3 Reasons you should charge for your work, that aren't about the money itself

Before I get into any of this, I will say that the majority of us freelancers have been there, we have all worked for little or no money. There are times when you know in your gut it’s worth it, but I think it’s very rare and should only really be done in specific circumstances and if you feel that it’s genuinely going to benefit your work and portfolio. I also feel like this should only really be the case when you’re first starting out and might be struggling to get clients and probably working with clients that are also just starting out, it shouldn’t be something you’re doing further down the line.

It devalues the industry

If your dream is to work in the creative industry, whether that’s in a studio, for a big company or freelance, you can’t expect to be paid a real, satisfactory wage once you reach that dream point in your career if you don’t charge for your work when you start out. Obviously at the very first stage you might not be charging what everyone else is, but you should at the VERY LEAST be charging above national living wage and work up from there as you build your skills and client base. Otherwise you’re underselling your skills and everyone elses, especially seeing as most people have worked extremely hard for years to even be able to make a start in the creative industry.

I feel like I’m a good position now where I am charging a decent rate that reflects my skill level, however I still get so many people contacting me about work and asking me to either work for free (which is a straight ‘no’) or work for way less than what I deserve to be paid. There are times when the clients budget is a little lower than what I quote them and in these situations I usually make a compromise on the work so that it won’t take as much time and then I can meet their budget requirements, but I only do this when I feel that the budget is good enough in the first place, we all deserve to be paid for our time, especially when we’re creating for someone else.

If you agree to work for little to no money, you are just showing the client that your work isn’t worth it and it also backs up the usual comment of ‘why would I pay you for it when you enjoy doing it?’ or ‘art is just a hobby’. If you don’t get paid for your work or charge too little (even if you can afford to do so) and actually work on those projects, it has a domino effect on the rest of the industry all the way up to the people at the top. Potential clients start to think ‘why pay them when I can pay someone less or not at all to do a similar thing?’.

Confidence

Not being properly paid for work that you do, will eventually, if not right away, make you feel miserable and if you carry on this way for a while you’ll end up being burnt out and starting to question everything that you’re doing creatively . Receiving a decent payment for your work however will give you a consistent confidence boost when you need it most, yes you may have gaps between payments, especially when you’re first starting out but the fact someone is paying money to receive what you offer is a huge confidence boost in itself.

Once you realise that people are paying real money for things you enjoy working on, you’ll gain much more self-belief and self-esteem, which in turn will probably get you wondering what else people will pay you money for and how you can evolve your business into something better and more sustainable. For example you might start to think about making your own products, offering classes and tutorials or even doing things like live streams on Twitch and making Youtube videos.

Respect between you and your client

I personally think that one of the main reasons that some clients don’t like to pay artists for work is because they don’t see it as a ‘profession’, it seems like a lot of people who commission artists for work have the impression that we lay around most of the time and can create something they want in a ridiculously short amount of time. Don’t ever work with people like this and don’t ever let anyone make you feel like you should feel privileged that they’ve asked for work from you in the first place.

I’d recommend starting out working with clients who already have a set budget in place or clients who are starting out, creating projects of their own etc. The second group of clients may have a smaller budget, but it becomes your chance to have a lot more creative freedom to show what you can do, you also never know where the project might lead in the future. Even if you’re working on your first paid client project, act like you’re doing it for the 100th time, send contracts, send estimates and invoices (templates for all of these things can be found online), scan in and professionally organise sketches etc. The more professionally you act/are the more your client will take you seriously and respect your time and skills.

One thing I will say that people might disagree with, is that if you’re not being paid a fair amount for the work you’re doing on a certain project, there is no way you’re going to care about that project as much as one that is paying you fairly. The project probably won’t turn out as well as it could and you’re more than likely not going to be that interested in dedicating much time to it anyway. Making sure you’re paid fairly means both you and your client know that you are invested in what you’re creating and are proud to be part of the project.

I hope this was helpful for some of you guys and I’m also going to be sharing another article in the next month or so with some advice and tips to help ensure that when you do land a job, you actually receive the payment you are owed because i think that we’ve all ran into the issue of a client not paying up before! thanks for reading guys!