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As someone just starting out, this was incredibly helpful! I had never even thought about including any sort of profit margin.

I Started a video motion gfx business for music artist and quickly starting getting clients due to my good quality (worked with 80+ verified artist) one big mistake I made was providing high quality for low price...problem with this is people start to expect it every time (Hollywood quality for pennies) which then attracts more people with a low budget before you know it...its a RACE to the BOTTOM!!! Know your worth!

Would love to see your approach to pricing post production.

This is such a slap in the face. Thanks for the slap. I’ve been doing everything wrong and always wondered why I’m still not gaining any actual profit. Much appreciated for this video! New sub

This is fantastic advice. Thanks for this!

Love your videos Saj! Started with one m50 into video live-streaming concerts at the beginning of the pandemic, now have 6 canon's in my recording studio, and just got my 2nd BMPCC 6k, so awesome to have all your videos for help as I pivot from music to more professional video production

Great video. I’m doing mostly corporate work and my line items are usually day rate and editing rate. I build everything into the day rate to avoid questions and having to explain everything that like items bring up.

I have been struggling for the last year on how I can grow from a freelancer to a small production company and how to work out costing for clients. This video showing up in my feed is exactly what I needed to see and what I needed to hear. Some excellent tips here and I shall definitely be putting them to use going forward. Thank you for posting this video 🙂

I can't stress enough how incredibly helpful your videos are! Appreciate all the knowledge you are sharing!

I’ve been running my video production company for 3 years and never thought to charge for the profit margin / expenses… realizing why it’s been hard to buy new gear

FYI. This method of calculating profit margin is incorrect. In his video he adds 20% ($618) to his total cost of $3400 which brings his total to $4080. If you take $4080 and remove 20% profit ($816) your initial invoice would actually be $3264. Instead you need to add ($850) to your invoice in order to actually get a 20% profit margin and your total invoice would need to be $4250

Super helpful 🙏🏽 even better that you’re in Chicago and put that into consideration 🙌🏽 lucky to be from here

Best video on rates I've watched so far!

This is so insightful. Thank you!

Very valuable information. I love the point of hiring a DP if you can't make it but you make no money, so you need to account for company profit. I have not thought of it from that perspective but it makes absolute sense. No care brand charges just for labor, they need to mark up. Thank you, Saj for the insight!

Wow I've been stuck for a couple years trying to build and grow my production company and this video was tremendously enlightening thank you! Looking forward to the course!

Absolutely FANTASTIC video!!!

Solid video to address how to build your price. One thing left out was 'taxes'......that's another line item for many to have as a line item as well.

Thanks Saj, wish it was that easy in a competitive market, plus prospects often don't value video enough to pay 5k, 10k etc

Thanks so much for these videos Saj. I've learned so much already to apply to my business. Really appreciate you taking the time to share the knowledge!

You good sir are a SAINT for sharing this information ℹ️ thank you 🙏🏻 New Sub & a huge thumbs up 👍🏻 Cheers from Western Australia 🇦🇺

I always expect my shooter to have backup shooting gear in case critical elements like the main camera go out (doesn't have to be the same body, but just something that ensures we can capture to spec in case of issues). So yes, you should be charging something to have backup equipment on site - frankly it should be built in to the price of the main camera.

Thank you tremendously for taking the time to share this knowledge. Your channel has been a huge help in getting my company off the ground, the right way. I can’t thank you enough🙏

I love your videos, thank you! Line item budgets and placing profit into each line item (or not having specific line items at all): I hear you, and your argument makes sense. If we’re doing a corporate video we probably should usually follow that advice. Commercials are different, though. Those really require, at least for us, line item budgets and a profit/production fee line item at the end. Sort of a simplified AICP budget, really. Reason being, those types of clients really do want to see the details (and sometimes it helps us if they’re all “why didn’t we have a steadicam?” “Because it’s not in the budget…”).

This is immensely valuable. I've extensively researched this topic and found nothing close to the quality of this video. Thank you.

This is eye-opening, Saj! Thank you!

Well…absolutely fantastic content, very helpful tools.

I watched this like 5 times in a row following along. Wow. Thank you man. I have a much better grasp on charging

Thank you. I just realized I let go of hundreds of thousands or even millions with the way I bill. I learned a lot.

Nice content, you got a sub. I would add that 20% of profit margin is not that great considering that taxing in a lot of countries will eat that up especially if all the money for the hired freelancers goes through your company. I prefer going with 30% its a more safe variant. But I guess it also depends on the taxing in the country where you run your business. All the other things are right to the point.

Man your channel is a gem

Always valuable. Thank you.

Incredibly helpful video man, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom!

Thank you so much for this video. I didn't realise what I'm doing until I saw this video. It's very useful. Thank you and have a nice day

Thank you this is so helpful. Wow!

Thank you this is very informative as a person who came from freelancing and just started his company

This is very helpful information as I start to transit from a freelancing position to a business through getting out of this pandemic. Thanks a lot for sharing this!

Yooo I'm in Chicago as well! I tried to explain this when I first started my channel but you explain it way better lol. I def need to update mine! 👌

This is the video I needed two years ago. Thank you 🙌

Just subscribed ! Your advice is legit 🙏🏻👊🏻

This is an excellent breakdown! Thank you for making this video. Musician, KZfaqr, filmmaker also from Chicago over here!! See you around, neighbor!

Wow, incredible advice!!!Thank you so much

My Sir, you have gained a new sub. Thank you for the information.

