Freelancers many a time are requested by businesses to do what is known as ‘spec work’. This is where the freelancer is told that they should invest a little sweat equity and do the work for free, and in change be promised something that may not necessarily ever occur. One very typical example is that the person asking for the work from the freelancer will promise paid work in the future. This is something, that especially as a new freelancer, you’ll have to tackle and is a very tricky issue indeed.
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Recently on a popular startup video show, Melissa Uto (@miixxy) had a very interesting discussion (well, argument) with Jason Calacanis (CEO of Mahalo, @jason) regards to spec work. Jason had previously called for a logo designer to come up with a few ideas for him in return for a friend request and tweet (I think he offered a little money too). This sprang a very heated twitter debate between Jason and Melissa, which then ended up in a Skype debate on Jason’s show, ThisWeekInStartups.
The points both Jason and Melissa bring up are pretty valid. It’s very difficult at times for freelancers to get going in the beginning, and there are businesses out there which take advantage of this and see it as an opportunity to get some free work done in return for nothing tangible. Here though, Jason, a very popular Internet entrepreneur gives the argument that a connection made with himself is a very valuable one, that far exceeds the cost of a typical logo, and so by doing the logo, the freelancer would be getting a lot more value than what would be given to them.
It’s quite a dangerous situation if you think about it. Yes, there is that point of Jason’s influence, but does this mean that you should do spec work for other people? Let me know what you think in the comments below.
Places To Find Work For All Types of Freelancers
Elance – They have over 30,000 jobs posted. They also cover many different categories, almost any type of freelancer can find work here.
oDesk – With almost any set of skills you have, you should be able to find freelance work here. They have a wide variety of categories. This is a heavily posted website.
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