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Various jobs involve video production, and the price can vary greatly, depending on the type of video project. As a professional in the industry, it's crucial that you communicate your value to your potential client. One of the easiest and best ways to do this is by creating a high-quality quote using Skynova's quote software.
Skynova gives you the option to send your prospective client a private link to your quote that they can accept online. When they do, you can change the quote to an invoice right away. No one has to download a thing. We let you do everything quickly and easily on the cloud, so you can save time and do more videography while having less busywork.
Creating quotes with Skynova is way quicker than using Microsoft Excel, Word, or painstakingly writing them out by hand. All our templates are fully editable, customizable, and look great. When you're done, you can simply print or download your quote as a PDF.
We make sharing and responding to quotes painless for you and your clients. You won't believe how much time you save making quotes with us. Your clients won't believe that working with you can be so smooth. If you're in video production, check out the template we've made below just for your business:
You're a videographer, not an accountant. Every minute you spend doing paperwork means less time making films and money. When you add up the time you spend making quotes for all of your clients, the impact on your revenue can be substantial.
Still, there's no way around administrative or accounting tasks. If they don't get done, you don't get paid. However, we can make doing them a breeze, so you can use your effort for storyboarding, filming, and editing video projects.
This step-by-step guide will give you insight into how you can streamline the process of creating quotes using Skynova's video production proposal template. Your clients will love your quote's sleek, professional design.
The first ingredients a good quote should have are the names of your business and client. Both names should be prominently displayed where they can be easily seen. In the "Your Name" field, write the name under which you do business. It could be your name or a separate business name if you work for a video production company. To avoid confusion, make sure it's the name your client knows your business as.
The "Customer Name" field is for the title of your potential client. Just like your title, it can be their personal name or the name of a business. If you're making a film for a wedding, your client will likely be an individual, but if you're making a compilation of testimonials for a business, you'll typically use a corporate name.
The "Your Address" and "Customer Address" fields can also be personal or business addresses. Some clients appreciate having contact information they can reach you at. You might decide to add your contact information under your address.
You can use an email address instead of a physical address if you'll be doing most of your business online. It's your choice whether you like to give out your phone number. It can be a nice touch that makes your clients feel taken care of, but there's a risk that some clients may abuse it.
Before you send out your quote, go over your information and your client's information several times. It can be really embarrassing to get a client's details wrong. It looks unprofessional. Worse, it can come off as disrespectful. If you mess up your information, a client might not know who the quote is from and throw it away or send payment to the wrong address.
A professional logo can do wonders for making your video production company stand out. The quality logo communicates professionalism to your clients and says that "you are for real."
Skynova gives you the option to upload a logo on our quote template page. At the top of the template page, use the "Show Customization Options" tab and click the box that says "Logo." Beneath that, you'll see a box that says "Your Logo Here" in blue to the right. Press "Browse" and search your files for your logo.
Use a quality image. If your picture is grainy or blurry, it can take away from the way you're trying to present your company. You want your logo to pop for your client.
You should always be able to quickly access your quotes. They'll help you deal with things like price changes, disagreements, and legal issues. The best way to keep all of your quotes organized is to give each one a unique number.
When choosing a number for your quote, you can use any number that you want. However, it makes sense to use a numbering system that you can easily discern. The classic way to do this is to work sequentially. If you feel like starting low makes you seem less experienced, you can start with a higher number like "101." The important thing is that you know the order of your quotes.
In response to your quote, a lot of clients will send purchase orders (P.O.s). P.O.s are documents that state a client's willingness to pay you for a particular service. Skynova lets you quickly add a P.O. number to your quote.
To do this, go to "Show Customization Options" at the top of the quote template page. Click the box next to "P.O. #." Type your number in the new text box.
When your company gets a P.O., you are required to send back an invoice, which Skynova lets customers do with the push of a button. This feature alone can save you a ton of time over making invoices from scratch.
It's also important that each quote is dated. The date can be when you create the quote or the day you send it. With the speed of our template, they'll likely be the same day. By looking at the dates of your quotes, you'll be able to see things like how long it's taken for a client to respond to you.
If you sent out a quote a long time ago, but a client still hasn't responded to it, you might need to contact them again to see if they're still interested in doing business. If it's been a very long time, or if you've contacted them several times and they still haven't responded, you might conclude that they've gone a different route. You'll still have their initial quote to refer to if they ever do contact you, but now you can focus on more reliable clients.
