Would you give a freebie to get your foot in the door?

[heni30]

Would you do a free rendering to demonstrate your abilities (and extend a good will gesture) to a potential client?

 

Someone I know kept bugging a big firm in San Francisco with no success so he offered to do a free rendering - they gave him a chance - and gave him MANY more paid renderings after that.

 

I think you really have to know your work and make sure it's up to par with work they have been using or else it will be a waste of your time, though.

[shybegleiter]

In general, I wouldn't do "freebies".

Only a minority of companies (and people in general) really appreciate true and honest attempt to show your potential for free.

From my experience, most people only want that free one, and than expect you to work for very cheap,

or they'll tell your competitors that you gave them a free render - which is worse because you take the blame of downgrading the whole industry.

[AubreyM]

I would not do a freebie if the image was to be used to put money in someone elses pocket. If it's good enough to use then it's good enough for me to get paid. I have sent clients images of a proposed project free to try to land the job but the images were very small and watermarked.

All that said, it's you time so ultimately your decision if you want to approach one company. I sure as heck wouldn't start doing a bunch for free as that will get around and no one will want to pay you if they know you will work for free.

[Tommy L]

I would do a freebie in exceptional circumstances. Im doing one right now if fact, but its not typical. Im rendering an appliance from ProE output (STEP file), just doing a still to demonstrate what quality I can achieve then should get an animation from it from a large advertising agency, should get a whole account out of it. This is different to doing a free image for commercial use in return for being considered for random future projects. Thats called 'being someone's bitch' for a company that clearly doesn't like to spend money anyway.... You're time is better spent doing a bang up portfolio piece that would appeal to everyone, not getting your ass ripped out for a few weeks doing tons of revisions on a freebie, because its usually the client that makes a project difficult.

Edited September 1, 2012 by Tommy L

[heni30]

Yeah, probably the thing to do is to ask them for files from a old project so that they wouldn't profit from it and that way you could demonstrate

your skill and speed.

 

And I wouldn't do it for a cheap company. It would be for someone that uses renderers regularly; I would want to show that they can count on me if a need arises. It's good to keep yourself on the radar screen in case their rendering situation changes for whatever reason. You can offer yourself as a plan B and hopefully eventually move into plan A status.

[Noise]

If you think they are a reputable company and this approach would help massage the situation in your favour just as Tom mentioned above you could suggest working up an image of one of their current projects on the proviso that if they pay for it if they wish to use it.

 

I would only do this in rare circumstances though and obviously watermark the image heavily.

Edited September 5, 2012 by Noise

[hockley91]

I would only do a freebie if I was going to get something out of the deal as well. Like, if it was going to be published somewhere or if it was going to be in a magazine or on a billboard or something that people would see. Free marketing.

 

Otherwise, I think your work speaks for itself. Probably not a good idea to start working for someone who wants something for nothing. That type of character may come back to bite you later on down the line.

[pailhead]

My friend often makes $80-$100 in tips waiting on one table at a restaurant in downtown san francisco. It isn't even anything that fancy, an italian restaurant with a whole bunch of pasta (they do have some expensive wines though).

 

That is "Hi, what would you like to order?", one walk to the kitchen, one walk back, and another one for the check and the fat tip.

 

 

I got paid $17/h working as an intern for a premier MEP company in the city, and that was probably good for an internship. Apart from doing 3d for them, i've done a whole bunch of CAD, so i didn't really learn anything, and they got a drafter that was probably worth double what their normal drafters were. That was the disappointing bit, when they told me that i'm much faster than their normal guys because i have architectural training and i understand what their design intentions are, while others have to scale the redlines and copy them without any thought.

 

That is 4 years of architectural technical school (a kind of highschool), and about 7 years to obtain my masters. 13 years now of doing 3d, and about the same for CAD (grew up in an architectural office basically).

 

 

Why would someone work for free, i don't know. I hate eating ramen noodles, living with cockroaches in the tenderloin and being poor. But then again, if i had better understanding of economy than 3d, i wouldn't be doing this.

