Spec work

This was inspired by subscriber-friend Rod, who asked his list their opinion on doing work for free.

I feel pretty strongly about this, so I replied.

For clarity, the context of my response is within your business – you know, the one where you’re a solo creative pursuing a career that supports you, and perhaps a few other people. It doesn’t include helping a friend move house, tending the garden at your community centre, or anything else that you do for love or enjoyment.

So, TL;DR: Never work for free. Don’t accept spec work. You own a business, not a charity. Always, always offer a paid trial, or request some other form of “payment”.

My response to Rod, edited to include the stuff I left out during my ragey-mashed-keyboard reply:

I don’t think anyone should ever work for free, but the “payments” can vary.

If a cheapo requests free work from you because they can’t afford you, they have a cashflow problem – not your problem to solve. They’re valuing you below themselves, which amounts to little more than slavery in my book. There might be exceptions to this, but I feel pretty firmly about it having been on the end of these conversations several times over 20-odd years.

If they promise more work in the future, absolutely not good enough (also had these chats!). If that’s really the case, you can pay for a trial project, even if it’s small.

If you sell services and are asked to do free work, I believe it’s in your best interest to only offer paid trials. If you work for free, do it on your terms, and only in exchange for some useful alternative “payment” like direct feedback, a case study, a testimonial, or some form of contra deal (which technically makes it not free). If your client isn’t paying you, they need to help and support you in some other way, and be happy to do it.

If it’s volunteer work for a charity, for some reason it feels different. The volunteer receives “payment” in the form of filling their cup by doing something meaningful to them, and despite what I’ve said above, I’m actually in favour of volunteering for the right cause (which is only known to yourself). It also likely results in an another alternative form of payment, eg: a testimonal.

With products, you might ask for a free sample with the prospect of buying more. Sounds similar to the “promise of more work” scenario, but to me it’s very different. A sticker printer has samples for this very reason sitting on their shelf, but a freelancer doesn’t have a spare day sitting on their shelf. For the product it’s a marketing piece; for the time-based worker it’s charity (for a non charity!).