Fiverr Community Forum

Thoughts/Experinces Doing Work for Friends/Family

Your Fiverr Experience
#1

Hey there,

I thought this topic would be a fresh change of pace on the feed, and I’m genuinely interested to hear y’alls experience with doing gigs ( whether on or off Fiverr) for friends and family. Was it positive/negative? If you had issues how did you resolve them? Any advice to ensure a good relationship and still make sure you get paid for your work without things being awkward?

I’m personally new to Fivver and while promoting my new gig I’ve had a friend ask for a commission, but I’m hesitant about accepting it. Hopefully, with everyone’s stories, I’ll be able to make a decision. Thanks and looking forward to reading your replies!

#2

Don’t discount, don’t treat them differently.
If things go wrong after you have given them special treatment then it will really annoy you.
Friends and family should be coming to you because they support you, not because you give them a discount.

7 Likes
#3

Back when I was a college kid, I used to help my friends a LOT and I mean
a LOT for free. ( Mainly translation)
Once I started working, I decided to charge them, but it was not an easy thing to do.
From their POV, I was this nice person who did them a favor and did stuff for free, but now
I was this not-so-nice person.

Some even said “I can’t believe you’re charging money from a friend.” so I said
“I can’t believe you’re asking a friend to do free work.”

In other cases they asked for a “friend discount” but I said no in most cases.

Once you start doing free work, people around you will expect you to work for free, and
it gets hard/awkward to charge them later.
Like Eoin said, IF they are your friends, they should be willing to support you.

5 Likes
#4

I once mentioned the value of the work I had given for free to someone as an explanation as to why I would be charging something in future. Their response was
“Come on, it definitely wasn’t worth that. It was only a few hours”.
It had been around 20 hours over the period of a month. I suspect this person would be like some of the buyers who post Buyer requests like
“This will be a simple job for a professional so my budget is $5”

The longer you leave it and the more work you do for free, the bigger the “shock” about asking to be paid. You will find that those who have a problem with paying tend to be the same ones who would never even imagine doing a similar thing for you.

Maybe I just need new friends…

4 Likes
#5

Oh man, that’s a good comeback! Thank you guys for sharing, this is some solid advice. :+1:t4:

#6

Discounts are fine for products because you’re just lowering your profit margin. But what you’re proposing entails paying yourself less for labor. No loving family member would want you to do that and it is an unhealthy precedent to set.

Growth involves NOT exploting yourself.

3 Likes