That's so great Mark! I'd LOVE to hear some of the ways they've helped or if there's any particular struggles you ever hit that you want to share. Always feel free to email me amckay@allanmckay.com but again thanks for sharing that's so awesome man! Keep crushing it! 🙏👊

​@@AllanMcKay I had an interview yesterday and your words were very helpful. Im forever thankful! I would love TO talk to you about it. Definitely worth your time. Ill get in contact :))

@@markoglazersout611 Awesome Mark! :)

Thanks so much man - as long as it helps the right people I'm happy :)

Really great insights Christina!

Wow Marvin that's so amazing Obviously in the video I mentioned contracts are critical as having that makes everything easier because you have a legal binding contract especially if you position yourself as a company rather than an individual but to hear those work conditions exist is terrible it's great to see change happening and that individuals have more to stand on now than they did I still think where possible contracts are critical but obviously it's not always possible especially if you're coming in as an employee so that's really great to hear that change has been happening I think it's only fair when you do the work you fulfill your pot of the agreement but they don't fulfill theirs That's where it becomes completely unfair especially if they're making money you have every right to be compensated as well Thank you for sharing Marvin

@@AllanMcKay I've yet to work on a company that dares to make contracts for their clients, the best I've seen them do is send a budget with terms and conditions and ask to have the client accept to them in written (all through e-mail like you said). The thing is, those conditions are usually never met and the post production companies get skrewed working 3 times as much on making changes that were never agreed upon. I myself am preparing to launch my own company this year but keep getting worried about everyone I know going throught the exact same problems with the same major clients

@@marvinzegarra That's really interesting Marvin - so it's typically the studio's clients that are being problematic? Are the clients usually in Peru, or the US or where are they based? It's interesting that it's really common, rather than just a few studios doing this. I'm curious what type of clients they're going after if they're dealing with these kinds of issues consistently. Whether it's a Peru thing, or whether let's say the issue is with US based studios - and they're dealing with less professional studios here. Just to hear that sort of thing being consistent makes me wonder if they are getting a lot of work from disorganized studios who aren't very professional. I know a lot of LA studios that regularly rely on outsourcing, whether it's to Yannix in Thailand, or to studios in India etc. Who still are extremely professional and treat the outsourcing studios with respect. Which just makes me wonder if these are studios that just don't have their act together and aren't on top of their own money, so then they're behind on paying everyone else they are working with If you're ever interested to take the conversation offline, shoot me an email amckay@allanmckay.com I would be happy to talk with you about your future plans to launch a studio, and any concerns you have. Just in case I can offer any advice Congratulations by the way on the plans to launch your own company, I think that's really great!

Thanks for sharing Chill! Hope everything is going great buddy!

Thanks Oscar! I'll do my best to help out more! 👊🙏❤

Abso-freakin-lutely! :)

Oh man yeah that sounds tough. It's a shame when we get into situations like this. Thank you for sharing

Thanks for sharing and yeah I'm always blown away by the architectural industry and arch viz in general, my understanding is that budgets are pretty cutthroat so it's not always the company that you're working for that is intending to be the bad guy but they're basically stuck without money too. However if it is the standard and they're waiting for their big fat check as well at least if you're getting them to agree to pay a third up front get them to agree to pay another third upon final invoice within 15 days and the final amount when they receive payment from their client. it's not ideal but that's at least one adjustment you can do to ensure that if they've budgeted a set amount and they're waiting for payment at least they're able to give you an additional payment right at the end of the job while they're waiting for their final check to come in themselves. If they don't agree to that then they need to manage their budget and their business better to ensure that they have money remaining while they're waiting for their final paycheck

