The Desert of Arizona
Sunny 71 Degrees
I’ve given a lot of free stuff away over the years in an effort to build my business. Some of that was smart, much of it was not.
As a service provider, we all get countless opportunities to give free things away. Maybe it’s that prospect asking for free advice. Maybe it’s that free “upgrade” you throw in to your client project because they “promised” you a boatload of future work.
Maybe it’s that free consulting session you just handed out to the friend who asked you to lunch.
You could spend your entire life doing free stuff if you really wanted to be miserable. No one would stop you.
But just like your bank account, there’s always a corresponding entry made on the other side of the ledger when you give something for free.
If it’s not money (and in the case of free, it’s not), then that entry is made somewhere else.
One of those places the other side of the transaction is recorded is in the perception of YOU held by the person on the receiving end of the free thing.
That perception is shifted. And unfortunately, it’s rarely for the better.
Giving yourself away for free hurts the recipient twice. It FOOLS them into thinking the thing you gave has no value, which means it won’t get used. Strike 1!
And it makes them LESS likely to ever invest in anything else that coud actually help them. Why would they invest in something that has little value? Strike 2!
At that point, you may as well just trip the person you were trying to help and finish off your “good deed.”
If you’ve ever wanted to stop the FREE thing, then start viewing it as the extreme disservice to the world that it is.
I didn’t make things work this way and goodness knows it took me 30 years to even figure out that they do.
Life is short and since I never know WHICH of these days I might be hit by a bus, let me be blunt:
Giving yourself away for free is being a poor steward of your gifts.
There, I said it. It’s not politically correct and I’m sure I’ve broken a few laws in some country somewhere by telling the truth, but whatever.
The good news is that you can eradicate free from your business today if you choose.
Here’s a simple rule to follow:
The only free anything that happens in your business is if you’re able to deliver that “free” thing to 1,000 people just as easily as you can deliver it to 1.
If you can’t, then move on.