"How Much Should My Agency be Advancing Me?"
Most models these days don’t have unlimited funds to fly themselves to each market and put themselves up in housing. While in the old days many agencies had the financial resources to advance as much as flight, housing, weekly pocket money, visa and development, very few remain that can do this.
Each agency is different in what they can afford to advance you but while it seems great on paper that you want one that can advance you everything, it doesn’t always mean that that is the best agency for you so keep everything in consideration.
It’s my belief that every strong agency in New York has the ability to advance your development. That means tests, cards, building your book etc. If they don’t then beware.
As far as flight and accommodation, again some have the ability to advance both but I would say the majority prefer to advance one or the other. Agencies are watching more of the debt they are putting out there as that number can skyrocket quick and sink a solid ship.
A visa is one of the most important things to a foreign model and one of the largest investments. Running around $3500-4000, this is a necessity for a foreign model to work in this country. And the agency has to believe that the model will make it back. Most agencies will advance this cost but this is a large cost when you are considering 100-150+ foreign models at each agency so can incur massive debt with at least 20% of those models never making the money back or using it to their full potential. More and more agencies are negotiating how much they can advance.
Weekly advances tend to be personal to the agency. Some do and some don’t. I don’t blame either side for their choice as again it is a business. I personally think its important that models come with pocket money for food, subways, etc. It’s a basic necessity to be on your own and responsible for yourself. That being said there are models that come from very challenging backgrounds that need extra support. I appreciate agencies who understand special needs of certain talent if they feel the potential is there. Ultimately your agency is not a bank or an ATM machine. I tend to look unfavorably at the models who think that it is.
Also a couple other things to consider when asking the agency to advance everything. One is that it is a luxury. What other businesses have this privilege to support you while you ar here to try and get work? With this privilege I hope that each model appreciates this and understands that with this we expect the models to compete at the highest level to achieve what we all think that model can achieve rather than just take it as free money to sit in the apartment on holiday and eat Haagen Dazs ice cream. Second, think about it if your agency were to advance the majority of these costs at about $10,000 because you don't want to spend your own money. You are a foreign model and for every job you do you lose 50% to taxes. In theory you have to make $20,000 to pay for that $10,000. That makes no business sense to me. I tend to encourage the models to pay for as much as they can to get to making money in their pockets faster than trying to get back to zero. Utilize your agency resources well but do the math and you will come out on top quicker.
