If so, then don’t bother reading this article from Forbes. Here’s a pithy and on-point excerpt:

Whenever someone wants to pick your brain, make sure you have your fee schedule in front of you. Give them a quote for how much it will cost them. They’ll either pay it or move on. If they move on, good riddance. They weren’t interested in paying you anyway. Let them figure it out on their own.

It’s a great article that speaks to a very important point: not only that time is valuable, but that everyone needs to respect the expertise of others.

I don’t mind doing a bit of pro bono work here or there; for example, I did a web-based holiday fundraising initiative for a dog rescue facility that raised nearly $10,000 in a couple of weeks. Not bad. But those involved on the dog side of things were both appreciative of my efforts and respectful of the time I put into it. When paying jobs came first, no one got cranky about it.

The Forbes article addresses two very crucial parts of the “work for free” equation: the experts who want to build relationships with the hope and expectation that it will lead to new business, and the needy questioners out there who are seeking expert information.

Memo to needy questioners: If all you want is info and there’s no contract at the end of the rainbow, I’m with Forbes. It’s time to move on.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 10th, 2012 at 10:56 am and is filed under This 'n' That.