Happy new year everyone, it's been a tough start over here! I've been making a living at this for a while, but have only owned my own studio for about a year now. Lots of learning along the way! I've been pretty lax in regards to booking procedures as the majority of my business this last year has been from repeat clients/friends I've known for a long time. I'm starting to get a lot more local interest and word of mouth stuff from people I don't know, and I'm dealing with a LOT of cancellations last minute.

It's to the point where I need to put on the "big boy pants" and come up with a policy to try and avoid this. Just this last week, I had 4 cancellations with a myriad of excuses. Today it really bit me in the butt as I ordered a good amount of gear to accommodate a session for next week (that was cancelled today). I had at least 2 people tell me I was stupid for not doing this sooner, so I need to come up with a deposit procedure or something.

I would be interested to hear what the rest of you do, specifically regarding percentage down or anything else. My day rate at the studio is $250, so it's not expensive. I was considering asking for 15% down, especially since most people are booking multiple days where I give them a project rate. Is that too high/low? Anything else I should consider?

Thanks!

Bump.

Seems reasonable. Let them know that the booking isn't penned into the calendar until the deposit is in.

Sort of in a similar boat so timely thread. Definitely don’t calendar until a deposit is paid. That’s how all the studios I worked for operated.

Once you get that going let us know what software you decide to use for booking. I’d be curious to know. Good luck man!

Oh, and you said your dayrate is $250? Is that just your eng. rate? Or is that all inclusive (studio and gear)? That sounds a bit low to me. Guess it depends on where you live though and your overhead costs?

You don't have the date unless you give me a deposit. The amount depends on the project. I have a 2 hour minimum booking for solo acts and 4 hours for a group.

I'm in the middle of nowhere in Arkansas (on purpose, I've always wanted something "away" from things), the property is paid off and I live above my studio. So all things considered, I'm making more than I was charging twice that in places like San Francisco... It's my studio and I'm the only one that engineers out of here, so it's all going to me.

Plus, the times are changing. All things considered, I believe I'm on the "affordable" end of the spectrum. I just want to be realistic about what people can afford. I'm happy and paying the bills!

Thx for clarification! Makes perfect sense. Sliding scale when you start mixing for Imagine Dragons or T-Swift. Promise, ok? In a similar situation myself, building a studio on my property right now.

I also moved here from the S.F. Bay Area about 5 years ago. Only problem is I had no idea the cost of living here actually rivals Cali!

Anyway, I wish you much success this 2018. I may PM you at some point in the near future. Got some logistical questions that don’t really deserve a thread. In any event is cool to be able to get to your studio in under 5 minutes.

My policy is to require a deposit upfront before locking in Studio time. It may sound like a lot, but I’ve had no push back asking for 50% deposit, with the balance payable before receipt of the final product.

Double your current rate. Since it's so cheap it will give the impression that the session is of low importance. People will be more likely to cancel or not show up because it doesn't seem like a big deal and they don't have much invested into it.

I require a $100, non-refundable deposit to book a session. I'll apply the deposit to another session if I have 48hrs notice and they immediately book the makeup date, but I won't refund it. It's come in handy. I've had a couple of people be no shows, which means that I lost out on the session money I would have made, but at least I had something. Also tends to weed out tire kickers. Half the estimated project balance is due on the first day, with the balance required before finals are delivered.

I appreciate the suggestion, but that's the wrong way to go about it.

You can do advances and that sort of thing, but if you had four cancellations in one week it's either a massive coincidence of misfortune, or it can be boiled down to people just taking you for granted and don't value your time.

It's funny, you posted that advice a while back and I completely disagreed with you. I ended up doing a really fun kind of "social experiment" where I let people pay what they wanted to for studio time this last year. It didn't go horribly wrong like a lot of people assumed, but I'm finally done with it and things went well! But, my biggest takeaway and realization was that when you do things like that, people absolutely do not value your time the way they should.

It was a constant battle of people trying to reschedule last minute over and over. I've learned from it and will now require deposits from people now! Below is a video of me rambling about how the year went, but I just wanted to come in here and thank you for your advice and admit that I was wrong and you were absolutely right. Sometimes in life though, you have to learn things the hard way.

What a great story! Congrats on the great year of learning.
We do 50% up front (which felt weird at first) and it is completely fine.
Happy 2020!

Man, ain’t it the truth

Hey brother... best part is that it’s a year later and you’re still cooking!

Didn't think this thread would resurface.
Thanks for sharing your story! Great video, interesting stuff!

As soon as I hear "scheduling nightmare", my mind goes to "deadline problems", which raises the issue of the work output quality.

Were you able to maintain your standards, or did you have to let material go out that you wanted more time on?

50% deposit for tracking. Always. Date not safe until it's paid. If it's becoming a problem, put a timer on it as well. Deposit needed 7 days before booked date. Never had anyone complain, and even had a few 50% bonus from lazy people who still came back and rescheduled. Then the remaining 50% and mixing costs come on 2nd invoice. Has worked well for me. I agree with the video, if there's no financial incentive, people will flake. I teach a lot of guitar lessons as well and it's the same deal. You pay for 4 lessons up front with 24hr cancellation on those. Quite a few lush sunny days wasted a few years back sitting around whilst students would drip through during the day with 'oh something's come up...' yeah the ****ing sun!

It was more the amount of times some people kept rescheduling. Again, it was my fault for not having any clear rules here. You play stupid games, win stupid prizes. I won lots of stupid prizes.

If I’m not happy with something, it doesn’t go out. I had to call a few people and ask for some more time on a few things because I was just exhausted and loosing perspective. All of them were flexible and understanding. There were a few projects where I knew the deadline was important and tight. I was at least smart enough to schedule myself enough time to get those done while being well rested.

Most people working here are traveling a ways. In my attempt to say “yes” and make everyone happy, it became a “nightmare” a few times trying to move people around last minute. If anything suffered from that this year, it was my social life!

Cheers to you man. Keep up the good work.

I haven't been asking for deposits on less than 4 hours but anything 4 hours and up - 50% deposit to put it on the calendar.

People can be flaky and indecisive. Taking their money makes it real. In the past I would have people cancel or reschedule because they hadn't practiced enough/didn't finish the lyrics/etc etc. It happens much much less now.

I ask for 50% deposit and cancellations within 48 hours forfeit half of the deposit.

50% to book, 50% to deliver finals.

No refunds on the booking fee but clients can reschedule.

EDIT: OP, your space looks great! Nice building!

I’ve been doing this for 24-years and have always done hourly-only and a policy of a non-refundable 50%-deposit with a cancellation period /50%-upon completion. I’ve changed that cancellation period back and forth over the years to suit my life; be it 24-hours or 3-months!

My real problem has always been studio tours and how to deal with them. It’s absolutely amazing how many people schedule tours only to not show up and you never hear from them again. Who knows how much of my life people have wasted with that crap. Be the studio a 30-minute drive or a walk downstairs, it’s a matter of scheduling time out of your life, which often times means missing other things in your life, all for absolutely nothing. Should they actually show up and you spend 5-hours with them, all to never hear from them again, that’s just the cost of being in business.