Everyone's situation is vastly different than everyone else's. This applies to clients as well as engineers. When the needs of one persons situation conflict with the needs of another persons situation, conflict can arise. This is true in relationships, partnerships, politics, and even business. It's especially true in freelance business. This is why it's important to be choosy about the clients you accept money from. If the values and needs of the person you have just accepted work from don't match with your own, then it might be a very rocky business deal with a lot of added stress that isn't necessary. Allow me to elaborate.
I'm a professional mix engineer. I've decided to close my studio to work from home, and have set up a mixing room there. I did this so that I could make mixing my second priority, and make caring for my family my first priority. My twin teens have autism, and require 24/7 one on one supervision, which makes mixing take a good amount of time for me. It took me a little more than 2 weeks to get to the editing and mix of one song, which I finished just this morning. This pace would cause many to turn their noses up at the very notion of working with me, and that's fine with me. Audio is priority #2, and family is #1. I still want audio work, but I'm not going to just accept every project that someone asks me to mix. I have a few criteria that I need to make sure the potential client and I are crystal clear on before I consider a new client.
1. They absolutely cannot rush me. I charge per song on mixing, and I do that because I could find 5 or 10 minutes here or there to sit down behind pro tools before being called away to handle an autism related mishap. I may not find time to get back to the pro tools rig for 2 days. I have enough stress, so worrying about client deadlines is not something I'm willing to do. This is made crystal clear up front.
2. They pay in advance. Nothing irks me more than a client who is unwilling to pay once a project is finished, especially after I've put in a lot of time and focus into their project (time I could've spent with my family).
3. They leave me be til I'm ready to post a mix. Once I've got the first mix finalized, we can talk about revisions and other directions. But if you're constantly coming at me to ask me how it's going, you're essentially rushing me. Refer to point #1.
4. They are committing to the tracks they send me. I can understand if something NEEDS retracked because of the multitude of reasons things need retracked. But if you're coming at me with constant indecision about whether you should've done this or done that, you're forcing me to stop work until you make up your mind about what you want. There's no point in me mixing any further til all of the elements are in place, and if you're considering making changes your progress will be stopped until you're ready. The amount of things on my plate are many as a stay at home dad to special needs teenagers. If your indecision forces me to pause working with your track while you evaluate what you want to do, I'm going to put you in the back of the line of work and move on to the next project. This will cause your tracks to take longer, which isn't what any of us want.
With the above in mind, why would anyone hire me?
Simple. They want ME on the faders. I've made efforts to brand myself as the valuable commodity, instead of my facility. When you brand your facility as the valuable commodity, you give the impression that any engineer could come into that facility and do the job. When you brand YOU as the valuable commodity, you create brand loyalty around having YOU behind the faders. This ensures clients who will seek YOU out, and who will be more than willing to accommodate any sort of special circumstances (like my home life) making the process slower than with other engineers.
By being choosy about who I let hire me, I eliminate a lot of unnecessary stress from my life. I've got enough of it as it is. Not everyone is in my situation, but this is the criteria that is necessary for ME. It keeps people from hounding me over the progress of their mix, which will cause me to go into panic mode if I'm worrying about a deadline for a client while being kept away from the mixing room by my family needs. It keeps me from worrying about people flaking out on the payments. If I don't get paid, none of the time I spent away from my family was worth it. It gives me the freedom and time to evaluate every detail of the tracks they've sent me and bring them up to my standards with editing, mixing, and lots of attention to detail. And it keeps me from having projects waiting on the back burner while the client gets their tracks in order. My back burner is quite full, and I need to keep it decluttered. Every one of these pieces are important in my personalized formula for making magic for clients. They are all equally important. If you don't fit one piece of this puzzle, I'll refer you to a fantastic engineer who I know may be able to accommodate your needs and desires. No harm no fowl. I just need to keep my stress about client work to a minimum so that I can bring my maximum focus and effort to my family AND to my clients.
