Money is often one of the hardest things to deal with when you’re working for yourself or running a business. Whether it’s trying to get paid by clients, or its dealing with paying your subcontractors; I’ve been on both sides of this and it sucks, from whatever position you are in.

Being a freelancer or subcontractor and trying to get paid from a client is one of the least fun things to deal with, especially when invoices are overdue and you are constantly trying to get a hold of them. You did the work and all you want is for them to pay you. Its frustrating. You think, Why’d they hire me if they couldn’t pay, and don’t give me that crap about waiting for your client to pay you first. Really are you running your business on the edge like that? Is that extra couple thousand dollars really going to sink your business? 

Yes, all valid points and all too true…

I said to myself from day one that I didn’t want LooseKeys to be the business that says I can’t pay you till I get paid. I’d say I’ve done my best to live up to that… don’t think I’ve used that line on any freelancers yet. But holy crap does it take a long time to get paid especially from some larger companies. After working with some of these larger places you realize that sometimes checks are only written once a month and if your invoice wasn’t in at the right time you’re going to wait another 30 days. And sometimes projects linger on way longer than initially budgeted, with small changes happening for months before they are finished which means you don’t get paid on that project fully until a lot later than you had planned. Sometimes projects get killed or delayed part way though the process and you get left on the hook paying out of pocket for subcontractors. 

When those sort of hiccups happen it can put a strain on paying your sub-contractors, no matter how well you planned. And you find yourself, using the I’ll pay you when I get paid line because the bank account is low, you have to make payroll and those subcontractors get pushed to the side, even though they were critical in getting the job done. When this happens you’ll have the freelancer asking you where their money is while you’re trying to get the money from the company you were hired by so you can pay yourself and them. I’m sure your client is trying to get money from their clients too. It’s this big stress issue and when you’re stuck in the middle, it’s awful. 

As a result of being on both sides of this now I’ve learned to be a little more polite and forgiving when I’m waiting on payment. I hate getting those emails so I’m sure the client hates them too. I now understand that every company struggles every once in a while to get paid by clients. There are times when something goes wrong or they just forgot, so it’s good to check-in on an invoice but don’t hound people, it makes them not want to work with you down the line. 

Editing on set isn’t a new thing; it isn’t always possible for everyone’s shoots and it isn’t something I’ve been able to do till now. Boy, does it help and it even saved us some time this past week on our LooseKeys shoot in Sonoma. 

Sure, it’s nice working with digital cameras and being able to quickly review each and every take. But on those small screens you don’t always know if it’s perfect. You can always rent a larger monitor for playback but that would only help to make sure each shot looks right. When you’re able to edit a rough cut on the fly, it allows you to check for more than just that one shot. You’re also able to check if the edit is working, audio levels and give the clients a little tease of what it’s going to look like. 

This is the first time I’ve been able to work with the editor on set and wow, did it help. Having Maeve Price there to drop in footage from the camera was amazing and since we were using Premiere we didn’t need to convert anything. We were able to make sure that the shot looked great and we were also able to make sure that the video was cutting together like I had planned. A couple of times the video really wasn’t flowing right and because Maeve was there to help with the edit we were able to make adjustments on the fly and shoot some pickups. Being able to do the pickup shots and re-shoots that day was great. It saved me from having to deal with it after the shoot was wrapped and trying to come up with a creative solution. 

Not only did it help me and the rest of the team but it also gave the client something to see. They were able to basically see a rough cut a few minutes after we wrapped for the day. Which I think helped to put their minds at ease and made the LooseKeys team look good. At the end of the day I want them to be happy with the product.

Being able to edit on the fly isn’t something that works for every shoot but if the project is right and the budget is there, do it. It will save you later.  

I’m sure we’ve all sent a rough cut to a client before and the feedback we’ve received hasn’t been the best. “What is this?” or “This isn’t What We Expected,” are never words you want to hear. At LooseKeys  our clients are often people who run businesses or startups and not people necessarily familiar with all that goes into the creation of a video. 

 People who work in video or film, tend to toss around phrases that aren’t always widely known outside of our industry; terms like rough cut, styleframes, and codecs. People outside our circle might not be familiar with them. I know I’m not familiar with banker terms like M&A, LBO and below the bar. 

As creative people, we tend to get upset when others, especially clients don’t understand our vision or process. You have to take the time to educate and inform them on what they are seeing, otherwise you’re going to work yourself up and out of frustration end up freaking out on the client. 

