The value of making contracts is huge.
The value of making contracts for creatives,
freelancers, entrepreneurs, different people
who are contracting with other businesses,
friends, family, it's huge.
And I can't repeat that enough.
Welcome back to another episode of the Nick amp Podcast.
This is episode 28.
And today we're talking about the value
of making contracts and why you should make one,
even if it's with a friend or somebody you know,
and not just rely on a handshake.
So first and foremost, this is not legal advice.
This is just me talking about my own experiences
and what I've encountered when I was first starting out
and I didn't make a contract and I
thought that I was just friends with someone
and then they would pay me, et cetera, et cetera.
So the first and most important thing
to creating a contract is it protects you.
It protects yourself in court.
It's written proof that both parties agreed
to an agreement.
And when you have it in writing, it's
more likely to be in your favor or just in both parties'
favors and there's no really any way getting around it.
And with that being said, yes, oral agreements
are technically contracts, but it's very, very hard
to prove when someone orally confirmed an agreement
and then you go and say, hey, you said this,
and then they can easily go say, no, I didn't say that.
And then who are they going to believe?
Always get your contracts in writing.
Always get a signature on it and make sure
that they agree to it on writing.
That's just the end of that.
I mean, it sounds pretty straightforward, and it is.
I mean, you don't want to be that person where
you agree to a $5,000, $10,000, $20,000 job with a brand
and you go on a verbal agreement.
Yeah, we'll pay you this much if you give me 20, 30 photos
and we'll just pay you at the end.
We'll sort all the information out at the end.
You do not want to do that because that does not
guarantee you're going to get paid.
I've heard terrible, terrible stories of creators, creatives,
photographers, filmmakers, entrepreneurs not getting paid
because they didn't get in writing.
Protect yourself.
Just protect yourself.
I don't care if it's with a friend.
I don't care if it's with a family member.
Have a contract written out.
The second reason why there's so much value in having a contract
as a creative freelancer is to have a clear set of expectations
of what the deliverables are.
Now, if you're listening to this,
you might have already experienced this once or twice
and you deliver them, let's say, 10 finished photos.
You deliver them a one-minute video clip,
a three-minute video clip, and then they ask,
where are the raws?
Can I get the raws?
Can I get the raw video clips?
Can I get the raw photos?
And specifically, if you have that in the contract,
I do not deliver raw photos.
I do not deliver raw video clips.
You can get that out of the way at the get-go.
And you could even point it out to the client
before you even start the project.
This is how it's going to go.
This is what's going to happen.
Here it is in writing.
And when you sign to this, you're
agreeing that you will not get those.
Now, whether you're going to deliver the raws or raw clips
is your choice in what you decide to do.
I know if it's with a client that I'm close with,
I'll charge them an extra fee for raw video clips.
But other than that, make sure you
have your deliverables written out very clearly
on what you're going to deliver.
I literally, you literally say deliverables,
and then you list out what you're going to give them.
It can't get any more clear than that,
because there's no other questions
at the end of the thing, at the end of the contract,
or even during the project.
And they say, oh, can you also send me a few photos?
Oh, sorry, that's not in the contract.
We can add it on for this amount of money.
And then it's up to them if they want to pay that extra fee,
pay that extra money to pay for those add-ons.
But don't ever do anything for free if it's not
in the contract, because there's probably
been times where clients are taking advantage
of you thinking they can just get a lot of free work out
of you.
Your work has value.
Now another one is clear terms of usage rights.
Usage rights.
OK, what's usage rights?
So a brand, they ask you to take photos of their camera.
You send them over 10 photos.
More than likely, they're going to share those photos
on social media, maybe put them on big print,
put them on a billboard, use them for a commercial.
And with that being said, they're
going to make money off of your photos.
So having a clear, clear in writing
of how they could use your photos,
you need to put how can you use my photos.
And maybe you say, it's OK to use photos
for recreational use, personal use only.
And if you use them for paid purposes to give money back,
then you will need to pay me this much money, XYZ, and so on
and so on.
Usage rights is a huge one, because a lot of people,
they do not charge for usage rights starting out.
A lot of creatives don't realize that their work has
a lot more value than they know.
They're using your assets.
They're going to have them forever.
Make sure you have it in writing how they can use your digital
assets, whether it's videos, photos, graphic art.
