The idea of this question came after seeing this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqi62NGdCZw&t where the OP says that it could be beneficial for new freelancers to work for free to get a portfolio piece. I believe that working for free is unnecessary, but I'd like to get HN's opinion on the matter.
I was able to crush my competition at a very young age by starting out working for free. I just made sure my contract with the business was air tight. After the first few projects where done I was charging $120+/hour before I was 18, and well beyond that after reaching 18 but charging either weekly or by the project with a very tight contract to insure both parties knew the scope of work and the costs and requirements for work requested outside the scope of the contract.<p>It is hard for someone to pay a 15 year old any amount of money for a site, logo, service or app without them having a portfolio of corporate clients to use for reference, their own sanity and justification to their other business partners. I would say the only way to do it successfully, is to have a contract in place so you can keep the work reasonable for a non paying customer.
if your work makes somebody money, then it should never be free.<p>there are plenty of interesting projects that will never make money, that you can volunteer for if you need work to build a portfolio.