So what’s a rough cut?

A rough cut is one of the first steps in putting together a video, this is the first phase where the project starts to resemble a real video and not just a bunch of random pieces. Typically rough cuts will still undergo many changes before the final. If you’re working with video, assembling a rough cut is a time consuming process; you have to go through all the footage trying to figure out what is the best and in what general sequence it should all go in. You typically go through many versions of rough cuts before you get to the fine cut and are near completing the video. A rough cut is really just the first step in the editorial process, there are many more changes that can and will be made.

Since most of the videos at LooseKeys are animated, our rough cuts are typically very advanced animatics. All the movements of the characters might not be in place but the pieces are there to make sure the scenes are working and flowing together. 

No matter what you show the client, make sure you’re happy with it and assume that they are looking at this video like it is the final. If there are changes that need to be made let your client know. Give them a list of things you’ll be fixing or doing. It helps to signal to them that this isn’t the final cut and you’re still working on it.  If you get bad feedback on a rough cut, remember to breathe and take a moment and try to understand that sometimes it will take a while before the client understands that this is a process. 

You can label yourself any way you want, whether it’s self-employed, a freelancer, an entrepreneur or a business owner. You’re making an independent living by yourself and from the business you’re building. I was a freelancer for awhile as I was getting LooseKeys rolling. I knew when I left Daily Planet ltd. that I didn’t want to just be a freelancer; I had already done that for a few years and knew the challenges I was going to run into.

One challenge you face as a freelancer is that you’re going to reach a point where you can’t earn any more income. You can always be working harder but there are only so many hours in the day and your rate can only be so high. Instead, I wanted to build something and to work at starting a business that one day could run itself.

Over the last couple years at LooseKeys  things have been going well and I’m very happy with the people I’m working with, the work we’re doing and the direction we’re headed.

Maybe one day you’ll decide that you too want to go beyond freelancing at a new company every week and decide to go out on your own and start a business. There are many challenges you’ll confront when making that move. 

The difficulty I faced was in that transition from a single freelancer to a business or a brand I was selling to clients. As a freelancer you may be lucky and have a dedicated number of clients who continue to call on you because they are happy with your work. I didn’t realize how difficult it would be to explain to clients that it’s not just me doing the work, that I run a business now. These previous clients who have hired you for freelance in the past know you and trust you. So they contact you for a freelance job but you have to let them know that you would be taking the job on with your team. It took at least a year to shake that freelancer idea from my past clients; you have to educate and promote your business. Work on it everyday. 

Most of the questions I got were “Now you’re working with other people?” “Can your old clients trust these people?” “Can they do the same work that they see in your portfolio?” 

Speaking of a portfolio; when you do transition to running your own business, you have to build your new businesses portfolio from scratch. More than likely you can’t show any work you did at your previous employment because that’s not your new businesses work, that’s work you did at another company. Depending on where the work was done, you might be a able to work out a deal but usually company X isn’t going to like to see that your new company is saying they did that work. It’s a Catch-22; you can’t get clients without a portfolio and you can’t build a portfolio if you don’t have any clients. 

I’m sure the same thing happened when you first entered the working world. What did you do to build your name and promote yourself before? You sold your skills and created your own projects. You have to do the same for this new business with your team of people. You need to be getting these jobs and then have your team work on them. Sell, then delegate the work that comes in. Jump in when you can but you’re not a freelancer anymore, you have people working for you who want to do the work. Give them work to do. If you love doing the work too, then hire someone to sell. You have to be delegating the work in order to grow and build a business. 

These are different challenges than being a freelancer but nothing that’s too complicated to overcome. It takes time and I still get emails and calls asking me to freelance on jobs. I make it clear that me and my team at LooseKeys can do this yes, but it’s a team, it’s a WE not an I anymore.

If you’re interested or thinking about making the move from the freelancing life then start by getting a few bigger projects and out-sourcing some of work. See how you like managing a project rather than just being the one doing the entire project. 

When working on broadcast commercial spots, there are not usually a lot of delays in production, the airtime has already been paid for and something needs to air. 

However, I work with a lot of startups and issues can come up and there are times where the products get delayed. Even if something happens with a launch date or product release date, the video isn’t necessarily going to be coinciding with that, it could be coming out with a press release instead. Its important that I know what role the video I am producing will play in the overall plan.

