What to do when a corporate asks you to do work for free “for the exposure”
Picture this. A bright-eyed, bush- tailed creative, maybe a year or two into their career, gets a call from a massive multinational company to do some work for them. (Who me?! Yes, of course, I’d love to! What’s that? You’ve got a limited budget? No problem, it’d be an honour to work with your brand). Maybe this young gun is a photographer or a designer. Or a music producer. They’re told that money is tight on the job and are dangled the “exposure” carrot.
And of course, they accept. We challenge you to find someone working in the creative industry who has not worked for free or at a sub-standard rate.
When a big name telecom asked South African music producer, Mpho Pholo, to quote for a project, he was sitting in a fancy boardroom across from the record label executive and their lawyer. With no detailed brief or scope of work, he was asked to put a price to the project on the spot and he did - R20 000 to be exact. Little did he know that the music production for the entire project cost well over R100 000! To someone at the early stages of his career, with enough ambition to sink a battleship, Mpho wanted the opportunity and handled the negotiation as best he could. It was only a year or so later that he realised that his music was used on nearly 4 million mobile devices. 4 million. He also learnt that the artist involved in the project was paid R1 million for the campaign that used his song.
Wisened by over a decade in the industry, Mpho shared a few of his hard won lessons with us. Combined with a few legal titibits from our end, here’s a list of practical and legal steps to take to protect yourself as a creative:
Take your time with the contract
You do not need to ever sign anything on the spot. If a prospective employer is unwilling to give you time to read through, understand and challenge the contract, then consider that your first red flag. It is your right to not only read your contract thoroughly, but to get a set of legal eyes to look over any sticky areas on your behalf. There might be time pressure on a job, but it’s always okay to ask for at least 24 hours to review.
Find someone you trust to go into big meetings as your ‘manager’
Even if you don’t have a manager and need to “fake it ‘til you make it”, go in with a trusted family member or friend. Someone who has your best interests at heart. If managers aren’t typically used in your line of work, ask for your business coach, mentor, legal advisor to join the meeting. Sometimes having a second set of eyes and ears in big negotiation meetings is enough to help you hold your ground.
Do your research
Reach out to your networks, hop onto the internet, talk to people who’ve walked the path before you. Find out as much as you can about acceptable remuneration rates, industry standards or other ways of receiving payment further down the line if “there’s no budget”. Empowering yourself with knowledge is a sure fire way of adding an extra notch or three of confidence to the proceedings.
Back yourself
If someone is not willing to pay you properly or provide a bit of time for you to review a contract, you should be reevaluating whether you want to work with them in the first place. It might sting to say no to work, but you should believe in your abilities and wait for a client who is willing to back you too.
As always, we're here to help if you come unstuck.