Free is something that can be had without a price, without any obligations and without any fear of having to pay back. However, is “free” really worth it? especially when you’re a business owner, your eyes would lit up every time something for free comes up. Or, if you’re a blogger, your eyes would lit up every time you get a free guest post right? Social media is free correct? its contents are free but if we go by the principle of time equals money, then social media is considered to be extremely expensive. You or your coworkers would spend a lot of time managing and networking in hopes of them becoming regular customers or someone who would post for you.
If you consider someone who would work for you(for free of course) and managing your network at a set number of hours per week, you would be lucky to have that person put in 1 hour per week. Even if they decide to post something for you, you would be lucky if that post even meets your standard. When that post doesn’t meet you and your reader’s expectation, YOU will lose your customer and audience. But look on the bright side, you didn’t have to spend anything right?
Let’s say you’re an owner of an up and coming business that’s getting a lot of attentions from potential customers, you want to expand your products and put it online for a larger audience. In order to do this, you need a website to market it but in order to save some money, you ask your nephew who’s a student studying graphic designs to work for you and in returns he gets exposure for his work. However, in the end you get a product that doesn’t even come close to meeting your standards and you wasted all that time(remember that time equals money?) You could’ve hired a professional for a price and got a beautiful website up and running in that time right?
The mentality of a volunteer is that they really don’t care about you, they only care about what they can get out of it. Especially when they do it for free, there’s no expectations from them to do a good job and they can take as long as they want. Of course you can always ask them(nicely) to hurry up but that would be weird right? because you’re not paying them. On the other hand, if you would’ve paid someone and this same situation comes up, you can at least do something about it, like firing them Donald Trump style.
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That’s why you should make sure the arrangement is mutually beneficial. Who would want to work for free? Make sure it is worth it to the volunteer to help you and you will get good result. 😉
That’s true too, but it’s their quality of work that’s important from if you hire someone else for that specific job.
There are definitely a lot of things worth paying a fair price to have done for you. Just got to make sure there’s a return on the investment, and in many cases the return is in the cost of your time.
I agree time is valuable especially when it comes to your business
I agree with Matt. Our time is very valuable and sometimes it makes more sense to pay for things. Why skimp and cause yourself more hassle and waste time? At least that is what I say.
You have to outsource what you are comfortable with (financially or quality-wise) and do your best on what is left.
I agree with your thoughts on outsourcing to volunteers and the possible drop in quality, but I strongly disagree with the title of this article. Free is great for business. Many businesses are turning to the Freemium model and having loads of success.
Free can only get you so far, it gets you exposure yes, it gets you in front of a lot of people, but free is just free…there’s no quality, and no quality equals no profit
Plug ‘GOOG’ into any stock ticker. Google focused on ‘free’ as well as ‘quality’ and it has turned out to be extremely profitable.
I would have to disagree completely with that. If anything, when you are starting out and are offering free anything, it is going to be of higher quality because you have something to prove. When the money starts coming in, many people start to slack off a bit because they know that they have customers and money on its way in.
Many start ups eventually go public, early employees usually receive stock options. This is the best way to compensate employees for their work. If you are not going public, a bonus on completion may be a way to go. If you are not paying the,m there is no loyalty.
You make a very good point about how ‘free’ may not be the best method of obtaining what you desire. However, Retire by 40 has a point; make sure the arrangement is mutually beneficial and hopefully each party will make put forward their best effort!
Yes I agree there has to be some kind of arrangement where both parties would benefit
It seems to be an interesting one to get the free things in business but they have no longer will be safe or result in the error.
oh ya ! i am totally with you..because of you want to grow in your business then you should be have to hard worker man and also be punctual of your valuable time..so business will grow then you grow with your work..thanks linda