Short spoken advice for video professionals: specialize in either a specific method (a type of video) or an industry (a type of client) to avoid commodity-based pricing. Being "in a category of one"—offering something unique that others don't—prevents direct price comparison and enables higher rates.
You need to specialize in either a method or an industry, a method being some sort of video that you're really good at and an industry being some sort of type of client that you're really good at working with. You need to specialize in one of those two things if you want to be successful. You're a jack of all trades. You're going to be stuck in commodity based pricing instead of being in a category of 1. Commodity based pricing is when they can compare you to any other video person out there, which is why you're probably getting walked down in price right now. Being in a category of one means that they can't compare you to anybody else because they have no one to compare you to. And so if your offer isn't the same as everybody else's, that's when you can charge higher rates because you're in a category of one, or you offer something that those people don't offer.
