“Memorable experiences are the ultimate scarce commodity.”
That’s what I scribbled while driving, listening to Chris Anderson’s Free. The marginal cost of digital distribution is falling toward to cheap to measure, so it makes sense to offer many digital products for free. For example, the Audible copy of Free I was listening came with no cost. (And it’s still available for download.)
However, the marginal cost and the value of memorable experiences continues to climb. That’s why we charge for conferences, consulting, and personal contact. A couple of days ago, Chris Brogan wrote The Audacity of Free, kicking off an interesting conversation in the comments.
Drawing the line between free and paid is a continuing discussion point here. Most recently, we had a great comment thread on what to do when a prospect stands you up. The first response from a reader? Never do a free consult. Maybe not practical in small towns, but certainly an interesting discussion.
Which brings me back to the opening quote.
“Memorable experiences are the ultimate scarce commodity.”
That’s what we can charge for. That’s the heart and soul of tourism. That’s what drives customers to return to your small business. Memorable experiences.
How do you generate memorable experiences?
Update: I’ve created a toolkit, called How to Draw the Line Between Free and Paid, to help get past doing too much for free.
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Great post and advice. I’ve rarely done a free consult because if it’s free, people give you the respect they think you deserve.
A man in the next county called me and wanted me to do a free consult; do a farm inspection, tell him how to implement tourism, how to best utilize his farm/buildings/property, etc., give him a written report. I told him that was a minimum of two eight hour days and the cost was $400. He told me the extension folks would do it for free; I suggested he call them. He never called me again but neither has he utilized tourism in his farm.
I’ve made $500 in one morning for a farm tour and believe that knowledge and experience is well worth the modest fee I charge for individual farms.
After lecturing at conferences, festivals, etc., people have called and wanted me to do free inspections, give them my hard won list of grant sites and all for free.
It’s true I don’t get that many jobs locally but it’s also true I’ve been paid to teach all over the East Coast, Russia, Armenia and Georgia.
I don’t do free.
You’ve described the problem well. There is no reason for you do such a thorough consultation and report for no cost! Your expertise is valuable, and I’m glad you value it appropriately.