Questions Creatives Should Ask Themselves
Or anyone making a deal for that matter
I’m currently in the middle of a negotiation. It’s been dragging for weeks and I’d been thinking to myself :
why can’t I just say ‘yes’ and get this over with?
The series of questions you’ve outlined here have opened my mind. With such perspective, it’s no longer just about this deal — it’s about a the bigger picture.
I also love how it keeps me accountable to the other side, and makes allowances for risk.
Where I live, if given the opportunity, most people find a way to screw over talent. It has happened to me before and I’ve had to learn how to spot the shady deals from afar.
Especially for creatives. We’re ‘always working’. How do you charge the hour? How do you focus on the specific needs of the deal without doing something you had to charge for? How do you follow your instinct for getting great art made without creating a precedent where a client would say :
But you charged just x last time? Why are you more expensive?
Being a creative in a country that is yet to understand how to pay for services is quite a tale.
I hope The Startup will let me write on this sometime. *
From subtle mocking hints :
You want me to pay for you to talk/teach/write/host/edit?
To blatant requests for free work.
I wish I were kidding.
It’s because of my environment that I’ve had to take responsibility for my education.
And it’s thanks to articles like these that I recalibrate my experience, expectations and plan ahead.
Thank you Tim.
*pitch hint 😎 You can see what I’ve written so far (Tchassa Kamga ) and I’ll write anything you need. Consider me your resident Startup guy. Although I’m building a community of storytellers, I have access to many technology, social, and health care entrepreneurs in Cameroon Africa. Here’s my email : huguesleandre@gmail.com
