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The value of making contracts is huge.

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The value of making contracts for creatives,

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freelancers, entrepreneurs, different people

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who are contracting with other businesses,

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friends, family, it's huge.

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And I can't repeat that enough.

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Welcome back to another episode of the Nick amp Podcast.

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This is episode 28.

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And today we're talking about the value

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of making contracts and why you should make one,

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even if it's with a friend or somebody you know,

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and not just rely on a handshake.

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So first and foremost, this is not legal advice.

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This is just me talking about my own experiences

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and what I've encountered when I was first starting out

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and I didn't make a contract and I

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thought that I was just friends with someone

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and then they would pay me, et cetera, et cetera.

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So the first and most important thing

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to creating a contract is it protects you.

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It protects yourself in court.

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It's written proof that both parties agreed

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to an agreement.

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And when you have it in writing, it's

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more likely to be in your favor or just in both parties'

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favors and there's no really any way getting around it.

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And with that being said, yes, oral agreements

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are technically contracts, but it's very, very hard

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to prove when someone orally confirmed an agreement

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and then you go and say, hey, you said this,

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and then they can easily go say, no, I didn't say that.

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And then who are they going to believe?

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Always get your contracts in writing.

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Always get a signature on it and make sure

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that they agree to it on writing.

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That's just the end of that.

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I mean, it sounds pretty straightforward, and it is.

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I mean, you don't want to be that person where

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you agree to a $5,000, $10,000, $20,000 job with a brand

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and you go on a verbal agreement.

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Yeah, we'll pay you this much if you give me 20, 30 photos

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and we'll just pay you at the end.

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We'll sort all the information out at the end.

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You do not want to do that because that does not

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guarantee you're going to get paid.

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I've heard terrible, terrible stories of creators, creatives,

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photographers, filmmakers, entrepreneurs not getting paid

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because they didn't get in writing.

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Protect yourself.

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Just protect yourself.

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I don't care if it's with a friend.

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I don't care if it's with a family member.

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Have a contract written out.

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The second reason why there's so much value in having a contract

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as a creative freelancer is to have a clear set of expectations

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of what the deliverables are.

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Now, if you're listening to this,

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you might have already experienced this once or twice

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and you deliver them, let's say, 10 finished photos.

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You deliver them a one-minute video clip,

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a three-minute video clip, and then they ask,

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where are the raws?

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Can I get the raws?

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Can I get the raw video clips?

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Can I get the raw photos?

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And specifically, if you have that in the contract,

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I do not deliver raw photos.

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I do not deliver raw video clips.

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You can get that out of the way at the get-go.

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And you could even point it out to the client

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before you even start the project.

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This is how it's going to go.

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This is what's going to happen.

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Here it is in writing.

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And when you sign to this, you're

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agreeing that you will not get those.

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Now, whether you're going to deliver the raws or raw clips

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is your choice in what you decide to do.

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I know if it's with a client that I'm close with,

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I'll charge them an extra fee for raw video clips.

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But other than that, make sure you

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have your deliverables written out very clearly

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on what you're going to deliver.

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I literally, you literally say deliverables,

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and then you list out what you're going to give them.

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It can't get any more clear than that,

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because there's no other questions

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at the end of the thing, at the end of the contract,

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or even during the project.

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And they say, oh, can you also send me a few photos?

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Oh, sorry, that's not in the contract.

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We can add it on for this amount of money.

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And then it's up to them if they want to pay that extra fee,

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pay that extra money to pay for those add-ons.

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But don't ever do anything for free if it's not

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in the contract, because there's probably

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been times where clients are taking advantage

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of you thinking they can just get a lot of free work out

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of you.

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Your work has value.

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Your work has value.

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Now another one is clear terms of usage rights.

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Usage rights.

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OK, what's usage rights?

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So a brand, they ask you to take photos of their camera.

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You send them over 10 photos.

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More than likely, they're going to share those photos

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on social media, maybe put them on big print,

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put them on a billboard, use them for a commercial.

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And with that being said, they're

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going to make money off of your photos.

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So having a clear, clear in writing

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of how they could use your photos,

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you need to put how can you use my photos.

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And maybe you say, it's OK to use photos

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for recreational use, personal use only.

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And if you use them for paid purposes to give money back,

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then you will need to pay me this much money, XYZ, and so on

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and so on.

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Usage rights is a huge one, because a lot of people,

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they do not charge for usage rights starting out.

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A lot of creatives don't realize that their work has

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a lot more value than they know.

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They're using your assets.

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They're going to have them forever.

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Make sure you have it in writing how they can use your digital

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assets, whether it's videos, photos, graphic art.

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Another one is contracts have so much value

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is because of the clear expectations

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of what the client provides.

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Interesting, right?

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So us, the freelancers, the creatives, the business

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entrepreneurs, we're here to serve them.

