okay this has been bugging me for a while and I finally want to ask people who've dealt with it. I do mostly real estate and the occasional event job, been doing it semi-professionally for about 18 months and it's going okay but I keep running into this one thing that drives me crazy.

I'll quote a job, client agrees, I show up, do the flight, deliver the files, and then a week later they're asking for stuff like can you do a different color grade, can you make a version with music, can you add some text overlays, oh and can you make it vertical for instagram too. none of this was in the original scope and honestly the editing time adds up fast.

I feel awkward saying no because I want repeat business and referrals, especially with real estate agents who can send a lot of work your way. but I also feel like a pushover just doing it for free every time. do you guys have contracts that spell this out clearly or do you just handle it case by case

contracts, full stop. this was the single biggest thing that changed my business. I use a simple one page agreement that lists exactly what's included ? number of edited clips, resolution, format, number of revision rounds. anything outside that is a change order and I bill it at my hourly rate. once people see it in writing they rarely push back because they know what they agreed to. real estate agents especially respect it once they're used to it, they work with contracts all day so they get it.

the first few times you enforce it might feel awkward but it actually makes the relationship more professional not less. had an agent try the usual extras thing early on, I just replied nicely that id be happy to do those additions and quoted her a small fee for the extra work, she paid it no problem and has referred three other agents to me since then. they just needed to know where the line was.

yeah I dont have a formal contract yet and reading this thread I'm realizing thats probably a mistake lol. I've been doing the same thing, just absorbing the extra requests to keep people happy but you're right it adds up. whats a good template to start from, did you write yours yourself or use something