A trend among new freelancers is to take jobs at extremely low pay, sometimes no pay at all, to get a foot in the door or have something to put on a portfolio.  These freebies, they think, are just a way to get started and have work to point to when prospecting for clients.  And having something to put on that writing or design resume can make a big difference—you wouldn’t hire a typist, for instance, without some assurance that he or she could actually type, so no one’s going to hire a web designer unless they can see a website you’ve actually designed.  So a freebie or two let you create professional work for a client that you can use to get paying work.

The problem with these freebies is that so many people trying to break into freelancing are so willing to do them, that it tends to undermine their entire field.  If a client has 20 freelancers willing to do a project for free or for unbelievably low rates because someone wants the experience, and your rates are $50 an hour, your rate is going to look extremely bloated comparatively.  Even $20 an hour might seem high if almost everyone else is offering to do the same work for $5.  The more freelancers who are willing to do work for slave wages, the less everyone makes as a whole. 

If you worked an hourly or salaried job, no boss would come to you and ask you to to spend a couple hours out of your day working for free.  And the clients that you’re considering doing free or cheap work for, they get paid for their time, too.  While you might not consider it working for nothing because you are getting a reference for your resume, consider how hard it might be to bet a decent rate out of that client once you’ve done work for a pittance.

If you’re not convinced, then only do a very small project this way when you have the promise of more work at regular rates if the client is happy.  Better yet, contact a charitable organization and rather than working for nothing, consider your portfolio-building work with them as a donation.  Many charities actively look for writers, graphic designers, project managers and website designers to volunteer their services.  Choose a charity for your freebie work and you’re helping them and yourself.

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