Should you ever work for free?
Suppose you’re like most entrepreneurs; you probably get asked for free work. Someone wants to hear your ideas, or they want you to speak, design, consult, problem-solve, or otherwise provide your products or services for exposure, for goodwill, or just because they don’t want to pay.
We asked entrepreneurs and founders what their thoughts were and what you should do if asked!
Seth Hammock, Founder at gosignify.com
GoSignify is an online marketplace where professional interpreters connect with clients in law and medicine for freelance assignments.
First, providing free products and services is critical when it comes to getting feedback from real users. Many of our first-time users gave us insight into how GoSignify solved their problem (or didn’t) when hiring professional interpreters for legal cases. We iterated using their feedback and got closer to the product-market fit each time. Second, when providing a useful solution to a problem you get an instant advocate. That’s not entirely feasible if you’re asking someone to pay you without trying it. Third, once you have an advocate you want to give them time to get buy-in from others. For example, one of our target markets is court houses. Winning long-term contracts requires a consensus among employees at the government level. Advocates multiply and ultimately convince the people in charge of the money to invest in your product.
Court coordinators have asked me to use the platform for free to see it really working, genuinely solving a long-standing challenge for them: hiring professional interpreters on short notice and in a transparent way.
I recommend founders weigh the risk and benefits of giving the offering for free. Anyone who is an entrepreneur is in it to earn a living, to generate cash. Giving away your product means giving away your time and money too. To that end, not all users will come to the table with useful information, which will not help you reach your financial goals. Make sure you have a clear understanding of what you need in return.
Dennis Hancock, President & CEO of Mountain Valley MD
Mountain Valley MD is a Biotech firm Mountain Valley MD.
I don’t recommend anyone work for free, with one exception.
The only time working for free is acceptable is if you’re completely inexperienced and looking to build your portfolio or resume. Keep the project small enough that you won’t be sinking hundreds of hours into unpaid gigs, and consider asking for minimum wage if you can. If you’re providing a product, not a service, giving away a few free copies of any software or products developed provides valuable feedback that can help avoid some costly mistakes come launch time.
Set a benchmark for expectations around free work ahead of time, so you don’t end up working for free beyond when you’ve reaped the maximum benefits from the experience. Once you dip your toes, it’s time to look for entry-level rates for paid projects, which you can quickly roll into higher-wage work.
Never offer to do a portion of a project for free in exchange for paid work later, as the clients that expect deep discounts aren’t usually the ones that value your knowledge, skillset, or work. If you’re offering free work, do it only if it’s going to help build your resume with zero expectations for the future from the client.
Jake Munday, Co-Founder of Custom Neon
Custom Neon a global manufacturer and retailer of custom designed LED neon lights and signs.
Speaking from experience, there are many good reasons for entrepreneurs to offer their goods or services free of charge.
In the early days when the budget is tight, skill product or service swapping can be a great way to develop the means to run your business more efficiently.( I.e, a digital marketing agency offering seo advice to a financial planner in return for budgeting advice).
Whilst you can’t give a freebie to everyone that asks, each opportunity is worth exploring. Firstly, I’ll ask myself, is this an opportunity that I’d be happy to invest marketing budget on? Then I’ll calculate the price of what we are giving away, versus the potential exposure.How closely will the audience align with our products and how many sales would it take for me to recoup the freebie. If the opportunity appears productive (ideally lucrative), I’ll consider it.
The best reason for giving out a freebie? Purely because we want to.. As a serial entrepreneur, who has experienced great successes as well as significant losses, I think it’s important to share our wisdom. I didn’t thrive at school, now I love mentoring senior school kids and young entrepreneurs, enforcing that you don’t need to be academic to be successful. Custom Neon supports many charities with our products and time.Supporting others is an integral part of our values.
As an entrepreneur you very much reap what you sow. Our team members are proud to work for a philanthropic company. It boosts employee morale, loyalty and retention, which almost certainly has been one of the key facets to our success.
Cooper Mitchell, Founder of Garage Gym Reviews
Garage Gym Reviews is the biggest online resource for home gyms.
I can’t speak for all fields, but from my experience working in the online review space there is definitely a good reason to work for free. When I started my business I was just some guy reviewing gym equipment. I wasn’t making any money, but people were starting to recognize my name and I began to build a following. Nowadays having an online community is something you can monetize, and I’ve built a following of 288k instagram followers and 251k youtube subscribers. It’s this community I built that transformed my side hustle into a multimillion dollar business. Simply put, working for free doesn’t mean you aren’t gaining something valuable.You can get exposure by providing valuable resources to people for free. That exposure can later help you monetize your business.
I get requests for free work all the time, getting tons of comments asking me to review certain pieces of gym equipment. I see this as a good thing because the community is telling me what they would like to see and how I can add value. So, I happily review requested products because it demonstrates that I am truly interested in helping those in the garage gym space. My advice about being asked about free work is to take a step back and think how you can capitalize on it. The world of business has changed drastically over the past couple of years, and there are a lot of creative ways entrepreneurs can take advantage of opportunities and build their business.
Veer Mehta, Principal Consultant of Business Think
Business Think is one of India & South Asia’s best-known Business Training & Simulation Provider.
The question you have posed reminds me of my starting days as a Business Coach. I still remember, even after having excellent credentials companies did not have faith in me, maybe, and usually asked for free sessions.
My experience on this has been that in the coaching industry if we offer our expertise for free, participants do not take it seriously, companies take us for granted. Our time and effort usually go to waste here. This is a usual case with large organizations when we are at our initial stage.
On the other hand, if we spend the same time and effort on a small company, we would get paid less than what we expect but it’s a rewarding experience as participants would eagerly hear one out and have some monetary benefits, along with a good reference.
So I usually turn down requests for free work as I strongly believe there are no free lunches. I recommend other startups to do the same as well. Settle, initially of course, for a smaller organization to coach, but don’t offer your services for free to larger organizations.
