What Would Harrington Do?
John Harrington's carved form, on display in Paris. Flickr Photo by The Adventures of Kristin and Adam
The reason most Americans follow Jesus is that most people haven’t heard of John Harrington. If you are a burgeoning freelance photographer and you haven’t read his book yet, let me urge you to find the difference between your ass and your elbow.
Twice in the last week have I been contacted by a potential client and gone running for my copy of Best Business Practices for Photographers like I was on fire. If I were left to my own devices my contract negotiations would consist of me holding up my fingers and telling a client “Ehhh pay me this many nehh.”
Instead I know how to communicate my ideas and intentions by forming words into sentences that are detectable by the human ear. I gleaned a lot of information from the ASMP website as well, specifically on how to write an estimate using their sample business forms, but Harrington has single-handedly imbued me with innumerable tidbits. Just take a look at his latest blog post about how to deal with haggling clients and you’ll see what I mean.
Negotiations can be scary. Oftentimes I feel as if I’m about to crack and beg the client to let me shoot a job for free if they just stop staring, staring, staring at my terms and conditions. One of the clients that caused a frantic search for Harrington’s book was a rush job, to be shot the next morning. I was able to send along a professional-looking estimate, but I hadn’t gotten to the part in Harringtons’s book where he makes sure a client has read the estimate, signed it, and sent it back. Sure enough, when I showed up bright and early the client hadn’t had a chance to read my sleek and stylish estimate in the mere hours since the night before. When the client let it be known that it would be easy enough to cancel the shoot if their needs weren’t met, I kept my cool, asked myself, “What would Harrington do?” and with a quavering voice raised my fee to cover everything the client wanted.
Later I delivered my photos and my invoice delineating all my cute little fees line by line. What I got back was a check and a client that wants to work with me again.
