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Your motivation for discounted work is that you want them to come back and continue to give you work, and you want them to recommend you to others.

Forest, trees, etc.

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I know a company that did this. They found a big client, and did a small project at breakeven. Result: the client was impressed, so now one of their biggest clients is paying breakeven rates; factor in the cost of flying an account person out to the client's headquarters, dropping everything when they change their minds about something, etc., and it's a big drag on growth.

Whenever I heard about this, I fantasized about being VP of marketing at basically any big company. Being on the other side of that transaction is surely a lot of fun.

Problem is, the discounted work rate is what they'll expect every time they keep coming back.

Worse still, if you increase your price, they would not come back, which make the first discount even less useful.

That's not a problem with spec work. That's a problem with the company. If they are happy for your work, and not trying to short change you anyway, then they'll not complain.

And when they recommend you to others, they're sure to mention that you're "dirt cheap." The fact that you do really solid work will be cited as an extra added bonus.

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