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But sometimes there are certain things

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that the client needs to provide.

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And maybe you have it in writing.

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The client will give me, let's say Nick,

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the client will give Nick a ride to all locations.

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The client will provide the food.

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When we take the photos of the food photography,

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the client will provide a memory card.

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The client will buy a memory card

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so that me, the filmmaker, can put the finished files

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onto the memory card.

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And if they decide not to buy the memory card

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and provide it, I will buy the memory card.

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I'll buy the memory card.

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And I'll charge an extra fee for going out of my way

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to buy it and provide it.

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So make sure you have an expectation of what

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the client is going to provide, what they're needed to do.

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And as you're doing this contract

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and as you're writing it, go over it with them.

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Highlight portions.

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Don't try to be sneaky.

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Don't try to be sneaky.

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Be honest, open about it.

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What's on the contract?

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And number five, how will you receive payment?

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Huge portion of the value of contracts.

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Maybe you want to receive payment by check.

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Maybe you want to receive payment by electric wire.

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Maybe you want to receive payment by cash.

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Whatever it is.

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Have it in writing.

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How do you want to receive payment?

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Are you charging an upfront cost?

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Are you charging a deposit?

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Are you charging 50% before you even start production?

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And if that's being said, will they get a deposit back

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if they decide to cancel with you,

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even though they made a deposit?

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Those are decisions for you to make.

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Those are some decisions.

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And do you take net 30 or do you take payment

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right after you deliver the video, the photos?

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Is it immediate payment or are you doing net 30?

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Have it in contract.

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Have it in writing.

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Have how you're gonna get paid.

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Have the terms of do you do refunds?

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And that brings us to number six.

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Do you charge for rescheduling

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within a certain amount of hours?

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Let's say client decides they want to reschedule

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within 48 hours.

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That's money that you're losing.

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That's money that you're losing

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because you put that calendar date there,

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you reserved it for them and they cancel on it.

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Do you have a rescheduling fee?

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Do you have a certain type of fee?

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Are you gonna put that in writing?

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If you have these certain standard order procedures,

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put it in the contract.

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Put it there.

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Put everything, everything there.

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It'll make the project go so much smoother

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because you can always have it as a point of reference.

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They have their own copy, you have your own copy.

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Please refer to the contract as right here.

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If you reschedule in 48 hours, this is what will happen.

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And the last point of why you need to value contracts,

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why you need to have them is,

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let's say you're a video editor and you do revisions.

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You revise the edit that you sent them.

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You revise the video and they ask you for,

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let's say 50 revisions.

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Now that's a lot, right?

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And yes, we're supposed to serve the client

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and we're here to help them out

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and help them get their vision to life,

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bring their vision to life.

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Now you can say, hey, I will offer five revisions

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within a two week period after I deliver the video.

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And you can put that in writing.

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Now, whatever that is for you, whatever you deem reasonable,

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whatever you think that is the adequate amount of revisions

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within a certain timeframe, you can put that in writing.

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And why do I even say that is because your time is valuable

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and I'm sure you don't want to be making revisions

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for six months, depending on the project, right?

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Some projects are bigger than others.

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Use your best judgment.

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And this is why I say contracts have a lot of value.

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There's been some instances where I didn't write a contract.

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I thought we were friends, I thought we were close.

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And at the end of the project,

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they asked where certain assets were.

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And I said, you didn't ask for those.

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And they said, what do you mean?

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You didn't ask for those, we told you.

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And then it was just arguing back and forth.

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He said, she said this, I said this.

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I didn't agree to giving you those.

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And then they said, yes, you did.

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Why would we tell you to do this then?

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Put it in writing, I don't care if it's with a friend,

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family, client, a client you've known for a long time.

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It just clears up so much confusion

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and protects yourself, protects the client,

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makes sure it makes everything out there in the open.

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And with that being said,

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I hope you took some value in this.

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I just wanted to make a quick little episode

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on why you should be valuing contracts

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as a freelancer, photographer, creative entrepreneur,

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whatever business you're in.

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This doesn't just apply to the creative field.

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There's a lot of other freelancers,

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a lot of other contractors out there.

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You should be having contracts.

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You should be valuing them, protecting yourself.

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And again, this is not legal advice.

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This is just talking from my own experience.

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I really appreciate you listening to this episode.

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And if you're watching this on YouTube,

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go ahead and leave us a subscribe button,

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go ahead and leave us a comment,

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see what else you want us to talk about,

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what guests you want us to have on, what kind on social media,

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follow the stories, watch the DM you bet a certain question.

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It's at the Nick AMP.

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If you're listening on the streaming platforms,

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Spotify, Apple Music, any of those good ones,

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go ahead and leave us a five-star review.

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It helps us get out there more, reach more people.

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And I hope you have a good one

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and I'll talk to you next week.

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Love you guys.