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Hey, you — talented, creative person: please, stop working for free.
No more writing, editing, designing, consulting, making jewelry, sculpting bodies, waxing eyebrows, cutting hair, producing art, painting houses, building cabinets or providing legal counsel without payment.
I’m serious.
Don’t do it for “exposure.” Don’t do it for “the practice.” Don’t do it to be nice. If you have a talent and find that folks regularly:
- call upon your guidance, expertise or handmade product,
- find benefit, pleasure, or reassurance in your guidance, expertise or handmade product, and
- say ”you are really good at this — you should do it for a living,”
then you cannot do/make said thing for free. Declare an hourly rate or fee, stop by Blinksale, set up your account and invoice your peeps.
You’ve got skills, yo. There ain’t nothin’ wrong with receiving payment for in return for your services (well, you know, most of the time). Got it? Good, because I really can’t stand watching you do that anymore.
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Comments
08.25.09
I see your point, but I also think there is real joy in giving your skills as a gift to people you care about.
08.25.09
I think that it's important to have a healthy balance. I'm often told that people who give away things for free get more back in return. Yet, at the same time, I can see how many people might squander their talents when they should really be putting more value on what they are able to do.
This is a good thing to think about!
08.25.09
Alanna and Ryan, agreed! This post isn't so much about giving to folks/ supporting missions you care about through your talent – I’m all for that!
The post is meant to address the fact that many folks who own their own businesses feel guilty about charging friends and friends-of-friends for their services. I'm not a fan of that guilt and want talented folks to get paid for their work!
I appreciate your thoughtful comments!
08.25.09
I find it hard to charge friends, or people who I would want to be friends.
08.25.09
Eugene, I hear ya. Many of my friends have that same struggle: to charge, or not to charge? But to me, there's no question! Ha!
08.25.09
I once heard a figure that writers' salaries haven't gone up since the 70's, and that's accounting for inflation. We're making the same average dollar amount as our contemporaries did back then.
That's due, in great part, to the flood of amateur and freebie writers that have caved in the market. Sadly, I'm not sure what we can do about it. Many writers don't know another way to get their foot in the door, and get their stuff read.
However, at the very least I can say that if you don't value your own work, no one else will value it.
08.25.09
I think that this applies to anyone who is employed by others, volunteers and/or has their own business. I agree -stop giving things away for free. I've seen people start with the "giving something away for free will reap its rewards" routine, whether that something is free overtime, coming in on the weekends, giving away too many free samples, or just volunteering way too many hours at some cause to the detriment of your employment.
The bottom line is "everything in moderation". If you go off the deep end and just give things away people will come to expect it and you will never see a reward from it.
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08.25.09
Whoa, I am with you on this one.
"Can I pick your brain?" Has to be one of my most-hated requests (from people I don't know that well, of course. Close friends are a different matter, but then again, they never seem to be the ones to ask.)
I think you get to a certain point in your career trajectory when you've earned plenty of "exposure" through your own butt-busting hard work, and you just wanna pay the utility bills with, you know, actual money earned from that work.
I even proposed a panel at South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) on the topic - Drawing the Line Between Free and Paid. Your bio mentions SXSW, so maybe we can compare notes in person in 2010. :
Thanks for writing this.
08.25.09
I like to 'give' my help, advice and thoughts often for free. I know that I can't do it forever, but I also believe in a kind favor. I suppose it depends on the magnitude of help or advice people keep asking me for. If it reaches a point where I have no more time and they aren't close friends or family, I would jump right up there and charge. Good thoughts...
08.25.09
I do a lot of work for my church, and they pay me when they can so I know they're willing. Unfortunately "when they can" isn't every time. (Is there a way to track that I've donated my time / skills in a way that I can at least write off in taxes?)
But I see what you're saying, and I agree. The hardest part, I think, is that what we'd charge for others are willing to do for free, and always will be. It seems that bad product for free is always "better" than good product for cheap, or great product for a reasonable rate.
08.25.09
This has been my motto in 2009. No more working for free. I totally agree with you! When you have talent and that's how you make your living, you can't just give it away. Good word.
08.25.09
I think that depending on where you are at in life and/or career, it can be easily justified to do free work for others. It's easy to say "I want to be paid for this". It's a lot harder to convince others to pay you for it, particularly if you haven't proven you are even good at it. For the more established individuals, I see your point. But the people a year or so out of college? I think it sets a bad example by having people who don't have their brand together to start demanding payment for skills that can, quite frankly, be done by someone who is willing to work for less. Especially if the other guy can do it for free.
Oddly enough, Seth Godin did a blog post about this a little while ago: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/08/free-work-vs-internships...
08.25.09
I can appreciate donating your time and work for a good cause or as an act of good faith, but I hear Margie loud and clear when she calls for us to write up that invoice.
My biggest issue with people working for free is that often you'll find them complaining about not having money or not getting paid enough. Isn't this obvious when they're not charging anyone?
It would be great to live in a world where we could be showered with good will and fortune for giving away our talents for free, but it just isn't going to happen in most cases.
Earning social capital has it's places, but I'm sure even Tara Hunt would agree that you can't do everything for free. Someone, somewhere, has to pay the bills.
08.25.09
You know what kind of free service will drive you crazier faster than any? Free computer technical support. Once you do, you will never be free of calls for free fixes or enhancements, so long as you can be contacted. Talk about a time sink!
08.25.09
I've done several commissioned paintings or drawings for free in my past (art school days), but I always did it knowing that there would be an end point, after which I would firmly stop doing it for free. Now I've found that the true friends who want to commission work from me are the ones who will gladly pay me what my time and effort is worth.
08.25.09
I just jotted down a post in response to this, to get my thoughts straight. http://qwerty-u.com/2009/08/25/dear-god-not-the-payment-question/
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