12
Bad Economy or Good Opportunity
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I recently had a meeting with a very successful businessman who happens to be my Uncle as well. It’s funny how sometimes when you know someone through your family, you don’t get the full brunt of their business expertise till you see them in that role. In my recent meeting with him, he enlightened my perspective on the current times, and I thought I would share that with you.
My Uncle had always followed our company’s path from a distant, and finally, their was an opportunity for us to get together on a business venture. However, regardless of that, the initial meeting alone really opened up my eyes to the current economic climate.
Lately, times have been rough around the world, especially for creatives. More so than ever before, a creative must be at the top of their game in order to stand out from the masses playing around with everything from Photoshop to Final Cut Pro. Not only that, but because of the economic shift, we now are required to do more, and forced at times to charge less in order to stay competitive. It can seem like an endless struggle at times.
No Excuse!
So we are in a bad economy and that is to blame, right? During the meeting, I realized that all that is, is an excuse. It’s an excuse to assume that because things are not going well in the world, that means it is okay for them not to go well for us. The truth is, there has never been a better time to take advantage of the changes the world is going through.
My uncle is right on top of that. He is currently running three separate big businesses, including being chairman of a huge hospital in the area. What he sees when he looks at the modern era is a time ripe with opportunity. More so than ever before, businesses are forced to change the way they have always done things. Advertising is morphing, Media technology is growing, and the way people interact has changed as well.
Finding a Way
With all these changes, comes a bit of uncertainty, but also a great opportunity to be a leader of that change. As the next generation steps up, why can’t we take charge of the direction of that change? Why can’t we be the ones that figure out solutions to help these businesses thrive once again? In all honesty, we can, if we choose to.
After the meeting, my mind was refreshed, my attitude adjusted, and my focus more on point than ever. If you are out there, wondering how to get ahead in your career, struggling through the day to day battle to stand out, then hopefully this message will help you as it has helped me.
I think the old saying goes, ‘Where there is a will, there is a way.’ Don’t let the doom and gloom in the news destroy that will. Just think of this way. There are more people out there struggling in business, which means, they are more people in need of our help than ever before.
11
3 Adjustments to Keep Balanced As A Creative Artist
As a professional music producer, keeping your sanity in this crazy digital media age can be an exhausting task. In addition, making real money in this game, can prove to be even more daunting, and if you don’t take the appropriate steps to keep your vision and musical agenda in focus, you may find yourself putting in way more unnecessary work than you have to and enivitably feel burnt out. Over the past few years, I have found some small adjustments that have proved to be beneficial to my creative “headspace” and hopefully you find some relevance for your situations as well.
Being Selective with your Creative Time
Since I started my production company, the ISH Productions, my initial goal was to make music that I enjoyed, and inevitably turn that music into a money making career that would eventually put food on my table and pay my bills. Starting out, I worked on everything I could get my hands on. From hip hop production and beatmaking, recording up and coming artists/ band demos, to scoring music for commercials, independent films, and tv shows.
Basically, If there was any amount of money involved… I was available. I felt like if I turned down even the most meager money making opportunity, I wasn’t being a smart business man, and as long as I kept on making at least a little bit of money, I would eventually have a substantial stash of capital to work on those “bigger” projects that I always wanted to eventually. I came to find out though, that this business model wasn’t necessarily the most beneficial way to go about making that real money, because after all was said and done, I was spending an extraordinary amount of time working on projects for money way below my standards, and was feeling drained for all the hard work I was putting in for below minimum wage.
The way I changed this was to redirect my focus and revisit my intentions in the first place about the music that I wanted to be a part of, and stopped worrying about the money aspect of it all. I mean, I still needed money to keep my studio afloat, but I became way more selective of the projects I took on and the clients I chose to work with. I started setting my standards a little bit higher, and began utilizing the time that I would have spent on unfulfilling/underpaid projects, on more beneficial endeavors like marketing my own business and music that I was proud to show off. Eventually this lead to a catalogue of material that was based more on quality and musical integrity, which eventually attracted clients that were willing to pay me money that was actually worth my time.