When there are these real deadlines, such as a launch or a press release coming out, I’m more than happy to put in the extra time, the late nights and even weekends if needed to make sure that deadline is hit.

If the deadline for the video I’m working on has been pushed back, its important that the client let me know. I know dates are often flexible but when I go into a project thinking a video is needed for a certain day, I do my best to make that happen. There have been instances where I’ve met the deadline for a project and then the client ends up wanting to tweak for an extra week past that drop dead date they gave me.

Maybe I rushed parts or scaled back on what I wanted to do because I was worried about this date. At 2:00 AM I’m not at 100%. If I would have known there was an extra day, I may have changed something in my design or animation. I would have put that time to use, improving elements and fine-tuning the piece. Not to mention that when I schedule a project for a certain amount of days and then the client wants to tweak past that date, that adds conflicts with my schedule. So its always important to communicate these important dates with all involved on a project, if a deadline changes then include the people working on the project with that bit of information. 

I do a lot of brainstorming, tinkering and playing when I start a new project. I test out a ton of different concepts trying to figure out what is going to stick. The same is true with any project you’re looking to start whether it’s a blog, a web series, or an explainer video. You have to put it all out there and see what works, see what people like and are interested in. If I knew anything about crab fishing I would liken it to that, you place a bunch of traps and see where’s the best place to fish. 

I typically have a good idea of what the client wants just like you might know the best place to fish but sometimes you really never know what’s going to bite. When we get a new project in at LooseKeys this is how we handle concepting the video. Sure the client maybe gave us a direction but you never know they might have wanted robot cats and just needed to see it. Even if they don’t pick it at least I got to have fun and draw some robot cats. Give it a try, don’t be afraid to test the waters. 

There is nothing worse than nearing the completion of a project and then having the client say it’s all wrong. This recently happened to me and had me bummed for a couple days. I thought my concept was spot on, they were approving elements along the way and seemed to like where it was headed. Then just as I was getting close to wrapping the whole project up I started to get some odd feedback and it all came down to them not liking what I had done.

There are a couple ways to handle something like this; you can either say this is what you approved and this is what I did, now pay me. Or you can suck it up and try to make the client happy, figure out what went wrong and re-do the work.

Most people will tell you that the client was wrong and that they need to pay to have this video re-done. They were the ones who approved the video at every stage and it’s their fault for not communicating any issues they had, they should of said something sooner. It’s easy to be on that side when it’s not your project and not your client. 

Instead I’ve gone with option two here. Setting my pride aside and realizing that maybe this was my fault; I was pushing for a concept and style that wasn’t right for them from the beginning. There is a chance that I was ignoring thoughts and concerns from the client all along because I felt that I knew best. I’ve been doing explainer videos for years, of course I know what’s right and there is no way the client has any idea of what will work. I’ve put countless hours into this creative approach and there is no way this isn’t working. What’s funny is this has happened before and I told myself to make sure I try to stay positive when getting this sort of negative feedback. 

So here I go now re-doing a video, doing twice the amount of work. There is no sense in burning the bridge here. The client isn’t unreasonable and isn’t a hell client by any means, we just weren’t on the same page. So I can eat the extra cost and time involved on this one. I’d rather have the client walk away with a video they love and want to show off instead of one that they never use and would rather work with Satan than me and my team again. I’m putting aside the pride on this one and I know that what we put together now is only going to be that much better. 

I sometimes get asked to provide artwork or concepts for a project before a business decides if they’d like to hire me. A lot of post-companies do pitch work to win jobs with bigger clients. The agencies and clients want to see if you have what it takes to do the work. 

However, when a client asks me to do this I have to say no and I send them to the LooseKeys website or send them a few links to videos we’ve done in the past. I wish I had a ton of time and resources to devote to proving to every client before they hire LooseKeys that we’re the best. Truthfully, I don’t have the time to research and develop concepts for free. The creative process takes time; you have to think, research, try things and toss out ideas. It’s tough to do this when there is really no promise of the project. The client or agency has to like your work to get the job; if you win then you win big but the losers lose big, they are out their time and drained of creativity. 

Some post houses and studios are able to justify this time by charging more across the board for their projects. Why should all other clients get hit with a higher price tag so post houses can spend time pitching work? I try to keep prices low and competitive since we’re often working with startups and small businesses who already have a tight budget. 

