The POWER of being UNDERVALUED - Tough read

🫣 WARNING ⚠️

There are two “BUTs…” in this post.

Read with caution. ⛔️

“Cheap” creatives are never going to work for your business

I still get job ads sent to me. And honestly, I never fully rule anything out. I’ve been doing this long enough to know that keeping a few eggs in a few different baskets is just smart (especially after getting burnt a couple of times). I like to keep my ear to the ground, stay open to opportunity.

BUT…

One listing caught my attention the other day. A YouTube channel looking for a “long-form” video editor.

Now, if you know me, you’ll know I’ve got a lot of experience in that space. It’s where I’ve built a big chunk of my career, not just editing for impact, but thinking strategically about story, audience, retention, and results.

So I was curious. Clicked the link. Looked into the company.

Nothing I recognised, but that’s fine. Happens all the time. A bit of digging usually gives you what you need.

BUT…

Then I saw the fee.

They were looking for someone with at least five years of experience editing for YouTube.

Someone who knows analytics.

Someone who can deliver one long-form video (15+ minutes) and four short-form, vertical versions per project.

All to be paid “per project.”

To give some context — and I say this from experience, having overseen many brilliant editors — a project like that takes about two full days to do properly. That’s a clean, structured edit, colour corrected, audio mixed. No heavy motion graphics. No fancy stats or overlays. Just a good, solid piece of content.

Don’t cheap out on the creatives

Now, the tools it takes to even begin that job?

Mid-range Mac? Around £3,000

SSD hard drive? £400

Premiere Pro licence? £50 a month

Plugins? Easily £1,000 over time

Grading setups and LUTs? Say £300 a year

Vimeo or Frame for client review? £420 annually

That’s just to have the setup. Just to be in the game.

So… how much were they offering?

£800? Nope.

£675? Try again.

Okay, surely at least £500?

£75.

That’s it.

£75 to deliver a long-form edit and four verticals.

Based on 16 hours of work, that’s £4.68 an hour.

Legally fine for a freelancer. Ethically? It’s grim.

Especially when you factor in the upfront cost of even becoming an editor. We’re talking six grand in basic kit before we even get to the five years of hard-won experience they asked for. And somehow, none of that seems to matter.

Here’s the thing. Day rates and project fees should reflect skill, experience, time and the value the work brings. I keep my own rates fair because I genuinely love what I do. I believe in the process. I care about the craft.

But if you’re a business hiring creatives and you’re offering pay like this — please stop. Don’t do it. You’ll burn out the people you rely on. You’ll breed resentment instead of results. Worst of all, you’ll set a tone where creativity is treated as disposable. As if it’s worth pennies. As if it doesn’t matter.

Depressed editor after not being paid suitably for their hard work

The truth is, the creative world has never been more under-appreciated…

BUT it’s also never been more essential to business growth.

Oh, Another “BUT”.