QUESTION FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS

[kkantcheva]

Hi! I would be happy if colleagues photographers can share on how they work out this situation:

I want to submit a proposal for photography job. For the task I have to hire a model, I have to pay for gas (as the work includes travelling), I have to buy some props. So all of these will cost me some money in advance of making the session.

How do you make a proposal, so you do not have to spend your own money and take off the risk of loosing them?

Here is what concerns me:

- If I set different milestones in my proposal, I will have to set a deadline date. I do not know this date, because I have no idea how long it will take for my client to send me the product.

- Recently I had a client that got me hired for a photo project. I've started working on it. Before I've created the photographs the client canceled the project by saying he has found another freelancer, without any other type of communication by his side. In that case, I did not loose money, only time. But in other cases it could mean that I loose time & money too. How do you get over such cases?

- Usually when I work locally I get a 50% commission before the shoot, when me and the client agree on the session. Is this something that works here too?

I've thought that Upwork gives some security, but in the resent case that I've talked about above, Upwork was not able to secure me. 

Thanks Freelance Gang 😉