Where Will Offering Free Services Get You?
Every so often, I see a freelancer offer up her services free as part of a giveaway. Maybe it’s as part of a sale to drum up business, maybe it’s part of a contest to benefit a non-profit — no matter what, though, I always take a closer look. More often than not, I find that I don’t see a clear benefit to the freelancer making the offer.
There are times when offering free services makes sense. But it’s a question to consider very carefully: time that you spend working for free for a client is time that you could spend on a paying project or marketing yourself so that you can land your next big project. Free services also put you in danger of training a potential client that your time isn’t worth your going rate. There’s a fine line between a giveaway that help you and one that can set you back.
When is Giving Your Time Away Worth Your While?
Time is money. If you’re giving away your time, it had better mean that doing so will bring in some money in other ways. It’s not impossible to set up:
- Your giveaway will lead directly to paid work. If, for instance, you’re willing to give away an hour of free work to land an additional ten hours of work, the math can work out (especially if you raise your rates to cover that extra hour).
- Get big attention from your ideal client. Putting a gift certificate for a couple hours of your time into a silent auction for charity can help you build at least a little awareness among people who hadn’t heard of you before, although it’s crucial that you make sure that at least part of the audience would be interested in paying you for your work.
- Pair your giveaway with a paid purchase. If you have a product to sell — even if you’re an affiliate for a product and didn’t create it yourself — you can offer up some of your time for free to help buyers make up their minds. A web developer might sell a website template and offer up an hour of customization for free, as an example.
Limiting Requests for Unpaid Work
If you don’t see the benefit of donating some time, it’s likely to be something you don’t want to do. I belong to an organization that hits me up for a couple of hours of work every year to go into a silent auction to benefit the organization. The problem is that every other member of that organization already knows me and knows exactly what I have to offer. I’m not going to get any extra work through putting up my services for free.
There are times that, even without a clear financial benefit, you can choose to give away your services just the same. With that organization, for instance, I am willing to help out because it’s a way that I can support the organization, which is important to me. The important thing is being able to recognize where the benefit is and make the decision with your eyes wide open.
Photo credit: Jesslee Cuizon on Flickr
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There have been times when I have offered services for free.
1. I work with at least one non-profit organization at all time because it is my way of giving back. I prefer to donate my time instead of money in most instances.
2. When I want to work on new skills that I am developing and want to put the skills into action. I will offer those skills for free to work out the kinks and get more comfortable with the skill.
3. When I want to drum up more business or gain awareness in a new industry I am pursuing.
Jenn
Exactly.
Whenever I make one I plan on giving out a free small app in exchange for people opting in to my email list.
If you have any suggestions about what that app should be please feel free to email me.
Doing free work for a non-profit is, in my book, okay. The idea of doing free work for a for-profit business, or for someone who is at least hoping to profit (I’d like to just avoid some of those altogether!), perturbs me a bit. Why let someone else profit on your hard work while they laugh all the way to the bank?
In any case, the article does ignore the one reason why people give away web design: portfolio building. The clients shopping out there know this as well, so why keep that elephant in the room?
That’s not to say that I think free or very underpaid work is the best way to build a portfolio. I started out with that assumption and got burned. The same people who want the cheapest website often are also those people who won’t trust your input, abandon the project midway, disappear for weeks and return, or just toss your site and put up something worse.
You’re better off creating some templates or mock-ups or using stuff from college projects than offering to do unpaid work to build your portfolio.
I understand the trade-off for those buying-in to “free,” but ultimately there’s got to be a decision — because the only thing free and low prices do is train your prospects to expect more “free” from you.
And that leaves you trapped in a “free” cage. How then would you expect them to suddenly want to pay for what they’ve received for free for so long?
I’d say in those cases, you need to set an expectation ahead of time that the freebie is a one-off deal. Let them know up-front what you’d normally charge. But IMHO, there’s few reasons to go absolutely free. Volunteering while building a portfolio is just an idea. Doing “free” work for your own projects is also good.
A freelancer I used to know got hit up for free work so much that he finally had to put a policy in place that significantly reduced the requests and those that remained were much more worthy and profitable.
He decided on a set value of free work he was willing to donate in a year. When someone approached him, he told them that he would be happy to consider their request, but since he had a limited amount to offer they would have to submit a proposal that included information about the organization, how his donated work would benefit it…
I always thought that was an excellent way of going about it and certainly added value to him and to the work he donated.
I like this approach a lot. It keeps things professional and I can also see how it can limit requests from people who are really just looking to take advantage of people.
I do this. Well, I used to… I need to get my form back up. But I do up to 4 “free” projects per year (one per quarter). I have strict guidelines on it. Usually it’s for non-profits, but I will take the occasional for-profit project under really strict guidelines (namely 1. It will give me a skill I don’t already have and haven’t had the chance to learn yet; 2. I give them what they need, but the design and functionality is my decision; and 3) I require a check for the actual amount I would get paid, so I can deposit it and claim it on my tax return. I donate the funds back to the company.) It’s a way for me to “give back” as well, I get neat portfolio stuff added to my library, and I get a tax write off. It’s actually worked out quite well for me.
I just did a Christmas marketing campaign in my local area where I gave away 50 prizes ranging from a free 5-page website to $100 credit in online services. For me, it was more of just creating brand awareness in my area.
Something to also consider is receiving X-amount of referrals in order to receive the free service.
I have given away free service for referrals before. I have one client I have only had to charge once for this very reason. They do mainly smaller projects though like news letters and simple email forms.
Maybe things are different in the cg market. I know people that offer free training on youtube or vimeo. establishing them selves with-in the community and as a references for possible clients. Also when these people release a paid version of training ,the community tends to buy up real fast. i know i almost always buy anything from members that offered free 5 min training when they offer something longer (1 -2 hour).
I recently offered free help to redesign a CMS site that’s affiliated with a lot of big names. I was referred to them by a mutual friend. Oddly enough, after doing so, they told me they’d be reviewing several designers from which to pick. Lesson learned: sometimes even offering free services doesn’t mean you’ll get the job. Sometimes people are looking for free work and still think they can shop for the help.
All in all, I indeed limit how much free work I’ll give, and I usually reserve it for good causes or projects that’ll get a lot of exposure. I also go a bit bonkers with business cards, and try my best to make them interested in using their connections to refer me.
Generosity gives back good karma!
Great topic! I have to say that doing free work and donating time to a non-profit are two completely different situations in my opinion. I personally won’t do “free” work or offer free work, but I have a solid base of clients and have been doing freelance work for a long time… but when I started out I got a lot of my first clients by answering web questions and doing a few updates without charge, so I think that the “should you do free work” question is completely subjective
again great and HELPFUL topic for freelancers!
Interesting. I try not to do anything for free, but I guess there could be some benefits in the right situation.
Good advice. It also applies to businesses that are asked to donate product to fund raising events. It is always wise to check how and to whom your business will be publicized, and estimate the the return to you on the investment. time and product are both resources you can put a value on.
We live in a world full of greed and manipulation. Nothing is offered for free and the world should not work like this. We should want to help another person without a solid reason or need for a return. I offer writing services for free, but only to a select few who are truth seekers and want to help others as I do. My time is very precious to me, but I do feel this persistent effort to want to help others. Call me a freak or think what you want, but it feels good to give something back to the abundant Universe.