I was pondering this very question myself just yesterday…
A Business Owner called, who has made the decision to sell her own business. She wanted advice on how to best do that, anonymously, over the phone. Cheeky? perhaps.
Useful? She was pleased.
But, how far do you go?
And then I came across this great article from “The Business Bakery”. I’ve pulled the key bits out for me and suggest you read the entire article…
There are five reasons to work for free, which one is it?
1.It’s good “exposure”
This is the most common reason for being asked to do a freebie. The idea is that you give your product for free and lots of people will hear about you. Donating cakes to a function or writing a column for a magazine are examples.2.It will give good credibility
This is when you do something for free for a well know person or large organisation because it gives you credibilty. So making a birthday cake for Nigella Lawson would give heaps of credibility.3.It’s a way to trial a new product
Sometime you give a freebie because you need to have a go with a real life customer. This could be your first wedding cake4.It’s for family and friends
Not totally unreasonably, family and friends expect the occasional thing for free. The trouble comes when pretty well all your customers are family or friends…..5.It’s for someone who ‘needs’ it but can’t afford it
We’re often asked to give freebies for “charitable” reasons.Mostly these are genuine requests but there are some shonky people out there.
Read on…
