After doing numerous wedding videos we have learned that the hardest part of the business is not the filming, editing, or even getting the clients, but getting that final payment. It’s not that clients don’t want to pay, or that they are dodging us, rather we made a couple vital mistakes in our contracts.
Mistake #1: Under Estimating How Long it Would Take
We under estimated the amount of time it would take us to finish each video, and get each client out of our lives. We said that we would finish each of our clients’ videos, and have a rough draft in their hands 5 weeks from the day of their wedding. The problem was not that we couldn’t finish the video in that amount of time, but that we started getting overwhelmed with past projects, especially from clients who couldn’t make up their minds on what they might or might not want changed in their videos. This leads us to our next mistake.
Mistake #2: Not Placing a Time Limit on Requests for Revisions
We would give our clients a draft DVD to view, and then give us some feedback on things they may or may not want changed. We did this to insure our clients were happy with their product, but also to give our clients an added bonus to sign with us back in the sales stage since we had not been around as long and had to find an extra edge. The problem was we never made any stipulation about how long they had to make up their minds about revisions, so we had to constantly hound people to finish off the project. This gave us added pressure because while this was happening we were also trying to finish editing more recent weddings. Then when we started to be late in finishing these newer clients’ videos we got some more heat, and after finishing their draft videos late we couldn’t really put much pressure on them for being late, because we were late first, but because of clients like them beforehand!
Lessons to be Learned:
#1: Do not under estimate how long it will take you to finish each video, and always give yourself a buffer, because life happens
#2: Do not give your clients an unlimited amount of time to review their draft, and stipulate a maximum number of revisions you’re willing to do, and quite frankly I’m not sure a draft is necessary, if you’re good you shouldn’t need it (unless you screw something up). Although a draft can be a handy way of making sure you didn’t forget something, because trust me the bride won’t.
#3: Be extremely careful with all terms of every contract you ever sign, and if you’re the one creating it, consider some professional legal advice.
As I write this message now, we are currently trying to hound almost half of our clients for final revisions on their DVDs, and still need to collect somewhere between 15-20% of our wedding revenues from summer 2005, so take my advice, please.
