#4: How to Say NO to Free Work Requests with Jennifer Goforth Gregory

Make sure you come back for tomorrow's episode to learn more about Jennifer and about her journey as a freelancer in becoming the boss of her business . Let's go ahead and dive into today's question , which deals with clients who want free samples . If you're a freelancer , business owner or anyone who deals with clients , you're in the right place .

I'm your host , Teresa Edmond . I've been dealing with clients and running my business for nearly two decades and in that time I've dealt with my share of doubt , imposter syndrome and not knowing what to say when a client asks a question . I wasn't ready for . I created this podcast to empower you with the boss responses you need to grow your business .

Each week , my guest co-host and I will bring you five episodes packed with practical insights . Monday through Thursday , we answer your questions , and Fridays we dive deep to explore how our co-host embraced their role as the boss of their business . Welcome to Boss Responses . We are on day four with Jennifer Goforth-Gregory . What is the question today , jennifer ?

The writer believes in the value of the work , but they don't want to risk losing the opportunity . So how can they handle the request for that , compromising their principles ?

And if you are writing for a passion project , like Jennifer's nonprofit , she is still donating her work there , so it's a whole thing . You do not work for free . Now here's my long answer .

If you are a writer , designer , website developer , social media manager , photographer , whatever it is , as a service-based professional , you have a portfolio or samples of your work . That is proof that you can do what you say you do .

You can't rely on you to provide any more proof for potential clients , and if they need more than that , then they are not your ideal client . If they cannot take the proof , that's in front of their face and you have to go out of your way to say no , I'm the right person for the job . You do not have to sell yourself .

You are a professional , you are an expert . They're coming to you because you are the professional and you are the expert . Sometimes they are going to need to be wooed a little , especially if it's a really big client . It's a respect thing . It goes both ways .

If they disrespect you by saying I don't believe your portfolio is representative of your work , that's a problem . If they like your portfolio and they say we really like your work , we just want to make sure that we work well together , that's a whole different situation . So I have kind of two disclaimers for this .

One is some businesses wedding cake , wedding cake bakers and decorators , for example they do need to provide samples , because who can choose their cake flavor without tasting it right ? So there are going to be isolated freelance and service-based businesses out there that do need to provide samples writing , photography , design those are not one of them .

You are a business owner as a freelancer , so landing a client is a process that is as much you deciding if you want to work with the client as it is the other way around . They're not interviewing you .

So here's the situation that I've seen pop up and I bet Jennifer has too Companies are placing ads on LinkedIn or somewhere else and they're doing interviews or they're accepting applications for freelance writers . Which people ? That's a red flag . They do not need to put applications out for freelance writers .

You put applications in if you are going for an employee position , not for a freelance writer .

What's happening in these things is they are scams and 100 freelance writers or 100 designers will put in an application and then they have a free test project and then they get a year's worth of design or a year's worth of articles out of that application process for the cost of a job ad , and one that's incredibly predatory .

People are learning from this in a bad way and they're bringing that into finding freelancers for any project . So this , I think , comes back to that client management , jennifer . So this is the process you are interviewing your clients . That's it . They're not interviewing you . They have a project .

You're interviewing them and your discovery call or whatever the process is to see whether or not you want to work with them , and I know you do this too to some extent . So I turn away . One thing I learned from Ed Gandia is to qualify my clients .

If they don't fill out the qualification form that has their you know their budget and stuff on it , then I won't talk to them . I just I don't have the time . If they fill it out and their budget is nowhere near what I charge , I send them a very nice letter thanking them for their interest or email and saying that this isn't a good fit for me .

At the time my rates start at and I give a midland figure and then I move on . Sometimes they'll come back to me and say , oh well , we can raise our budget to accommodate that . And sometimes I do talk to are the ones that are qualified on that form ?

And then we have a discovery call and that's when I make the decision on whether or not I want to work with them . Sometimes it's really not a good fit . How do you handle that ?

I do think that there can be cases when you're getting started or moving to a new niche and a sample is worth it , that it can be worth taking a lower price in the beginning if you know how you're going to use that clip to make more money . I'm just I'm going to do it for exposure .

