I was a freelance for two years, and I can say without a shred of doubt that this is terrible advice.
If you are offering tailored services, most people will gladly take your time and pay nothing in return, regardless of how appealing your portfolio may be. That's money that you will never earn, time you will never recoup, and just a speck in your portfolio nobody cares about, because serious customers don't care about week long projects.
I think it would be hard to compile a complete list of reasons why it’s terrible advice. I’ll add a couple though.
People do not value what they don’t pay for. People perceive greater value the more they pay for something. By positioning yourself at 0 you immediately create the worst possible value perception for yourself.
For a bunch of reasons, customers that pay more are almost invariably better quality customers. They are more likely to be able to tell you what they want, or at least work with you well to define requirements. They have more realistic timeframes and expectations. You do not want to work for people who want to get something for nothing or have so little understanding of what they’re after that paying you is a perceived risk.
A free trial is desperation. Be confident, value yourself and your time!
I’m sure someone can make a good argument for why the approach can be valuable under certain circumstances, but I’m not sure what makes the author an authority on what works best for a freelancer.
Makes you realize that a lot of success is luck with timing, as even those that have sold/done an exit tend to be talking out their ass about most things.
- Never work for free
- Charge more
Don’t overwork also… you have a contract, you’re not in indentured servitude.
Maybe offer reduced rates for some initial introductory work, but certainly not free.
It's not clear if he is actually a developer/freelancer, or an 'entrepreneur' who would obviously benefit from legions of people offering 7 days of free work. Follow the money, I guess.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headli...
A related concept is the idea of solving the biggest risk first in any problem. If your biggest risk as a freelancer is getting clients, then pricing at free initially might be a great idea. But if your biggest risk is something else, it might not make sense.
Once someone has many clients, they’re sometimes better off doing the total opposite end of the spectrum (the opposite of a good idea is also often a good idea!) charging a fee even for what would previously have been a free consult/intro call meeting (in some markets). High paying serious clients aren’t turned off by it, so time wasted shrinks drastically. And you can always skip the fee with a serious client you’re introduced to via a referral, because you don’t care about the fee on the consult call, it’s just a weeding mechanism and a signal of seriousness and legitimacy, so if both of those aims are already accomplished because it’s via an intro you trust who makes you look good, the consult fee doesn’t matter.
Consultants usually invoice after the work is complete anyway, on 30 day terms or similar, so your client may already have 45-60 days to pay. If you want to add a whole bunch of free work in front of that, you’re setting yourself up with too much risk. (Remember, you’ll get clients that don’t pay because they either spend all their money, or didn’t get the funding they expected.)
Long answer: Noooooooo.
I think there's value - for both sides - in having a 30-60 minute chat for free. Doesn't have to be a formal interview. But exploring the problem-space to see if you're a good fit for each other is sensible. A plumber might come round to inspect the pipes before quoting for a job - a freelancer is no different.
I've also offered half-day sessions if people are unsure of the value I provide. Paid of course.
Naturally, if it's for a charity or good cause, I'll work out a discount. And that discount might be hefty.
But working for free is a mug's game.
The customer saw the free half hour as a way to find out what I know and what I would do specifically for their project, like free lawyer advice. I saw the time as a sales call people had invited themselves to! I made sure that by the end of the call the customer was pumped and wanting more. I made the calls fun and funny and informative.
The time given away was well worth the advertising investment. After all, the customers who hired me already knew my personality and work style and they knew I wasn't full of BS. That's a great way to start a professional relationship and to build trust before you ask for money.
If you can't get customers - real, honest to god, paying customers - as a freelancer without offering a free trial, you don't have enough of a network to be a successful freelancer.
I view paying a freelancer for two weeks as the cost of doing business in the case they don’t work out.
I will agree you need to know someone to get your foot in the door. Nice gigs are more about trust and less about money.
VALUE PEOPLE'S TIME. This is not that hard.
I’m not a freelancer, but I’d hang my head in shame if I ever paid zero for someone’s work, even if I hated it. I value their time.
The points are to communicate and demonstrate.
