Why I Do Not Work For Free

I am sitting here on Sunday thinking about a situation that happened during this past week. It reminds me why I do not work for free.

This past week I have someone I know called A. A. who always asks for help, promises to do things, never does them and so on. It is always one-sided.

This week trying to help I said I would help with an email issue. This was my first mistake.

A had asked me to remind him to get me the information I needed to help him. On Wednesday I called him to remind him about what he promised and he hung the phone up.

I immediately called back and it rang 4 times and went to voice mail. I also sent a text message and it was never answered.

4 hours later I decided I had enough of A and blocked his phone number.

Thursday morning he sent me the information late by email and I sent back a message saying I was not helping him. He tried to make excuses for his behaviour and even denied hanging up on me. If that was true why ignore the text messages?

The reality is he was going to get help for free. So he had no skin in the game. This is the problem with doing things for free. People do not appreciate what you do.

One thing people do not appreciate often is time. It does not cost you anything for time is what people say. What they do not realize is time is finite. It is something you can never get back.

So in business, I truly believe that you should charge and not give things away for free. The minute someone pays they are invested which is better for them and for you.