Protecting Your Business When Things Go Wrong
Some of you will have heard me tell this story before. When I opened my last studio the owners (Abbey Pensions) had some really stupid clauses in their lease, including that I would be personally responsible for any planning applications they chose to contest on, or near, the entire estate. We also had some outrageous responsibilities regarding the fabric of the building.
Trust me, renting/leasing commercial property is nothing like renting a house - essentially most commercial leases make you responsible for absolutely everything.
Anyway, I decided stuff that for a game of soldiers, no way where they going to get my house because they wanted to. So I formed a limited company that did one thing - leased the building.
Well 18 months in the owners tell me the roof is leaking in other units and because they contain asbestos they are going to replace everybody's roof at the same time. Except because it is asbestos (a) they need to close me down for a few weeks (b) they can't guarantee the studio won't be full of asbestos afterwards and © I would have to pay for it.
Yep, I would have to pay for a problem I didn't have. I would have to pay at least £40,000 - plus any unforeseen expenses.
This is where my limited company gave me full protection. I closed the studio, closed the company, posted the keys back and walked away free. (Not without a loss though, I had spent a lot of money converting the studio and all).
Moral of this story is that there are lots of things you can do to protect yourself.
CONTRACTS
Give your existing contracts a review, do they cover what happens in the event of the unforeseen, for example Corona?
What about other problems, general illness, injury, failure of equipment, your car breaks down on the way?
A contract should be about assigning fair responsibilities on both sides, but also about protecting both sides.
A contract doesn't have to be fully of legalese, it can be a simple statement of who is being paid for what. What will be done, what will be delivered. What happens if either side can't meet their commitment.
This also includes model releases as well by the way. Models really should bring their own and no photographer should shoot without one.
DEPOSITS:
Always a touch subject deposits, but always worth revisiting. Personally I don't like them and never charged them. Others absolutely swear by them.
On the downside I think a deposit starts off with "I don't trust you" - not a good way to start a relationship
On the upside, the deposit essentially ensures the client turns up and doesn't cancel at the last minute.
PERSONAL INSURANCE:
What happens if you or your client has an accident? If you shoot at home that could have serious consequences for you.
If you go to clients to shoot and something gets broken or someone gets injured - how are you and they protected?
There are also options for business income protection and personal income protection. Personally I have no experience with this and what I am seeing on social media at the moment is that these have been useless. Nevertheless, the right protection might work for you.
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