10 Valid Reasons Why You Might Work for Free

Because no one will pay you, should not be one of them. However, there are valid reasons for you to work for free but, before we look at these …

Avoid the discounting trap

I recently ran across a photo that said, “Work for free or for full price. Never for cheap.” Good advice!

Think about it. When you discount your services, unless there is a valid reason for this such as something based on quantities, you have just devalued your work … forever. As the old saying goes … “I guess you know what your services are worth.” When you give it away, once again for a valid reason, you have not discounted and nobody should expect you to duplicate this action in the future.

When due diligence becomes working for free

We’ve all had customers like this. Somewhere, in the process of performing our due diligence (demonstrating to customers that we are willing to work to get the work), we suddenly find ourselves working for free. Even worse, we are so deep into this process that the only way that we can hope to recoup our losses is by continuing along this same path and hoping (wishing) for a successful final outcome.

Your customer must love you. They don’t respect you but, they do love you. Well, love doesn’t buy many groceries so must be prepared to lay out the ground rules in advance. If you are not comfortable in doing so, be prepared for a whole lotta kisses and not too much food.

“Mr. Customer, I want you to know how excited we are at the prospect of doing business with you and I want to ensure you that we are willing to work hard to get it! My job right now is to determine if we might be the right company to meet your needs so, after we spend the next “x time” talking with you about this, we will then present you with a comprehensive proposal outlining our scope of work and you will be able to decide whether or not you wish to move forward with our contract and putting us to work for you. How does that sound?”

The basic rule is … It’s much easier to avoid falling into the hole than it will be trying to climb out of it.

Valid reasons for working for free

There is absolutely nothing wrong with working for free providing that you are doing it for the right reasons and with the right people and both of these will vary dependent on the situation. Still, even if you are doing this for free, you are a professional and you need to do it right!

It’s an opportunity to practice/polish your presentation – Everybody needs practice. Would you rather practice in front of that $1,000,000 client or in front of somebody who will probably never invest in your services?

You get to practice with a new tool – Same as the above. Particularly if you find yourself working with new technology, say an online meeting platform, some dry-runs can make all of the difference for when it really counts!

You want the exposure – This may be the #1 reason why it seems that people are doing so much these days for free. Certainly, you can’t ignore that these activities have the potential for getting your name in front of others. The important thing about this route is for you to ensure that you will be exposed to a whatever you might define as a reasonable number of people in the process. Furthermore, you want to be exposed to the right people (your target market).

It could lead to paying work – Much like wanting exposure, working for free could lead to working for wages. In fact, I see many people who have made this their marketing model. In its purest form, you might offer a client a free one-hour consultation which would then uncover needs that might be satisfied on a fee basis. However, you would likely do this one-hour consultation for free anyway as a part of your due diligence. Win-win.

You have back-end sales – This is another extremely popular method where you offer, say a three-hour workshop for free but there is always a strong offer at the end and/or a number of related items (books, cd’s, courses) that you are encouraged to invest in. Another good example, albeit slightly different, is the free weekend vacation in return for sitting in on that timeshare presentation.

Now, you have to have that strong offer and an assortment of related products or services for sale in order to make this work. Me? Well, I’m just uncomfortable with this method but this is not meant to be a slam against those who are. As a buyer, if you think for a moment that there is still (or that there has ever been) such a thing as a “free lunch”, you’re naïveté is showing.

Performing for charity or volunteering – I regularly offer free workshops through the Idaho Department of Labor for people who are out of work and also for one of our local colleges for new graduates who are entering the workforce. I completely avoid any attempts at monetizing this. I do it to give back to the community (feels good!) and, it’s also great practice!

It’s a part of your learning process – If you really want to get into an industry that you have little to no experience in, consider an internship. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this providing that the company that you will be interning for will actually provide you with said training and experience rather than the fact that they are looking to take advantage of free labor to accomplish menial tasks.

You are introducing a new product or service – When you introduce a new product or service you will need/want to get the word out. Likely you will invest time and money in marketing, advertising, PR releases, and trade shows in order to do so. This is all well and good but, why not offer a private showing to qualified customers and prospects? You might even combine your product introduction with a free workshop covering some related topic. Powerful!

You can re-purpose the materials – First off, you want to be able to re purpose all of your materials and at every chance that you get! Why reinvent the wheel every time you do a presentation or consult with a client. Therefore, any time I am doing something for free I am either re purposing previously created materials, doing minor modifications to those materials, or I am creating materials that I have plans to monetize at a later time and place.

It’s free for them but, there’s still a little somethin’ somethin’ for me – Think … sponsors. If you provide a great product, there are probably sponsors out there who will be willing to pitch in to defray the costs of putting on your event. Hell, they might even throw a bone to your favorite charity … you.

Create a list of event costs that a sponsor might cover. This might include: meeting facility, event advertising, refreshments, lunch, and giveaway items.
Determine what the dollar value to sponsor (pay for) each of these separate items will be.
Next, what can you offer each sponsor in return for paying for these services? It might be their name on the event advertising and registration and/or a chance to be introduced at the event and to give a 10 minute spiel or maybe even to conduct a portion of the event (not as a sales pitch. as a presenter of your subject matter). They might even have a table to display their marketing collateral.
How many sponsors will you need or want? The answer is .. however many it takes to cover the costs. However, depending on what you are offering them, you don’t want an event with sponsors running all over each other (particularly if they are competitors) and you! A better deal for everybody would be to find one sponsor to commit to everything!
Create a list of potential sponsors and start calling. Larger companies like banks, who have a strong local presence, are always keen to sponsor good business events that might benefit their customers and prospective customers. Also look for sponsors who can offer you needed services rather than a dollar value. The hotel might donate the meeting space, a caterer the food, and a local radio station might provide the advertising.

Working for free can be a valuable part of the process whereby you work for money. Do you have some other examples of where working for free makes sense?

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.

Bio
Twitter
YouTube
Latest Posts

Craig M. Jamieson

Managing Member at Adaptive Business Services

Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. Adaptive Business Services provides solutions related to the sales professional. We are a Nimble CRM Solution Partner. Craig also conducts training and workshops primarily in social selling and communication skills. Craig is also the author of "The Small Business' Guide to Social CRM", now available on Amazon!