You should be choosy about your clients too. You don't HAVE to take a project just because someone asks you to. If someone asks you to change your rate and cut them a deal, that's a red flag for me to send them somewhere else. They don't value ME, and instead would like me but aren't willing or able to pay for me. If they aren't able to pay for me, then they can come back when they are. If they don't value ME, then I don't want to be a part of their project. When the person doesn't value you and your contribution, then any monkey with a pro tools rig could do your job in their eyes. That kind of client will be nothing but trouble, especially for a person in my situation. Being choosy is a great way to make sure you're keeping everyone happy, including yourself.
Friday, June 27, 2014
Saturday, June 7, 2014
Home Studio Economics. Pt 1?
For the first post in this blog, I thought I'd discuss how to keep a firm footing while starting your career as a freelance audio/video producer and engineer.
Currently, I work out of a home studio. I work in a spare bedroom of the house, where I have set up an editing system for audio and video. Having recently closed Skyline Sound Studios, I decided to work from home so that I could be a stay-at-home dad to disabled teens who need care. Staying at home allows me to care for my family, while having the ability to mix and edit enables me to continue my career.
So now that I find myself coming full circle and working out of a home studio once again, I'm analyzing my game plan for how to ensure the success of this home operation. This is less about the craft of music production, and more about the economics of working in an environment like the one I'm in now. I know many reading this will be attempting to grow into successful production careers, but may not understand the basics of how to run the business side of things.
So lets talk about the first concern that I have currently as a business owner. 1. My operating expense. Well, that's minimal. The electric bill is paid out of the main household income, as well as the rent, other utilities, internet connection, etc. I have no commuting expense, because my office is 5 feet from where I sleep and 20 feet from the kitchen table. Although I work in a noisy home, I have ways of overcoming that (mixing with headphones is something I've become good at, despite what naysayers will naysay). I have a lot of interruptions at home due to my at home duties as a parent (the family comes first, but I can find time to work on projects), so I've dropped my hourly charge and opted for a flat rate that is high enough to ensure that the project is worth my time.
You see, home studio engineers have a lot of advantages that bigger studios don't. Extremely low overhead, lots of flexibility, and no commute, all add up to equal more flexibility and a much lower stress level. If you have a home studio, and live in a home with an established income already, then odds are you're not worrying about paying the bills. If you are, then ignore this, find jobs, and use the money to get caught up. But if you have the home expenses completely taken care of, then the income you make as a home studio owner can be completely earmarked for whatever you wish it to be. You can pay off debt with it, go on vacation, save up for a car, buy new gear, save it for emergencies, etc...
At my home studio, I have everything I currently need. The only thing I'm currently lacking is great acoustic treatment. The first priority for the money I bring in to the business through projects I get will be to treat this room as well as possible. If I'm going to be mixing in here, this space has to be acoustically sound. That's a problem with most home studios in square rooms (like mine), but it's not impossible. Besides, as I have stated I've become quite good at mixing through headphones. I've analyzed the biggest hinderance to the quality of my product, and I can work very well once I overcome the acoustics in this room. If I had other gear that was absolutely vital (and not just wanted because it's really cool), then I'd earmark the money for that purpose and get that purchase made.
But once I have the acoustic treatment taken care of, the next thing I must focus on with my earnings is an emergency fund. No new gear until i've saved 6 months of living expenses back so that the house can continue to function. This money will be coming from the earnings I get from my projects.
The reason this is so important is that it lowers risk. I could go ahead and spend the money I earn on the setup I have, and then I'd have nothing as a risk buffer. If the main income sources in the house dry up, then I may be forced to enter the work force working a shitty low paying 9-5 job to keep the children fed. This would force me to abandon my clients, which would send them to my competition. This would also make me bitter every time I looked at all the awesome stuff I had to mix with that was going unused. The stuff would be fun, but without clients the stuff is useless. Having an emergency fund set back to ensure that the food, rent, utilities, insurance, and general debts are paid off will allow me to keep working without worry if the main household income sources did dry up.
