Ah, another month equals another rant.
So I made a new friend on facebook this week. He was a new photographer and wanted me to create him a logo. So we e-mailed each other back and forth this morning with ideas, etc.
So after about 6 e-mails in 4 hours, I gave him an estimate how many hours (5) it would take me to do it, with $20 an hour, a number of how many drafts he'll be able to see before deciding on which one to finalize, etc. So I basically gave him a quote.
He writes back:
"I wish you would have been more clear on how much you were going to charge. Since you never gave me a price in your first reply I thought you were going to do this for free. This is very unprofessional of you. Thanks but no thanks i'll take my business else where."
WHAT THE HECK?!
Apparently someone doesn't understand that not every project is the same therefore they do not cost the same. How can I have given him a quote when I didn't know what he wanted? He had a simple idea, so I could have done it fairly quickly with two or three different ways of executing the idea.
If I had given him a quote ahead of time, without knowing what he wants, I could've been charging him 25 hours for something that was only going to take 5. So I'm just doing something honest here.
It's totally different when I give them a quote and they say no thank you, they can't afford it. That's perfectly okay because it happens a lot. but to assume that it's automatically free? That's just stupid.
Needless to say, I deleted him from my friends list and blocked him from my facebook account. What a waste of my time.
He's lucky he didn't have a running website or model mayhem listed or else I would've been trashing talking him right now. UGH.
I have done many logos before. A few were paid with cash. Some are TF for photoshoots. But I don't do them for free. Such as the Style Pose Click graphics I created. That took me about 20 hours to do everything. I did it for because the host had shot me TF 6 months before the event, and I wanted to return the favor.
I'm negotiable. Such as trading a photoshoot or two for a logo.
Or even trading with MUA's. Such as they'll do my makeup for however-many shoots.
Or half trade and half cash.
If it's something I can use, I will consider trading.
But free? Not in this lifetime.
and free for someone I don't know? Not a cold day in hell, buddy.
Don't lose any sleep over it Kelly. $100 for a logo is cheap. Does he provide 4 hours of photography for free?
ReplyDeleteThank you Don and Kathy! :D
ReplyDeleteHe was a totally new photographer - so at this point he IS doing photography for free to build his portfolio. :/
However, if he was a well established photographer, I wouldn't mind doing a trade with him for a shoot (with makeup and hair) in exchange for a logo :)