saying no thanks
Out of context: Reply #6
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- shellie0
When to say no? When the odds are stacked against you for a successful delivery. Your #1 goal should be maintaining a great reputation as a vendor. It will undoubtably bring you more business. It really does. But there's always two things that influence my decision when deciding what to put in my production pipeline.
1. Cash Flow: What Ideaist said. With the exception of #2 listed below.
2. Budget: The worst way to sabotage your business is taking poorly funded projects. Those tend to have the neediest clients. They're underfunded because they cannot afford you or do not fully understand the scope of work and industry standard rates. Either of those situations is a red flag and a very reasonable place to reject a project or client. Every underfunded project I've taken I've regretted. And, they can end up costing you more than you gain.
Production Issues w/ Your Client:
If you're building a studio and you really want it to grow, you need to staff a producer on your projects and account for the time for that person in your initial bid. Most freelance producers will help you craft your budget. I run an interactive production and development company, and when I white label for other agencies, I often do the Deck, SOW and budget for free. There's plenty of jobs that fall through during the bidding process and that doesn't bother me. I'm pretty sure there are freelance producers that would be happy to do the same with you. You'll eventually have a small stable of production resources from producers to overflow design or development talent that will allow you to stay nimble, keep costs down, and scale up and down quickly depending on what business you have coming down the pipe.Communicating to the client and maintaining a good relationship throughout a project all the way through delivery is a producers main function. If you are not a producer, that's fine. Not every studio owner can be the head of production, too.
My advice: Know your limitations and delegate. Staff your projects with the right resources and you'll put yourself in a position to win. If you want to be extra competitive and cut corners somewhere, that should be coming out of your cut as a reinvestment back into your company rather than deciding not to hire key roles (like a producer).
- << really like what you said about 'poorly funded projects'... you don't have to 'earn the right' to say 'no' to crap projects, folks :)PonyBoy
- Intelligent, thoughtful response!tesmith
- Clients will never think of you as a real studio if u staff projects like you're still a freelancer & not a business owner.shellie
- I personally never felt the need for a PM when I can do that myself.pinkfloyd
- I am a PM and a developer. So I dont hire one either. But not everyone is a PM, Producer or EP.shellie
- Very good advice Shellie!nocomply
- Yes, still good advicepinkfloyd