When, How, & For Whom You Should Work for Free

Wanna start a debate in the small business community? Advocate that yes, indeed, you should work for free from time to time.

“But it devalues the industry / our profession!”

Wah wah wah. It does and it doesn’t.

• If you’re actively taking business from a peer who was about to be paid for a project that you just bid $0 for, then yes, you shouldn’t do that.

• If you’re using any of the reasons below to work for free, I believe you are absolutely entitled to do so under the right circumstances.

Before we get to those reasons though, I’ve already hinted at something important in the consideration: who you are working for.

Who To Do Free Work For

It’s really, really important to vet the client (and I would argue it’s not “client” with quotations if you’re doing the work properly) you’re about to give free work to, to ensure it’s a good opportunity for both of you or to make sure you aren’t actually devaluing the industry.

Here’s the criteria to help you determine who you should do free work for:

1. Clients that can’t afford it

You should never work for free for Apple or Nike, or any other massive brand that has deep pockets. Sometimes this isn’t even a company with global recognition, but a business local to you who you know has success.

“But it’s Apple! The Apple!”

Don’t care. Do you know what their marketing budgets are?! Absolutely bonkers. Millions upon millions of dollars. They can afford whatever measly RFQ you might send their way.

On the other hand, if you’re considering doing free for for a small business that just started, or someone else who might not otherwise spend the money on your profession, I say go for it. You’re the one who is ultimately “paying” for it anyways. If you’re willing to do it for free, do it.

2. Clients you have a good relationship with

Especially under certain circumstances below, it makes sense to do free work for clients you already have a good relationship with. You sweeten the deal even more, up your “we love this person” status with them, and otherwise secure your working relationship for the future.

Don’t do free work for bad, pushy, rude, unappreciative clients. You will hate yourself and them more by the end of it.

3. Friends

Hoooo boy. I said it!

No, you shouldn’t work for free for every friend. But if you’re bros, and you know that a minimal amount of your effort will pay dividends to the benefits for them? Do it.

Be careful that word doesn’t get around if you’re charging some friends and not others. Unless you’re able to defend yourself objectively or ready to lose certain friendships. But once in a while if your friend is in a real pickle and you’re able to lend a hand? Go for it.

For everyone not explicitly mentioned here: use your judgment. If they respect you and you’re willing, it is probably safe to do free work. If they indicate they don’t respect you in one way or another, walk away.

When To Work For Free

Now that we’ve got the “for whom” mostly out of the way, we can begin looking at the reasons you might consider working for free.

In my experience, these 5 below are the big ones. They’re common, and I’ve certainly utilized every one of them for myself at some point or another!

Here are the big reasons to work for free:

1. When you’re new & building your portfolio

Just starting out? You probably can’t charge much for what you’re doing. When you’re the new kid on the block, you are unproven. Utilize free work to show you’re as smart as you think you are, and as valuable as you think you are.

2. When you’re pivoting your business

Wanna take this thing in a new direction? To protect the reputation you have so far, it’s probably wise to do a few projects without pay first so you aren’t at risk if things go south. If no one is paying you, they can’t have any expectations. If you’re pushing your business in a new direction, starting without money is the safest way to do it.

3. When work is slow and you want to appear busy

Even if you aren’t busy, appearing busy is super vital. Thankfully, with the advent of social media, this is easier to do than ever. If you’re struggling to look busy (because you aren’t busy), take on some free work to give you something to fill your schedule with.

4. When you’re feeling burnt out

Sounds counterintuitive but stay with me for a second: if you’re hating your job, it’s because the joy has been sucked out of it. How do you re-inject it? You do passion projects. And when you do passion projects that involve no money, the pressure to deliver any particular end product is completely missing. This is why free work feels so damn good. So if you’re counting down the minutes and seconds until this is all over right now, find a way to do something just for you. The rest of your work might benefit from it.

5. When you’re really swimming in the deep end

Say you take on a massive, multi-layered project. You’re able to do 80% of the work competently, but that remaining 20% makes you a little iffy. Do it for free. Yep - don’t get paid for it. Not only will your client love you for this, but you’ll then be able to confidently charge for it next time around. Similar to pivoting or growing your business, doing portions of a job for free can take the pressure off and create runway for business development.

How To Work For Free

We’ve got the who and the why out of the way: now let’s talk about how.

Not all free work is created equal. Even if you have a handful of the above elements in line, it is still important to set proper expectations with those clients (and with yourself).

Here are the most important elements of how you should carry out free work:

1. On your terms

When the client is getting something from you without spending money to get it, it’s important that they know you are the one in control.

It’s common with all client work that the client can make certain demands for the money they’re paying. This is fair! And I think, in general, more entrepreneurs need to kill their babies and just take the money and move on. Creative integrity is a farce.

But when you’re the one that’s eating the cost, it becomes your project. Every aspect of it (as outlined in the next few arguments) are yours to control. End of story. If your client is becoming pushy about anything, you should walk away. This is a huge red flag.

