Don Draper Ain’t Happy
Don Draper: Connie, this is my profession. What do you want me to do?
Conrad Hilton: I want you to give me one for free.
First, a definition: spec work is when you’re asked to do something for free or for so little money that it makes no difference.
Spec work rears its head most frequently at the start of a career but you’d be surprised how often seasoned developers are ‘offered’ free work. It seems particularly endemic in the web business and I chock that up to a general disrespect for the industry (would you ask your mechanic to fix your car for free?) and that means that we need to be extra vigilant in refusing this type of slap in the face.
But what does spec work look like? I have been exposed to three stains:
Mr. You-Can-Use-It-In-Your-Portfolio
This is the client who has a great idea but “just needs a programmer” and they can be recognized by their gracious and magnanimous offer to allow you to “use this project in your portfolio”. They want to make you believe that your contribution to the final product is inconsequential and that you should be thankful for this opportunity to have your name associated with their grand idea. Finally, they like to downplay the amount of work that needs to be done, as if they know, and like to intimate that there are a lot of people out there they could have approached, but they chose you.
Let’s address this nonsense point by point:
- Look, you can use every project you work on in your portfolio, you don’t need some blowhard’s permission. Unless you have some sort of super secret contract with a client not to disclose the fact that you worked on a project (and you should be paid a premium for such an agreement!) you can tell people about work you’ve done.
- Let me tell you something, ideas are everywhere, everyone has ideas, good ideas, so having one doesn’t make you special. What separates success from failure is the ability to execute an idea which, in our industry, means the ability to design and develop an idea into a website.
- Let’s be clear, making websites is complicated and any client who downplays how difficult a job will be is revealing how little they know about the complexity of developing a site and how little they think about the expertise web developers possess.
- There is no vast pool of people looking to work for free. This person approached you because they absolutely need someone with your skills to make their ‘vision’ into millions of dollars. Don’t let people talk smack to you about how common your skills are.
Don’t be fooled, this type of argument is a power play, pure and simple. A developer is as important if not more important than the ‘idea man’ and you should be paid accordingly. Don’t let yourself be talked-down to by slimy MBA-types who don’t know the first thing about the biz.
Mr. Get-In-On-The-Ground-Floor
This type of spec work client is more sophisticated. They realize that they need you to make their website/web app/SaaS but they say they have no money. What they do is pay you in promises. Promises of vast tracts of work when their ship finally comes in and the business takes off, if only you’d do them a solid right now.
There is a reason economists discount future income and that’s because it’s not certain. Likewise, you should discount lucrative future work, especially when the client is pleading poverty in the present.
Here are some questions that you should ask yourself:
- How likely it is that this potential client’s new business will succeed given that most new businesses fail? Chances are good that they won’t have the meteoric success that they are dreaming about and you’ll never see another lick of work from them.
- If the business does take off, will the new work be more of the same? If the client doesn’t respect the work enough to pay for it now, will they start to respect it in the future? Are they really going to pay you what you’re worth in the future after having you for so little now?
- Alternatively, if the business does take off, will the new work even be yours? An associate of mine once helped a struggling firm get a site up for next-to-nothing. They were full of promises that when angel funding came through version 2.0 would be his. As it turns out, funding did come through and the client left my associate for a big agency.
- Finally, would the client ask their other suppliers for a freebie? And if they some how found the guts to ask, would those suppliers say yes? Why do they think they can get away with asking for freebies from you?
Mr. You-Owe-Me-One-And-It-Might-Harm-Our-Business-Relationship-If-You-Refuse
This is a tricky one and is more likely to be seen by more established developers. Most web shops develop relationships with certain clients and get a lot of repeat business through them. This type of spec work ‘offer’ arises when these repeat clients think they have enough clout to ‘force’ some free work by either playing up their generous history of giving work or by implicitly threatening to cut off future work.
Essentially, it’s a game of chicken. If you haven’t been careful and the majority of your work comes through a single client, this type of spec work can put you in a bind. Obviously you don’t want to work for free but if you’re dependent on the client for your livelihood you don’t want to spit in their face because it might ruin you. This is a cautionary tale, always cultivate multiple streams of revenue.
But what should you do? Well, first make sure what they’re saying is true. Have they given you a lot of work? Are they as generous as they claim to be? Some clients are out-to-lunch when it comes to your work volume and think they have a lot more clout than they do. For example, they may think they are putting your kids through college when they are only your fourth largest customer. If they’re mistaken then you should certainly set them straight about their position in the pantheon of your client base.
Also, consider the scope of the project. The spec work project that’s a static one-pager is a lot easier to swallow than the spec work project that is creating ‘Facebook but for cowboys’. Put a budget to the job, how much would you charge if they were going to pay you for this work? Is that amount comparable to the amount of work you’ve done for them or the work that might be coming down the pipe?
Never forget that once you’ve given it up once, spec work will always be on the client’s mind. It’s the old ‘give an inch take a mile’ parable. By accepting spec work under duress you are revealing that you are at a power disadvantage in the relationship and the client will exploit this in the future, it’s human nature. And crucially, if you do end up doing the spec work, the very next thing you better do is cultivate some new clients because you won’t be able to live with yourself when the spec work client comes back for the second free job.
Feeling Charitable
Are there really no situations where you should work for free? Of course not. It’s perfectly reasonable to use your skills to do free work for friends, charities, and other organizations you believe in. The difference between spec work and volunteer work is that the latter is a personal choice and not an attempt to take advantage of you. Thankfully it’s very easy to tell the difference between the two: when your skills and talents are respected and you feel good about donating your time towards something you believe in, it’s not spec work
Fighting Words
Professionals get paid for the work they do and clients that offer spec work are minimizing our skills, disrespecting the industry and denying our professionalism. I understand that a lot of novice developers feel the need to build up a portfolio of work in order to win future work but spec work is not the way to do it. If you’ve got free time, and you do if you’re considering working for free, work on one of your own ideas, crank out a template for word press that you can sell for passive income, or contribute to an open source project. In short, do anything but give jerk-offs free websites.