@@AllanMcKay Thanks for the quick reply. I'm glad to hear that you heard how hard it is in the arch viz industry. The part that drives me nuts is you deliver this stuff on time especially for their meetings to the public or what have you and still have to wait> I would love to place a watermark on all my stuff but it is those very situation where you can't because they need the stuff so quickly. But these past couple of years we have been pushing the new clients, at least, to pay us 1/3 down at the beginning. It is the older clients are sometimes the pushovers or pushing me over. I might have to go into there office and talk to guys I can trust that would be willing to work with me on setting some type of yearly budget with me (based on an average of the last few years of doing business with them) and say when ever you call me for a job and the price is set and we all agree to move forward with it that they can pay my bi-weekly or even monthly until the job is fully paid so that I don't have to worry about waiting for their client to pay me. We trust each other enough that they know they get the best out of me and deliver on time.

ohhh Net +90 i know this one! Thanks Allan

Thanks so much I tried to cut it down as much as I could there's just so much on this topic I definitely tend to want to cover everything on a topic rather than just touch on it but obviously that means even more information to consume which for some people on this channel tends to be too much for them at times but I'm hoping for those who are seeking this information this is something that makes a difference so I hope you find it valuable and thank you for reaching out it's really great to hear from you and to hear your thoughts on this thank you again Jacob 🙏

I believe the guy is a visual effects supervisor now and I'd imagine he's come out of his shell quite a lot over the years but at the time especially knowing him he's such a quiet guy and that's such not a move that he would pull so it's even funnier for those of us in the industry who know him and yeah totally ballsy it blew my mind when he told me (it was either him or his best friend that told me I'm trying to remember it was so long ago) but it worked and he was in high enough demand he could pull something like that so I thought it was genius haha

@@AllanMcKay haha yeah it was a risky move but as you said, he had the clout to get away with it. On top of all the great advice I enjoyed that, and the hitler guy story. 😅

Thanks Pablo and I agree there's not much information on money yet it's the backbone of what we do so I definitely agree, really important to talk about this stuff

That's so awesome! And best of luck with the studio!

Let me know how it goes! And sorry you’re in that situation in the first place :( there’s definitely things you can do up front such as asking for 50% down up front and 25% before final delivery etc But also good to do your due diligence with certain clients too try to figure out if they have a shady reputation before you work with them. But good luck let me know how it goes

You're welcome,. thanks SwanStar!

Thank you Demeter!

You're welcome Pedro thank you!

Thank you Reed! 🙏

Thanks so much Nayyar

Awesome Diana! That's great - big fan of taking notes and applying information. Lot of people just watch and then never applying anything. So that's awesome!

That's awesome Vincent! It's definitely a question I get asked a lot and there's so much that goes into it typically it's more how you approach things at the beginning helps protect you in the end so if you ignore everything at the beginning it's a lot harder to really take action after you get screwed so best to be precautious and preventative to help ensure you get paid for all the hard work that you do!

Allan McKay Yeah it’s great information, thank you so much man!

Cheers Stan, always great to hear from you👊

Thanks Harry yeah I feel this in general applies to everyone including outside of our industries

Thank you Peter!

Thanks tripleZ! noted! :)

haha cheers Stefan! Yeah you can choose to listen to music while you work, or you can choose to learn and grow new skills while you work Glad you found it valuable, and always great hearing from you brother!

Thanks so much!

