Electronic Signature Influencer Photography Contract Made Easy

Electronic signature influencer photography contract

[Music] [Applause] [Music] our office is so messy [Music] you know what i want to do right now [Music] but i can't do that because i'm an adult and i have to deal with adult things which is actually a pretty good segue into today's video the time i almost got sued let's talk about it there's a little oh my god there's receipts on the ground too there's receipts everywhere okay what are you guys gonna learn in today's video well number one we're gonna talk about the nightmare that was me getting sued over a photography contract it's emotional get your popcorn ready two we're gonna talk about the lessons that i learned from that experience or at least that's what my therapist likes to tell me to reframe it as you learn something from this rather than being a traumatic moment that i have nightmares about and number three i don't want this to ever happen to you because it was so horrible so i made a checklist of things that you can check off while you're going through future contracts or building contracts with your photography clients so we're gonna go through all that today and these receipts okay [Music] okay this story needs context for you to understand how i got almost sued let's start from the beginning there's company a they're trying to sell a product they have all the money so company a the big guy the big guy company a hires company b this is the agency that does all the marketing ads social media print ads billboards they do all that stuff and they handle and manage the marketing then there's company c they specialize in just video production and photography and managing photographers and then there's us the photographer right here company d or today company me chris howe let's just imagine how this would work from a financial perspective let's say the budget for the project is ten thousand dollars all right we have ten thousand dollars to market our product so the company goes sure we can do that let's take about fifty percent of that budget so let's say it's ten thousand dollars now we have five thousand dollars left they go you know what we need to hire out the photographers for this project let's only give them 25 of that budget now you have 2 500 for this company to now find the right photographer for the project so what's left for the photographer at the end of it if you're lucky in that case you might get a thousand dollars or 500 awesome so i'm going to use all these lenses to explain how company c tried to sue me company d for just trying to work with company b you following same [Music] okay so i am just stoked company me has always wanted to represent and work for company a i think they make some of the best products in the world and i think this will do so much for my career i worked really hard and i think it turned out great company c sends the photos to company b and shows company a and literally company a and b are like these are so great so company c is stoked they're like let's hire you for a bunch of projects so i keep working and i'm all excited oh look at all the cool opportunities but company b sends me an email and they say hey we've dissolved our relationship with company c and we just want to work with you and they're like here's the budget for the next project and literally i'm like i finally get to work with company b and a directly i've always wanted to do this and i'm making the money i've actually wanted to make so i work on a project with company b and a and company c goes we saw your project you stole our client you signed a whole do not compete and i'm over here like i didn't decide i do not i don't know why i changed my voice for this i decided why am i still doing it i didn't sign a do not compete i checked all my documentation and never said that anywhere and they go check this one page that we never sent you we actually have a do not compete clause that you signed when you first signed up for our website we're thinking of pursuing legal action three weeks i sat there every night not sleeping so stressed out the most anxiety i've ever had in my entire life i was so stressed [Music] why [Music] so three weeks later i get an email from company c and they were like we were gonna pursue legal action but we decided as a company it's not in our best interest we're not going to sue you i was like you couldn't have told me this three weeks ago i literally haven't slept like we have two options for you option one you only work with us but you can never ever work for company a ever again in companies he had some cool opportunities of a lot of cool brands they were working with and then the second option which is the option that i went with you can continue your relationship with company a but you never work with us company c ever again and i said i'm gonna work with company a and that's the last i ever heard of them and that's the story of how i almost got sued [Music] what did i learn from this experience and what can you take away from me almost getting sued essentially know and understand what you're signing i think it's so easy in today's age because when we download an app or we sign up for a website the like little terms and agreements come up and you literally just scroll and you're like i checked it i read it i promise you just want to get to the free thing or the free website or start working you want to get to that end goal as quickly as possible don't overlook the contract part and what you're signing when it comes to your career because that one little line in that contract about do not compete ended up actually screwing me over in the long run and the second thing is get a copy of the thing that you're signing so you can refer to it later the issue that i experienced is that i signed one document there's another document that they never gave me that they ended up bringing afterwards make sure you have a copy of everything which is a good segue into the pdf kit that i created which is essentially a checklist that you can go through when you're reviewing a contract and or if you're making a contract and again this is a free download thank you adobe for sponsoring this video i'm gonna give a quick blanket statement here this is not legal advice talk to a professional when you're finalizing your agreements so what i've done in this pdf kit is i've covered all the main things that should be included in a contract and what you should be looking for and the things that you should be thinking or questioning about the contract before you sign it so let's start with the first one agreement overview this is usually like the number one thing when you get a contract who is the agreement between it's usually the client's name and you if you ever get sued these are the entities involved in that agreement next is the scope of work be very detailed here talking about timeline location the services and the deliverables and make sure everything is listed in as much detail as possible compensation we all want to get paid so make sure that number's somewhere in there i once went through a situation where i just agreed on the phone i was like oh we'll do it for this much money we didn't get a contract well that screwed me over because the client said it was half the budget when the project was done don't be past chris howe have this in writing get your project rate and get your deposit also is it 30 up front is it 50 up front and do your best to get that deposit before you start work this way you know the client is serious when can you expect to be paid typically it's 30 days i don't know why it's 20 20 and we can send money like this here's money why does it take 30 days i don't know let's change that outline any late payment fees this line is here just to actually put pressure to get the payment on time briefly talk about permits who's involved with getting location permits as well as model releases is it the client is it you just have the conversation there and then put that in the contract somewhere the next section is ownership rights this means who owns the final product typically the client will own the final deliverables that you get them they will not own the raws they will own the final things that you agreed upon have the conversation of where those items are going to be used are they going to be used in print social media internal online printed on a giant billboard all of those have different rates and it's important to outline that in a contract and for how long is it two months is it six months is it a year are the deliverables exclusive is the client the only person who gets to use them or is it non-exclusive exclusive that's more money non-exclusive less money but maybe to more people so then more money have the conversation about insurance are you responsible for insurance or is it the client's responsibility sometimes clients have insurance policies that cover freelancers someone like you the next part is usually a line about liability make sure you understand who is liable if an accident happens is it the company is it you this should be clearly stated almost always there's a cancellation policy just in case we don't agree the client and the freelancer this way either you can get out of the situation or they can get out of the situation and how much notice do you have to give each party involved before the contract is terminated last few things governing law what does the contract abide by so for us we typically deal with ontario law so we put government by ontario law have a little note about the assignment of the parties involved in this project make sure you note that you are either the person doing it all or that you're also going to be hiring out other freelancers last and obvious things get your contracts signed send it through apps like adobe sign where you have documentation of both parties and when they signed it so these are the the general things that you will see in a contract so review this do a checklist consult a lawyer do not just consult me in this document but this this will give you a better understanding of how it works if you guys want to download this links are below and thank you guys so much for watching this week's video i literally look forward to this part way too much can you guys hear that i can't hear it either because my anxiety has disappeared there's no more stress because we cleaned up the office at the starting of this video this is what you could hear if you put the microphone up really close to my brain but now it's gone it's no longer there because we neatened up everything so guys if you want to make sure that i never do that screaming sound again and damage your ears press the like button it makes such a huge difference like please subscribe and hit the bell all the other stuff but actually the like button because the algorithm is all like i know that you say all these things all the time but really the like button's the only thing we care about these days so here i'm gonna take your hand to press it thanks bye