The reason that I'm opting for 6 months is simple. My income from this operation is going to be variable. I'm taking care of disabled teens, and for me to run out of money and need to enter the workforce would mean that they lose a caretaker. This would be a major blow to my family, and my ability to care for them while pursuing my career from home. With 6 months saved back, if the main income sources dry up, all I have to do is start pulling the amounts of the regular paychecks from the emergency fund so that the bills can remain paid. Meanwhile, I continue business as usual. Any money I would bring in during the use of the emergency fund would go back into the emergency fund, allowing us to float a little longer if it was needed.
The money would all go into a free checking account. This would be used as a very basic profit & loss system. Income goes in, costs of running my business come only out of that account, and what's left is my profit. I merely look at the balance, and that's a summary of the profits I've made. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, it just needs to be something you'll actually use. You have to resist the urge to look at the balance of that account as anything OTHER than emergency money until you've got the emergency fund set aside and fully funded.
After having 6 months of earnings saved back (if you don't have kids, and have more than 1 income in your house, then 3 months might make more sense for you), then it's ok for me to consider using earnings from my efforts to buy new gear and upgrade my tools where needed. Having that money saved back also reduces the financial impact of equipment failure! There's always the risk that the iMac will die on me, and if I didn't have the cash reserved for a new one, I'd be in a pickle. I might have to use a credit card to get a new computer, as well as a new interface and a new DAW if those are needed. The problem with that is the risk involved with debt. If I used credit to buy my tools, then I would always be worried about making the payment. If I had a slow month, and didn't get any work, then I'd have no money to make the payment with. You can't predict when you'll have a slow month, so why add that kind of stress to your life? If you can't make the payment, you'll be forced to sell some things to make the payment. Then you lose some of your things, which is never fun since all of this was avoidable by merely being patient and using cash. You also open yourself up to needing to abandon your entrepreneurial efforts and your clients so that you can get a regular job that pays the debts. Why risk your efforts as an entrepreneur? Debt is bad, m'kay!
By using retained earnings as an emergency buffer, I avoid needing to use credit. I keep the freedom to remain at home if money gets tight, and I keep the pressure of credit card payments out of my life. If you want to make your freelance efforts your full time job, then you too will need a cash reserve to act as a buffer between you and the money problems most small businesses face. After all, if you've got 6 months of living expenses saved back, you could cut your ties with your day job and give your freelance career a real go full time while living comfortably for 6 months! Imagine how much freedom that brings!
Now go make some music!
Currently, I work out of a home studio. I work in a spare bedroom of the house, where I have set up an editing system for audio and video. Having recently closed Skyline Sound Studios, I decided to work from home so that I could be a stay-at-home dad to disabled teens who need care. Staying at home allows me to care for my family, while having the ability to mix and edit enables me to continue my career.
So now that I find myself coming full circle and working out of a home studio once again, I'm analyzing my game plan for how to ensure the success of this home operation. This is less about the craft of music production, and more about the economics of working in an environment like the one I'm in now. I know many reading this will be attempting to grow into successful production careers, but may not understand the basics of how to run the business side of things.
So lets talk about the first concern that I have currently as a business owner. 1. My operating expense. Well, that's minimal. The electric bill is paid out of the main household income, as well as the rent, other utilities, internet connection, etc. I have no commuting expense, because my office is 5 feet from where I sleep and 20 feet from the kitchen table. Although I work in a noisy home, I have ways of overcoming that (mixing with headphones is something I've become good at, despite what naysayers will naysay). I have a lot of interruptions at home due to my at home duties as a parent (the family comes first, but I can find time to work on projects), so I've dropped my hourly charge and opted for a flat rate that is high enough to ensure that the project is worth my time.
You see, home studio engineers have a lot of advantages that bigger studios don't. Extremely low overhead, lots of flexibility, and no commute, all add up to equal more flexibility and a much lower stress level. If you have a home studio, and live in a home with an established income already, then odds are you're not worrying about paying the bills. If you are, then ignore this, find jobs, and use the money to get caught up. But if you have the home expenses completely taken care of, then the income you make as a home studio owner can be completely earmarked for whatever you wish it to be. You can pay off debt with it, go on vacation, save up for a car, buy new gear, save it for emergencies, etc...
