#00_announcements
Welcome to the Gildre Announcements Channel! This channel is primarily used by the Managing Partners for community-wide updates and special announcements.
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Is it possible to get too personally attached to the people you're trying to serve that you don't want to charge them because they need the most help? Which only stops your casfhlow from coming in. Hurting your business. Or am i just overthinking on this Tuesday afternoon..
No you're absolutely right. I think a lot of times especially when we're providing support/services it's easy to undervalue your time and help friends/colleagues without charging them (or undercharging them) so it's important just to set an early balance
At a certain point you can just set the stage for "I'm happy to continue doing ABC, but once it escalates to XYZ it exceeds my current bandwidth and I'll have to start charging you Y or asking for ____"
I hit this bump SEVERAL times. Each time I thought I learned and then bam I fell into it again.
What saved me are operating agreements. Putting on paper that I have to get paid in some manner and holding myself to that agreement was big. And remembering that direct cash payment is only one form of payment. Taking part in a validation study is = $15,000, directly putting me in touch with someone who needs the service is = $500, etc. I often use that to help those in need.
BUT even then it can get hard to stop when they hit the end of that value.
As Brian said, you just have to be clear about the expectations at the start. You can only do so much and if you aren't getting paid...you aren't going to be able to help them much longer anyway...
i love that idea. basically its a contract to myself honoring my value and skillset. I'm in talks with partnering with a large global non-profit. And i explained to them, "i love supporting our creatives. But my I have a cashflow problem i need to solve to sustain this so i can continue supporting our creatives."
I wanted to be clear with them and establish healthy boundaries. As a business owner and member of the community.
I like to help, you need to set boundaries, like I help you for an hour for free, but my time costs money and when I am helping you for free, I am giving up earning money. It's always good to put that out there
Ppl don't value what they don't pay for. If you offer your services for free, you will diminish the value of your services and eventually your brand. Also, when offered for free (or cheap), they are much less likely to commit to doing the work.
The cycle looks like this: Free/cheap service > no commitment > no results > unhappy customer > no reenrollments/referrals > no one wins.
@Berk C. Celebisoy, your comments are spot on. 👏
Can you explain a bit more on what you mean <@U08CKQG294G>? When you say, money isnt the only valuable thing people have? Do you mean in the services we offer? Or how we price what we offer?
is this hard to setup and test? meaning, a week of work? I like the idea and that could help me balance serving those who need it with serving those that can afford it. It would also help me strengthen my sales funnel.
Scheduled a time for Friday. thank you!