teacher
