Speaker 1: As a freelancer, you're responsible for dictating your terms, what it looks like to work with you. How long are you going to work? What do meals look like? What does travel look like? And that's all well and good, but if you're new, you haven't really figured this out yet. So that'll be fun to spin the tables and we're actually gonna look at a vendor information packet from a local production company here in town. It's Avad3 Event Production. I work for them all the time. They're wonderful people doing great work, but they have a really well-written freelancer contract agreement and dictates, hey, here's how we're gonna pay you. Here are the terms. Here's what we do for travel. What does it look like for your time? What does overtime look like? And that's all gonna be laid out here in this document. So we're gonna go through it. I think it'd be really cool. And basically you can just take some of these best practices and implement it into a one pager that you have if you work with a new client. Say, hey, here's what it looks like to work with me, or you can pair it against other production companies. Again, I really think these guys are great and it's a very fair agreement. Every production company you're gonna work with might be a little bit different, but it's cool to have a baseline. So this is all the legal and not fun stuff we need to get out of the way so we can do good work. And the work that I like doing is sound system design and tuning. And if you'd like to learn more about that, I've got my audio math survival spreadsheet right here. It's got over 250 rows of calculations that help you understand how audio works at a deeper level. You can get faster results in the field. You can get that at the link below or at producematemkc.com slash audio toolkit. You've got period, wavelength, dealing with decibels better, how to figure out comb filters, adding delay speakers. Anyway, check that out along with a whole lot of other tools in the toolkit. And I will also include a link to this PDF so you can reference it later on, the PDF right here of the freelancer agreement contract. All right, so let's jump right in and walk through this thing. So we have a mission statement at the top. It's written by their production director, Phillip Johnson, saying they're growing, they're picking up contacts in newer and bigger cities. They're regional here in Arkansas, but they go coast to coast. So they need help expanding their team and they want you to join that. Okay, so just a really good, clean look, nice, thoughtful paragraph at the beginning. We'll jump right into invoicing. I'll zoom in a little bit here. So invoices should be sent to paymentsatdivide3.com and to the production manager who led the project. So they're looped in. And then for each current year, you send in a new W-9. So that has your EIN or your social security number on it. That way they can have you in the database. And then they will then send you a 1099 at the end of the year. This is basically the company saying, here's how much money we paid the subcontractor and that should match up on your taxes when you report that income. So you put your email in here and they'll put you in the QuickBooks database. Then also that would be the email that they send you the 1099 to. All right, invoicing. So, and send them immediately after your show. It would go without saying. Send the invoice and you'll get paid sooner. Their payment terms are net 30. You'll be paid through bill.com. They've actually updated recently to RAMP, but it functions really similarly. There's no fees taken out. You're not having to eat anything. It just says a direct deposit payment 30 days after you submit the invoice and it gets approved. So, or you can get a check mailed to you. So either way, they are flexible. Workers' Compensation Insurance. They hold workers' comp for all their freelancers. To be clear, this is not the same as liability insurance. You're supposed to have that. So if you're on a show as a freelancer and you hang a line array up and it falls down and hurts somebody, they can still come after you. They're not gonna go after the company. You're not covered under workers' comp. You need liability insurance for that. I'm currently shopping around for liability insurance right now. I should have got it a few years ago, but I'll report back when I find that and see if it was a good experience. So policies. So call times are sacred. So be 100% on time every time. Be a little bit earlier. No smoking, alcohol, or drugs are permitted on the events or on the Va3 property. So I know with like touring folks, like I guess I just find that smoking is more common. I'm sure if you need to step outside on a dock or something like that at a venue, that's fine. They just ask you to not do that on their property. So your attire is important. So make sure and take care of that. The production manager will communicate the expectations for load and show day and strike attire. So a black T-shirt, black shorts for a load day might be fine, but for show, you might need to wear a button up if it's a corporate show. And they do very clear about communicating that in their project management software. All right, here is the travel guide. So I really like this delineation, local versus travel. Projects beyond 60 miles of your primary work location or travel, projects within 60 miles. So I live here locally. If I do a local show for them, I'm sleeping in my own bed. I'm not driving more than 60 miles. So I'm not doing anything about per diem or mileage or any of that. So the 60 miles dictates that. So it's just good to know it's very clear. And they're moving everything to upfront expense as far as travel. So they will pay for flights, lodging, and onsite meals all directly. And that's upfront. I've been with other clients where it was like super run and gun. I had to get somewhere tomorrow and they're dealing with a thousand things and I've paid for a flight. So that's just