Rory called the other day to fix the washing machine.
Bushings he mumbled thoughtfully – I went back to my office as I heard drilling noises from the bathroom.
20 minutes later he popped his head in.
“All done” he said cheerfully. “Machine working again.”
“How much? I asked?”
“€100 please.”
I pressed the money quickly into his hand and he was gone.
Now as I can use Google and as a result I now know bushings cost about 20 euro, so Rory got 80 euro for 20 minutes work.
But really he didn’t.
He got paid for understanding the problem quickly, knowing how to fix it equally quickly.
If I had attempted to fix it the neighbourhood would have been flooded and I would have been divorced as we would ultimately have to buy a new washing machine. Divorce proceedings from my wife with associated costs would also have potentially happened.
Up to approximately 2ish years ago I used to regularly do “quick jobs” for nothing. My (flawed) rationale was, Hey I can do it quickly (just like Rory).
What I failed to process despite of course knowing this was that people pay you for your expertise not how long it takes.
Being a geek I even tracked for a month using Toggl (I never charge hourly but did track it) how many of these “quick (read free)” jobs I was doing. It worked out about 15-20 a month. “5 minute jobs” as people call them
But I stopped – Completely.
What happens now??
Now if a client asks me for a quick task for which the implication (even if not stated is that its free I send them here which is a payment to cover at least my time, knowledge and efforts.
So they get this email
Hi <Client Name>
Good to hear from you. As you are not in one of my care plans then your task will be added to our support system and I will work on it in the coming days. Please visit this link to pay for this service and I will update you via email through the support system as the task gets addressed.
And then?
Those that don’t pay don’t get the work done and they stop asking for free work.
So do the maths from the above analysis of hours spent doing free work. . 10/15 x 125 and often more as I will charge more if it is a bigger task.
Some folks out there say – do it for free it builds a relationship. It doesn’t.
I am in this business for nearly 15 years and I can tell you with confidence this slid gold fact.
All doing unpaid work for people does is create more unpaid work.
Photo by Visual Stories || Micheile on Unsplash