Do I consistently follow these standards all of the time? No. Depending on the nature of a project, or the benefits I may get out of it, I do adjust during some of the “slower” months, but I try to enforce them as much as possible.
Some of my standards are as follows
•No speculative deals – These “spec” situations, in my own personal experience, have never really amounted to anything substantial. Most of the time if a client tells you that they don’t have money upfront and is promising you money on the back end of a deal, chances are they aren’t putting a lot of effort in promoting there music in the first place, and your likelihood of making any money back is slim. I feel like, unless the artist is someone you truly believe in and has a sound so special that you just cant turn it down, your time is probably better served elsewhere.
•Get it in writing – Some of the more annoying projects that I have been a part of stemmed from a lack of communication. When I was just starting out, I always had this stigma that if I hit a client with a contract or paperwork of any sort it would ruin the creative “vibe” and would come off as too professional too quickly. After all as a producer, it is important to have a positive relationship with an artist to truly be creative and free. But I learned, at times the hard way, that not discussing certain aspects of a project at the jump, actually created more of an ill vibe than if I had just put my expectations in writing and brought them to the table before any production even started. Having contracts and preliminary consultations about artist/producer expectations is a great way to save some headaches down the road.
•Price Menu – I have found it beneficial to have my standard pricing for different types of sessions already mapped out, so I am not taken by surprise. Think of different package deals that you have come across in the past or anticipate in the future. For example, your hourly rate for recording vocals may be different if an artist wants to also lease or buy an instrumental for you. Plus these package deals may also entice clients to spend more money and time with you without feeling like they are getting ripped off.
Creating “Sacred” Space
As a music producer, your studio, whether it be in your home or at another location, should feel like an extension of you. Where other areas of your life may be chaotic and disorganized, your studio should be clutter free and represent the ideal environment to get those creative juices flowing. It should be the place you go to escape all of the other madness.
Recently, I read an article in Tape Op magazine that mentioned how in India, the only places that you are required to take off your shoes were at religious ceremonies/locations and in music studios, due to the fact that these were considered the holiest of places. I found that quite interesting and started to really analyze the way I situated my creative space. Now I’m not saying that I take my shoes off before I lay down some drums, but I do recognize the sanctity and beauty in the place where I create my music, and try and create an energy that reflects this.
Some things that may help create this type of energy may be the following:
Remove things in your studio that just seem to take up space and don’t really have anything to do with the creative process i/e: Papers, boxes, empty crates, broken equipment, etc. Eliminating this type of clutter can make your creative space feel more open and inviting. Have things on hand to set the appropriate moods for certain sessions. Dim lighting, candles, incense, etc. are great ways to spark the creative senses and spice up the session.
Keep your business out of the studio. The majority of the time “business” talk is the antithesis of the creative vibe. Contracts, legal banter, and even brainstorming sessions on upcoming projects can cloud the area in which you make music. Keep your studio space strictly for working on music. This separation has enabled my studio to really become that place of refuge.
Forming the Right “Band” of People
Before making music on my own, I was fortunate enough to grow up playing in bands. One of the more successful bands that I was a part of, Philip’s Head, taught me a lot of things about the importance of working with other like minded musicians and creative people. There was a real family vibe to our creative processes, bouncing ideas off of each other, testing them out, and having fun in the interim. This friendly and inspiring creative atmosphere didn’t come immediately though. We went through a bunch of different musicians and lineup changes trying to find that perfect “fit.”
Sure we were looking for talented musicians first and foremost, but the right fit had more to do with the interaction between all of the members of the band, and less to do with how skilled you were on your own. Musicians usually have an easy way to determine the “connection” between other musicians, and practice it regularly. The process is called “jamming.” Jamming is an opportunity for a group of musicians to grab their instruments, plug them in, and just play. Improvising and vibe-ing off of one another. The key component of a good jam session is listening. You could be the most gifted musician in the world, but if you can’t put your ego aside and listen to other members’ creative contributions, you will undoubtedly fail as a band.
