Are You Charging Enough? [2023 Video Industry Rates Survey] EP #311 - Den Lennie

Hey folks, today I am doing something a bit different on the channel. Let's talk about raids. This is a topic that really gets discussed and for some reason a lot of filmmakers are reluctant to share what they charge with each other. And I think that's a huge mistake. And today we're going to address that head on. Over the next three or four weeks, I'm going to be gathering data from as many filmmakers as I can about what they charge for editing, shooting gear, any accessory services that they supply. So we can compile a report and share it with you on this channel so we get an accurate idea of what the going rates are around the world for video production in 2023. Hey, I'm Den and if you're new here, I have been a filmmaker for over 25 years, running a business for over 13 years and I've worked with a broad range of clients from Robbie Williams right down to your mom and pop store. And in that time I've seen a huge change in what people are charging in the industry and the disparity between what one person charges versus another. So what I want to do in the video today is actually address this and get your help to understand what the going rates are for freelance videography and production companies. If you are new here, please make sure to like and subscribe. Let's get on with this video. So how we're going to do this is I've actually got a survey in the comments below and I'll link to it up here. That will allow you to complete a the following categories. The more people that take part in this survey, the broader range we'll have of data points and the more accurately we can share what people are charging for various services. So the first question I'm going to ask is what edit system do you use? Are you using DaVinci Resolve? Are you using Adobe Premiere Pro? Are you using Final Cut Pro X? Or are you using something else? Then we're going to look into what do you charge for for a day of editing. Now a lot of people charge hourly and there's a video up here that explains why that's not such a good idea. But I want you to think in terms of what would you be charging for 8 hours of editing? So what would a one day edit fee look like? So if you do charge hourly, multiply that by eight and you'll get a number. Next up is shooting without kit. What do you charge for your time as a dp, as a shooter, as a camera person, for eight hours on set and Then I want you to look at what you charge for your gear. Now, if you actually bundle it all together, then work out which portion is shooting for you, which portion is gear, and I want you to let me know what number that looks like and try and convert it into US dollars so we can try and have some comparison rates across the planet. And what we're thinking about here is a simple shooting kit, camera lens, tripod, basic lighting kit, basic sound kit. Don't be going crazy. We're talking about your kind of commoner garden B roll interview lighting kit. What does that look like for you? What is your base go to shooting kit? And what do you charge per day for that? And then to make this kind of understandably comparable is I want you to identify what kind of camera gear you're using. There's a long list here, and if anything's not on the list, just put in the other category. We've been running the survey for a few days and we've actually got some comparables already. So I can see some trends already. But I don't want to kind of guide you in any way. I want you to tell me what you're shooting on. And that association with rates for the gear and what you're shooting on will really help to understand how profitable your business is going to be. And then this is the big one. How much money have you spent on camera gear and accessories in the last three years? That's going to give me a good idea of what your overall spend is on acquiring equipment versus what you're charging for a day. That will give us some interesting talking points around how valuable the investment you've made in your gear is and in some cases how not valuable that investment has been. And so I want to understand where is the money going in your business and how are you then charging that on to clients? Then we want to look at edit gear, you know, computers, storage, monitoring, audio monitoring, all of the ancillary bits and pieces, the boxes you need to plug things into to get signals out of the computer. What have you spent in the last three years? And then I'm going to ask you to tell me what your average monthly revenue is that you generate from your video business. That's going to help us understand some really key data points on how some companies are very profitable and others aren't. And I think this information is going to really help you understand how you can shift and change your business so you can make your business more profitable. And that's basically it. Now you can run this survey anonymously if you want, but also as a thank you for taking the survey. You can join my free Scale your video business community. We're about to start rolling out weekly support calls to help you really kick start your video business. And I'm going to be publishing the results in there in detail and we'll also make a YouTube video to share the results. So please go ahead, click the link below, take the survey, share it with your friends, share it on social the more data points we have, I think the more accurately we can look at the numbers and really understand what are the go to rates. And I think what you're going to find is you may be in a position where you're not charging quite enough and you don't have the confidence to charge more. And this survey is going to show you that there are people out there right now charging more for the same service you're delivering. And that I think is very exciting.

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