I have four clients for whom I don't get paid, and sometimes I'm looked at very strangely for that. Why should you work for free? If you work at the Appie or in an office you get paid, don't you? I agree to some extent, but I think working for free has a bad reputation. Time to highlight both sides.
Can be beneficial to build your portfolio
Think of free work as an internship, there you also got a minimal internship allowance and at the end a nice book voucher. But you did get work experience. As a freelancer it's the same, you don't get money but you do work on your portfolio. Especially when you are just starting out, this can be useful. As a photographer you can sell yourself much better with a nice portfolio, so sometimes it is necessary to get off the ground.
What do you get in return?
But working for free is not necessarily something you do only at the beginning of your career. After that, it can also be beneficial. For example, I write guest blogs for Eat Live Travel. I don't get paid for this, but it gives me other things: free publicity and brand awareness, improving my copywriting skills, networking opportunities, meeting bloggers and vloggers, free food and drinks, an inside look at the online world and just a really fun time. For example, I've been to events I would never have ended up at otherwise and traveled to places/dined at restaurants I wouldn't have thought of otherwise.
The same actually applies to YellowTipi, where I get to go to festivals for free. A festival easily costs €50 for a day and Sziget (7 days including train) for example almost €600. As press, I have a chill press room and sometimes get to go backstage. So, I indeed don't get money - but I get lots of other valuable things, which can result in more money later.
The other two things are more volunteer work. For example, I help with the communications of an organization fighting against food waste & design a monthly picture for the Association of Veganism. This gives me more personal satisfaction and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with business or name recognition. And that's fine with me.
When can you no longer do it for free?
Now comes the tricky part: when do you decide you can't do something for free anymore? I mean, of course I enjoy sunny festivals and free vegan dinners. But I can't keep running my whole career on that. You also need paying customers, because they pay your rent and your operating expenses.
Unfortunately, the line is hard to define. My maxim: paid work takes precedence. If I am invited to the opening of a new vegan store, but also have a deadline for which I still have a lot to do, I cancel the press invitation. Sometimes very painful, but necessary.
What is actually the problem with working for free?
I do understand the problem of working for free. Something you're good at shouldn't really be done for free. I read a post the other day from someone who had been working for a startup for a friend for free for five months. It was about website management and social media, something you would normally just hire someone for (paid!). I think that's outrageous and I'm really against that. If you really are an indispensable part of an organization and you're just doing a certain job, you shouldn't be working for free. Know your value and fight for it. I don't review friend's theses for free anymore, because for clients I just charge €100 or more for it. Does someone want me to make a logo or business card? Then I'll make it a barter deal.
So, the key question: when is working for free okay and when not? Depends entirely on you. If you have enough time to work for free and it really pays off, go for it. Are you really busy and only doing it because someone asks you so nicely? Then quit, you deserve better.