@@AllanMcKay 👍

you are welcome, thank you CGShow

TreevD, absolutely there's definitely been some harsh lessons learned from certain jobs. In that case it wasn't so much an agreement as more just not getting ultra specific on the terms of the final payment. So definitely a lesson learned. I think ultimately with all of this it really comes down to discussing everything up front. These days I'm a lot more comfortable bringing up all the what ifs before the project starts, because at that point it's more just about putting it all out there and making sure everyone is on the same page So I'm regards to lower resolution or watermarking I think either is fine just I would mention it all up front. "So the way I typically work is, let's do 50% of the payment up front, to cover costs and get everything going, 25% mid way through the schedule, and usually I'll send 1K delivery for final approval. The way I work is I typically deliver final 2K DPX's after receiving final payment. I want to mention this ahead of time just so we're on the same page, as well as so you're aware to avoid any down time when delivery the final files. Let me know if this makes sense or if you have any questions. Thanks again, I'm really excited to jump on this project!" Or however you want to word it. But as long as everyone's on the same page, it's not a shock later on. When people don't clarifyany of this stuff and they just refuse to send final files until they get paid That's when it can cause friction especially when typically the end of a project is when you absolutely need to get things out immediately it makes it feel like you're more holding it for ransom. So I think just being upfront clarifying everything in setting up the terms that you're comfortable with whether it is water marking, lower resolution delivery or dozens of other options all work effectively as long as they know to expect it and it also helps with them wanting to get you paid so that way they can get their final delivery files themselves So yeah everything works It also just depends on the type of projects you're on sometimes watermarking isn't an option anyway because they are the middleman and they need to show stuff to their client where having your logo on everything is confusing. For instance I did a transformers movie where my client took on overflow from digital domain and if Allen McKay was watermarked all over the work that they're sending to digital domain it would probably have a lot of confusion So if anything lots of different options to choose from and the more that you can discuss with the client how you want to proceed and get them to agree the more smooth sailing it's going to be in the long run

Don't we all? I hope you found it valuable thank you again pantov

Hi Alaa, not all industries are the same. But perhaps the type of studios you're going for are. What you're describing is studios that have low budget and therefore have to turn work around fast. Which in the triangle of quality/fast/cheap falls in the fast and cheap area. Not the quality. I have a feeling you haven't looked hard enough for the 'quality' studios that embrace passion and want you to do good work. I agree, if you're doing fast cheap work it's not challenging or inspiring, the type of work you do is what motivates you to show up every day. A lot of people go home at night and make art, because they're not fulfilled in their day job. But if you find fulfillment in your day job - suddenly you have your nights free because you're filling that void. Keep looking and trying to find the right work place that encourages you to make great work and appreciates what you can contribute You got this!

@@AllanMcKay thanks allan and sure I will keep searching

haha that's an interesting one - moral code of ethics, I love it!

Yeah he made an appearance for a good few minutes! :)

@@AllanMcKay Thank You Allan for all you've done. Thanks to your tutorials, I understood FumeFX better.

