The best way to accurately price your services is to know how much time your projects take you to complete. Use these logs to do that.
There’s no way you can accurately price your services without knowing how long it takes you to complete a project. It’s imperative you keep tabs on this kind of information. That way when making bids to potential clients (or pricing your “packages” if that’s how you operate), you can set rates that are commensurate with how long it actually takes you to complete a job. These logs will help you be more productive as well as set better rates for your work.
Production Log (Google doc worksheet): I use this document to track how long it takes me to edit a project. There are 16 editable categories, so track whatever you need. I track things like: logging footage; picking music; editing revisions; etc.
Wedding Production Log (Google doc worksheet): pretty much the same thing as the Production Log, but with pre-set categories related to different parts of a wedding film (e.g. pre-ceremony, ceremony, reception, DVD, etc.)
Work Log (Google doc worksheet): use this to track how you spend your time during the day. If you don’t know where you’re investing your time, chances are you’re not being as productive as you could. Time tracked is time well spent. This is particularly useful if you suffer from ADHD. (Trust me, I speak from experience. 🙂
Access to these files is available free to Premium Members permanently, and to email list subscribers for one week (until November 30, 2015). After that, only Premium Members will have permanent access. So act fast!
Happy logging!
~ Ron Dawson
