Found this >here<…words to live by….wish I’d found it around three years ago. My friend is a stylist, she decided a while back to just stop working for free. Since then she always gets paid.
It seems simple, though a lot of you will know how difficult it is to quantify your work..working for free is fine if there is some kind of appropriate reward or recompense - such as prints for time, or invaluable experience etc, it’s a barter, or a favour for a friend you’ve known well for at least two years. After that, if you charge nothing, or charge cheap, I think you kind of set your worth.
That’s the frame of thinking I’m trying anyway, after years of not believing that I should get paid because, well… I loved doing the work so much! But unfortunately, love of work does not the rent pay….
x Blanaid
Oh couldn’t agree with this more Blanaid! Good advice! I’ve been roped into doing many PR ‘favours’ for people and took a while to get paid sometimes…
I know exactly what you mean, also I’ve found that if I hum and haw over what to charge, they see me as kind of easy enough to pay whenever they feel like it, whereas if I’m quite direct about prices, I get paid much sooner. No messing about on my part generally means less messing on theirs…
..generally….
yeah you’re dead right..when I was doing my own PR work at the start I’d just text people or send them a facebook mail if I knew them well! Once you get serious with the proper invoices and all then they know we mean business..well it looks like you’re so busy now you will need to get yourself an accounts department! Good work!
Ha ha! Actually, my sister is threatening to take over my financial situation, she sees me doing work, work, work, and then never sending invoices. Must cop on.
And good work to you too! x
Oh gosh yes, I’ve been getting a lot of requests to write for free for other websites recently. I mean, I barely have time to update my own blog, which is something I love and will obviously do for free, let alone work for free for somebody else’s profit-turning COMPANY.
Hmm..yeah I considered writing for several fashiony websites for free too for exposure..but I think we are right not too - once you go down that road it’s hard to back track with people..
I do love writing/doing questionnaires etc for other people’s blogs, but it is a big question as to whether to write for free for a company’s website. I suppose it depends entirely on whether the exposure from it would be good, or if they’re going to give you some product etc, or whether it’s part of a project you’d nearly PAY to be a part of..!
Completely agree with that!! I always feel Im charging too much or I should lower the price I put on invoices but then you end up being out of pocket so now I just go for it with confidence and they never have a problem:)! x
I agree, and also, my pops always says : never, ever worry about your competition and what they are charging, if you can stand by your prices, and you’re worth it, just worry about your own business. Good advice methinks! He’s a clever guy. I’ll keep him.