There’s no value in free
Posted by madelinesmind on November 14, 2007
What is our obsession with giving our business away for free and being uncomfortable with charging for our service? When we give it away for free it has no value, few come back and want to pay for something we ourselves didn’t place any value on. We continue to just give it a way… “Yes, but it drums up interest” I hear you so. Absolute rubbish!!!
The truth is when we give our services away our potential clients take what they can get for free and run with it. Then, when they are ready to actually purchase the service that you deliver, they go elsewhere and often pay more than you were charging for it.
We have to get comfortable with charging for our services. You don’t go to Tesco’s, Asda’s, Sainsbury’s or Waitrose and expect to come out with their goods for free do you? Even the buy one get one free’s have a cost attached. There is a parting with your money before you can get any product out of the door and that should be the same f0r any business. Before you give anything away there should be at least an initial cost attached that commits the customer.
Even free seminars to build your business should have some cost attached even if you give the money back at the end of the seminar. The customer should always be able to clearly recognise that there is a cost value to your service, product and/or time. When things aren’t paid for they aren’t valued, they are treated with disrepect and often not taken seriously which means you won’t have an income.
You have to place value on your knowlege, experience, skills and talents and be unafraid to charge a reasonable rate for the use of them. They are worth every penny and the sooner you get to grips with that the better for you and your business. Remember your time is money.
