A wedding photographer's struggles

[Agetan]

Hi everyone, would like to seek the advice and input of shifus here. What sort of terms and conditions should a photographer set and specify to protect him/herself and the business? Thanks in advance for the advice!

Uhm... Thought we have cover that all the time...

The best way to protect urself is deliver as promise. Sound simple? It isn't.

U can ask lawyer to draft up an iron clad contract. But I doubt u will get a lot of jobs. People simply run away.

Hart

 

[daredevil123]

some hotels may already have some form of annual licensing I believe

here's some helpful links for you to do further research:
COMPASS - Permit

you may also wish to buy license from here:
Triple Scoop Music : Award-winning music licensing for photographers, videographers and creative professionals!

For music, there are actually 3 agencies you need to pay...

RIPS - Recording Industry Performance Singapore Pte Ltd - Home
COMPASS - COMPASS
MPS - Music Publishers Singapore

But as of 1st jan 2012, RIPS will collect the fees on MPS's behalf. If you have a website with music on it, and you also do montages and slideshows with copyrighted music, your annual cost a year is around $4500 to cover all three agencies.

 

[sjackal]

Uhm... Thought we have cover that all the time...

The best way to protect urself is deliver as promise. Sound simple? It isn't.

U can ask lawyer to draft up an iron clad contract. But I doubt u will get a lot of jobs. People simply run away.

Hart

Imho, the contract comes as the final stage of the booking process. By then the clients are already sold and decided on booking. Unless its an obviously unfair contract, clients are usually ok, especially my contract is actually tilted towards the clients advantage (as advised by lawyer) Don't be overly concerned if pulling out a contract will scare people away, as people enter into agreements everyday, signing up a credit card, a new mobile line contract, etc, and those are often more aggressive.

In my contract I cover intellectual rights, artistic freedom, limits of liability, force majuere and payment. The contract protects my clients as much as me.

It also sets a serious tone that they are dealing with a pro and not a hobbyist, so it promotes a relationship of respect and less 'anyhow', of course how you conduct yourself is more important, like Hart said the best way is to deliver your promise.

 

[Agetan]

Imho, the contract comes as the final stage of the booking process. By then the clients are already sold and decided on booking. Unless its an obviously unfair contract, clients are usually ok, especially my contract is actually tilted towards the clients advantage (as advised by lawyer) Don't be overly concerned if pulling out a contract will scare people away, as people enter into agreements everyday, signing up a credit card, a new mobile line contract, etc, and those are often more aggressive.

In my contract I cover intellectual rights, artistic freedom, limits of liability, force majuere and payment. The contract protects my clients as much as me.

It also sets a serious tone that they are dealing with a pro and not a hobbyist, so it promotes a relationship of respect and less 'anyhow', of course how you conduct yourself is more important, like Hart said the best way is to deliver your promise.

It really depends on what type of business that you do. For my type of business, I can make it a little more relax and fun so serious tone is generally not required. I rather think Contract is a way to manage client's expectation and put everything in writing what to expect, rather than "protection" when things goes wrong. Most people are reasonable and of course, depending the risk, you can use the contract to protect yourself.

The contract can be altered from time to time to keep up with your current prestige level. The higher level you attained, the more you can demand. Sure, if you are not worry about getting jobs anymore, your contract can favour you more then both parties.

There are people like myself walk away after reading through those contract before i buy something. Most business assume you won't read but just sign and worry about it later.

I tend to ask the service provider to give me their T&C so I can read them over if I need to be in contract longer or bigger amount or substantial emotion investment involve. I am a detail person and I like to know the specific details and I won't use any service that asking beyond their means in their contract. I really hates it if I have to go on very technical terms and jargon.

The more you word it legally, the more you demonstrate that you know about the legality of every aspect of the business so it will difficult to argue that you are not aware if the case was to proceed to court. I don't understand it all, so I don't try to make it that way. I do have a close friend who I ask advise as friends from time to time.

Life is complicated, don't over complicate it further with unnecessary thing, but communication is the best form of reducing the risk. Even better to put the communication in writing.

Regards,

Hart

 

[sjackal]

It really depends on what type of business that you do. For my type of business, I can make it a little more relax and fun so serious tone is generally not required. I rather think Contract is a way to manage client's expectation and put everything in writing what to expect, rather than "protection" when things goes wrong. Most people are reasonable and of course, depending the risk, you can use the contract to protect yourself.

Regards,

Hart

Yes that should be the fundamentals of a contract, an agreement of what to provide and expect. If client ever feels that the contract is a trap and if ever the service provider treats the contract as an 'armor' then something is wrong with the contract. By signing the service provider is commiting to a promise and commiting to responsibility to the client. It works both ways. And it is definitely needed to manage contingencies and undesirable situations. Point is I want to be responsible to the client for both good AND bad but not grossly or unreasonably responsible. Thus it is necessary. It is exactly what you said; putting communication into writing.

 

[TheoDR]

Thanks for the input, Agetan and sjackal!

 

[JasonB]

Sorry for starting this thread and then disappearing for nearly two months from CS, I went overseas for assignment followed by a long holiday and then a mad catch up of backlogs and client care. Again this reiterates the fact that to professional photogs (and many self employed persons) time is the number one most valuable and expensive resource.

Really glad that many good insights are shared here, obviously many of you are experienced pros with the right tune. It is no coincidence that we come into agreement (on the whole in general) because we all made our own mistakes earlier on somewhere and somehow all arrive with similar truths.

Be smart and learn from the mistakes of others.

In summary I want to say here is; love your work and your passion like an artist, but when it comes to business, be business minded, you need to profit not just to provide financial gains, but also self esteem and mental nourishment for your mind. Love your clients, but don't fall into the position of being abused or manipulated. If clients are abusive I say it is because you allowed them to be so because you failed to behave professionally that they did not accord you that level of respect. By not behaving professionally I am not saying you behave like a child or monkey but rather you lack confidence in yourself or your product, fear of commanding your right price and failed to establish your rules and operation principles, and allowed yourself to be pushed over. Drop that hobbyist attitude, if you still treat it like a hobby people are going to treat you like you are playing too.

Thanx to all replies again.