Stop Doing Things For Free. “When we give cheerfully and accept…
By: Christian Helms
Tags: Money, Freelancing, Work, Business, Writing

How To Go About It

It’s not highly difficult to go about asking if someone would be open to the idea of allowing for a paid contract for trial work as opposed to a nonpaid contract. It can be a bit confusing because you’ll want to be sensitive with the way you ask since it is money we’re requesting. As long as you’ll be courteous and kind to any companies you’re talking to for work you’ll find that a majority of companies don’t mind throwing you a bit of money for your time.

Photo by Nik MacMillan on Unsplash

I usually start out an email or message by saying that I’m excited they would like to work with me and they enjoy my previous work that I’ve provided links to. I then typically make the request by saying something along the lines of “Instead of doing the trial contract for free, would you mind if we had a set amount or cents per word like a normal contract?” I then usually go on to explain in the same message or email that I’d like to have compensation for my time and then go on to disclose that I wouldn’t mind if instead of $0.12 cents per word we could do $0.09 cents instead or on the other hand instead of $200 for an article to $150 or even $100. Truth is, you have plenty of bargaining power as a freelancer when a company says they like your previous work it gives you the ability to ask for something in return usually. From what I’ve found if you request some form of payment for your time they will almost always give you a bit of compensation for your time as they understand this is what you do for work and they’ll have a budget for you or your job position from the get-go.

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

If you’re speaking with a company and want to get paid and you’ve already discussed a per article price it’s almost always viable to request compensation. A great example of this is I’m making videos for a client and the contract price per video is set at $300 per video so I went out on a limb and requested compensation for the two trial videos the company requested. They said they’d be happy to do paid trials and instantly offered $250 per trial video when before I’d asked it was going to be free according to our negotiations. However, If they’d shot back and said they’d do $100 for the two trial videos I still would have jumped on it in a second because it’s far more than they’d offered previously. All that matters is you get some form of compensation for your time. It puts more money in your pocket and builds a reputation for you in the companies eyes that you value your time. In future negotiations that will open the door for you to negotiate further later in your relationship with this company.

Takeaway

If you take anything away from this article it should be to value your time and figure out where to draw the line between helping people in need and being seen as a pushover in your professional career. When I first began doing freelancing I didn’t think twice about doing free contracts until a friend of mine talked to me and told me it was always a good practice to ask for compensation because 90% of the time it can happen in some capacity. Next time you’re talking through a job just give it a chance and ask about it. I wish you all the best of luck in your freelancing endeavors!