The Offset Podcast EP063: Pricing & Bidding A Job

I think the first thing, as I said, one size doesn't fit all.

And I think when it comes to figuring out your rate, I think one of the most important things, probably the most important thing is the market that you're in, right? You know, if you're in, you know, rural Idaho, that's a different market than say Manhattan, right? And that market also drives expectation, right? but it's a little like the weird thing about market is also it's a little bit um it's a little bit weird and sort of inverse right you would think that like hey la it's the heart of post-production everybody should be charging a thousand dollars but then market also plays in with saturation like let's talk about that a little bit because market is an interesting thing to build your numbers around because yes it matters but it's also kind of inversely weird

sometimes Yeah.

And, you know, the weird thing about looking at your market, whether that be, you know, market doesn't have to only be location, right? Especially now, there's so much remote work out there.

Market could be your circle of clients, the people you've worked with, right? Industry type or something like that, yeah.

but in reality it's kind of a combination it's where you live and work the clients you work with the genres and the the workflows that you do all of those kind of push and pull on each other to to make this amorphous blob of what is the market you're in and then every other factor we're going to talk about your experience your overhead costs your clients budgets all of those kind of It's almost your market is almost like a multiplier adjustment to that.

Right.

So like a colorist of huge experience that charges high rates is going to be different in certain markets or in certain sets of clients, et cetera.

But it's still going to be proportional.

So it's kind of like the market is kind of like a proportional adjustment to every other factor involved in your pricing.

Right.

If you are a colorist in a major metropolitan area with lots of overhead, your market rate might be different in, again, a small rural town because guess what? Rent's not $1,000 a square foot.

It's, you know, $20 a square foot.

But the

ratio between like your rate in Manhattan and then your rate in rural wherever between you and somebody who is junior and less experienced, that ratio is probably going to stay around the same.

Yeah, true.

And I think one of the ways of kind of inquiring about market is just to have conversations with people, right? Asking colleagues and peers, like, hey, what are you charging

for this? What's your

kind

of rate?

And people are much

more open about that these days.

Than they used to be, for sure.

I think that's probably a good thing.

I'm not suggesting that anybody do things that are nefarious, like call a major facility and go, hey, I have a fake project.

I think the first thing, as I said, one size doesn't fit all.

And I think when it comes to figuring out your rate, I think one of the most important things, probably the most important thing is the market that you're in, right? You know, if you're in, you know, rural Idaho, that's a different market than say Manhattan, right? And that market also drives expectation, right? but it's a little like the weird thing about market is also it's a little bit um it's a little bit weird and sort of inverse right you would think that like hey la it's the heart of post-production everybody should be charging a thousand dollars but then market also plays in with saturation like let's talk about that a little bit because market is an interesting thing to build your numbers around because yes it matters but it's also kind of inversely weird

sometimes Yeah.

And, you know, the weird thing about looking at your market, whether that be, you know, market doesn't have to only be location, right? Especially now, there's so much remote work out there.

Market could be your circle of clients, the people you've worked with, right? Industry type or something like that, yeah.

but in reality it's kind of a combination it's where you live and work the clients you work with the genres and the the workflows that you do all of those kind of push and pull on each other to to make this amorphous blob of what is the market you're in and then every other factor we're going to talk about your experience your overhead costs your clients budgets all of those kind of It's almost your market is almost like a multiplier adjustment to that.

Right.

So like a colorist of huge experience that charges high rates is going to be different in certain markets or in certain sets of clients, et cetera.

But it's still going to be proportional.

So it's kind of like the market is kind of like a proportional adjustment to every other factor involved in your pricing.

Right.

If you are a colorist in a major metropolitan area with lots of overhead, your market rate might be different in, again, a small rural town because guess what? Rent's not $1,000 a square foot.

It's, you know, $20 a square foot.

But the

ratio between like your rate in Manhattan and then your rate in rural wherever between you and somebody who is junior and less experienced, that ratio is probably going to stay around the same.

Yeah, true.

And I think one of the ways of kind of inquiring about market is just to have conversations with people, right? Asking colleagues and peers, like, hey, what are you charging

for this? What's your

kind

of rate?

And people are much

more open about that these days.

Than they used to be, for sure.

I think that's probably a good thing.

I'm not suggesting that anybody do things that are nefarious, like call a major facility and go, hey, I have a fake project.