Freelance Apple

In the world of freelancing, many freelancers will tell you to never work for free, as if it is a crime punishable by death. I beg to differ, in some cases. So, I have discussed the what-where-when-how-who of working for free.

There are two types of ‘free’ services. The first is to actually work for free, so if you are a web designer, you design for free not taking any money for the work you have done. The second is to provide an alternative service for free, such as giving advice with regard to web design if you are a web designer.

1. Working For Free

Advantages

A. Portfolio
Starting out, your portfolio is most likely empty. One way of getting work on your portfolio is to work for free, however, I would recommend that you do this for a non-profit organisation as opposed to for anyone and everyone.

B. Charity
Non-profit organisations do need all the help they can get. You can help an organisation you are fond of and believe in. This enables you to work for free, but not only for the sake of your professional agenda but because you believe in the cause as well.

C. Learn
If you are finding it difficult to find work to start with, doing free work can help you learn new skills and advance your existing skills.

Disadvantages

A. Reputation
You may grow a reputation as a “free” freelancer. This may cause you to be taken for advantage and clients expecting your rates to be lower.

B. Lack of Value
When I was younger my father gave me a car as a present. I usually burnt the clutch out and raced and trashed the poor classic. Now I have a car which I bought with my own money, I take special care of it.

The lesson here is that one can take free things for granted. So the client may not take good care of your hard work. They will have no urgency to fix problems on their website, if you designed their site for free. This will therefore affect your portfolio, as a person may look at the site and see a defect which was caused by the client’s negligence and blame that on ‘poor web design’.

C. Reward
After being treated like a normal client and having all the stresses involved, the fact remains you will not have any material gain. Of course you have earned a good deed and now have substance for your portfolio, but you still will not have technically earned anything to pay off your mortgage or give financial freedom.

2. Alternative work for free

There are many methods of providing services which are not directly work but the main one I feel you should perfect is advice.

Advantages

A. Marketing
Give excellent advice and the person will feel a connection with you. The next time they require a paid service you offer (or anyone they know does,) they will call you.

B. Future Monetary Gain
If you give excellent advice on your blog or newsletter, the chances are that if you compiled an ebook, or a product of any kind, people would buy it.

C. Authority
Giving honest tips and advice will give you an authority which you can utilise. A client is more likely to go with a freelancer who is seen with some authority in the field (due to their blog/newsletter) as opposed to someone who may be better but unknown.

Disadvantages

A. Time
There is no direct monetary gain and it is extremely time consuming. It may take up to a year for you to establish your blog.

B. Competition
If you outline all your marketing techniques and secrets, your competition will know exactly how you do it, and if they are unethical, copy you.

C. Failure
The fact still remains that just because this works for some of us, does not necessarily mean it will work for you. You may spend time and effort and it may not give you any advantage at all.

Conclusion

These are things which work for me. I feel that when I give open-hearted advice for absolutely free, it just works and this could just be due to honesty. This however does not mean that these tips necessarily work for you.

Does this work for you? Do you think it is a waste of time? Enlighten us with your feedback below, as we can all learn from each others experiences.