Edited September 6, 2012 by pailhead

[hockley91]

I would say in hindsight, every working stiff should take some business classes....the stuff I'm just figuring out in my mid-late 30's through real-life....sheesh! I wish I would have taken some courses in college regarding business and marketing....not just Architecture. In any case, whether college or real-life, any business education would be helpful. Don't know why I waited this long to stick my nose in the business...just don't work for free!!!!! They will take advantage of that....no matter who it is....even if their nice. A truly nice person will not let you work for free. I know from personal experience.

 

Not that I worked for free once, but I underbid considerably because I needed the job. Two times I did that and the client actually told me to go higher because I did such a good job. One job was just measuring a space and doing some CAD documents.

 

However, there are times when I still underbid and the client thinks it's too much. Go figure....

[William Alexander]

From a marketing stand point 'Free' only works as part of a strategic plan...most important part is your service/performance. Is your service really worthy of be used again-in your prospective customers eyes. With most give away type marketing the clients, receiving, have by some quantifiable means been pre-qualified to ensure the greatest return on the 'Gift'. Which implies a system of going about getting leads for jobs.

It's tough being a small shop trying to grow. Accumulating clients always conflicts with doing the work you love to do, lol as does just about everything 'business' related. Adam has it right-the more one understands and learns about business...

[Tommy L]

oh, and I'd also add one rule of thumb, a freebie is pointless if there is not already an existing relationship between you and the client.

[heni30]

From a marketing stand point 'Free' only works as part of a strategic plan...most important part is your service/performance. Is your service really worthy of be used again-in your prospective customers eyes. With most give away type marketing the clients, receiving, have by some quantifiable means been pre-qualified to ensure the greatest return on the 'Gift'. Which implies a system of going about getting leads for jobs.

It's tough being a small shop trying to grow. Accumulating clients always conflicts with doing the work you love to do, lol as does just about everything 'business' related. Adam has it right-the more one understands and learns about business...

 

That's exactly what I meant. It wouldn't be something offered to everyone across the board but to select clients who have the potential of providing long term work. You would be showing them THEIR work in a dynamic, flattering light - showing them directly that you will be an asset to their company. I think people, whether conscious of it or not, are a bit skeptical about actual work meeting the standards of cherry picked portfolio pieces.

 

And, of course, it would be something within reason; like not a multi-hi-rise beach development project.

 

Basically it's the "eager beaver" approach.

Edited September 7, 2012 by heni30

[neil poppleton]

NO NO NO, if they like your portfolio pieces then remember you are a business and giving things away free is a slippery slope.....

[TommyJ]

This happened a lot at my previous company in London. Mostly it was requests from the crappier end of the Architecture market but some of the big firms tried it on too.

 

In my experience it's never worth while. Quite apart from the fact that it degrades the industry, the chances of it generating future work are very low. Think about it from a client's point of view; if they aren't willing to pay an experienced viz person/firm to show their work, then they are likely to be placing a great deal of importance on cost and not so much on quality. You may think this is a good way to start out, but sooner or later you will want to earn money from what you do. A company that only thinks about cost will just go to someone else as soon as you mention charging, and there will always be some kid with a pirated copy of 3ds max or a firm desperate enough to do it for less than you, even if you do a freebie as a foot-in-the-door.

 

Almost all the clients I've ever worked with who were willing to pay the going rate are still with me, or with my previous employers. Without exception, none of the clients who asked for freebies are still with me/them. These types of companies will shop around the 3d market asking for a freebie every time (with the 'promise' of future work) and will spend the whole time dredging the bottom of the barrel. Eventually they will develop a bad name for themselves and nobody will want to work with them, and consequently the presentation of all their important new projects suffers immeasurably... like a recently bankrupted and very large Scottish architects I shall not mention the name of.

 

If a client suggest free work with the implication of future work as bait, ask them to put in writing that they intend to use you exclusively in the future. None of them will ever do this because they think shopping around asking for freebies is a great way to save money.

 

Spend the time you would be wasting on a freebie to improve your portfolio images and/or get out and find some more decent clients. Fortunately the good guys still outnumber the douchebags.