Film and TV freelancer, Alison Grade, explains how to value yourself as a freelancer to gain new clients. She emphasizes that your value is much more than just the price you charge, it’s the “secret sauce” that you can offer to clients that makes you a good fit.
She says: “The sharp intake of breath is when a client asks you how much a job will cost. You give them a price and if you don’t hear the sharp intake of breath when you tell them, you have probably left some value on the table."
In this workshop, Alison is joined by Mike Southon, who talks about ways to build your network, the qualities needed to sell yourself and why “Mike’s magic email” is the best thing he’s ever created.
He says: “So here’s the big challenge. You’ve got to walk up to a stranger, start a conversation, and then, after three minutes, work out whether they’re worth following up with – or not.”
About Alison Grade
Alison Grade is a serial entrepreneur, career freelancer and author of the best-selling book The Freelance Bible. She is also the founder of Mission Accomplished, a consultancy offering training, mentoring and strategic advice to start-ups and established SMEs in the creative industries. During her career, Alison has produced over 7,000 minutes of film and television productions on both high and low budgets.
About Mike Southon
Mike Southon is a serially successful entrepreneur, best-selling business author and one of the world’s top business keynote speakers on entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship and sales. He is co-author of several best-selling business books such as The Beermat Entrepreneur and Sales on a Beermat and is entrepreneur-in-residence at Bayes Business School.
About the event
This is a recording of an event that took place on 16 June 2020. It is part of a suite of events designed to provide information and practical advice from screen sector and business experts during the coronavirus lockdown. This programme is supported by ScreenSkills using National Lottery funds awarded by the BFI as part of the Future Film Skills Strategy.
You might also be interested in financial first aid for freelancers, another session led by Alison Grade. In this video she refers to a previous session she led about developing "brand me".
To find out how to set up and develop as a freelancer, go to ScreenSkills Freelance Toolkit.