Many people who have worked in the creative industry have probably run into situations like the ones in this article. The fact of the matter is that there will always be people out there who try to take advantage of you. Even more so when your entire professional life revolves around art, photography, writing, and other fundamentally creative pursuits.

That’s not to scare any of you away from doing creative work (it can be fulfilling), but it’s important not to be naive. 

If you want to survive in the creative industry, you need to either work at a respectable company with a solid contract or you need to figure out a way to be an effective freelancer.

A big part of this comes down to figuring out how to communicate with current and potential clients, marketing yourself, and knowing how to price your work and time.

In terms of pricing your work, you should definitely take the time to do your research. Be patient. Be thorough. Look at the current rates for company professionals and freelancers in the industry and your local area. Your number one priority should be to accurately price your time for your skill level and to ensure that you’ll make enough money to take care of your needs.

There’s actually a lot of pressure when it comes to accurate pricing. It goes beyond earning enough to pay for the roof above your head and the food on your table. If you set your prices too high, then you run the risk of getting few(er) clients. (This fear is what many scammers and people who try to take advantage of creatives play to.) On the other hand, if you’re vastly underpricing your work, this cretes another potential problem.

If you set your prices without doing your due diligence or radically undercut all the other professionals in your skill range, you’re doing a disservice to all creatives everywhere. Professionals want to be paid what they’re worth. Meanwhile, clients want to save money.

When other creatives decide to work for way less money, it means that they get more clients. If there are enough creatives who are fine with being underpaid, this can create a knock-on effect where market prices for art fall across the board because everyone is forced to adapt to a new reality.

These days, when it comes to marketing your skills, there are tons of tools to help with that. You can set up a professional-looking website with your portfolio for free or for very cheap.

There are also lots of social networks where you can show off your latest work and connect with other pros, fans, and potential clients. Some of those networks even allow you to monetize your content, which is great news if you have a significant following.

You can even take to professional networks like LinkedIn to share your thoughts about the industry and connect with like-minded individuals. The long and short of it is that there are lots of options if you want to market yourself. However, all of this takes lots of energy. You need to be honest and realistic about how much time you’re willing to spend on promoting yourself and your work.

Whatever you do, having at least some sort of online presence is useful. And being consistent in your posting (even if done rarely) is better than being sporadic. Exposure can help you a lot in your marketing and self-promotion efforts, however, it shouldn't be used to avoid paying for services rendered.

How you communicate with your clients is entirely up to you. Though you can learn a lot from other professionals in the field, at the end of the day, the best teacher is your personal, hands-on experience. There are lots of friendly and well-meaning potential clients out there.

However, they might not know how the industry works and what the etiquette around compensation is like. So, it becomes important to recognize those who are ignorant from those who want to take advantage of you. 

Broadly speaking, it’s always best to communicate with your clients politely and professionally right off the bat. You want to be clear and concise in how you present your info about pricing, deadlines, expectations, etc. Writing everything up in contract form will also help you avoid some nasty headaches in the future. When you have a paper trail, you’re safer.

When you’re faced with someone who asks you to work for exposure or for very little pay, you might want to consider politely rebuffing their offer even then. You can explain to them why this doesn’t work for you, why your skills are worth more, and try to negotiate a rate that’s fair to you. 

The important thing to remember is that no creative pro should be forced to work for exposure or for little to no money if they don’t want to. There are plenty of opportunities out there, but it takes some time to find them. Scammers usually prey on people’s fears and insecurities, so the best thing that we, as creatives, can do is to know when to walk away.

Saying ‘no, thank you’ takes a lot of courage! And it shows that you’re confident in your abilities and optimistic about finding future work. Hopefully, for proper pay.