How much should you charge for sport videos?

hey guys i'm ish and here's my question

are you at that stage where you're

starting to get requests for mixtapes

and hype reels and recruiting videos and

you're really excited about it but you

have

absolutely no idea how much you should

be charging for them

well you're in luck because today i'm

gonna take you through a process that

will help you figure out

exactly how much you should be charging

for your sport videos

and make sure you stick around till the

end because i'm gonna give you a few of

my very own

negotiation tricks

in my opinion there are four things you

need to consider

when deciding how much to charge a

potential client

experience equipment expenses

and time so let's go through each of

them individually and then i'll explain

how they all fit into a system that i

use to charge my clients

let's start with experience you're

obviously never going to make as much

money when you're just starting

than when you're 5 10 years into your

career that's just a fact

but the key is to know how and when to

start charging more money

which i'll explain a little bit later

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another thing you want to consider in a

similar way is your equipment

you definitely want to charge your

clients for using your camera kit for

example

but the one that you start with is not

going to be worth as much

as the one you'll be using five years

later and that's not just a fact

it's also a very serious advice because

if you allow me to go off topic for a

second here

you should only buy equipment that you

can afford

don't buy anything on credit unless it's

for a guaranteed job that will pay it

all back

otherwise if or should i say when you

have a couple of dry months with nothing

really going on work wise those payments

are gonna sting

and they're gonna come with a bit of a

smell

smell of regret the next thing you need

to consider when charging a client

is the potential list of expenses that

might come with their particular

projects

for example will you need to pay someone

to help you

will you need to rent extra equipment

like expensive lights

or even just buy something as cheap and

stupid as chalk

and how far is this job from where you

live because if it's a long drive

you might want to include traveling

expenses anyway my point is that these

are all things to consider

so that you don't end up spending money

while you're supposed to be making money

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and finally the last thing to consider

when you're charging a client

is your time more specifically how much

do you value your time

it's a very important question and just

like the chicken or the egg

there's no right or wrong answer it just

depends on where you are in your career

and what your goals are

take me for example when i arrived in

australia nine years ago coming from

canada

it didn't matter that i already had 10

years of experience by then

because i was starting from scratch in a

new market where i didn't know anyone

didn't have any contacts no network and

even my experience didn't mean much

because it was all with companies that

no one in australia knew anything about

so i was very much so like a beginner

just starting in sports videography

like many of you watching this video

right now so i was applying on jobs for

a while with no luck whatsoever

and at that point i could have sat at

home thinking i am not lifting a finger

until i find a job worthy of my 10 years

of experience

because i know my worth and i won't

accept anything less

but instead i went the other way i

thought since no one wants to hire me

i might as well focus on freelancing by

targeting the clubs who i know

desperately need help with their videos

because i've seen it on their website

and their socials and i was even willing

to turn into a drug dealer and give them

the first taste for free

and i wasn't gonna do just a basic edit

job because i wasn't making any money on

it

every single client who accepted my free

offer

got some of my best work because i knew

that those three videos were going to be

my calling card

not only with them but with every other

team that was going to see my videos

and about a year later i was already

running my own business dedicated to

sports videography

and working with some of the biggest

teams in australia so my point is

that at that time my biggest asset was

time i didn't have any money i didn't

have any fancy equipment

all i had was time and lots of it so i

was willing to completely devalue my

time

and invested into projects that i felt

were going to eventually

give my time more value than ever and it

worked

but let me tell you another story

because a lot of people watching this

video

don't necessarily want to do this

full-time some of you already have jobs

full-time jobs and they're happy to do

this sports videography thing as a side

hustle on the weekend

and in that case you shouldn't devalue

your time a lot of people in that

situation make the mistake of

thinking that because they have a

full-time job already it's okay to make

videos on the side during weekends for

other people for little to no money

but trust me if you're good at what you

do and people enjoy your videos

because they're so cheap they're gonna

keep asking for more and more

and then you'll be in a situation where

all your free time is spent working on

other people's videos

just for a few bucks and once you start

spending two three

four or five weekends in a row doing

just that

that good old smell of regret is gonna

creep back in

so in a side hustle scenario because you

don't have much time left after your

family time

personal time work time whatever you got

going on in your life

then you should definitely value your

time and don't undersell it

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you

okay so now that you have a better idea

of how to value your time

let's see if we can translate that into

actual money figures

so typically videographers tend to offer

half day rates and full day rates a good

place to start

would be to look at how much the

professionals in your area are charging

and basically decide where you want to

position yourself

in comparison to them based on your

level of experience

and like i said earlier don't forget to

also factor in your equipment

a good way to do that is to look at

video equipment rental places in your

area

and see how much it would cost to rent

your camera kit or a very similar one

for a day my advice would be to charge

about fifty percent of what they do

that way when you quote people instead

of giving them one big number that's

going to scare them off and make them

think that all that money is going into

your pockets

you can break it up by saying i'm

charging you that much for my time

that much for my equipment and that much

for my expenses

that way it's a lot easier for people to

accept a big number

because they understand what it's for

and if they decide to do their research

and see if they can get a better price

on equipment

they'll quickly find out that you're

giving them a pretty good deal

and remember earlier when i said that

it's okay when you're starting to keep

your prices low

but the key is to know how and when to

start charging more

well here's another trick for you what i

would do as a beginner

is quote similar prices as the

professionals in my area

and add an extra 50 or 40 or 25 percent

discount on top

that way the client is obviously super

happy about the discount

and it also educates them about the true

value

of the video so when the day comes that

the discount either gets smaller or

disappears altogether

they're happy with your work they'll

most likely just be thankful that they

got a discount for so long

and just pay the full price so to

summarize everything so far

you need to decide how much your time is

worth find out how much your equipment

is worth add in all your expenses break

it all down into a quote

to which you can apply a discount if

necessary

one last tip before i let you go it's

also very good business to have

different tiers of price rates for

different types of clients

for example if you work around high

school football you should have

a rate for individuals who come to you

directly but you should have also a

slightly higher rate for schools

and a higher rate for businesses because

they all have different budgets that

they handle very differently

so if you take me for example have a

rate for teams

a different rate for leagues and

federations and another rate for brands

and businesses

and don't be afraid to start with a high

number by the way don't sell yourself

short because you're scared that a

potential client will say no

if they've seen your work and they're

still talking to you that means that

they like what you do

and they want to work with you so if the

price is too high for them

they're much more likely to try to talk

to you into a lower price

than they are to just straight up move

on to the next videographer

and when they start that negotiation

that's when you hit them up with that

drug dealer mentality

and drop a 15 or 20 percent discount for

their first video

anyway i hope this video was helpful to

you guys if you want to learn more about

the ups and downs of my sports

videography career

i suggest you watch this video about

some of the biggest mistakes i've made

throughout my journey otherwise thank

you again for watching

my name is e and i hope i earned the

privilege of your time