My portfolio and LooseKeys portfolio shows a wide range of work and I know that sometimes it’s hard to see your brand in place of one of those other videos. With the years of experience me and my team bring to each and every project, there is a good chance that we’ll be able to handle whatever challenges that a client might have. If you looked at our portfolio and really didn’t like what you saw and don’t think we can do what you need, that’s too bad. That’s not often the case though. We’re here to help you grow your brand and if you don’t think we are the right fit then good luck to you and we hope the video you ultimately have produced meets your needs. 

What separates the best from the mediocre is how quickly they can get back up when they fall down or hit a wall. There was no time to waste after coming back from my honeymoon this week, work was calling. I had to get up to speed quickly and jump back into it. There wasn’t any time to ease into things. 

There was a project that had been going on while I was gone and a couple that needed a jump start now that I was back. I didn’t want to see any of these projects stall or fall behind so I made sure I was back at the desk animating, making phone calls and sending emails right away. It wasn’t completely easy for me to get back into the groove at first; I had been away from those steady work hours for awhile. The first morning back I had a lot I needed to get accomplished so I pushed through it. Even though it was a bit of a struggle to keep focus and get back into my creative space, I just kept working until I found my groove again.  

Writers have writers block all the time and some of them never are able to recover from this block but the good ones (or maybe the lucky ones) get through it fast and overcome their condition. I run into issues all the time whether it’s with clients, computers or even animation hurdles that need to be defeated. Maybe since I am constantly being confronted with new challenges on a daily basis, this made it easier for me to bounce back quickly and soon it felt like I hadn’t been gone at all.

There are new businesses and services popping up left and right and every one of them is after a piece of your business. You might think you have nothing to worry about since you’re the established business; the one clients know and can trust. We’ve seen the old school guys fall time and time again because the new kids on the block can offer something they don’t. Whether it’s a cheaper price,  better customer service, or just being a nice guy. Knowing this is going to happen you need to think about how you can stay ahead of those other guys.  To maintain a successful business you need to always make sure you’re making your clients feel better than your competitor does.

For the most part price is the one everyone gets beat up on the most. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve been asked to lower my price because a competitor was willing to do it for cheaper. You’ll never win the price game, it’s a race to the bottom where you go broke doing what you love. Instead figure out how you can make your customers or clients feel better about spending more for your service. Whether it’s your attention to detail, your 24 /7 support or just your great attitude. By giving them something the other guy can’t, you won’t have to worry about them jumping ship and leaving you.

We have a lot of fun at LooseKeys and being a small team we’re able to take risks and chances that the other guys often can’t. We’re able to change and adapt quickly which is why I welcome new chances to take risks and try new things.

Being small, we can roll the dice on an idea for a podcast, a new short series, maybe a new style of animation or even a crazy social media marketing stunt. These risks or chances allow us to test and try new things that other businesses might not be able to. I tend to roll the dice and see what will happen at least once a week. 

This coming week I’m heading down to Florida for just a few hours for a meeting with a new client. Jake and I are flying out for the afternoon to meet with the new client and discuss a new project. Flying to Florida for just a few hours may seem like pretty far to travel for such a short period of time but I say why not?  I’ve only flown out a couple times for face to face meetings with new clients. But really what’s the worst thing that could happen… well a lot of things I guess but that’s what makes taking risks so much fun. Maybe you roll a seven and lose all your money but maybe you hit it big. 

I’ve been handed two jobs this year from clients who weren’t happy with what they were given or how the previous animation team had handled the job. I deal a little differently with these clients then others because I know they’ve already been through the process of creating a video and they weren’t happy with the result. Communication is critical, maybe even more so then with other clients. When I take over the projects, I make sure to have a very open communication with the clients in order to determine how to effectively execute what the client wanted and the previous creative team wasn’t doing. First I ask them why the other team failed so not to fall into the same trap with them. Then we go into what was needed or what needed to be adjusted and why they felt these changes needed to happen. By simply asking them why, you will make clients think about the comments and changes they are asking for even if the answer is as simple as they didn’t like the way it looked.

If the client is asking you to make changes that you feel are out of place or dumb, think about it for a moment before responding. Remember that they aren’t the enemy and the two of you are there to make a great project. Ask them why they want to make these changes and explain why you did what you did. When you explain your choices, you make the client see that you thought about what you did and you didn’t just make the logo pink because you like pink. 