Hi Ari! 1) You are absolutely right - this is almost ALL the time. And I don't personally think that most clients are out to screw over the artist. But because most of us are too shy to bring up money, because we don't want to 'rock the boat' we leave so much room for misunderstandings. I just got back from a meeting in Vegas, it wasn't my meeting but I was involved. And everything sounded completely on board, yet the discussion about money never came up. When it finally did (after the work was done) that's when it was mentioned that they thought it was entirely for exposure, and there wasn't money involved. The client ended up paying just to keep a healthy relationship with that artist. Which says a lot for them, that they didn't have the intent to screw anyone over. BUT all of that would have been avoided if somebody had just mentioned money, even once. Sometime's there's major misunderstandings and a simple few words "btw, what do you have in mind for budget for this project?" is enough to avoid a lot of bad blood and frustration in the long run. The last video I posted talked about working for free, and how I still will do projects sometimes where money isn't involved. So I figure I should mention that in regards to your question. Because, sure - there are plenty of projects where the client might say "there's nothing in the budget" but the important thing is to bring that up early, not way way way down the line. That way you can choose whether or not you want to do it. The reason I might take on a job for free, is because whatever I did negotiate is worth the equivalent in value in some other form. (ie. I would never recommend just working for someone as a way to get your foot in the door, and be taken advantage of.) But off the top of my head, I'm sure there's been plenty of times clients or myself or others have walked away because someone didn't agree on terms. But that's part of negotiating. But as one of my favorite books title reads "negotiating, starts with No' in other words you can't assume (most of the time) that when someone declines the payment terms you set, that the conversation is over. It's just on you to continue the conversation until both parties are happy. The key thing is - if noone ever brings it up in the first place, then that conversation never takes place. And then one side or the other is going to end up unhappy. Most problems get resolved simply by talking about it. But as you pointed out, a lot of the time we're too shy or scared to ever bring it up in the first place. I've been there too, plenty of times. 2) Early termination fee - Ari that's a really great point to make. This is kind of unrelated, but I did a project recently where I jumped on and there would be days I'd be told to stop working and go home, because we were waiting for client feedback, and then getting calls on weekends because they got feedback and wanted to know if I can jump back on it. I didn't mind because they were flexible about my hours, so I was flexible about theirs. And I'm also expensive, so it makes complete sense to not have me sitting around burning money. But it did make me think that if I were in a slightly different situation, where I was turning down other jobs specifically to be on this one, having my schedule start and stop randomly I probably wouldn't appreciate it, because I could have taken other projects if I had a better understanding of the schedule and how many hours I was expecting to be able to bill for. In my case I was just jumping on it for fun and I had plenty of other things to fill up the remaining hours of my day. But if I had planned for a 50 hour week and I was only getting 30 hours, whereas I could bill elsewhere for 50, then I would definitely be upset that I'm missing out on money because of the schedule being so sporadic. Just going on a bit of a tangent there because I know others might find that interesting. But in terms of termination fee, there's nothing set in stone. I think it would be something where you might look at opportunity cost. If you were to take on other projects, and expect to work 4 weeks on them, and you're taking on this particular project, if it were to end early and you miss out on a week of work while you get booked for another project - then you can run it by them that if they were to cancel the project early then you would want half a week or a week of pay, to fill in the gap while you book the next project. The only thing to consider, is if they have two people they need to decide on and one is potentially coming with additional terms that might cost a chunk of change, that they might choose the other artist, purely because there's less financial risk involved. Or to make it more reasonable, request compensation of 25% of what you would have billed for the next 1-2 weeks. There are definitely plenty of models. I don't have really much experience there with projects ending early and trying to get compensated for the tentative balance. I don't think I've personally held anyone accountable if a project gets canned, but I have billed on bigger projects for the remaining hours that my team was working on a project in the past if we had outstanding man days that hadn't been accounted for. A good example was the publisher THQ when they closed, we were doing a cinematic for them and had to halt everything. So I still billed out what was owed up until that point. But not the full amount or any additional. I think it's definitely a valid point, but probably one that comes down to whether your client agrees to pay it, some might some mightn't. I think it comes down to how long the project is for, as well as how well you can sell it (ie. communicate that you have other projects that are equal duration and you don't want to be left short because they ended things early) I know this response is a bit of a mouthful, but hopefully has some value in it! It's definitely some REALLY great points you brought up!

@@AllanMcKay Thank you, this is very informative and I'm sure others will find this insightful as well! I've only had to execute a 'kill-fee' once in my career, so I suppose it's not all that common. Nonetheless having a clause of 25% in an initial contract seems very reasonable (to me) and shouldn't cause too many issues for prospective clients. Better to be safe than sorry! It would suck to turn down 3-4 projects due to a promise of work only to have that pulled out from underneath.

Hi Jeff, either way I hope the advice helped! 👊

@@AllanMcKay to a degree, there is always a first. My last customer is trying to sue me for material waste, he has yet to pay. As for waste a 10ft board had to cut off 12" at most on the exterior of a building. To wrap a window with trim says I wasted over 300 in materials. Not true, 8 ft board with 78" with, 42" height only so much I can do Lumber comes in 6ft 8ft 12ft lengths

Haha pretty sure it's the same two people who dislike all my videos. Haters gonna hate 😂

@@AllanMcKay now that you've said it, I've actually noticed there are two downvotes on other videos as well. LMAO these people do make out their time just to spread hate 😂

Yeah that doesn't usually end well!

