Knowing Your Worth: When It's Time to Say No To Working For Free

**It happens in every business to the best of us, but for the purposes of this article, I am focusing on those in the arts and entertainment industries.

It has been long said that in order to "make it" in this business you have to pay your dues. There are many who have clawed their way to the top of their respective careers to celebrity status, others who are working talent, and others who are still finding their way. They've acted for free, danced for free, directed for free, produced for free, all in the name of real-world artistic education.

While it certainly is good to do a few good-faith projects to get your feet wet, especially if you've never done anything before, there comes a time in everyone's career when you need to start getting paid.

The inherent problem with artists is that we are more creative than business-minded and so in an attempt to live a creative life doing what we love, we are often okay with working on spec, even if we may hold some resentments later.

"Well, at least I get to work on this project or appear in that cool play. I'm lucky to have gotten the opportunity."

True, we are all lucky when someone gives us the opportunity to shine using our god-given talent, and it's also true that if given half a chance, many people could become more successful than they ever imagined, however, that doesn't mean you have to work for free to get there or that every glittery opportunity will end up a successful, lucrative venture FOR YOU. There does come a time when enough is enough and you must use your judgment to discern when exactly that time is for you.

Know your worth:

You must find the courage to leave the table when respect is no longer being served.

Recently my team and I came across not one, but two such encounters within a three-month timespan. Upon googling us you will notice that we thus far have only co-produced one feature film, that hasn't been released yet as it is traveling through the festival circuit. All of our other films are shorts, theatrical productions, commercials, and various corporate video productions. There is no mystery here. It is clearly stated on our site.

For some reason, to some, a boutique production company is synonymous with stupid or desperate (perhaps a bit of both). They are sure that our "podunk" production company would be so lucky to be working on their project since we've never done anything of this magnitude and therefore would be just dying to do it for free. They actually stalk the internet searching for smaller companies to pitch their projects in hopes the company will make their dreams a reality.

So, let's dive into these scenarios so you can see how this is nothing more than a trap to get you to do the work these wannabe "producers" don't want to do and with absolutely no guarantee that you'll actually have the job when or if they do get funded.

"I HAVE AN IDEA AND I WANT YOU TO BE MY PARTNER"

A well-known businessman had an idea. He wanted his idea to be turned into a feature film. He had no script, no outline, just a bunch of interesting facts regarding a topic he was passionate about. He wanted to approach a foreign government for the funds to begin pre-production, something to the tune of $500K on a potential 15M production. In order to get this initial seed money, he was looking for a company to "partner" with to prepare a pitch deck, and line item-budget he could submit for consideration to the fund.

One of our team members met with him, and while they certainly hit it off on a personal level, as he was a charismatic fellow, in the end, he was a businessman looking for something for what turns out to be nothing. I'll explain why:

He offered to pay 5% for our services from the total budget ($500K) when he "gets the money." In exchange, we were expected to do prepare the line-item budget and pitch deck.

Doesn't sound too horrible right? 5K to put together a line-item budget, which is customarily done on ALL our productions, and a pitch deck that we have prepared for ALL of our bigger productions. While this seemed plausible at first, here's why it just won't work out; when we explained that we would prepare a statement of work for him to review, and invoice him for the service, he balked and threw out the predictable; "Well I would have to see that your company had a track record of success with something like this before I would ever give a cash advance."

First of all, 5% of NOTHING is still NOTHING. Since there is no guarantee that this film fund would ever come through, and this person is not willing to put up a good faith payment in advance for the service, we have to come to the conclusion that this is nothing more than a veiled attempt at getting us to work for free on nothing more than hopes and dreams.

Secondly, if he was so confident he was going to receive full payment from this foreign film fund, why would he mind spending an initial payment of $5K? Surely he could reimburse himself the money when he is funded right? Well, not really. Because using this payment model if he doesn't get funded (which there is a good chance he will not) he doesn't lose a penny. He walks away with a line-item budget and a pitch deck, and you will have successfully put roughly $7K worth of work in for absolutely nothing.

He gains you lose. It's as simple as that. And these fast-talking businessmen are great at what they do, as they've been in sales most of their careers and have made their fortunes off of wheeling and dealing.

"I HAVE ALL THE FUNDS BUT..."

Our second encounter was with an unknown screenwriter who alleged to have 10M in funding and was looking for production services. Now that whole line of bullshit should have been the first red flag, however, independent filmmaking is not always as cut and dry as the Hollywood machine, so often times it doesn't hurt to see if there is any validity to such claims.

As to be expected, there was not. During the initial phone call, he changed his story twice claiming that this "high net worth individual" could not be named but if we can prove that we can do a film of this magnitude he would fight for us to get the job. We would essentially have to prepare four to five pages of contacts and companies we work with and explain in detail how we plan to go about producing something like this so he could convince his investor to work with our company. He also went on to explain that we were going to have to work on spec initially as our company had never done anything of this magnitude.

Our initial conversation was about providing production services because he was "funded." Funded does not mean he is trying to get money, funded means there is money in escrow, and the "investor" can be disclosed for us to properly vet them. The good ole, "I cannot disclose my investor," line is a stalling tactic used by schemers to try and get you to believe they really have the money or at least the potential for it.

After forty minutes of listening to this screenwriter whom no one has ever heard of prattle on about all the other projects he has in development with high profile people he can't name but is most assuredly working with and how he came to us to give "the little guy" a chance. I thanked him for the call and said we would be in touch to set up an in-person meeting.

I later sent him an email sending him on his way.

In both scenarios, these people sought us out with the idea that they were going to dangle the proverbial "money carrot" in front of our faces and we were going to bite.

BE PROUD OF WHAT YOU HAVE DONE

While it might be true that we are not the traditional idea of a commercially successful production company, we are certainly not desperate. We adore our collaborators, past and present, and find artistic fulfillment in the projects we are working on. We set out to tell stories that inspire, inform and entertain and while we might not be rolling out massive hits and oscar worthy content, we are HAPPY with what we do and look forward to the new adventures before us.

If you find yourself coming up against people who try and cut down your accomplishments however big or small, in order to serve their own agenda in getting something for nothing, don't be afraid to walk away.

You have put in years of work into developing your craft and there is a price tag that comes with that. There is also a time when you must not be afraid to say no to free. If people don't feel you are worthy of being paid for your talent, then send them on their way so the people who do see your value can come walking through the door.

Success is not always measured by how BIG something is, it is also measured by the heart those with the passion to create have put into them.