Have you ever had someone says to you:

“Can I have a discount”?

This is a common question.

Have you ever had a situation where a client says can I have a discount?

Well here's what you say to them.

My preferred solution is “why do you want a discount?”

And say nothing. Let them do the talking.

Some days people just ask for a discount.

What you can say is, “we don't tend to discount because our pricing is very fair and it's well considered from the outset”.

The only time in which we consider discounting is if there was a volume of work that would allow us to scale our opportunities and replicate some processes and that could reduce our costs internally.

If someone wants to make 5 films over a set period then we're happy to consider discounting the fifth film by a percentage.

But in general, I don't like to discount.

I just think it kind of sets the wrong tone from the outset.

And when you push back and say you know “why is it you want...

The Long Term Mindset you Need to adopt to make it as a Filmmaker with Matt Jeppsen

Business for Creatives Podcast #EP02 - Matthew Jeppsen

Watch the rest of the interview over at: https://youtu.be/KPZwYuk3bc8

Listen & Subscribe on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/den-lennie

Subscribe on iTunes : https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/business-for-creatives-podcast/id1435564760?mt=2

Many people endure taking more work than they can handle. How do you go about taking a full month vacation but still earn a decent amount of money?

Today, you will learn how to work within your capacity and escape working with resentment and burnout. Matt Jeppsen shares actionable steps that every filmmaker must know. He discusses the tricks on how to live a less stressful life, balance work and family, all while protecting yourself as a business owner for future projects.

What you will learn in this episode is…

• How Matt overcame the shift from adaptors to...

How to handle price objections from clients

What you say to a client when they say “oh, you seem expensive”?

So you submit a quote to a prospect then you either

 1. either hear nothing

or

2. they say “hey it seems a bit expensive”.

What do you say in that circumstance?

Well, again it generally comes down to the relationship and the pre-frame.

But what you can say is: “well when you say expensive, compared to what”?

That's a great way to respond.

Open up the conversation.

You know a deal is never a black-and-white, yes or no decision.

There are usually layers and there are potential reasons why they have to stick to a certain budget.

But if you don't open up the communication have the conversation and it's very difficult to actively find a way to find that a middle ground.

So ask them what it is they're looking to achieve?

Why is they think is expensive because generally what that means that...

How to respond when someone says: "Hey we have a cheaper quote, can you match it...?"

Today I want to talk about what you say if a client says "hey we've got another quote can you match it?"

You've probably been in the situation where a client's come back to your prospective client and said look we've got another quote and it's a bit cheaper and can you match it?

The question is what do you say in those circumstances and it very much depends on your relationship with the client.

What I tend to find is and not enough film makers and creators have a strong enough relationship with a client upfront. So when it comes to discussions around price, everyone drops their trousers and goes "yeah I'll match the price".

You've got to consider what do you want from the project.

If you're someone that offers a very unique service then why should you discount your prices?

If you're competing with someone who's going to deliver a lesser service why should you compete with them?

The...

How to get paid on time

One of my clients in The 6-Figure Filmmakers asked this question of the day and I thought it was really gonna be helpful to share it with you and it's all about getting paid.

Now generally speaking creatives are not very good at asking about the money upfront and this is where I think most people are making a massive mistake.

If you have a conversation with your client at the early stage when you're discussing the creative and you say:

“...look Bob and we're a small company we're not a bank, we promise we'll deliver you an amazing product and we'll do it on time and we'll do everything that you've asked for in your brief. Can we just ask one thing in return? would you make sure we get paid on time? The 50% up front and then we deliver the final video the remaining 50%. We don't to wait a week ten days two weeks because it really affects our cash flow. Is that cool? Is that an agreement we can come to upfront? “

And generally speaking, people will...

How to qualify a prospect up front before you start doing any work.

I was on a coaching call last week with one of my F8 Accelerator clients.

We were discussing the amount of time he was spending putting proposals together and then not always winning the jobs.

One of the things we discovered was that there just wasn't enough pre-qualification going on. If you don't pre-qualify a prospect upfront you are driving blind 

What is pre-qualification?

In its most basic form it's simply asking the client do they have a budget in mind?

In most cases, they won't tell you how much they've got.

But what you can say is look we're probably not going to be the cheapest quote you're gonna get. So what are you looking for you're looking for speed are you looking for quality or are you looking for the price because generally speaking, you can pick two of the three.

Now we tend to work at the higher end of the market think of us as more of your Mercedes-Benz than your Ford Falcon, so just let me...

NEW PODCAST IS LIVE!

What You Need to Know about Scaling your Business with Charle Valher

Business for Creatives Podcast #EP01 - Charley Valher

Watch the rest of the interview over at: https://youtu.be/KPZwYuk3bc8

Listen & Subscribe on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/den-lennie

Subscribe on iTunes : https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/business-for-creatives-podcast/id1435564760?mt=2

#001 - What You Need to Know about Scaling your Business with Charley Valher

Do you want to know how to grow your business that does not require you?

Success is about mindset first, strategy second, and then implementation third.

The final step is accountability.

Accountability to yourself, and accountability to those who depend on you.

I've been running training programmes for the last eight years around the filmmaking space. Firstly, in technique, around specific camera use, and then I evolved to coaching on lighting technique, filming technique drawing on 25 years of experience to help others overcome some other hurdles to creating great looking content.  Every year the business has evolved based on industry trends, technology shifts and market demand.

As with all business, the only real constant is change.

This is something I've come to realise is completely normal in business. If you embrace it, can actually be your friend. 

First of all, you have to become comfortable with this discomfort that, when running a business, nothing is ever constant. What worked last year may not work this year. In fact,...

You Can Only Be Right or Wrong in Hindsight - One of my favourite quotes from last week's Gary Halbert Memorial event in Las Vegas.

I invest in my own education...  It is a non-negotiable in my view if you are serious about growing your business.  

It's exactly why  I flew halfway across the world last week, spent over $9179.56 on attending an event to spend three days in a room with some of the sharpest direct response best copywriters to ever live...

I learned a long time ago that learning anything in business is not free and you generally get what you pay for.  I have never regretted investing in my own personal development and while the returns are not always immediate, they always end up being profitable.

Gary Halbert was highly regarded as the world's greatest ever direct response copywriter.

Last Tuesday marked what would've been Gary's 80th birthday, and Gary's sons, Bond and Kevin along with their mother Nancy Halbert have gathered in Las Vegas...

Whether you run a regular business or are a creative business owner if you are reluctant to embrace marketing then your business is doomed...

Marketing (even for creatives) is simply about putting the right offer in front of the right audience at the right time.  Word of mouth is marketing but its not scaleable or predictable. 

In order to grow a business you want predictability in all areas...

• If you have no leads, then its unlikely you will make sales...
• Without sales you have no cash….
• Without cash you cannot invest in marketing to grow leads and sales….

It's a vicious cycle at times...

And... if you are not clear on who you serve you cannot target your marketing effectively.

Being clear on your business purpose and then targeting your ideal clients with relevant information and offers is the simple strategy to growing your creative  enterprise.

Whether you choose to accept it or not - marketing is everything and everything is...