But if you're actively going to do it to pitch this client , I completely agree with you say , look at my clips . The other thing that I suggest is let's do and I do this anyway . So I go back to qualifying clients . So again , the front of every client . But I do not get on the phone with them until I have gotten a rate .

I don't have them fill out a form , but I asked them in . I much more gut feel if a client's a fit than process . But what I do is I say what's your rate ? I want to make sure I don't waste your time . We do it their email . Then once we get on the call , I say upfront so that we get together .

I'm at the point in my career I pick my clients and want to make sure that we're both a good fit to work together . And then I say and it changes the conversation , it changes the tone , it changes their attitude towards you . It's bold , but it works .

And then the other thing I say is so it's really important to me to have a client be a good fit , so I like to do a small project or two . I recommend two posts because sometimes the first one can be everyone get used to each other to see if we're a fit and they pay my rates .

And so if a client wants a free sample , say I would love to do a test project for you without commitment paid for at my rate .

I take working all of those words that trigger that employee , employer mindset in their heads out of the equation and then I go into that . If it's still in the communication phase , a lot of my work has always come through referrals .

My first five years or so I had to do the seeking out clients thing and then I worked hard , I put effort into my work and into my client relationships and so they would send me referrals . So a lot of times those do start with emails back and forth , so I don't always have discovery calls .

Now , if I would get a referral who would say , hey , bob told me about you , he was so impressed with your work . I would have a similar project that I wondering if you would like to work on . I would really like to see a sample of your work or I would really like to see what you would write on this topic A lot of that .

They're not doing it to offend you . They're not doing it to ask for free work . They're honestly coming from a position of . This is the only way I can think of to determine if we're a good fit , and I think that's on us to guide that process and to educate them and let them know . No , I actually I can help you with that . This isn't a one way street .

You don't have to drive the whole process . So I actually have some scripting that I use that I'll answer in emails like that If it's a one off project . So if it's an e-book or a smaller book that someone wants to do for a business and they're like you wrote this book for this business and now I wanna do one Like it .

We want to establish ourself in this field or we want to launch this terminology , whatever . So I will respond . Thank you for your interest in partnering with me on this project . I always want my clients to feel comfortable working with me and I know confidence is part of that process .

I provide high quality deliverables , so I'm happy to share my portfolio with you . It contains a representative sample of my work and it will give you a solid understanding of the quality of my finished projects . That's for a one off for ongoing work .

So if it's a client who's looking at a retainer situation , this might be thought leadership content , something where I'm writing it on a regular basis .

Or if a PR company is pitching an executive to magazines and they're like we're going to have a series of magazines over the next six months we don't know how many yet we would like to put you on a retainer so as those come up , we can do that . Then with those I add on to that paragraph Because our relationship moving forward would be a longer contract .

I'm also willing to do one paid test project before we sign the retainer contract . So I will quote the rate on the single project based on the scope , the deadlines and the project value . So I let them know I'm doing the rate .

It's based on value but it's not this huge arbitrary thing and any projects moving forward after the first would fall under the retainer contract . I'm still setting the expectation If we're going to have a long-term relationship , then we're going to have a contract that governs that . And people ask why do we have contract ?

And I'm like it's to protect both of us . But it's not about protecting me , and this is why I never sign a corporation's contract . Their contract protects them , and them only across the board . Sometimes you can get clauses put in to protect you , but it comes back to this working for free situation . It's a mutual thing .

I want everyone to have a win Anything else on that one , jennifer .

free .

Sometimes you're at the beginning of your cycle and you're still learning all of this , but I will tell you that any situation I've ever been in where they've said we are considering multiple writers and we would like samples so that we can make our decision anytime I participated in that farce .

It's not gone well , it's like you never get it , but I've learned usually because one of the other competitors isn't this horrible that this happens . One of the other competitors will dramatically undercut their price to make sure they get the project and then they'll raise it on the client later .

I've had so many people come back to me saying they said they would do it for this much and then it ended up being a change in scope in their words and then we had to change everything . I hate that . I hate that . But yeah , I don't compete for work . I want to work with people because they want to work with me , not because I have to win the work .

All right , tomorrow is a different format . Tomorrow we will be talking to Jennifer in-depth about her business , how she got her start , some of the client management situations she had along the way and how she discovered her boss responses . Join us tomorrow for that episode .