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WGAN-TV Ben Claremont Top 10 Tips for Building a Profitable Virtual Tour Business-#1741-Do You Need To Work For Free?

Hi All,

Is this WGAN-TV Short Story (#1741, above), Virtual Tour Subject Matter Expert Ben Claremont answers the question, "Should you work for free?"

Did you do free Matterport virtual tours when you started out?

Here is the entire interviews:

✓ Transcript: Ben Claremont Top 10 Tips for Building a Profitable VT Business

Best,

Dan

Transcript (video above)

All right, with that said, I'm going to move on to my third tip. And this is another extremely common question I get. And it's a bit unfortunate that I get it, but this question is, should you work for free? Should you ever work for free? Is there any merit in working for free? The answer is--

- Ben! "Should you work for free?"

- No, you should not work for free. Glad you asked. Well, and the reason is I've noticed a big problem among the Virtual Tour and real estate community in terms of photographers charging way too little and working for free to try and compete with the guy down the street on clients that yeah, have a budget.

And then not really in that position where they're looking for someone for free, but these photographers are going out and completely underselling themselves, bringing down the overall market rate! Especially, I've noticed within real estate.

And it's a dangerous trap to fall into because when you offer one tour for free, that turns into two, which turns into three, which turns into four, which turns into your first $100 shoot like a year from now. And that is not sustainable.

So the answer is no, you should not work for free, but, and there is a but here.

And that is when you're first getting started it is important to get your first professional tour done as quickly as you can. So this is going to be really helpful for you because when you can get that first tour done - and proven to yourself that you can actually do it - that suddenly builds your confidence immensely.

Going out, having that confidence of having done it and proven to yourself that you can actually do it in a professional context. And that's a massive barrier that people have.

- So I think I'm hearing two things there. First! It’s okay to do free when you're just starting out to create examples and you're learning and you may need a location to practice and to learn your craft. But don't make it a habit of pitching business by offering the tour free. Did I say that correctly?

- Exactly. What I would say is it's like a get out of jail free card. You can use it once and once only. And it's only there to build your confidence and to give ... or if you want to use it to get a really nice portfolio shoot. Let's say there's a business you plan on pitching a lot too in the future.

A certain business type and you need a good portfolio piece. It's okay to do it once and one time only, and this is only for beginners, if you're intermediate to advanced, forget about it, but if you can, no free shoots ever.

Because like I talked about before, it's a cycle. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy that one free shoot turns into another, into another.

So I would even avoid that if you can, if you can shoot your friend's business. So you're helping out a friend, or like I said, just make one of your own house.

That's a better option than working for free. So I would say, no don't work for free unless you think it is a fantastic portfolio shoot. And one only. And that's it no more than one. Once you've done one that you'll get out of jail free card spent, you can not spend it again.

- Otherwise if you start out shooting for free, the next tour is going to be free in the next tour. And you're not going to have the self-confidence to actually ask for money.

- That's right, it just totally kills your confidence and undervalues what you're actually doing. And you know what, your time and services are valuable and they help businesses make money.

You're giving away a money-making tool completely for free. So that's something, it's just so important to understand as a Virtual Tour Professional, is you are helping them.

You are doing more for them than they are for you. Even when they're paying you, they are paying you for a money making tool. It's like you're giving away a money tree that produces money in income and interest for this business.

Would you give that away for free? Like if you actually had something that was like that, do you think there's value in giving it away for free?