2. On your timeline

Even if the client is letting you call the shots, sometimes they might insist on a key timeline so that they can benefit from the service you’re providing for free.

Only accommodate this timeline if you reasonably can and aren’t sacrificing other work to do so.

It’s another red flag if the client insists things can only be done their way. If they aren’t willing to pay, they don’t get (as much of) a say.

3. On your expectations

Similar to the above, you decide what the final deliverables are gonna be. Don’t be fooled into thinking you must deliver any particular item for your work.

You name what it is they’re going to get in the end. Just make sure you’re clear about it up front. No one likes surprises, and you risk ruining the good relationship if the client is expecting something and you deliver less.

4. On your discount

If you’re hoping this free work might snowball into paid work one day, let the client know what you would charge for this in the future, and that they understand

Remind the client what the full price would’ve been, and what a value they’re receiving for free. This also helps if they refer you to their friends: you’ve told them what they should’ve paid you.

This also helps drive up the value of what you’re giving them. If all they think about is you giving up a few hours of your time, it might not seem like as big a deal. But if you can attach a dollar value to what it is you’re doing, the savings become so much more apparent.

Don’t go overboard with this: only mention it a handful of times. But do it, at least once, in writing. If your client feels like you’re lording the free price tag over them, you’re the one who is going to sour the relationship. And that sort of defeats the purpose.

5. On your own basis

Free work should be a stepping stone to paid work. It is rarely the goal of a business.

When you do free work for a client, don’t be shy to let them know this is a really exclusive one-time-offer that they will never be able to redeem again. If you change your mind about that in the future? Amazing! But it should never be an expectation that the client might be able to call you up for repeat free work or heavily discounted work in the future.

Part of the way you naturally avoid this is by appearing busy. I’ve already covered that. If the client you formerly did free work for sees that you’re “as busy as you’ve ever been,” they will usually feel much sillier asking for a discount when they can see you can easily turn them down.

When NOT To Work For Free

Yep - I’m a big advocate for working for free if the conditions are right. But I’ve already mentioned in passing a number of times it’s a horrible idea.

To be explicit, here are the reasons not to work for free:

1. When you’re already busy enough

Laugh if you want, but this is much more common than you think. Maybe not necessarily in the free work conversation, but certainly in the discounted work conversation.

Sometimes businesses feel like they need to be offering discounts. When pushed as to why, they often have incoherent or partial answers.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you need to always be offering discounts. Discounts or free work are useful when you’re struggling to make ends meet. But if you’ve been paying the bills without issue and the future doesn’t look too shaky, pass on free work.

2. When the client gets pushy suddenly

Once in a while, you encounter a client who seems pretty good from the get-go, but when it comes to closing the sale, they get pushy about you giving a discount. Especially if they’ve spent considerable amounts of your time in conversation, or they’re promising you lofty amounts of work in the future, you can feel pressure to give them a discount to close the deal.

Do not do this. This is a huge warning that the client is lying to you, and that they’re going to be just as pushy once the relationship officially starts.

You have not invested “too much” of your time in them to walk away right now. You’ll be glad you did later. Pushy clients are clients that should especially pay full price, if not more. Suddenly pushy clients are masters at manipulation. Walk away fast.

3. When you’re taking the job from someone else

Paid or not: don’t steal business. Even if the other person competing for this client is offering the job for free as well, don’t undercut them. Be honest about what your intentions are. Remember that, in 99% of circumstances, there’s enough to go around for everyone.

If you’re about to poach business from a competitor who has been working on a sale for quite some time, this is sketchy and it’s going to earn you a lot of enemies. Don’t do it.

4. When the client is only choosing you because you’re the cheapest option

If they lack enthusiasm about any other aspect of working with you, you should only continue the conversation if you really benefit from working with them.

If the client is nonchalant about the discount they’re receiving, or otherwise too passive about everything else, you probably don’t want to align your business with theirs. Fundamentally, you have different values and principles. There’s nothing wrong with doing business with companies with which whom you don’t align philosophically, but if it’s going to threaten your working relationship, you should pass: paid or otherwise.

5. When the client sets off other red flags

The biggest flag a client could set off is about being able to pay you but refusing to do so because they’re too cheap. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen this. You can’t turn these clients into good clients later (you might get them to be a paying client later, but that doesn’t make them good).

Besides money, there are a million other red flags bad clients might set off (most of them are gut-feelings you get. Be smart enough to listen).

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my working life: a bad client never becomes a good client.

I’ve written about that before and I stand by it. Don’t partner with people who make you feel uneasy about working with them. Rarely do you end up being wrong about that instinct.

In Conclusion:

There are a ton of circumstances in which working for free makes a lot of sense.

There are many where working for free doesn’t.

Use this guide as a sort of litmus test if you’re struggling to know whether you should carry out a bunch of free work or not.

At the end of the day, you’re the one who has to live with your choices. I can’t tell you what does and doesn’t make sense for your exact situation.

But hopefully after reading all of this, you can at least arrive at conclusions with your eyes a little more widely opened.