There's a lot of specialized equipment that videographers use to complete projects. You may consider some equipment like cameras or tripods to be expected and decide not to charge extra for them, but there are other items you might want to charge for. It's wise to include any materials you plan on using in your quote.
For example, an interview project might require you to use a lavalier microphone instead of a shotgun microphone to get higher-quality sound. Projects requiring certain types of shots can also call for specialized equipment. You might be doing videography for a magician and need a crane to get a bird's-eye view of their hands.
Under "Item," use the downward arrow and choose "Product." Below "Description," write the name of the material in a way that your client will understand. For our example above, you might choose to use terminology like "wireless microphone" instead of "lavalier microphone."
You should always consult your client before you add charges for materials. Some clients can be upset if you move forward without asking them if they're OK with paying more.
With Skynova's quote template, you can choose your own unit prices (the cost of each item) and your quantities (the total number of an item). After you do that, we'll total everything up for you.
You have a couple of options when it comes to deciding how to charge for your labor. If you choose to charge hourly, you'll get a more accurate payment for the time that you put in, but you will have to pay attention to the clock, which can take you out of the moment when you're making a film.
Charging a fixed rate by the project can be easier, but if a task takes longer than you initially thought it would, you could miss out on income. Include your expected charge for labor in your quote.
Type the number of hours you worked in the drop-down list under "Items" and click "Hours." Write a description for your labor like, "Post-Production Hours." In the "Unit Price" field, list the price per hour for your labor. For "Quantity," list the number of hours you worked. Skynova's template will take care of the math.
If you charge a fixed project rate, pick "Service" in the "Item" list. Fill out the "Description" field. The "Unit Price" will be the total cost of the service, and the "Quantity" will be "1." If the job involves multiple parts, your quantity could be more than "1." For example, if your client needs you to make separate video projects for three products to feature in a marketing proposal template, your quantity would be "3."
Everyone loves discounts, and offering them strategically can be great for your sales process. You can offer discounts on everything. Try using discounts for things like loyal clients, new clients, and referrals. Clients want to feel like they're getting a deal. Giving them a special price can really help you grow your client base.
Our quote template gives you the ability to include discounts easily. Select "Discount" from the "Item" drop-down list and describe the discount as something like "New Project Referral Discount" or something else the client will understand. Use "Unit Price" to enter the amount of the discount. It will show up as a negative number, like "-100.00" and taken out of the total automatically.
There might be particular charges on your quote that your client could get confused by. If you're afraid they won't know what something means, you can explain it in further detail using our quote template's "Notes" feature.
For example, if you're making a narrative short film for a client, you might need an assistant director (AD) to be part of your team. In your notes, you could explain their role, which includes things like making film production schedules, scheduling deliverables to the distributor, and making sure everything is safe and organized on set.
Another way to use the note section is to charm your potential clients. A thoughtful thank-you or note about how much you enjoyed working with someone can really make a client feel appreciated.
Our video production quote template can be a powerful asset in getting you paid for your video project from pre-production to the post-production party. Here are a few more tips that can help you maximize your business.
Filmmaking is a collaborative process, and many professionals in it like to work with people they've worked with before or people they've heard good things about. Sometimes, you can even secure your next film production gig while you're working on your current one. Making money as a filmographer is all about making these types of connections.
It's great to know how to do all kinds of video production, but when people search online for film professionals, they look for very specific skills. Choose your best skill and advertise yourself as that. Do you like making product videos, doing cinematography for short films, or directing commercials? Having a specialization will help your website rank on Google.
Tax laws are a little confusing for people in the film industry. For example, if you film a wedding, you have to charge sales tax if you give your client a physical copy of your work, like a DVD. If you send your work in an electronic format by email, you don't have to charge sales tax. Know these kinds of rules so that you can charge adequately for your services.
As a professional in the video production industry, you'll have to get good at sharing your vision with potential clients. Video is a major form of online advertising, and clients want to know your plan for making them sales. Skynova's free proposal template can be a huge help in this area.
When you work in video production, writing your own quotes and other administrative tasks don't excite you. You want to be out in the field, capturing the best footage to tell meaningful stories.
Skynova can make all the boring stuff, like creating and sending quotes, estimates, invoices, and proposals, faster and easier. Our templates are free to download, customizable, and printable.
We'd love to help you get your billing out of the way so that you can focus on turning the films of your dreams into reality.