You will find funny (hilarious) blogs all over the internet written by frustrated designers who have to deal with this sort of thing on a daily basis. Even though my primary work is as a photographer, I have had people ask me to do work - for free - with some future promise of business if "things go well." Most designers have a story about somebody trying to get free stuff. The comic I listed above courtesy of designer James Tadeo's Lunch Time Comics and David Thorne's 27b/6 blog are possibly the funniest, most creative illustrative descriptions of the kinds of crazy things designers have to go through with clients. If you got a minute and want to laugh, I highly suggest checking those out.
So what does this mean for you as a designer? This means that you need to make sure you are compensated fairly for the work you have done or are being asked to do. Creative Opera's blog lists 10 Reasons Freelancer Designers Get Screwed and you may be having trouble getting your business off the ground because - you are getting screwed. The unfortunate reality is that the only way you can be in business as an effective designer is that you have to be able to financially support your efforts. When clients look for a designer, they look for a designer. They don't look for a police officer or an English teacher who does design on the side. Unfortunately, many of us have to have that primary income to support our second job but the problem with that is that the second job is suppose to be supporting the second job and if it's not, you're getting screwed...
So what does this mean for you as someone who needs a design and doesn't want to spend a lot of money? If your budget is really $0, then you need to become a designer yourself and do your own work. That will involve spending time drawing out and doing research/getting ideas on what to make your design convey/look like. Remember, if it's a logo you want, then it has to communicate what you are about in one image. Decide what that looks like. Mayhem Studios has some info on the Value of a Logo. I suggest checking that out. Doing your design also involves buying the hard materials to create your image be it studio arts or computer graphics programs. You will need to purchase and learn how to use several computer programs, so plan on spending around $1,200 just to buy them and then either sign up for a class or buy a book (or find a really generous designer friend) to teach you how to use them. It takes most people years to master these programs and the things related to them (hence the availability of bachelors and masters degrees in fine arts), but it may take you less. Good luck. And then make sure you understand what you need to know about formats, printing, what files to send to printers, what image formats will allow you to use transparencies, colors, the impact of vector and pixels on the transferability of your design, design trends, legal concerns and copyrighting, intellectual property, fonts, and a few dozen other vital elements to remember when creating and disseminating your design. You may be an amazing designer and just have yet to discover your talents, so if you are trying to save money then I suggest giving it a shot. And then if other people begin to like your designs, then after you have done all this work and learned all these things about being an effective designer, you can do theirs for free too.
Basically, services are things that are paid for. Commissioning a designer (or hiring a photographer or videographer or DJ, etc.) is requesting a service. The general public either doesn't know what goes into making these things happen or they have chosen to devalue, yet still want, those services. Interesting. Creative Opera also lists 8 Common Misconceptions about being a designer that we all should know. This info is great for both designers and clients. Design work isn't as cut and dry as some would like to believe. So spend a little time today hugging your local designer. They probably need it.
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