I want to talk about friend rates, something happened recently and. Wanted to talk about how to deal with it when your friends ask you for work and they don't want to pay. So I was part of an online virtual summit and there was a pre-recorded section where I gave advice on finding businesses online. And then there was a free live Q&A segment where people could type in whatever questions they had, which was played directly after my pre-recorded session.

And a lot of people ask questions and some of that I knew from a long time ago. Maybe I hadn't spoken to them in maybe eight years as I go, hi, nice to see you, blah, blah, blah. OK, I didn't ask any questions, but this was a Q&A free for all and it lasted about 30 thirty to forty five minutes. And then after that I was answering specific questions within a Facebook group. This person decided to not ask questions during the Q&A, but go ahead and type in the Facebook group.

Oh hey, long time no see. I'd really like to pick your brain. Can we arrange some time to chat? And so they didn't ask a specific question that they wanted me to answer, they just wanted to pick my brain in general for free. Well, that's what it seemed they wanted to do to get some consulting, OK. Of course, here's the link, you know, to my calendar so you can set up some time. Here's like, oh, oh, but there's there's a cost.

I just I just wanted to pick your brain. And my response was, well, that wouldn't be fair to my paying customers and clients. I give away a lot of free content via email on my podcast. Why this particular summit that you attended for free and yet you would like to pick my brain for an hour with no cost. And I did not get a response from that person since, and I have not heard from them since now. One of my friends does when she has friends that ask for stuff like that is if you're doing a trade, for example, if you're saying I will do this thing, if I get this thing in return, she still invoices that because even though it's a trade and it's not necessarily cash going, she wants them to know the value of what she's doing.

So she'll still send them an invoice, an invoice for xx work that I did with the cost, but have how much it would be normally, but then have it like zeroed out. So people are aware of the cost of what you do. So when they refer you to other people, they can say, hey, she costs around this much to do this sort of work, because otherwise when you do get referrals, they have no idea of what you charge and what value you bring.

So that is a very, very good tip. You can give the friend discount if you wish, but make them aware of what you and your services are worth. Always invoice, even if they invoice get zeroed out or there's a discount. Put how much the discount is. If it's 70 percent, 50 percent, 20 percent, no discount because no one says you have to give your friends a discount is the other thing you can if you wish, or you can give them a rate that is compatible for where they live.

For example, if you have people who live in different countries, you might not want to charge US dollars. If your friend is living in a Gasca or whatever you think about it and be kind and sensible, but at the same time you know your worth and people will not know your worth unless you charge for it. So going back to the person who I gave my calendar link, what they did not know is I gave them a reduced rate calendar link.

They didn't even have the usual price that my clients pay. And I told them it was a reduced rate.

Still not enough interest. I highly recommend that to let people know what your worth is, charge them and if they say they want to pick your brain, let them do it for 50 minutes and then let them know that the next 50 minutes will cost X amount. No harm in letting people pick your brain a little bit, but don't let it get out of hand. Thanks for listening. This is Janice@thecareerintrovert.com. Have a great rest of your week.