Earlier this year I was asked by a client to do some PR work for them in trade. The client wanted me to promote an educational seminar they were hosting for business professionals in exchange for a free seat at the event.
This seemed like a good offer to me and so I accepted. But it got me to thinking about working on a trade basis in the future and how often I might be willing to do that. At the end of the day I need to pay the bills, so cold hard cash does the trick. But when what is being offered as trade is something that might be beneficial to me or my business, should I consider it?
Especially with the number of small business owners I work with who might want to use my services but can't afford to do so, would it be wise to accept some or all payment in trade? And if I do, how do I handle that from a tax standpoint?
If you are a freelancer like me, do you ever work in trade with clients? If so, how often do you do it? And if you do the trade deal once, does that mean the client will expect it every time? What's your advice?
You have to be very careful with this. First is what they are offering of value to you? Do you want to do it? If yes or you were going to anyway or by doing this for them is a way for you to afford it then do it.
ReplyDeleteIf it is something that will expand your portfolio or open doors to other avenues you may decide to do it as well.
Do you have time to do it, especially if you are not getting paid in money.
Is there offer a tangible product? or is it the promise of publicity or future work? If the latter... tell them to shove it. You will not get paid. they will keep asking until you start to charge then they will move on the the next sucke... I mean PR firm.
Non-Profits are also very known for this and will tell you how they work for next to nothing yada yada. You have to decide if you believe in the cause or not. Also look at how much of every dollar actually goes to the cause they try to fund. if it is $.05 on the dollar and the head is making big bucks do you really want to give that group a freeby?
Only you can decide, in the end if someone wants to pay me in groceries or gas for my car, oil for my heat. I'm all for it and there! Otherwise you have to way what you get out of it and if it is a fair exchange and if you benefit at least as much as the other or the cause they support.
Thanks for the comments Greg. I agree with you that I would never do the trade deal unless what the client was offering was something that I wanted or would benefit from either personally or professionally.
ReplyDeleteAnd I also think that it could quickly and easily become a slippery slope with a client once you offer the trade deal. I don't want to be taken advantage of.
I've also already dealt with someone who wanted me to do PR work for them but was only willing to pay me if I got a certain level of results. I wasn't comfortable with that arrangement and ended up not working with them because of it.
I think I will only consider doing trade if it is for small projects where I won't really miss the income that much. Thanks!
Interesting post. Ultimately, CHC pays the bills, and that's what we're all moving toward. Heck, I'd like to donate 20 grand to people in the midst of these recent natural disasters. I need MONEY for that.
ReplyDeleteI've done some trade stuff before, a couple just because I thought it would make the other person really happy (and that makes me feel good) and others because it was pretty worth it to me.
But these are situations like.. a brilliant guy with an MBA, giving me business advice, and someone who's smarter than me in the web design world, helping me fix something I couldn't quite code right on my blog; incredibly worth it to me! I know I'm a month late on this post, but I'd say that value is king. Doing great things for people is incredible, but an exchange of real value is massively important, if you're not getting your cold hard pesos.