This give and take mentality also hold true in the production realm of things. As a producer, you are almost undoubtedly spending tons of time on your music, which leaves very little time to promote, market and manage your career as a music salesman. In this business, teams are an essential element to your movement. Reaching out to some friends or even “jamming” with other producers and creative teams can help you better manage your time and help out on those bigger projects you keep putting off.
My affiliation with the company Pixel Mobb is an example of how the right creative minds can help execute those bigger projects that you wish to tackle without losing your mind. For example, when I am working on music for specific artist now, I can reach out to my “band,” and ask for assistance in putting together a video package, developing album art, or designing a website.
On the flipside, they also know they can call on me to create voice-overs for commercial they are working on, or develop a custom jingle or instrumental for their prospective clients. This enables the team to create more quality custom projects for clients, and cross promote to alternative markets that would almost be impossible to do without the right team.
In conclusion, your ability to stick to your standards, setting up a creative workspace that works for you, and reaching out to other creative people to share in your goals, can help you achieve more in the long run, even if it takes a few “jam” sessions to get it right.
Become a fan on Facebook of Frank G’s the Ish Productions or follow him on Twitter.
5
Pay The Writer, or Anyone Else Who Works for You
This is my first post. I will keep it short and sweet. Some may call me a visionary, some call me crazy. Some people will say I am a wonderful warm hearted loving caring individual, some may call me a self absorbed abrasive asshole. Either way. They are probably wrong, and right.
Value is measured in many ways. Not just monetarily, not just time based also in intangibles. That is something you can’t always prove but you know it works, we all know it works. Until you don’t have it. For example we don’t know air is around us until it is removed from us and we gasp heavily at that realization. If you are a creative of some type at some point someone will question your price, your worth and your value. If they are making money directly or indirectly and you have a hand in it. You are valuable. Most wouldn’t go a moment without pay. Why should you? Never forget that. Charge what you are worth, it is your job to supply the utmost in superior work, it is also your job to find clients who understand this and willing to pay for it. Nothing more nothing less.
“It can’t be that expensive, it only took you 15 minutes. Ya, it took my 7 years to figure out how to do it in 15 minutes.” A recent quote I read somewhere on the net.
Have a wonderful life now. Always do your best no matter what.
Harlan Ellison (who wrote for Star Trek, the Outer Limits, Route 66 and so many more) puts it in total perspective for everyone. An old video but still very relevant.
Image on Flickr by Gierszewski
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1
Artists Make Results, Results Make Artists
Whether a martial artist, cartoon scribbler, baseball player, or anything in between, the bottom line in everything we do in life is that we are judged on our results.
No one cares what the budget was, what issues we ran into, what obstacles we overcame. None of it. Simply put, everyone judges each other on the results they produce. If you hit a lot of home runs, you are a home run hitter. If you sell a lot of deals, you are a great salesman. It becomes a life resume per se.
We are what we Produce
For creatives like us, we are in a unique position. Usually, when it comes down to it, we have more control over our results then we’d like to admit. Sure, clients can be naive, and budgets can be downright insulting, but the truth is, at the end of the day, we still have results.
We have found that these results are all that matter. Artists make results, and the results make the artist. Simple as that. So, painstakingly at times, we have ignored the constraints of a budget, our personal sanity, and our emotional loved ones. We do this because we want the best results possible. We know that good results are worth the effort, cause the return on the investment is well worth the initial sacrifice.
Free Work
No one likes to work for free. No one likes to feel like they are always giving and never recouping anything in return. For a creative though, such is life. No one will believe you can do anything unless you show them. No one wants to hear you talk about your talent. They want to see it with their own eyes. Due to this, creatives are forced to make a choice between a rock and a hard place. Work well below your worth, or work on your own dime, and then hope what you create can bring in more clients.
For those contemplating if doing free work is okay, here is my take. I have done a bunch of ‘free work’ over time. Below is an example of a free project we did, and what resulted from it.
TV Commercial Production
Advanced Martial Arts Commercial – When we first decided we wanted to get into commercial production, the obvious issue was having a commercial to show for it. So I went to my closest resource, my jiu jitsu school. I told my instructor, and great friend, Brian that we wanted to make him a free commercial, as long as he would air it. He knew of my video work, so he was on board right away. Not too hard to get free work I must say. We produced the commercial, our first, and it took weeks. It was our first foray into greenscreen, and my partners very first video shoot. However, after a month of ups and downs, we had something to be proud of. Since then, here is what resulted from that project.
