Imagine you walk into a electrical shop. “Hello Mrs/Mr Smith” says the shop owner, “How can I help you today.” You know Mr Brown, the shop owner quite well as you buy a lot of your electrical goods from him. “Its my friends birthday, I’d like an MP3 player please,” you say. “Of course says the shop owner and shows you his complete range. You choose the one you want, take it and start to walk towards the door. “Ummm.. Mrs/Mr Smith, you’ve forgotten to pay.” “No, I’ve bought a lot of stuff from you so I’m having this for free,” you say.
It just wouldn’t happen would it, yet how often as a design company or freelance designer do you face that situation? The dreaded freebie.
Your client says -
- My daughter’s school is having an event I could really do with a poster
- One of our staff is leaving – we need a card designing, this is what we would like
- I have a friend just setting up a business he can’t afford to pay for a logo I don’t suppose you could just put one together quickly for me?
Of course there is the need for a bit of give and take, but this is your business, not a hobby. While it is fine to help out now and again, the difficulty arises when you are stacked out with live work already, the client asks for a freebie and says I really need it by the end of the day!
Even more frustrating is when they become very picky about the freebie – “If you could just change this, oh, and I am not sure about that”
What are your thoughts?
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14 Comments
I did free stuff once in awhile because I was being nice. It was mostly stuff for forums, but I somehow ended up spending my time making total forum layouts and themes for this one kid for free. It got to the point where I just stopped all contact with him. Didn’t like this, wanted it this way, oh I’ve completed changed my mind and would like a whole new theme. Some people seem to either not know, or just don’t appreciate the work.
Another thing… I was contacted by someone via my blog who wanted a small illustration done. Wanted it free but said “possible paid work in future” (I didn’t really believe it but whatever). I ended up doing the Illustration and added the person to MSN, once maybe about every 1/2 hour he asked if it was done or how it’s coming along. I sent him jpegs of where I was at, “Ok, it looks all right, but this and this and this could be changed,” is what I got. So I finished it up sent to him and never even got a thanks.
Nighmare, there’s no pleasing some people, even for free.
Somebody always wants something for nothing. As for the guy in Seans comment I know what he would have received from me….
Anyway, I was thinking of a new header for my blog and was wondering…..
Ha ha – worth a try!
you just read my mind, When I started it was interest, Now every other Human wants it for free, close friend says it takes just a day to design, and a startup so he cant pay, ex-girlfriend says a design for her project, her friend demands other.
As few are close, i end up designing something or other nice which satisfies me, but they end up like its a little here, a little there would just take 5 minutes, few end up saying how long does it take to design just matter of 10 minutes.. espicially one of my friend stopped talking to me when I denied to design a logo for her at her time frame and promised it to do later.. The company never started the logo she wanted for.. but its kinda scared to say you are in advertising, designing. people endup paying nothing but adding few more this and that alterations.n oh yeh, few also end up saying get your laptop to my place and design in front of me.. Huh,
Any solution for this problem?? how can such situations be tackled??
Hi Santosh, thanks for your comments. I wish I knew the answer?
For friends it can be quite difficult, I guess you can try and do a swap, your design work in exchange for a skill they have?
I know what you mean about designing with someone sitting behind you. Its a nighmare when you have to do that for a paid job, let alone a free one.
I came across a site called http://www.no-spec.com which is trying to do something about stopping free spec work which is an interesting idea, and worth taking a look at.
I never do freebies. I used to, and I still get asked to. My agency (about 20 people) takes on a maximum of 2 charity jobs a year, but we NEVER do freebies outside of those.
For smaller jobs we work up spec visuals, but for anything chunky we always charge for concepts. This loses us the opportunity to go for some work, but stops us sinking 2 weeks into a proposal we don’t win.
Hi Steve
Thanks for your comment, you sound like you’ve got the balance right.
I did a pitch for a job a couple of years ago, and got the job, which they were really pleased with. I got another small job from them but that was all. Then they asked me to pitch for same job I had done previously again the next year, I declined (too busy with live work). If they know what your work is like, how well you can handle a job and you have given them a quote, why do you need to give more free work?
Reminds me of the “Make me a website since we are friends” animation. Check it out if you haven’t seen it. It’s funny.
http://yoursite.xtgem.com/
Preferable answer “I would love to help but right now any more work will significantly decrease the quality of the rest of my projects, perhaps in later time if this is not something to rush.”
100% they wont ask it later on
Hi Frank and Romeo,
Thanks for your comments, like the cartoon Frank.
Romeo, nice idea, not sure how well it would go down though
Want to hear some other things clients try to pass off? Read Top 10 Lies Told By Clients over at evolt.org. It will probably make you laugh, roll your eyes and say “Yup, that’s about right.” The author also disputes the excuses/lies the clients give. Good things to be aware of, especially for those who are new (like me!) and don’t want to be taken advantage of or intimidated by clients.
Those are great, yes and so true! Thanks
Thank you for this article; it’s such a relief to know I am not alone! In the last week I have had four such altercations and it’s making me mad!! If I look back over the ten years I have been working, I can’t think of a single time that doing work for free has benefitted me. If something is free, people don’t appreciate it and they don’t appreciate you. It’s so easy to convince yourself that if you just do this one more thing for nothing it will lead to a, b and c. It only leads to more of the same. No more free stuff! Let them make their own posters out of Clipart and be done!!
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