At my home studio, I have everything I currently need. The only thing I'm currently lacking is great acoustic treatment. The first priority for the money I bring in to the business through projects I get will be to treat this room as well as possible. If I'm going to be mixing in here, this space has to be acoustically sound. That's a problem with most home studios in square rooms (like mine), but it's not impossible. Besides, as I have stated I've become quite good at mixing through headphones. I've analyzed the biggest hinderance to the quality of my product, and I can work very well once I overcome the acoustics in this room. If I had other gear that was absolutely vital (and not just wanted because it's really cool), then I'd earmark the money for that purpose and get that purchase made.
But once I have the acoustic treatment taken care of, the next thing I must focus on with my earnings is an emergency fund. No new gear until i've saved 6 months of living expenses back so that the house can continue to function. This money will be coming from the earnings I get from my projects.
The reason this is so important is that it lowers risk. I could go ahead and spend the money I earn on the setup I have, and then I'd have nothing as a risk buffer. If the main income sources in the house dry up, then I may be forced to enter the work force working a shitty low paying 9-5 job to keep the children fed. This would force me to abandon my clients, which would send them to my competition. This would also make me bitter every time I looked at all the awesome stuff I had to mix with that was going unused. The stuff would be fun, but without clients the stuff is useless. Having an emergency fund set back to ensure that the food, rent, utilities, insurance, and general debts are paid off will allow me to keep working without worry if the main household income sources did dry up.
The reason that I'm opting for 6 months is simple. My income from this operation is going to be variable. I'm taking care of disabled teens, and for me to run out of money and need to enter the workforce would mean that they lose a caretaker. This would be a major blow to my family, and my ability to care for them while pursuing my career from home. With 6 months saved back, if the main income sources dry up, all I have to do is start pulling the amounts of the regular paychecks from the emergency fund so that the bills can remain paid. Meanwhile, I continue business as usual. Any money I would bring in during the use of the emergency fund would go back into the emergency fund, allowing us to float a little longer if it was needed.
The money would all go into a free checking account. This would be used as a very basic profit & loss system. Income goes in, costs of running my business come only out of that account, and what's left is my profit. I merely look at the balance, and that's a summary of the profits I've made. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, it just needs to be something you'll actually use. You have to resist the urge to look at the balance of that account as anything OTHER than emergency money until you've got the emergency fund set aside and fully funded.
After having 6 months of earnings saved back (if you don't have kids, and have more than 1 income in your house, then 3 months might make more sense for you), then it's ok for me to consider using earnings from my efforts to buy new gear and upgrade my tools where needed. Having that money saved back also reduces the financial impact of equipment failure! There's always the risk that the iMac will die on me, and if I didn't have the cash reserved for a new one, I'd be in a pickle. I might have to use a credit card to get a new computer, as well as a new interface and a new DAW if those are needed. The problem with that is the risk involved with debt. If I used credit to buy my tools, then I would always be worried about making the payment. If I had a slow month, and didn't get any work, then I'd have no money to make the payment with. You can't predict when you'll have a slow month, so why add that kind of stress to your life? If you can't make the payment, you'll be forced to sell some things to make the payment. Then you lose some of your things, which is never fun since all of this was avoidable by merely being patient and using cash. You also open yourself up to needing to abandon your entrepreneurial efforts and your clients so that you can get a regular job that pays the debts. Why risk your efforts as an entrepreneur? Debt is bad, m'kay!
By using retained earnings as an emergency buffer, I avoid needing to use credit. I keep the freedom to remain at home if money gets tight, and I keep the pressure of credit card payments out of my life. If you want to make your freelance efforts your full time job, then you too will need a cash reserve to act as a buffer between you and the money problems most small businesses face. After all, if you've got 6 months of living expenses saved back, you could cut your ties with your day job and give your freelance career a real go full time while living comfortably for 6 months! Imagine how much freedom that brings!
Now go make some music!
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