Excellent stuff, thanks for sharing all these tips, really helpful.

Great video thank you!

This is some reaaaal gold!

This was unexpected and crazy good, I am only a editor but knowing this us really good.

Thank you bro , really helped a lot

Awesome. Thanks for sharing!

I've been watching many of your videos of for a while now. I'm a fan of them and your channel. I'd love to see what one of your 5000 dollars pro videos looks like. Do you have any you can show.

So much value! Thank you for sharing 🙏🏽

Extremely useful, THANK YOU 🙏

How do you add the profit into the actual total cost of the project? Meaning where do you list it? Sorry just heard the answer on the end of the video. Thank you.

Awesome, Hey do you mind to cover this same topic for video editing side as well? Thanks

We need guides on video editing business!!

My issue is that I can't find anyone willing to pay for my services esp when they "have a nephew that can just shoot the video on his iPhone" 😂 it's SO frustrating

This video was so helpful! Thank you!!!

Thank you for sharing this!

This video is gold!

Great info

Thanks!

Excellent. Thank you.

3:11 How do you go about pricing your gear costs to the client? Do you go off what it would cost to rent the equipment? We typically just charge for labor and the equipment is included, but I definitely see how we're undercharging. We're a two-man crew and do everything ourselves, so just trying to get an idea how to go about it!

Great explanation and breakdown. Thank you. New sub.

Hey! That's an incredible video! I'd like to add more to this to help improve upcoming photographers/cinematographers with their business. I started my own studio about a year ago and had run into all the issues that you mentioned above. And, i sat myself down to work out this issue. I'd like to know - how can I reach out to you, to share my resources so that the material could probably be useful to your audience?

Not all heroes wear capes

thank you for this video Saj

thumbs up for me. keep vids coming

Thanks, Saj. I wish I got this video last week, but I am grateful you shared this, and it has changed my mindset. Going back to my books and working better and smarter as a business

This is super great advice but as a one man show, when I keep adding all those "extras" the final price will seem way too much to the clients for a video done just by me. I need to overcome that.

Great information

Another video full of practical knowledge. I realized that never included the fee of using my own gear. What would be a reasonable fee for a 10k $ worth of gear in Chicago area cause I am from here too...thank you sir.

Thank you

You briefly mentioned that you were going to talk about pricing for editing in a separate video. Can you link it?

So good man

Thanks for this! Any advice for finding clientele that value the work at this prices?

🤙🏽 very helpful

Oh... I definitely misunderstood the title and have no business being here xD

Impressive.

Did I miss you mentioning the sound guys gear? I know you said he'd bring it, but it should be a line item also.

Skills should be more of a priority for someone starting off when is the moment of breakthrough that a freelancer knows when he is ready ?

This is outstanding information and we are using these steps in our business and upgrades must be part of the equation. The pre production work, I wasn't charging for. Every thing else, including insurance, I'm fine.

fucking amazing video! this is perfect becous i am in this prosess of changing over right now so this was perfect! thanks!!!!

Great video and it was very helpful. I'm not in video production, but the subject of pricing is something that so many people need help with and it's relatable to just about every field. I do have a question that may be too wide open to really answer. It concerns overhead with things like insurance, rent for an office, things that have a definite cost to you that you know ahead of time what they'll be for a year, as opposed to something like advertising where you may have the ability to suddenly use something that is much cheaper. How do you approach building that into the pricing of a job? Do you do anything like seek to take care of one months rent for each client? Or do you approach it like you feel it won't be a problem to get a certain number of clients per month or per quarter, so you factor in each job to take care of a percentage of rent?

This is so real

great episode! keep rocking! what about taxes, how u calculate that?

Nice tut. Thx. QUESTION: How you deal with some other freelancer offer to the same client with half the price you submit.?

How do you determine what to charge for your video gear? Is it a percentage of the total cost of the package?

How do we know what to charge for gear?

Charging for gear is interesting. If you own the gear, do you still charge?

This happens in all trades.

15 YEARS AGO...!! I'm just thinking how far i have left to go ;(

Do you guys always hire an assistant/grip when using lights? I often work as a solo filmmaker for documentary/corporate work and I feel not comfortable to carry and set up lights meanwhile I have to focus on camera, sound, directing (and sometimes client talking to me). So I was thinking when pricing next costumers to offer lighting only with an extra budget for assistant-grip… or some basic lighting should always be included? What do you think?

What about the competitors? You have to be in the market range. What’s the reason clients will pay 3x more?

How do you handle travel? A lot of my jobs are 1 hour to 2 hours away.

How many businesses can afford a $5k video production? VERY FEW! How is 20% profit covering the 30% income tax? or self employment tax?

Yet most of the client's budget : $200-$500 this information is not down to earth

If i give online lessons using my macbook, is ok to ask the institute to pay the insurance of this computer and repair/performance? i am not video maker, just composer, but wonder if the rules are similar

I need help. I just found your channel. A friend of mine asked me if I could do a video for his wife's shoe store. She saw a video I did of him training at his gym; he's a professional boxer. So he said we'll pay you for it. I said sure. This would be my first paid job. However, I'm trying to figure out which route to go. I was thinking a flat fee of $500 for the day including the editing process. But he mentioned she wants drone footage also (I just got certified so I'm able to do this). So with that included the price would have to go up. Since this is my first paid job I could charge $700-$800. But out of curiosity, what would you recommend? Should I ask him what their budget is and go from there? Or just charge them what I think it's worth? I don't want to undervalue my service just because it's my first paid job.