Why You Should Never Write For Charity As A Freelancer

Summary

The article advises freelancers against working for free, emphasizing the importance of recognizing one's worth and demanding appropriate compensation.

Abstract

The author, Gurpreet Dhariwal, shares personal experiences from an 8-year freelancing career to caution against providing services for charity. The article outlines four key reasons why freelancers should not work without pay: clients may undervalue their work, increase workload without compensation, question the quality of work, and damage the freelancer's reputation, making it difficult to charge for services in the future. Dhariwal emphasizes the need for discipline, dedication, sincerity, and effort in freelancing, akin to a full-time job, and encourages freelancers to assertively seek fair remuneration for their expertise.

Opinions

Clients who do not pay for services may not appreciate the freelancer's worth, leading to exploitation.
Offering services for free can result in an ever-increasing workload without financial reward.
Working without pay can lead to doubts about the quality of one's work and harm self-esteem.
A reputation as a "free freelancer" can hinder a professional's ability to charge for their services later on.
It is crucial for freelancers to value their work and to request compensation that reflects their skills and effort.
Despite challenges, the author's freelancing journey improved after refusing to work for free, leading to paid opportunities and timely payments.

Why am I writing this article today because I don’t want you to repeat the same mistakes which I did for a good 8 years of my life

Freelancing is not an easy profession. Be it any kind of freelancing including the role of the virtual assistant, social media expert, business development executive or content writer, freelancing takes the same level of discipline, dedication, sincerity, and efforts similar to a full-time job.

When I started working as a Freelancer in 2012, I didn’t know anything about this stream of work except that I was good at writing. I joined my second organization as a Business Development Executive, and in 6 months they moved me from BDE to Social Media Executive. As a part of their Digital Marketing Team, I learned about running an ethnic brand on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. They further assigned me the responsibility of handling their customer care queries, and finally, one expensive traditional attire was sold to an NRI as a part of my sales KRA.

Why am I writing this article today because I don’t want you to repeat the same mistakes which I did for a good 8 years of my life?

I am going to share four reasons why you should never work for charity as a freelancer.

They don’t understand your worth

Most of the people who were my clients were my colleagues in most of the organizations. Later on, they came up with an idea of business, and asked me to write articles, blogs, and website content for themselves. I did that earnestly but I did that for free. They never offered me money nor did they share about how many freelancers are writing the content charging one per word. I was new so I was made a fool for many years. I kept on writing, and they started taking me for granted because I was writing for free.

2. They will start assigning you more work

When I was working in my third company as a Digital Marketing Manager, I found that my boss was super fussy about certain things. I was writing the content for him as a part of my KRA’s but then he started calling me on weekends to write the content for his friend’s website who was coming up with this idea of introducing apps to track job applications. I did that once, and it became a part of the normal routine.

3. They think that you are not just good enough

When you do something for free, people tend to think that you are not good enough for the job. Either they would find faults in your work or keep on hitting you hard on your self-esteem. My colleagues used to work for money, and I was doing charity because I wasn’t exploring. I was becoming a part of herds of sheep, and that exhausted me financially and mentally. Once my colleague said maybe you just write an average write-up that’s why they are not paying else why wouldn’t they? That made me rethink about my charity work.

4. Free Freelancer Tags along with you

Once you are in the market with this free freelancer tag where people know each other it would be next to impossible to build your image to charge money for further work. The word of mouth spreads faster than fire, and people will start taking your work lightly. They would come up with plans of paying you less in comparison to other freelancers because for them even though you have been a freelancer for years you were not taking money so that calls to an action from their end on your work.

Conclusion

My freelancing journey has been full of adventures, and it has made me think about the choices I have made in the past. I don’t write for charity anymore. When the client has money to run his business smoothly, he has money to pay you for your arduous work too. Don’t hesitate to ask for what you are worthy of. With this never-giving attitude in my life, I finally got one client in August 2019 with whom I worked until Dec 2019 by writing blogs on Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, and Salesforce Analytics. It went well, and I was paid on time too. However, freelancing clients are never permanent so always keep your queue updated with options of hunting your next prey for writing.

Gurpreet Dhariwal is the author of “My Soul Rants: Poems of a Born Spectator.” Her eBook is now available at Google PlayStore, Amazon, and Kindle. Connect with Gurpreet on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or Youtube