Hi Marco, sorry to hear you went through that I do think threatening lawsuits is more the last straw, because any smart person is likely to either resolve the situation, or completely shut off communication. Because at this point, anything they say to you, excuses or anything else is potentially going to get used against them. Also threatening with lawyers is kind of the same and threatening to hurt them, so it's the point of no return when you escalate to that stage. Sadly, there are times it's necessary, but I would always use it once I've exhausted any other option. There's never an assurance of a win but any good lawyer is able to review your case and decide if it's worth going after. 500 euro or 33% of the amount, if you're able to get 66% back it's better than 0%. But as you said, you need to be confident it will work, or if you're just adding more to the loss. This is why I mention in the video to bring all of this up in your contract, because then at least you can include that they must pay any recovery costs. So that 500 euro is an investment that in the end the employer must pay. As I mentioned, it really comes down to speaking to a lawyer, or multiple lawyers as a second opinion - to decide if it's worth going after. They'll want to see all the material or proof of the agreement you had with the employer. Both proof that you did the work, and the other party received it, but also proof that you agreed on money and any other aspects. If they feel confident - then they'll proceed. If they feel you don't have enough evidence they're not likely take on the case. Some lawyers work on receiving a percentage of what's returned. Which usually is steep, because if they don't win then they don't get anything. But it also means any percentage is better than zero percent. In the US I feel everyone sues everyone. I didn't realize until recently that it's not just the bad guys, it's pretty much everybody gets sued by everybody. And there are people who make a living trying to trap honest people in situations where they can then sue them. It's pretty crazy. Sometimes you have to just cut your losses and walk away, other times you can go after them legally. Sometimes the amount of time, and pain you go through to chase up $1500 isn't worth it, not so much financially, but in terms of time and also distress. But that's why I can't stress enough how important it is to check your gut at the start, you can typically tell the shady people pretty quickly after you've worked with enough of them. Chasing up money is the situation you end up in, but there is so much you can do early on to prevent ever getting into that situation in the first place.

@@AllanMcKay thank you for your time! i love your videos! sorry for the OT but i have a little business story to share and maybe it would be cool to see a video from you to learn from my following mistake about choosing and managing clients! :) I have a 5y old business on Architectural Viz. I started all alone and 80% of the time i worked alone. I would like to increase my business volume but i never had the right amount of money to invest to hire people. Anyway, for the first 4 years my archviz business went well, pretty well. Last year i made a mistake: i accepted a job with a very famous fashion firm (which has their own architecture firm inside) for a very good amount of money. The problem was that they didn't respect the timing at all. They added me more and more work to do (also more money for me, of course) but this forced me to say no to some of my top clients. So when i came back to my top clients they had already found another render man and now my business with them is screwed up. This put me in a 3 months in a row without nearly any job, i was reeeally afraid. Now the situation is getting better, but still not like one year ago. So i wonder if you could share your experience (maybe in a video) with managing your own business from the beginning. Did you started alone ? did you have already some money in your pocket to invest in your business to hire people ? how did you manage when you re alone and you have a big job proposal ? did you suggest to invest everything to upgrade your business (hire people, buy workstations). I m referring specially at the beginning of the business, when you really NEED money to eat and you can't afford to screw up with clients.. Thanks again man and have a great day!

First of all congratulations on receiving the offer I will say that 4 years experience is typically a filter if they like you they will hire you they mention experience required to discourage people who are not qualified from applying but obviously if you are good they will always hire you. Just make sure that you feel your work is at the level that you need to do the work if you are then it's not a problem and keep in mind you're always going to grow and improve but there's no better way to learn than on the job your first year in the industry you will learn more than all the other years combined so take the offer do the best you can and don't worry about not fitting the criteria it's there purely to help remove those who might not be at the right level yet I hope that helps and good luck!

@@AllanMcKay thank you so much sir i will do my best... 😍😍

Interesting, thanks for sharing Mae I was discussing with someone earlier this week about clients deciding to go with someone cheaper. I do think it's definitely worth while to keep the door open - sometimes you can plant the seed of doubt with clients who decide to go with cheaper options. And to make them not feel guilty about returning to you if the other contractor doesn't work out. I do think it's worth charging asshole tax if a client is being difficult. So charging more when they return, if they were insulting or sly about leaving you to go to a cheaper client is totally acceptable. But I always treat it on an individual basis. Thanks for sharing your insights!

Hahaha 😂