How to Get Paid for Freebies

We all have them (I hope); friends and colleagues, close associates, for whom we wouldn’t dream of charging a penny to help them with their spreadsheet, document, web site or accounting.

Sometimes it seems just too crass to even think about mentioning money.

This is not the client who calls up saying “I know it will take you only 5 minutes”, selfishly overlooking the fact that you spent 50 hours learning how to do it.

This is the colleague who drives you to lunch each time you meet, the one you phone to cry on a shoulder.

Here’s What You do

I’ll take a spreadsheet as an example; you can change the scenery.

Griselda wants to know how to set up her spreadsheet; you like Griselda and she likes you and you scratch each other’s back once a month or so.

Invite Griselda over for the morning; she’ll miss her tweets and eMail, so she’ll not hang around for ever. That puts a time limit on the face-to-face stuff.

Tell Griselda BEFORE she comes over that the spreadsheet is free, but if she feels bad about it she can buy you lunch. (Always order the corned-beef sandwich with spicy-fries; you can eat only half of it anyway; bring the other half home for a second lunch tomorrow).

Tell Griselda BEFORE she comes over that you’ll support her in her endeavors up to an including the last day of the following month. That’s anything from one to two months hand-holding.

Absolutely Free

But tell Griselda BEFORE she comes over that after the end of the first complete calendar month you’ll charge her for support at 50% your regular rate, payable by retainer in advance.

Is that Asking Too Much?

I think not.

Griselda is acutely aware that she is "imposing” on you, and you on her; but as well she values your friendship and hates leeching off you; as you do her.

This establishes, up front (“Good fences make good neighbors”) that a no-strings freebie is being offered, and accepted, but that if the task becomes onerous, you will be recompensed without placing a burden of guilt on here.

Talk to Me!

You can Learn an Awful Lot, Just by Reading

Sometimes a solution just pops right out at me!

Some seven hours have been spent to date in conversations and proposals for an individual; I should have spotted this a mile off.

Friday saw the arrival of a two-page response to my response to a two-page enquiry about my proposal to charge $500 to begin specification of a multi-site data-mining project.

(You’re not meant to be able to read it; just to get an idea of the task facing me this morning).

A second reading turns up this delightful little nugget:

“I am concerned that the real cost of this project is much more than $500, and I'll be disappointed with what we get with the initial work.”

Well!

Absolutely. This is NOT a $500 project; there are at least 5 hours involved in laying out a solid foundation in specifications of the database, parsing requirements, data validity, and a sound overall structure for the rest of the project.

That’s without taking into account the seven hours I’ve spent to date.

The prospect is already prepared to be disappointed; there is an element of “I knew when we started I was going to be disappointed”; but Management Measures, and it’s the $500 that caught my eye.

My solution is time-effective:

I am concerned that the real cost of this project is much more than $500, and I'll be disappointed with what we get with the initial work.

CG> “My experience with this kind of project, if it is to be done properly, on budget and schedule, is that it will cost you more than $500 to achieve. If your budget is $500 or less, I think you are going to be greatly disappointed. I am sorry to have taken up your time in this matter.”

Click “SEND” and we are done.

On to the next task.

P.S.

The reply comes back within minutes:

AS> We don't have any budget for this really. I would have to decide what is worth it to invest and whether you are the right person with the right personality to get it done. I think witnessing the way you quoted this tells me that while you may have the right talent to do this, I am not sure you understood the scope of the work that had to be done, and was a bit disingenuous in your quote. That's why I was trying to clarify exactly what you were saying.

AS> I appreciate you being upfront about the work and quote. It helps us understand what may be involved in just the spec writing, which is quite a bit of work like I feared.

There is, you will note, no “call to action” here, so I am let off the hook.

On to the next client.

Talk to Me !