Talent Agency vs. Talent Management Company
We must understand both of the terms (agent and manager) to mean the same thing – representation, which is what we ultimately want.
A Talent agent has clients to whom they submit you for possible work, whereas a management company may submit you for work and help you with your image in order to help you sign with an agent. The definition of a manager seems to be loosening up a bit, though…agents often call themselves managers in order to take 20% as opposed to 15% as the law allows.
Although you may need to pay for different materials to promote yourself, such as pictures, business cards, comp cards, etc, you should never have to pay for these through your agency. For models ask them whether you can build your book with your own photographers for pictures and if they say no, they’re not legitimate. As long as you don’t sign an exclusive contract and as long as you don’t make them your mother agency, it can’t hurt to work through them.
Managers help guide a career, make contacts, invest in their people (usually not more than a few, tops), make decisions, and help them get an agent. Often time’s managers are attorneys, and so they help in financial and legal aspects as well. Management companies vary in what they do simply because a lot of would-be-agencies use that term to avoid licensing requirements. Of these, you should not be paying upfront for things as a REQUIREMENT, period. A good manager does a lot for their clients and often covers costs and almost always has a very strictly binding exclusive agreement (due to the huge time and financial investment that they make).
There are exceptions to everything, but if they believe in your success as they must if they want to represent you, then they’ll push for you to get work, pay for whatever is necessary to get you started.
Just remember to always do your research before you sign with anyone!
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