Should you ever do work for free?

Enjoying Independent Creative? Subscribe to Work in Progress, my weekly email newsletter. Click here to subscribe or connect with me on Twitter.

–

There's a hot-button topic that often comes up for artists and creatives:

Should you ever do work for free?

Obviously no one would suggest you ONLY and ALWAYS work for free, but there are some who recommend offering free work as a way to get started.

And there are equally as many people who would tell you to never undervalue yourself, and never do any work for free.

Before we let our emotions get the better of us, let's look at the real core question here: why would anyone work for free?

There are three main reasons to consider working for free:

1. It's practice that can help you learn
2. It's something to add to your portfolio
3. It may lead to paid work in the future

Let's talk about each of them...

1. Practice and learning

OK, I'll admit, doing free work will provide you with some practice. And I'm sure you'll learn from it.

But if you want to practice and learn, you can do that on your own time and on your own projects.

In fact, if you are looking for practice and learning, I'd recommend using your own projects. That way you have total creative control.

Which leads me to that second reason – adding something to your portfolio.

2. Adding to your portfolio

This one is a little trickier, and it depends on the type of work that you do.

If you want something to add to your portfolio and be proud of, I typically wouldn't recommend offering your work for free either – and it's because of that issue of creative control.

Your portfolio is arguably your best asset in getting paid gigs.

The problem with a lot of paid gigs is that they require you, the artist or creative, to give up some level of creative control over the work.

You may have to make revisions, or concessions, and by the time the project is over, it might not even be something you're really proud of.

That doesn't change when you're doing free work for someone else. Typically, if it's for someone else, they are going to take away some of your control.

So if you're trying to beef up your portfolio, instead of doing free work, do some theoretical work.

Check out this incredible case study from a designer who took it upon herself to redesign Instagram.

That would be a dream, career-making project – and it's pretty unlikely you'd land that project (especially if you're getting started).

But if you feel strongly that you could do a good job, why not do it for yourself and share the final product?

This provides you with full creative control over the work and what goes into your portfolio.

Not to mention that companies may take notice. My friend Val kickstarted her copywriting career by creating public tear-downs of company's email onboarding sequences.

Not only did it showcase how she thinks and the work she can produce, but it even landed her some paid projects with those very companies.

Now, I recognize this may not be possible for some service-based businesses like lawyers, general contractors, and so on.

If you can't create theoretical work for your portfolio, and you can't seem to get any gigs without a work history to build a portfolio or get testimonials, then maybe you bite the bullet.

But in many cases, you don't need to do work for someone else to add to your portfolio.

3. Free work becoming paid work

OK, so we've come to our last potential reason for doing free work: because it may turn into paid work.

How would that happen?

Well, we've already determined that just creating a portfolio piece isn't a good enough reason to do work for free...so that leaves us with two ways free work could turn into paid work:

1. You make an agreement in the beginning
2. That client is a source of potential referrals

Both of these points are valid, but let's take them one by one.

Starting with an agreement

This is a little risky, but I've seen it work.

Sometimes potential clients will tell you that they like you and they think they could use your help, but they're just not sure they are ready to take the leap.

Maybe they aren't sure there will be a return on their investment, maybe they aren't sure they trust you yet, or maybe it's some other reason.

If you really want to work with this client, you can offer them to do some sort of pilot project – for free – IF they agree to one thing:

If you like the work that I've done after [30 days] and you want to continue, we'd structure that in [this way]

Let me give you an example. If you help companies grow their social media following, you could offer to manage their social media for some amount of time (maybe 14-30 days) to show them the impact you can make.

And if they want you to continue doing that work, then they need to pay you on the terms you lay out – a monthly retainer, or a project fee.

A lot of business owners will jump at this, because it's low-risk to them.

But if you make this offer, you need to be really confident in your ability to get results and show that life is better when they work with you!

The client is a fountain of referrals

The last reason it may be worth doing work for free is if you know for a fact that the potential client is well connected to other qualified leads.

Generally, happy clients lead to new clients. People tend to surround themselves with people and business owners like themselves, so if you deliver for one client, they are likely to refer you to their friends.

So if you come across an individual who you know is well-connected to the type of client you want to work with, it may be worthwhile to help them out for free as a way to create an advocate.

This is the most common and most valid reason to do free work, in my opinion.

I know a creative agency that was built on the back of a free website for an online thought leader, who then made introductions to other authors, speakers, and creators, and suddenly her calendar was full of well-paid work.

If you are confident that this one free client will turn into introductions for paid work, then doing a free project may be the best marketing strategy that you have.

Conclusion

A lot of people offer you "exposure" for your work. Just about all of these offers are going to leave you feeling disappointed – and you can't pay your bills with exposure.

In just about all circumstances, doing free work isn't a strong use of your time, energy, and talent.

But if you are confident that you can create a super-advocate for yourself and your business – someone who is well-connected to the types of clients you want to work with – then it may be worth giving that project a shot.

Want to show off your portfolio? Share it in the comments!

–

Hey! If you like this, subscribe to my weekly newsletter, Work in Progress.

–

Jay Clouse is the creator of Freelancing School, which provides the training and community to help people make a living freelancing. He is also the founder of Unreal Collective, a community for founders, freelancers, and creators that runs a 12-week accelerator program.

Jay hosts Creative Elements, which interviews high-profile creators who have made their own independent living.

You can connect with Jay on Twitter @jayclouse or sign up for his Sunday newsletter for creatives at jayclouse.com.