One of the questions people starting out in video production ask us most is how much to charge. The short answer is that there is no universal rate. The useful answer is that there is a method: if you know how much it costs you to work, how many hours a project really takes and what value the client gets, the price stops being a guess.
1. Calculate your real cost per hour
Start with what you need each month to live and sustain your business: personal expenses, software, transportation, social security, taxes and savings to renew equipment. Then divide that figure by the hours you can actually bill.
That last point is key. Not all your working hours can be billed: part of them goes to selling, answering messages, quoting, learning and admin. If you work 160 hours a month, billing between 80 and 100 is realistic.
Example: if you need COP 6 million a month and bill 80 hours, your working hour is worth COP 75,000. Charging less means you are financing your client's project.
2. Add equipment use
Cameras, lenses, lights and microphones wear out and become obsolete. A simple way to charge for them is to divide what the equipment cost by the number of shooting days you expect to get out of it. If your gear cost COP 20 million and you estimate 200 days of use, each day should recover COP 100,000.
Another reference is what it would cost to rent that same equipment. If the client didn't pay you for the gear, they would pay a rental house.
3. Count every stage, not just the shoot
The most common mistake is charging only for the shooting day. A video goes through several stages and all of them take hours:
- Pre-production: meetings, idea, script, shooting plan and site visit.
- Shoot: setup, recording and teardown, plus travel.
- Editing: selection, cutting, color, sound, graphics and captions. It almost always takes more hours than the shoot.
- Revisions: the adjustments the client asks for after seeing the first cut.
- Delivery: exporting versions and social media formats, and organizing the files.
4. Charge for usage rights
A video for a local brand's organic social media is not the same as a commercial that will run as an ad for a year in several countries. The broader the use, the greater the value for the client and the more it should be reflected in the price. Put in writing where, for how long and in which media the material can be used.
5. Define the payment terms
A good price with bad terms is still a bad deal. Before you start, agree in writing on:
- A deposit to book the date. The most common is 50%.
- How many revision rounds are included and how much an extra one costs.
- What the quote does not include: travel expenses, locations, actors or licensed music.
- The delivery date and how long the proposal is valid.
A full example
Imagine a one-minute corporate video. With the cost per hour from step one, the calculation could look like this:
- Pre-production: 6 hours
- Shoot: one 8-hour day
- Editing, color and sound: 16 hours
- Revisions and delivery: 4 hours
That's 34 hours, which at COP 75,000 add up to COP 2,550,000. With COP 100,000 for equipment, the cost reaches COP 2,650,000. If you add a 20% margin so the business can grow, the quote comes to around COP 3,180,000.
The figures are an example to show the method, not a market rate. What matters is that every number in your quote has a reason.
When you know where your price comes from, you can defend it with confidence.
The mistakes we see most
- Charging only for the shooting hours and giving the editing away.
- Accepting unlimited revisions.
- Starting work without a deposit.
- Lowering the price without reducing the project's scope.
- Closing deals through voice messages instead of in writing.
In short
Your price is the sum of your time, your equipment, every stage of the work and the value the video creates for the client. Calculate it calmly once, adjust it with each project and always present it in writing. We are preparing a downloadable guide to pricing as a freelancer with ready-to-use templates.