- Performance Jiu Jitsu – Brian’s instructor saw the commercial and wanted one.
- Elite Martial Arts – saw the commercial and wanted one.
- Elijah BJJ – saw the commercial and wanted one.
Not only that, but Elite Martial arts also became a great client for us. We started to handle their print work, website redesign, and were introduced to their entire network of schools as well. You can say Martial Arts has become a niche for us.
All from one free commercial.
Go All Out
The other lesson about doing free work is to understand what it means. It does not mean you should half ass it to get it done cause it’s free. That is not only wasting the client’s time, it is wasting your own. If you are not getting compensated monetarily, then you must get compensated by getting a great piece of work.
A great example of this, continuing off our last example, is Elite Martial Arts. A year after their commercial, because of the work they brought, we wound up doing another free commercial for them. We could have made it easy on ourselves, but we did not. Instead, we took it to the next level. If it was going to be free, it had to be our best.
We went in with the RED ONE package having worked out a deal to get that paid for at a ridiculously low cost to the owner. Each of the people in on the project were determined to get a great show piece out of it. We filmed in a high frame rate to slow things down, and tried to mix up the angles. Check out the results of our rough, soundless cut…
Now, any Jiu Jitsu school on earth would be happy with that for free. All we needed was to add sound, and titles. However, we wanted to go the extra mile. So instead, we decided to really go all out in post, playing with time remapping, color grading, and adding in motion 3D titles to spice it up.
Here are the final results…
Results make Artists
Now which one would you rather have as your ‘free work’? Do you think it helps to have an okay piece that you can tell everyone you did for free? Or do you think it helps to have a sick showpiece to get you more work in the future?
The bottom line is, free or not, it’s the results that will make who you are. So no matter the sacrifice, in the beginning, it is up to the artists to make results. Simple as that. Go all out, and make results. Then take what you learn and make more results. Don’t worry about the budgets, time, and all of that jazz. That is for later. For now, it is time to build a portfolio and reputation you can be proud of.
Everything else will follow.
Follow Pixel Mobb on twitter, or become a fan on facebook.
8
Picking the Right Clients for Your Creative Business
Picking the right clients can be a key part of your success as a creative business. When starting out, a creative business will be tempted to take whatever work they can get. However, we have learned picking the right clients can make all the difference in your long term success.
Since Pixel Mobb was formed a few years ago, we have gone through many mini-transformations in relation to this. I feel like this is normal for a company with such versatile talent. Truth be told, we could ‘make money’ doing a lot of things, however Pixel Mobb was formed to buck the old style of thinking that businesses are successful by focusing on making money. We are focused on us.
Now that sounds kind of funny when you say it. I mean, why on Earth would people open a business if they didn’t want to focus on making money?
We believed focusing on doing what we loved with all our passion, rather than how to make money, would eventually pay off. Well, during tough times, that thinking lead to many heated discussions about personal passions, paying bills, which clients to go after, and so forth.
The problem we seemed to have was focus. We were focused on doing what we love to the best of our ability. That means doing more than the average company, and not worrying so much about profit as much as the quality of the production.
However, we were also focused on making a living, and that means earning enough profit to eat and live comfortably. After trying many different directions, and reading many great articles from Freelance Switch on the topic, we found what works best for us as a passionate creative company. Hopefully, this helps you hold out for the right clients for your creative business.
For us, it came down to a battle of small clients vs. no clients. Every big budget client who came to us was no problem. We produced, they paid, and each was more than satisfied. The issues for our creative company tended to pop up when money was tight, and the budgets were not there.
Small clients
When money is tight, every job seems enticing from an accounting perspective. For example, a simple website (re)design can start at $5-6k and up for 3-4 layouts. In order for us to do the job to the best of our ability, that is the budget required to cover all the hours of work. Others may charge less, or more, but that does not matter. What matters is what WE need.
