Bidding A Job Must Clearly Show Details In Order To Get Paid Appropriately

Bidding a job must clearly spell out all the details that our numbers are based on. We risk paying out of our pockets if we ASSUME clients will know our bid-based parameters, such as shot count, the production building time needed to avoid overages, how many rounds of retouching changes are included, etc. Risking miscommunication is our timely responsibility to manage before it occurs.

I’m seeing a lot of trouble happening with photographers because we tend to assume it’s hard to cover everything. We assume that clients are going to know our restrictions or understand what we meant by specific dates, production costs, or other details. Everything needs to be spelled out clearly, including timing and scheduling. Do clients understand the schedule? We have to stay on top of it to ensure they do, even if we’ve already stated it or made it clear in an email. Don’t assume anything, whether it’s how many images you’re going to shoot, how many images are included in usage, or anything else related to your production. If you’re doing a big production and need the client’s approval by a certain date because you require a specific amount of time to start and finish before the shoot date, that has to be clearly stated in the bid and reiterated in an email. Make sure clients know everything, and don’t assume they understand anything.