Knowledge catalogue / Pricing

Charging for the invisible work

The work the client never sees is the work you instinctively don't charge for. Over a year, it's where a serious chunk of your margin disappears.

The four invisibles

• Travel time. Not the fuel, the time. A day in a car or an airport is a day you can't earn elsewhere. It's a day rate, or a half-day rate, and it belongs in the quote.
• Footage and file delivery. Hours of upload, an SSD, postage or an upgraded storage plan. One line, "file organisation and transfer", and clients pay it without blinking when it's there from the start.
• Storage. You're holding terabytes for months after the job. That's a cost, and long-term access is a service.
• Admin and the extras. Briefing calls, revision rounds, the third shoot day that crept in. The work between the work.

The move

You don't fix this with a difficult conversation halfway through. You fix it on the quote, up front, where it's a rule and not a surprise. A cost named early is a rule. A cost raised late is a fight.

Try this

On your last job, add up the hours you spent on things the client never saw and never paid for. That number is the raise you've been giving your clients for free.