Reply To: Experience necessary before starting your own practice?

nr, I didn’t mean to take what you said out of context because I believe that the basic premise of working for free is a bad business idea. Whether your a student or a professional your work has value. Truly, an experienced professional’s time is worth more than a student but even a untrained designers effort has a value worth compensation.

Other than working pro-bono for a non-profit which one would do for other reasons than directly contributing to their bottom line, I don’t see any business reason to work for a client for free. It’s lost time you could be doing either billable work or out marketing and networking.