Ask HN: Should You Work for Free as a Freelancer?

[johnjlocke]

The idea of this question came after seeing this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqi62NGdCZw&t where the OP says that it could be beneficial for new freelancers to work for free to get a portfolio piece. I believe that working for free is unnecessary, but I'd like to get HN's opinion on the matter.

[techjuice]

I was able to crush my competition at a very young age by starting out working for free. I just made sure my contract with the business was air tight. After the first few projects where done I was charging $120+/hour before I was 18, and well beyond that after reaching 18 but charging either weekly or by the project with a very tight contract to insure both parties knew the scope of work and the costs and requirements for work requested outside the scope of the contract.

It is hard for someone to pay a 15 year old any amount of money for a site, logo, service or app without them having a portfolio of corporate clients to use for reference, their own sanity and justification to their other business partners. I would say the only way to do it successfully, is to have a contract in place so you can keep the work reasonable for a non paying customer.

[probinso]

if your work makes somebody money, then it should never be free.

there are plenty of interesting projects that will never make money, that you can volunteer for if you need work to build a portfolio.

[johnjlocke]

That was my thought, too. You can always build a portfolio piece, or construct a case study by having a side project (a good example is Ryan Stewart with LacesOut.com).