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Hi guys, I'm in sort of a bind. I'm a digital artist (3d mostly) and have been doing studio work for some time now. Just recently, I broke out and started to do freelance work nearly fulltime, which has been great. Like an idiot, though, during one of my first freelance jobs, I did not ask for any sort of deposit, and gave a decently high quality jpeg before getting my payment. They are a company in a different part of the world than me (me US, them UK. Though they are a smaller studio, have done a lot of high profile work for major release films, so I felt a bit of naive security there. I finished the work for them in July, and still have not gotten paid. Since the work has been done, I sent them an invoice, they took down my bank info for a wire transfer, but never went through with it. Eventually we agreed that they would just pay me through paypal since it was instant and easy, but they still have not, and that was nearly a month ago. I asked if there was any trouble, to which they replied "Just forgot, sorry, it will go in first thing tomorrow), which was 3 weeks ago. I sent another email last week asking them to please call me if there is a trouble with the payment, so we can figure out a solution, and as of yet they have not replied to me. They were very prompt about replying to me almost daily with ideas/critiques while the wok was in progress, but come pay time, it's becoming very difficult to get a hold of him. I feel that I am being jerked around, and at this point it has nearly been 4 months. For reference, there is a signed contract stating that I should be payed ($900 flat right) upon completing the work. What should I be doing to get my money? I have definitely learned and have been getting %50 deposits on every commission I've done since them, however $900 isn't chump change I can just chalk up to a loss.
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Oct 25, 2013 02:08
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Oh My Science posted:You need to call a lawyer and have him write a mean letter or at least threaten to do so. Are attorney fees in your contract? They should be. I'll have to double check if attorney fees are part of the contract. It's one that they wrote up, that was quite simple and laid out the important info. What's good, is that there were clauses in there that covered me as far as naming the exact amount they are to pay, and the work they would be paying me for. I checked up on their site tonight and haven't seen them use it anywhere, since I was doing character design work that is quite early in the production process. Unfortunately, it is something going to be used for a TV spot that could take months, if not years to actually air, so due to NDA agreements, I would have no idea if anything was up until way later. I talked to a relative of mine that does a lot of big business work, and he told me to write a more direct email detailing "needing the payment within 24 business hours, or I'll be forced to take further action" etc etc. I do not want to cut ties with the company because I really enjoyed the work, however maybe I'll just have to get over it and accept that they're not somebody to be working for.
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Oct 25, 2013 03:51
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Thanks for the replies so far guys, super helpful. I ended up writing a slightly mean, albeit true email giving a timeline of our emails, and I think it really put into perspective how long payments been delayed. I also put a "I'm going to need the payment in the next 24 business hours, or I'll have to take this further" spiel at the end. To my surprise, he emailed me back within less than 20 minutes of me sending that email. I don't like having to be pushy,but apparently it works. His reply said something to the effect of "I totally understand and am sorry. We don't really use PayPal here, so I had to get it up and running. The wire transfers not going through were more your fault than mine, but I understand your impatience and will hopefully have this resolved for you tomorrow." He sent me another email this morning saying that he is waiting for a confirmation code for PayPal from his bank, and would email me when he got it. I'm going to said him a generic "thanks, looking forward to it email" first thing in the morning so he knows I'm still waiting for it.
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Oct 26, 2013 09:47
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Yeah, I definitely need to draft up my own contract rather than rely on the clients contract. So as of right now, I got a reply saying I should get the payment by Saturday, after the PayPal processed with their bank. I still haven't gotten it unfortunately, so I am going to send one final email here. If that doesn't work, I guess I'll just have to deal with. Ive gotten half up front for every project I've done since then, as I started freelancing more and learning. Stuff like this makes freelancing a huge bummer sometimes though. What is it about our legal system that makes it so difficult for contracts to be enforced? It's weird to me that there is no easy way for me to go "it clearly states in our signed contact that this amount is to be paid out upon completion. They broke that" and then somebody does something about it.
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Oct 28, 2013 12:22
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Wellllll, there is a happy ending. I woke up this morning to an email from PayPal saying I got the payment in full. The slightly forward "going to need the full amount or else" email definitely worked, so there's that. I've been using Invoice Machine for really quick invoices, but I liked the one that was recommended here that sends "you're overdue by so and so days" emails. Either way, I'm a happy camper. Thanks guys!