At the end of the day, I’m here to make something they are happy with and get paid. I’d like to be proud of the work as well but I want them to be happy that they chose to work with me and I delivered the video they wanted but the previous animation team couldn’t quite deliver. 

There seems to be a good amount of disdain for clients within the creative field.  For some reason the designers, writers, developers and any other content creator often see it as a battle of us versus them. Them being the client, the one asking for the work to be done, the one paying the creatives when the work is done. It’s pretty messed up that the enemy is the one helping us pay our bills and support our families. Yet almost everyone says that they wish they could just create, design, or code without the client butting in; clients should just let them do their thing and then pay them for it. 

Content creators and creatives like myself often feel as though a client should trust us because we know exactly what they need and what they want. Some people think the client should just be thankful I took on their project and that I let them give me their money. If you’re thinking this way, soon you’ll be the one at the bottom begging the clients for work just to get a little bit of money for dinner. 

Come on now, we’re all on the same level here. The client knows their business inside and out and has an idea of what could potentially work to get more people interested in their product and service. They typically only know a little about how to execute that vision and that’s where they need help. The creative knows or should know how to execute it in a interesting and effective manner but knows nothing or not much about the clients business. If these two parties work well together and lean on each others strong suits then they can make something great.

Sure there are some clients out there who are less than ideal and they really don’t know what they want or how to communicate what they need. That’s where I believe the idea of “the client is the enemy” and “we are gods gift to them” came from. Don’t let those few bad clients turn you off; most clients have an idea of what they want and what they would be happy with. It’s our job to try and execute this and lean them towards the right direction.

It’s not a battlefield, think of it as a house you’re building together.

I want two things. A project I’m happy with and the client is happy with and second to get paid. At times, the getting paid for the work I do and time involved might even be a little more important then creative fulfillment and clients happiness. Of course, its difficult to get one without the other.

Building a business that is synonymous with one thing is quite an endeavor and takes a lot to accomplish. Zappos did it with customer service and Apple has done it with design. It can be tricky figuring out what your one thing might be. Maybe its the service, the product or the amazing experience. I know what we do at LooseKeys; helping to tell business and brand stories through simple and creative videos. I want the customers and clients to walk away happy they have an amazing video. With that comes great communication, creative illustration, animation and a product we’re all happy and excited to show off. It’s often hard to realize how all those pieces play a part in that one thing you’re known for but when you concentrate on accomplishing that one thing it helps keep you focused and on target.

I’ve worked on a number of projects in the last couple years that have what seemed to be a very laxed deadline. And I’m sure many of you have all had a few of those as well. The client presents the job to you and you ask “when they need it”, you then hear the client say “it’s no rush, take your time” or “we’re still working that out.” The problem is that the client always has some sort of deadline in mind when they presented the job to you and that deadline is likely different then what you were thinking. Since it’s presented as not being a rush you may not always jump into it right away. It gets pushed to the side and other projects that have deadlines get moved to the front. Sure the project is still in the back of your mind but you are under the assumption that you have plenty of time. Maybe a month goes by and you really haven’t  done much on the project yet because other work with official deadlines come in and you know those have to get done. The cycle can quickly continue, weeks turn into months and those months begin to pile up. This open ended / no rush deadline project has now become an issues and the client is wondering where the finished product is.

My experience is that when you hit about that two month mark of when you started talking about the project and you have shown only minor things, the client begins to get strange… And of course for a good reason, it’s been two months and you aren’t done with the project. Or even near where they thought you would be by this time. All of a sudden they need it finished and you can’t possibly get it done because you can’t physically do two months of work in a few days. As a result the client will probably end up unhappy and the project might get pulled from you altogether because you aren’t going to be able to do what they wanted in the time needed. Future work with this client could also be unlikely and a bridge could be burned.

Don’t let the idea of an open ended deadline blow up in your face. A couple things I’ve done to try and deal with this issue are to first press the client for a deadline. They know when they want it done or at least would like to see something. If they don’t give you a deadline set one yourself and tell them this is when the can expect to see something. Even though you made up the date to show them the work, stick by it and don’t let it slide because you know it’s not a drop dead date. Deadlines allow you to output more work on a timely fashion and are only beneficial to you. Stick to the deadlines and make breaking a deadline a cardinal sin for anything you are working. Don’t fall into the open ended project trap because you are likely to get burned.