Many times a friend, or client, came to us with a budget of around $2500 for a website. When money is tight, you start to ask yourself, ‘Can we get it done for that price and still make some money?’
Of course. We do the majority of work in house, and can certainly do that and still make ‘some’ money. ‘Making some money’ is better than ‘making no money’ we assumed. When you look at it from that perspective, it seems like a no brainer. However, we learned the hard way that that is the wrong approach.
All of the clients we ‘helped out’ never took it as such. They expected the $6k+ style websites our portfolio is filled with, and why shouldn’t they? They did not think, hey, we only paid half, so we are going to give them a break. Nope, to them, they paid and we accepted to perform our service. Some would demand revision after revision, some would pay late, and some would complain about the ‘lack of service’ when we were too busy to take phone call after phone call for FREE.
After the project was done, we had earned little to no money, spent countless hours designing, developing, testing, revising, filling content, etc., and still did not have a happy client. On top of that, we also had nothing to add to our portfolio. I mean, sure the site looked awesome for the price range, but clients in this price range left us broke and aggravated, so the last thing we wanted was to get more clients like such.
Even worse, is that clients with limited budgets tend to do a lot of the stuff them self. Now, on top of running their business, they also have to find time to learn how to use their new website, about social media, link building, content writing, and how to work it all into their specific business. This can be quite a handful for a small business owner who just spent their entire monthly earnings on a simple web redesign, and has little left for promotion, upgrades, and marketing necessary for success.
No Clients
Back to our struggling times. Same situation. Money is tight, and another client with a small budget contacts us. Immediately, we get excited to get going, til we remember the last experience. Now wise with experience, we turn down the client and explain that there are better solutions for their budget range then we can offer.
You may be wondering, how it is good for a struggling business to turn down Money, or how pointing the client in a different direction helps out OUR business?
We learned the ways are endless.
From our perspective, this makes perfect sense if you look at what makes our business successful. What we did was actually turn down working for below our profit margin. We need to make a certain amount to be able to pay our bills. If we accept less, that means we make less. However, it does not mean we work less. In fact, we work just as long, if not longer, to make less.
So where our hourly rate is at $120/hour, on some past projects we calculated an income of less than $250/week as a company. On one $50k+ website we did, we earned $156.25 / week over the course of the project. So, big contract numbers can be deceiving if you focus on the sticker price. What matters is the profit margin. How much are you going to make vs. how much time you are going to spend.
From the client’s perspective, we may assume the client, or friend, will be annoyed that we can’t help them. However, if you simply explain the truth, that assumption will fly out the window.
We explain to clients, sure, we can take their money, use it as best as possible, and give them a design to be proud of. However, with the budget they have, they will have no money left over for the other necessities required to make the project a long term success. I tell clients, they would be better off finding a cheaper starting solution, such as a template, and building to our level after some time, then investing so much of their budget up front.
I have pointed clients in this direction and gotten many referrals from it. Clients, and friends, are very grateful when you show them how to get more bang for their buck. Even better, you will also be very grateful when you are not working for below minimum wage for the next month or two.
Small Clients vs. No Clients
Well, if we don’t have work, what do we do? Just sit there?
This is the other issue we ran into from time to time. Is it better to turn down work when you need money and make nothing, then invest your time in a project to at least make something?
I can only answer this from our experience. The truth is, we have found we are better off putting our time into a FREE project we can do whatever we please, then making little money working with someone else’s restrictions. Sure, we may make no money, but at least we are promoting ourselves and have a portfolio piece to be proud of.
Also, when you invest much of your time in an unworthy project, it leaves little time to focus on finding the clients with the budgets you need. We prefer spending our time marketing ourselves, perfecting our skills, and attacking challenging projects that will get us the attention needed to work with the budgets necessary to perform at our peak as a company.
Money Money Money
Business is a funny thing when you exclude money from the equation. Instead of working to earn money, try focusing on working to earn a reputation you can be proud of. The work may not pay now, but it sure pays off later. Build your confidence, find your worth, and accept nothing less. It may take some time, just like all great achievements do.
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