We are in a business of providing value in exchange of money. You pay us and we provide you solutions. Easy-peasy. Working for free or at loss violates the integrity of a business relationship. We want to be held accountable for our actions. But if we take up work for free, the client can’t hold us accountable.

And that is not the only reason behind our no free work policy. There are more. Let me share with you:

1. Injustice to paying clients

We sustain ourselves by getting paid. Working for free robs our paying clients of our time and commitment. So, taking up free work would:

Make our paying client subsidize the free-client’s work
Divide our attention and affect our quality of work

2. Investment in ourselves

We re-invest some of our profit in the firm. We keep upgrading our skills and infrastructures so that we can serve our clients well. Working for free doesn’t help us do that.

3. Real work

If we were in a handicrafts business, you’d be hesitant to ask to weave a few free jute-baskets. Because you can see the work physically. The problem with tech and design work is that most of it is on a screen of a computer. It doesn’t seem like real work. But we like our craft and are serious about it. Our work is as real as a handicraft piece and we simply expect to be paid for it.

4. Future-proofing people

We are a small consultancy—and intend to remain that way. Working for free does not allow us provide security of work and livelihood to our people. Asking them to work on something for free, which may or may not pay in the future, and jeopardize their future financially and career-wise is not something we are comfortable doing.

5. Giving back

Charging for our work allows us to give back to the community in our own way—with no strings attached. Working for free doesn’t develop our capacity to contribute in such a manner. It is difficult to take care of others, if we haven’t taken care of ourselves first.

No bidding, no project proposals and no samples

Similar to working for free, thousands of firms spend their time bidding for work, writing free project proposals or providing sample work. We find this practice flawed and unethical.

And we want to provide our thinking behind holding this belief.

Every client approaches us with their unique set of circumstances and challenges. It takes a tremendous investment of resources in understanding and diagnosing their needs.
Bidding for work and writing proposals skips this core process of diagnosis and focuses on prescribing an imaginary solution with an imaginary price tag.
Such a practice is incomplete and in other professions—such as medicine and law—it is considered malpractice.
Even if we go along this (mal)practice and get hired, there is the inevitable change of scope and related fees. Because the submitted proposal that got us hired would be an incomplete guesswork, impossible to implement in reality.
We find it unethical to partake in such a practice.

The same thing goes for sample work. We are unable to produce a fraction of the final tech solution or design work that would otherwise happen in their step-4 or 5. We have provided number of case studies for our prospective clients to judge our abilities and taste.

Can we pick your brain instead?

If you can’t afford a full-fledged project with us or it is not right for you at the moment, we get it. We have created Navigator services just for you.

See our Navigator Services →