I was supposed to have a session this morning but it got cancelled last minute.

Lack of funds...

I wasn't too upset about it because I actually appreciated the extra time for other tasks.

However, that's not the wisest business practice because if you run your home studio as a business you need to also make your clients accountable for their actions.

That means no last minute cancellations unless it's an emergency.  It also means that if you're going to be serious about their projects they need to be serious about hiring you.

If you're going to be serious about charging for your time to do other people's projects you have to realize how valuable your time is.

"Yeah...I could do this project. It'll be fun and I'll do it for free because the client doesn't have a lot of money."

Have you ever said that to yourself?

Do you realize how much you're cheating yourself with that sort of mentality?

Time is fucking expensive guys. 

You can't think of time being free. You need to be aware of the opportunity cost of doing a project.

Opportunity cost is how much "hypothetical money" you're giving up when you decide to do one project instead of another.

Basically, it costs you money to work on other people's projects for free. So not only are they taking advantage of you by not paying you for your time, you're also wasting all this time doing something for free when you could do something else that might make you money.

Do you see how stupid that is?

I'm all for favors if you're starting out or don't have any skills or whatnot, but at some point you gotta go "no, I can't do this project for free because it costs me too much money in lost time."

Lost time! You're NEVER getting it back.

Money...pfff...compared to time money is worthless. You can always get more money, but once this minute is over it ain't coming back.

So make sure you have rules in your studio when it comes to sessions.

One of the most valuable ones I learned was from Graham Cochrane's Audio Income Project.

It's a simple one:

Get a deposit.

You need to trust your client that he won't bail on you and the best way for them to earn your trust is to put their money where their mouth is. So before you commit to a blocking out your time (that you can't get back) they need to pay you for the privilege. 

A deposit is a sign of good faith. They paid you and in return you honor the time they want you to work with them. 

To be honest we were pretty relaxed about this session because of a deal we had with the artist, but after today's cancellation he has lost those privileges and is required to pay in full before we finish the project we already started.

If you want to run a home studio as a serious studio you need to be serious about the business practices involved. Make sure you protect your time. It's the most valuable resource you have.

That's my rant for today. Have a good one.

Björgvin