Arch viz business partnering

[powerandrubber]

Hey I'm in the process of going freelance full time. I have a couple businesses in town interested in partnering with me by sending rendering jobs to me via there contacts in exchange for a "finders" fee which will probably be a percentage. One business is a print shop and the other is a drafting firm, both could potentially subcontract a lot of work to me. I'm just trying to figure out what a fair percentage would be. Is there anyone in this situation? I'm thinking 20% off the top of my head (especially if they take care of the billing) but I really have no idea how to go about this.

[glorybound]

Commision

Will they get residuals? If they don't then %20 sound okay. If they get residuals then I would say %2.

[Infrared digital]

If they manage the flow of information, quoting, invoicing etc.. then I would suggest 15%.

Get paid on delivery - don't deviate from this or you could go broke rapidly.

[percydaman]

I agree. 20% is way too high, even if they essentially do more then just bring person a to person b.

[Infrared digital]

To your understanding, what is the extent of their role in each project going to be ?

[powerandrubber]

Thanks for the feedback. The extent of their role is still unknown at this point, I will have meetings soon to discuss the details. They may want a small role just throwing me referrals or they may want to offer rendering services as a part of their business and I would be a subcontractor. Either way they possess something very valuable to me: a huge existing client base (also bigger and more lucrative projects). Especially in the short term until I get on my feet. If they are willing to take care of advertising, billing etc., which I personally hate dealing with, then I would gladdy reward them well. But it is hard to nail down a number as to what that's worth. Probably worth more to me than a lot of people, I'd like to stay busier doing the actual rendering work even if it means a reduced hourly rate.

By the way I'd still have and pursue my own clients in which I'd retain the full hourly fee, subcontract work would just be additional. (not bound to any exclusive agreement)

Interestingly I've made a good contact with someone doing 3D printing (physical models). I will make that a service of my company and subcontract to them. (commission plus payment for digital modeling time) They will have clients interested in renderings in addition to phys models in which case they would subcontract back to me. So that could be a great mutual partnership.

Another point brought up at cgarchitect is to make sure to have direct contact with the end client to facilitate information/data exchange. Doing all this through a 3rd party would severely slow a project and would probably result in conflicting correspondence possibly doing a lot of damage. Which brings up another complicated point: after the initial project set up by the 3rd party, what is 3rd party's involvement/commission in the next project? If I didn't involve them I'd feel like I'm steeling the client. If I did involve them what's the correct way to compensate them? They shouldn't get a full commission for finding the client because the client has already been found. Complicated...

One thought in figuring commission would be to break it down by task:
x% finders fee
x% billing
x% media delivery
etc.

[Da_elf]

anyone want to move to barbados and partner up with me? loll

[Sawyer]

I would just do a % for a finders fee the rest I would pay by the hour. Billing doesn't really take much time especially if you have a good system and you need to be in charge of that yourself. Why would you give a % for printing? A marketing company is worth a lot and if that works out it could be a great benefit. With printing you wont always have a say where your work gets printed so while having a good company handy is a great idea its not something you should be tied down to. What if a client wants to print it in house or can get a great deal with your printers competitor?

Invoicing is part of having a business and you need to take control of it just like you need to have budgets and keep your receipts. Of course this is just my opinion and others may have experiences that speak differently. I did a project in August that went through a 3rd party for billing purposes and I have to say its not a nice feeling. I have never enjoyed working through a company to do work for someone.