Workload and Scheduling

[glorybound]

How do you guys handle it? I have been taught that you don't turn down a job you want, you find a way to do it. At any given time I'll have a dozen active projects, which seems to work well since most of the time feedback is slow and I can juggle projects back and forth. To only work on one project at a time, turning everything down until I am completed with my current project, seems like a bad idea. I mean, I would need to charge a pretty penny if that were the case. Some of these clients are insane to think that I'll spend a week working for $200, but apparently, some people are doing just this. So, one project at a time and hope something comes in when you are done or juggle as much as you can handle?

[M.Max]

Manging many project can be hard.. Especially if you are working on them yourself... what we did at our studio is that we added one artist almost every year.. In 2014 we were only 3 but now we are 8... Doing it slowly is important as you don't want thing to get messy... .the work load almost triple but still mangable and my role as supervisor is to make sure that the work is done properly.. One hour per day is enough most of the time to look over what everyone is doing ..unfortunately I don't have control over accepting the projects, but I do my best ..this advantage you have.
Higher prices can help too and that what we follow with the new clients.. not too high only 20 to 30% higher..the good thing about having many clients that you can kick out some of them if you find them very demanding and we did that for a couple of big companies and it feels good I would say
We have 2 big studios that send us thier work secretly when they have overload and the clients are important..we don't get any kind of credit but they pay well.. So it is common if you don't wont to lose clients, but you need to find someone you can trust.

[Morbid Angel]

Its a tough business to be in and turning down work is the last thing you (or I) want. I have a rule never say no to work no matter how tough it is or how busy you are. You don't know maybe tomorrow one project you work on will halt for a while and you would wish you had accepted that other one. I usually have a few guys who help me in case of overflow work and I just oversee their work and manage the client and just charge for my time / involvement level.

[glorybound]

Okay, so basically as I see it. I do price a little higher and get most. Once in a while, I'll get someone who says that I'm crazy, twice as much as the next guy, which happened today. When all they are looking at is numbers than I can't compete, which is what I told this person today. I have been juggling 1/2 dozen to a dozen jobs at a time for a couple years and it has always worked out, but I can imagine I might not always get that lucky. It's like when they overbook flights, so they don't get stuck with cancellations. It seems to me if they want the best work possible they will pay top dollar and give you plenty of time, but that's not the case 99% of the time.

[francomanko]

You should ask those clients if they would be prepared to work for $200 per week.

[glorybound]

You should ask those clients if they would be prepared to work for $200 per week.

I don't think they have a clue what goes into a good image. I have worked with some strange people who think that they have me for as long as they want and somehow think that I have skin in the game. I just got done with an image for a real estate agent who contacted me Friday for a Monday morning ad deadline. I just sent her the image and her response was, "I'll review this with my staff and I'll get back to you sometime next week". Oh no you didn't just say that!

[glorybound]

How timely!

[Morbid Angel]

In some cases I had to go as far as showing a client a breakdown of how much the software / hardware cost me per hour (as I do have the math down for it) how much I charge per hour reflected on that and other various things and it turned out to be quite a bit less then getting paid at a studio where you were provided all those things already. This guy has a point, having some kind of document with outline of how long stuff takes and how much energy goes into creating content is certainly helpful. As a last point, nothing wrong with walking away from a job you gotta trust your senses

[glorybound]

I literally just got this from a potential client

Let me know what it will take to do the amazing job you do? If we can get to a happy medium with costs, I have a whole lot more houses I want you to do.. So give me your best price, and hopefully we can keep sending things over?
Thanks Bobby

[Morbid Angel]

You know I often hear such things too. I tell my potential clients that there volume of future potential work has nothing to do with the price. The price is fair for 1 or 100 renderings (with some exceptions of course). Empty promises are just that.

[glorybound]

This guy doesn't remember that I did a project for him about 3 years ago and he gave me the same speech.

[Pixelcon]

Your perceived value at $200pw is rock bottom. I doubt they care so much that a project is lagging if it's only costing them pocket change. Clients behave a lot differently when they're paying 20x more and every minute they waste is money down the drain. I think you need to think about a long term pricing strategy...

[piotrus3333]

I would say that for one-man-operations the most important thing is the right proportions between returning clients and new ones banging to your doors. loyal ones give you stability and piece of mind but will most likely not generate considerable income increase. that you get from new ones paying more for your images every year.
either that or outsourcing some work to increase output.
staying in one place for too long is going backwards. maybe it?s time for you to find promising apprentice?

[mitviz]

I was contacted recently by a company that wanted to do a really complex boat display space in Paris, near the ifle tower, the project had a great price, was say close to the 10k euros mark but the client first was rude, condescending and saying they just need amazing images and its not too hard, first red flag. Then saying they worked with two paris companies who only took their money and they were not pleased with the images, they were not good to tell you the truth and they spend about 6 months on them. they are near the deadline and need them in 6 weeks, second red flag. then ontop of it all, they wanted to use my name in the exhibition in exchange for not paying a deposit until they saw the first space images done and including all the revisions, and that space was the largest. I just listened for a minute or two more and then said sorry, I cannot help you, the woman got crazy then i just hung up the phone and they kept sending me emails after emails. Some clients are just not worth the shit sometimes no matter how much money they offer and under such tight deadlines, no way, i could have pulled it off easy but no deposit and rude clients, big no no