A post on Boagworld caught my attention when it highlighted the question of working for free. This is a real question for freelancers and independent professionals to think about before they go too far down the road of developing their business.

The Boagworld posting points out a few of the reasons you might want to think about working for free:

  • Good publicity – I agree with the idea that all of the work that goes into a reasonably decent project cannot be balanced out by some modest publicity. The example in the posting is the redesign of a website. This is no small task! While it certainly would be nice to be associated with a well-designed site, there is definitely something to be said for placing a value (however minimal) on professional work. Getting your name up in lights is nice, but it doesn’t make it easier to pay the bills.
  • Building a portfolio – having a portfolio is definitely important if web design or web development is your professional focus. However, it would be tough to gauge the value of “free” work since neither you nor the person who received the free service had agreed on what it should have been worth.
  • Supporting a charity – I definitely like the idea that is mentioned in the post about charging for a service and then donating the income to a charity. One of the risks, in my opinion, of working for “free” for a charitable cause, is that it becomes difficult to define “success” in a project. Since there are no limits placed on the project through a monetary budget, it is difficult to reasonably evaluate the good that is being done for the charity. Also, the charitable organization would likely benefit from knowing what it costs to, for example, set up a website and maintain it so that future maintenance and development is not neglected or put off because of the previous experience of getting something for “free.”

Getting a good price for a service is always a welcome thing. However, there is most definitely truth to the idea that you value what you pay for. When it comes to web development services, it helps both the client and the service provider to feel as though they are investing in a contract for services rather than wonder how much the “free” option is really delivering.