5 ways to say no to clients asking you to work for free / next to nothing

There’s nothing more infuriating than when you have a client try to ‘help you out’ by letting you work for them for free, or practically free. Despite their ‘generosity’ of letting you pad your resumé with hard work on their behalf, it’s best for everyone that you just say no. Here’s some inspiration for just how to let them down.

The Professional Way

Brooklyn-based designer Jessica Hische has come up with an awesome email generator to anyone from big agencies, to charities, to friends. You select the amount of money that was on offer, who the offer came from, and it spits out a perfect email for you to send to politely and professionally say no. Check it out here: http://jessicahische.is/helpingyouanswer

The Unprofessional Way

If you’re in the USA, we recommend you send them a steamy token of appreciation for their offer, courtesy of our friends at Poop Senders: http://poopsenders.com/

The Creative Way

Why not have a laugh, and instead of putting your skills to work for free for someone else, put them to work for yourself à la David Thorne in the infamous 27B/6 article about Missy the cat: http://www.27bslash6.com/missy.html

The Smart Way

Alright, we get it, you don’t want to affect your reputation and maybe the client just didn’t know better. If you actually want to say no without causing a hubbub, we recommend checking out Chris Williams’ awesome article on how to candidly handly the situation: https://www.network-freelance.co.uk/blog/archive/how-to-tell-a-prospective-client-that-you-don-t-work-for-free/

The Easy Way

Our beloved Keith Whitley really hit the nail on the head with his 1988 smash hit:

“Now you say it best when you say nothing at all.”

Cheers Keith.

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