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Oct 28, 2013 21:40
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I read through the OP and didn't see this answered, so hopefully it hasn't been asked a ton of times. With the help of this thread and persistence over the years, I've been able to live solely off freelance work. I initially used freelance work as a side gig while working at studios, but these days it's consistent enough that I need to be a little more efficient/optimize my methods. I've used PayPal for a long time to receive payments, and it's worked pretty well, but getting so many transactions through there is getting messy. They take a pretty What're you guys using to get paid by clients for your freelance work? Thanks!
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Nov 24, 2015 08:37
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Hey guys; So, I've managed to get myself into a bit of a predicament that after a few years of freelancing I shouldn't have gotten into, but ya live and ya learn! Basically, an employer contacted me about doing 3d modeling for a transformable figure that would taken from 3d into into injection molding. After he explained the details of the project, we agreed on a project rate (to be paid 1/3 at the start, 1/3 after parts are sent off to printing, 1/3 after injection molding is confirmed successful) and a one month deadline. The contract stated that if I were to bail on the project before it were finished, I would pay back the initial 1/3 I got. This is a huge red flag that I can't believe I missed, but the project was straightforward and I knew I'd get it done easily, and the rate for the one month was good and he fulfilled the amount that I asked for. Here comes the problem. As my idiot self should've anticipated, there are a LOT of variables in the project that I were told there were not going to be in our initial hiring phonecall. Stuff that has taken a one month project and turned it into 3 months of annoying back-and-forth work that still isn't done yet. I set up a talk with him today to renegotiate the contract, but realistically what are my options if I ask for more money and he just says no? I think I have leverage because the reason the project has been drawn out is because I was told initially that the entire figure was already designed and cut up into the proper transformable parts with full dimensions for me to just translate into 3d, and realistically all of the parts were "sort of" designed with maybe 50% of the dimensions to work off of. So re-designing these parts is out of the scope of work we initially agreed on. He also keeps mentioning that he will be sending me parts to reference that he never ends up sending me. This was a pretty stupid newbie mistake that I haven't made in awhile, but the decent month rate + pretty cool project really suckered me in. SVU Fan fucked around with this message at 21:35 on Feb 3, 2016 |
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Feb 3, 2016 21:33
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Hey everybody! I need some advice on how to go about adding a price to a vague job description. I am a sculptor, and was commissioned to do some album artwork for an up and coming singer with a ton of big backing (they are independent, but managed by A&Rs from major global labels). I've got my rate and all of that and we're good on that front, but after having met, they want me to handle a ton of other stuff based around the release of the album as well. Things like, consultations on creative ways to release different songs, visuals for the live tour, and other things that aren't really "projects", but rather, vague things that are sometimes small or big, but still take up my time/require work on my part. Anybody ever been in a situation like this/know how I should go about adding a $ value to these different tasks? Thanks!
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Jun 3, 2017 20:18
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kedo posted:Phone posting so I can't go into great detail, but if I were you I'd estimate hours for as much of the work as possible and give a set price based on that scope of work with a addendum that states any additional work outside the scope will be done at your (increases) hourly rate. This was super helpful, thanks! As a follow up to this, is there a document I can write up that protects my creative ideas/concepts? For example, let's say I discussed concepts for artwork/ways to release the album/tour info/etc., and they decide my rate is too high or they want to go a different direction or something. Is there a way I can protect myself from them going and using my ideas without me?
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Jun 18, 2017 19:45
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KittenofDoom posted:Someone saw an illustration I did and wants to make a limited-run shirt for their coffee shop (maybe 100 shirts). They've already agreed to use a contract, and I have some terms in mind already (retain ownership of artwork, limited run, royalties, contract re-negotiation for future use etc.), but I have no idea what to charge for it. easy formula: hours worked x hourly rate = project price. if it takes you 20 hours for the work, and you think you are worth $50/hr, you charge $1000.00 for the project. there are lots of variables obviously (if you have to buy a certain software for the project, if you have to travel at all for the work, etc), but that's generally a failproof way of starting out. licensing an already created piece is a whole different ballgame, but most of the same principles apply. congrats!
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Jun 26, 2017 05:59
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