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Main » 2014 » January » 15 » Getting Paid for the Gig
6:29 AM Getting Paid for the Gig |
Getting Paid for the Gig Youve launched your voice-over business. You market
your demo. You network. You audition. You get gigs. Now all you have to do is
get paid.Union or Non-Union?For AFTRA and/or SAG union talent, getting paid in a
timely fashion is a benefit of union membership. Its built into the union
contract. Union talents fill out a form at the session and then submit it to a
paymaster (someone contracted with the union to handle talent payroll). The
paymaster ensures that the talent is paid within a time period specified by the
union contract.Non-union talent and financial core talent doing non-union work
are totally responsible for collecting whats owed to them. Financial core, if
you arent familiar with the term, refers to less than full union membership.
Financial core union members have paid the portion of dues and fees dedicated
strictly to collective bargaining, excluding any activity not directly related
to collective bargaining. You might call it union lite. Financial core members
do not have voting rights and cannot hold elective office in the union, but they
also do not have to abide by union rules and regulations.Types of ClientsSo,
what payment policy should you, the non-union talent, adopt? Just as the
Internet has changed the voice-over business by making the home voiceover studio
possible, the Internet has changed collection by making it possible to take
payment electronically. PayPal is just one of a number of the online options
that make requesting immediate payment possible, instead of sending a paper
invoice through the postal system and then waiting for a paper check to be sent
to you. But before discussing methods of accepting payment, lets look at the
various types of clients out there and the payment policy that may best apply to
each one.Most businesses base their payment policies on assessment of risk.
Assessing the risk you take with a client usually is a matter of simple common
sense. If an individual contacts you through your web site and asks you to
narrate a wedding video or tribute to a deceased relative, then probably it
would be wise to request payment up front before delivering the voice over. If
the individual balks at paying up front, then you can agree to voice the script,
play the voice-over down the phone line to prove you did it, get paid, and then
deliver the voiceover.Working with ad agencies and production houses usually
means giving up a little control of payment terms. You can request payment up
front, but most ad agencies and production houses expect to be invoiced. You can
put due on receipt on the invoice, but that is often interpreted as 30 days net.
There are some excellent ad agencies and production houses out there that pay
promptly, but very often you will have to wait 30 days or more for payment. Be
aware: many smaller ad agencies and production houses have adopted a policy of
not paying you until they get paid. In the ad biz, this means you can wait a
long time for payment.(On a personal note, after waiting a year for payment from
a small agency for a VO Id done for a local electronics and appliance retailer,
I finally reached an agreement to accept a color television in lieu of cash. A
couple of months later, the retailer went out of business, a victim of serious
negative cash flow! Did the ad agency ever get paid? Good question.)Doing voice
work directly for mid-sized to large corporations usually means having to bill
on a 30-day net basis. This means, in essence, that you end up offering 30 days
credit interest-free. The good thing is the risk of not getting paid is usually
low. Will some companies push payment out 60 days and even further? Yes, but
again youll eventually get paid.Payment OptionsSo, lets go through the
individual types of clients and your payment options.For individuals, request
immediate payment. As described above, play the completed voiceover down the
phone to prove it was done and then ask for payment. Once payment is made,
deliver the voice over.For direct work with larger companies, ad agencies, and
production houses, request immediate payment upon receipt of invoice. If they
say their policy is 30 days, try for 15. For long-form voiceovers involving many
pages and a large talent fee, try requesting 50 percent up front and 50 percent
upon delivery of the project.Remember everything is negotiable. You can even
barter for part of your fee. Remember how I received a TV in lieu of cash? Of
course, keep track of your receivables (whats owed you). When a client does not
pay by the due date, send a statement. Make a polite but firm phone call
requesting payment Isabel Marant. Be
proactive. Most people pay their bills. But for many clients your invoice will
not be top of the pile, so to speak.Payment via the NetNow, back to collecting
via the Net. PayPal is a very popular site for collecting or sending payments.
Just visit and sign up. Clients can pay by credit card or through electronic
transfer from a checking account. Youll receive an email telling you when the
transfer of funds has occurred. This makes it perfect for collecting an up front
payment. As soon as you receive the email, you can deliver the voiceover. and
are two other online payment processors you can check out, too.Want to take
credit cards? Youll have to open a merchant account in order to accept them
huanghaiyan121. It will cost you a fee to open the account, a monthly fee, a fee
for each transaction, and a percentage of each sale. Do an online search for
credit card merchant accounts and compare costs and services to get the best
deal.Direct wire transfer is a third electronic payment option. Set up a
checking account used exclusively for wire transfers. You supply the client with
your checking account number and the banks routing number, and the client
transfers funds directly from his account to yours. It works well and can cost
virtually nothing depending on the deal on the account you get from your bank.
One of my TV imaging clients pays by wire transfer. I email an invoice out of my
QuickBooks and usually the next day the money is in my account!With a payment
policy in place, youll gain greater control over how and when you get paid. Hey,
it might be a really fun business, but its no fun not getting paid.Happy
collecting!© Peter Drew
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