Interesting question isn’t it?
Would you still do what you do if you were doing it for free (ignore this question if you work as a volunteer, obv).
I get a certain amount of criticism about offering free mini coaching sessions – so much so, I wrote another blog about it which you can find here. There is this idea that giving your time away for free is somehow ‘unprofessional’. ‘desperate’. Etc. Which I think is utter bollocks, as you’ll see when you read the full blog.
But what is interesting is thinking about what you do in your business that could be considered ‘doing it for free’.
The last time I checked, we all have the same 24 hours available to us in the day. The same amount of actual, physical time to do stuff/eat/watch crap tv/read improving books/sleep/be a human – all that jazz. I choose to make 6 of those 24 hours the time I spend in my business. So, I have to fit all the ‘business’ stuff in to that time if I don’t want to encroach on the other stuff.
Now let’s just think about that for a minute. I need to make those 6 hours the most productive six hours I can – which is why I created my productivity pack to help me do this. It works. Get one. It will help you – grab yours here.
Back to the point Sheena, back to the point.
Those six hours I need to be the best six hours for my business each day. Which brings me back to asking if you would still do what you do if you didn’t get paid for it.
I wouldn’t.
**GASP**
You read that right.
Would I do what I do if I wasn’t being paid for it? Of course I bloody wouldn’t. I run a business – that business needs to make me some income, otherwise, what’s the bloody point of spending 6 hours every day doing it? There is a lot more I could do in that six hours that I’m not paid for – like spending time in my increasingly unruly garden, doing more crafting, more cooking, more reading – more of the ‘being a human’ stuff.
So why do business owners feel they need to say things like ‘I love what I do, I’d do it for free if I could’.
Bullshit.
If you would do it for free if you could, you’d be doing it for free already.
What this question actually does is makes us look at how we feel about our business.
- Do you love it enough?
- Does it still excite you enough?
- Do you still want to make a difference?
- Do you still want to help people?
If you can answer yes to all those questions, then you have a great relationship with your business. If you can’t answer a wholehearted, genuine yes to all of them, then you might be falling out of love with your business.
Sometimes that starts with resentment about the time you are spending in your business that you are not getting paid for. Except you are. Or you should be.
You see, there’s a lot of ‘stuff’ you do in your business that you feel you aren’t charging for – but you should be. If you charge an hourly rate, like I do, then that rate needs to cover all the stuff you are ‘doing for free’. The marketing, the networking, the accounts, the admin, the routine stuff that makes your business a business. If you aren’t doing this stuff (or outsourcing it to someone else), then you don’t have a business. Sorry. You have an engaging hobby.
If that shocks you, then you need to look at your pricing. If your pricing doesn’t cover the ‘free stuff’, then you are right to feel that resentment towards your business.
Doing what you do without getting paid for it is not a noble question that requires a selfless answer – it’s a question to make you look at how you currently do business and what you may need to change about that.
- Do you have a clear pricing strategy?
- Do you have a clear marketing strategy?
- Do you have a clear networking strategy?
- Do you have a clear cashflow strategy?
If you can answer yet to all of that – well done you. If you can’t – then book a free coaching session with me & we can talk about how I can help you with all that stuff.
If you’re not ready to make the investment in your business of working with me just yet, then download this Supercharge Your Pricing workbook instead.
It will help. If you let it.