F- you, pay me!

This short-ish video has been making the rounds recently, it's a presentation on contract negotiation for designers but as I'm sure you know, one could easily apply this to any of the creative freelance disciplines. It's great, check it out here.

It's a great presentation that receives a lot of 'damn straight's' and 'as it should be's' and 'like's' from the creative set. Thing is, it's one thing to say, 'Yeah, that's the way it should be!' and another entirely to incorporate this basic business practice into the day-to-day running of said business.

Creatives have to understand that they're running a 'business', not helping out their buddies, and businesses are created to make money. Why in the world do creatives let their clients dictate what the creative's Terms & Conditions should be, and what should be included in the creative's contract? Do vehicle insurance companies, credit cards or software creators let their clients/users dictate the T&D for their product/service?

"It won't/doesn't work here (market)..." and "That's not the way it's done, clients would never accept/sign that" are resultant of creatives being so afraid to lose work that they acquiesce to their clients. In other words, it happens/doesn't fly/won't work because we creatives LET IT HAPPEN. We creatives are running business. Businesses exist to make money. 'Profit' is not a dirty word, and neither is 'mark-up'. That's just business. Remember that clients come to us because they need our product/service to complete their projects. Believe in the value of what we as creatives provide, and charge accordingly!!


Once again, be the change you'd like to see.