I read this article the other day and thought it was spot on, so here are my thoughts on it.

So here I am again, being asked to come up with a cost for a video where the variables are so wide, the parameters of production so great that the cost could literally fluctuate by 500% in either direction. The reason this is a dilemma? Because the new client has said that they “don’t have a budget in mind, so just quote whatever you think it will cost”.

Now this presents us with a problem. Do we quote low in the hope that we will be the cheapest and get the job based on that? Umm…doesn’t sound like we’d be offering the best work. Do we go in high with the aim of throwing everything under the sun at the project to produce the most amazing video ever seen? Hmm…but they definitely won’t have the budget for that… So what are we to do I hear you cry?

Well, the ideal situation when being asked to quote for a job is for the client to disclose their budget straight away so that we can all avoid these mind games. It is in everyone’s interest to approach a job in this way, because then the client gets a solution to their video production problem that will be the best they can get for the budget they have…and believe me, they WILL have a budget, of course they will. How else do you explain the answer that all too commonly comes back in the face of a quote; “oh, that is over our budget I’m afraid” …oh, so you DID have a budget all along.

These difficulties with budgeting never seem to crop up with timescales. They always know when they want the video finished by. Very rarely do they say “we don’t have a deadline, just tell us how long you think it will take”.

Now, unlikely at it may seem, I can see this from the clients point of view. If they don’t give you their budget up front, then in their eyes, they will get a load of completely different quotes from production companies, and can therefore simply go with the one that is the cheapest, thereby saving them money. Ah, but that is the problem, if something as creative and individual as video production was to be decided on cost alone, then we would all disappear down a spiraling mire of diminishing returns, with every company bidding to be the cheapest and the quality going down at the same rate. Now, clients very rarely decide on a production company on price alone. Creativity, experience, skill, friendliness…these all play a significant part as well.

So…. now we will requote based on the budget that we now know they have, which means producing a video to a level that will suit them. We will develop a video that works hard for their budget and one that will be the very best it could be for the money they have to spend. Problem is, we have all just wasted a week going round in circles to get to the point where we are quoting at the right level for the client’s budget.

What then, is our conclusion. That ultimately we could all have saved ourselves a great deal of time if we were all open about budgets cost and time from the start.

The proof that this is the best way forward is that in our experience, and from all the work we do, the best work and the work which gets done in the most efficient and creative manner, is for clients who have come to us with a budget, a timescale, and a rough idea of what they want. Everyone knows where they are, and the client gets the video they want, for not a penny more than they wanted to spend.