Another one is contracts have so much value
is because of the clear expectations
of what the client provides.
Interesting, right?
So us, the freelancers, the creatives, the business
entrepreneurs, we're here to serve them.
But sometimes there are certain things
that the client needs to provide.
And maybe you have it in writing.
The client will give me, let's say Nick,
the client will give Nick a ride to all locations.
The client will provide the food.
When we take the photos of the food photography,
the client will provide a memory card.
The client will buy a memory card
so that me, the filmmaker, can put the finished files
onto the memory card.
And if they decide not to buy the memory card
and provide it, I will buy the memory card.
I'll buy the memory card.
And I'll charge an extra fee for going out of my way
to buy it and provide it.
So make sure you have an expectation of what
the client is going to provide, what they're needed to do.
And as you're doing this contract
and as you're writing it, go over it with them.
Highlight portions.
Don't try to be sneaky.
Be honest, open about it.
What's on the contract?
And number five, how will you receive payment?
Huge portion of the value of contracts.
Maybe you want to receive payment by check.
Maybe you want to receive payment by electric wire.
Maybe you want to receive payment by cash.
Whatever it is.
Have it in writing.
How do you want to receive payment?
Are you charging an upfront cost?
Are you charging a deposit?
Are you charging 50% before you even start production?
And if that's being said, will they get a deposit back
if they decide to cancel with you,
even though they made a deposit?
Those are decisions for you to make.
Those are some decisions.
And do you take net 30 or do you take payment
right after you deliver the video, the photos?
Is it immediate payment or are you doing net 30?
Have it in contract.
Have it in writing.
Have how you're gonna get paid.
Have the terms of do you do refunds?
And that brings us to number six.
Do you charge for rescheduling
within a certain amount of hours?
Let's say client decides they want to reschedule
within 48 hours.
That's money that you're losing.
That's money that you're losing
because you put that calendar date there,
you reserved it for them and they cancel on it.
Do you have a rescheduling fee?
Do you have a certain type of fee?
Are you gonna put that in writing?
If you have these certain standard order procedures,
put it in the contract.
Put it there.
Put everything, everything there.
It'll make the project go so much smoother
because you can always have it as a point of reference.
They have their own copy, you have your own copy.
Please refer to the contract as right here.
If you reschedule in 48 hours, this is what will happen.
And the last point of why you need to value contracts,
why you need to have them is,
let's say you're a video editor and you do revisions.
You revise the edit that you sent them.
You revise the video and they ask you for,
let's say 50 revisions.
Now that's a lot, right?
And yes, we're supposed to serve the client
and we're here to help them out
and help them get their vision to life,
bring their vision to life.
Now you can say, hey, I will offer five revisions
within a two week period after I deliver the video.
And you can put that in writing.
Now, whatever that is for you, whatever you deem reasonable,
whatever you think that is the adequate amount of revisions
within a certain timeframe, you can put that in writing.
And why do I even say that is because your time is valuable
and I'm sure you don't want to be making revisions
for six months, depending on the project, right?
Some projects are bigger than others.
Use your best judgment.
And this is why I say contracts have a lot of value.
There's been some instances where I didn't write a contract.
I thought we were friends, I thought we were close.
And at the end of the project,
they asked where certain assets were.
And I said, you didn't ask for those.
And they said, what do you mean?
You didn't ask for those, we told you.
And then it was just arguing back and forth.
He said, she said this, I said this.
I didn't agree to giving you those.
And then they said, yes, you did.
Why would we tell you to do this then?
Put it in writing, I don't care if it's with a friend,
family, client, a client you've known for a long time.
It just clears up so much confusion
and protects yourself, protects the client,
makes sure it makes everything out there in the open.
And with that being said,
I hope you took some value in this.
I just wanted to make a quick little episode
on why you should be valuing contracts
as a freelancer, photographer, creative entrepreneur,
whatever business you're in.
This doesn't just apply to the creative field.
There's a lot of other freelancers,
a lot of other contractors out there.
You should be having contracts.
You should be valuing them, protecting yourself.
And again, this is not legal advice.
This is just talking from my own experience.
I really appreciate you listening to this episode.
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And I hope you have a good one
and I'll talk to you next week.
Love you guys.