up to you, but Avad3 will handle that on your behalf and pay for it. So you're not having to incur an expense and bill it back. So the freelancer coordinates and bills to Avad3 time, travel time, and overtime. So keep track of your own time worked on site. So if a call time is at 8 a.m. and then the 10 hour day is at 6 p.m., I think it's a good idea to go up to your production manager at 5.55 and be like, hey, we're about to hit our 10, just in case you're not aware, and this would complete our full day. Are we going to be working any longer or are you going to cut us? So I always try to do that just so we're not two hours in overtime and like, oh, wow, they just had their heads down and they weren't ready to have that billed to the client. So I always just ask them, even if it's obvious that we're going to be going in overtime or the showtime is done. Then mileage when driving to event location. So that'd be outside of the 60 mile radius. You can look up the government issued standard mileage rate. So for the back half of 2022, it's a 62 and a half cents per mile. So that's how you would bill that back. Per diem is also a government regulated thing per city. So you just go to per diem, Dallas, Texas for fun. And you would look up, so gsa.gov would have that. You go to meals and incidental rates. So that would give you in Dallas, it's $69 per day. If they didn't take care of meals and you bill that back to them. It's fairly common to be onsite where like you're on your own for breakfast and during the middle of the day, there's lunch and they handle that. And then you're on your own for dinner. I usually still end up billing all of that, but you can also divide it out per meal. Just divide it by three for three meals per day, if you need to. Then also be cognizant of the first and last day of travel is that three quarters of the original rate. So if you have a three day show, the first and last day you would get 51.75 for per diem in the middle, you would get $69. So headed back here, so that's per diem. I have all these as separate line items on my invoices as well. So the actual labor itself, the mileage and the per diem and even getting paid for travel time, which we'll talk about in a second, just so I can go back to my accounting and even my reporting at the end of the year and like, how did I make money? We're like, oh wow, I made $1,000 in per diem or whatever. That doesn't need to look like day rates, it's per diem, it's separate. So rental vehicle, if necessary to prove we had to get one, sometimes you get that. I honestly haven't, I don't think at all with a VOD 3. And then if there's Uber or Lyft or parking, just again, itemize that out, list it out separately in the invoice and bill it back. Travel logistics will be coordinated by the VOD 3 team. They send you a separate form that includes all your travel information, preferences and dietary restrictions to have on file so they know how to feed you well. And let's say if you are an American Advantage member or the mileage club, I have no idea how, you know, anyway, they can make sure and try to get you on American flight so you get those miles. Anyway, I don't play that game, so whatever, but that could be helpful if you have specific travel preferences. So, and then when you book with a VOD 3, unless it's a very straightforward show, just send them an estimate to make sure they have that on file and get that approved ahead of time when they're budgeting for a show. So here's billable time. This is really good segment, very helpful. Time is billed in half day and full day increments, pretty standard. I know touring is usually billed by the week if it's a longer tour, but for kind of one-offs and it's usually in a day format. So half days are less than five hours, full days are more than five hours up to 10 hours. And then once you cross 10, overtime is billed at 1.5X after 10 hours and billed by the hour. So if you work 12 hours, that'd be two hours at a time and a half of your hourly rate, basically your day rate divided by 10. Time begins and ends onsite at the designated call and cut time. So your travel time, commutes to the job from the hotel over is not included. So when you start working onsite to when you end, onsite work or travel days that fall on Thanksgiving or Christmas day will be billed at 2X all day. I haven't had to work on Christmas yet on a show yet, but that may happen. When the crew has worked without an eight-hour overnight break from cut time to call time, the following day's work is billed at the overtime rate of 1.5X. So you start in overtime. Then if you went to overtime again, I assume that would be 2X. I haven't been in that situation yet, but that's otherwise known as a term as short turn. Short turn is what that's called, but I appreciate that they take care of you knowing that, hey, if we had a crazy day because something was late and a truck couldn't get there, we had to work, and we have to turn around and not get a full night of sleep, they're gonna compensate you for that. So very generous. Travel days are the days spent traveling to and from the primary job location. They're billed as half days. Dark days during the events are billed as full days. So if you had a five-day show and day three, you were in a breakout room and they shut it down, they weren't needed, you're still gonna get a full day rate when you travel and work onsite on the same day, you'll bill a travel day plus the work time. So let's say you have a flight, a five-hour flight, or just takes five hours to fly from your location to a venue from 7 a.m. to noon. You get there at noon, immediately start working. You would start your clock at noon, and then the 10 would be 10 p.m. You would not start already five hours in. That's new. I usually do my agreements even with other clients. I appreciate they have that spelled out there. And again, if you see any of this, you're like, man, that's whack, or I don't like it. Every production company is different. You are a freelancer. You can negotiate whatever you want. You can have an apple on your console every show if you want it. Just put that in your agreement. But that's up to you. So we covered travel days, expenses. Per diem pays the meals and incidentals per diem per the federal government guidelines. So that's the link that I showed you earlier. So you would just Google your city, look it up, and figure out that toll for that year. And then, again, please note the three-quarter policy for the first and last days of travel, like we talked about. Avad, this is really great. They agree, like, here's when you're gonna get fed, which is really cool, because sometimes I've shown up to shows with other clients, and we show up at 10, and it's three o'clock, and we're like, where's lunch? And they're like, oh, man. So I appreciate they spell out meals here. So mealtimes are 6 a.m., noon, and 6 p.m. So for example, if it's 6 p.m., we're going to continue working for at least another hour. We will stop and provide dinner. If we start at 6.30 a.m., breakfast will not be provided. So if you're crossing a mealtime by more than an hour, that is when you're gonna get fed. Drinks and snacks, they have a cooler of drinks. It's usually iced, which is great, an assortment of snacks. And then anything else you have outside of meals will come out of your per diem. Transportation. Driving. Crew will drive to projects within five hours' distance of your primary address. And then actual miles may be built in by three at the federal rate. Again, the federal rate for this year, 2022, the back half is 62 1⁄2 cents, pretty sure. And you would just say, hey, I drove, if it's over five hours, you're probably looking at over 250 miles. So 300 miles at 62 1⁄2 cents times .625, that would be $187. And then back for your mileage would also do it round trip. Flying. A volunteer will book and pay directly for all flights and projects located over five hours' driving distance from your primary address. Flight will include one piece of checked luggage. So you can check your Pelican, which I'm gonna start doing. You can try to throw everything from my Pelican in a suitcase and try to save money, but I just ended up having to juggle around a lot. So I'm gonna do that now. Anytime I'm flying, it's expected with a client, here's my Pelican, I'm checking it, and I need that. North of Miss Arkansas freelancers need to shop to carpool to the airport, so you can save money there. For other freelancers, if the trip is three days or less, we will reimburse for airport parking. Otherwise, we encourage you to arrange for drop-off pickup at your airport. I'm sure if there was some logistical hurdle for really making this happen, they work with you, but it's just all in an effort to kind of help keep expenses down and be reasonable with the travel schedule. Ground transportation on location. Project-related transportation is billable to the client and will be organized by VOD 3. So this includes transportation between the airport, crew lodging, and event location. It will vary depending on the project location and crew location. If there's something crazy, we're in a city with like five different venue sites, they'll figure that out. And again, this has been my experience. In most cases, the VOD 3 PM will have a rental vehicle for the majority of ground transportation between the airport, lodging, and event location. So you'll be taken care of. You don't have to worry about that. Or you'll get a rental car and figure it out. A VOD 3 expects crew members to ride together whenever possible. This is reducing logistics and the amount of trips having to make between sites. Then parking at the venue hotel. A VOD 3 expects all crew members to travel together when possible to choose the most cost-effective parking solution. And then lodging. A VOD 3 will book and pay directly all lodging accommodations for all crew members. Each crew member will have a private bedroom and bathroom. So you don't have to share a room. And individual crew members will not need to provide a personal credit card at check-in. However, please note that a crew may not, under any circumstances, charge anything to their VOD 3 provided room. Any food, snacks, room service, anything. If there's anything billed, you'll be responsible for that. So again, they're trying to shift as much of the cost over to the company and not to you. And you're only responsible for stuff on top of that. Here's the non-disclosure agreement. Basically, don't tell other people about a VOD 3 processes. Compensation, computers, finances, marketing, pricing, all that. So just don't share that with other people because they're a company that they want to keep running their own way. And then lastly, it's just a signature page. And everything after that is W-9 and tax forms. So if you start working for them, you fill this out, either your own name or your business entity. Have your tax ID number here. That way they can set up direct deposit and keep track of taxes. You send that back to them and everything is kosher. All right, so that's the whole agreement. This was cool to walk through. Again, I'll have a copy of that in my audio toolkit. You can just go to the top of it, the table of contents and you can find it and I'll make sure to keep it updated as they change policies. But I think this is just a really well written document, very clear expectations, all of them very reasonable and can help you as a budding freelancer figure out how to figure out your own policies and procedures. So make sure you get that, the link below or produced by mkc.com slash audio toolkit. And I will catch you next time. If you want more of this, more business stuff, let me know. It's a part, it's not going away. Even though we could be doing monitors, front of house, whatever. Everyone has to bill, everyone has to invoice, everyone has to manage projects. So let me know if this was helpful to you. I'll catch you next time, thanks.