How To Say No To Working For Free

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• People will often try to get you to work for free by saying that it will be a great case study for you. If they’re coming to you and they don’t want to pay you, you need to consider how willing they’re going to be to take your advice? If they don’t take your advice, it will make a difference to your case study.
• If someone gets in touch asking you to work for free, be polite and thank them for the opportunity.
• You may find that people will also ask you to work for free, as long as you can take a cut of the profits that you make them. Whilst this could work, you need to decide whether or not it is worth your time without a guaranteed income. If money isn’t an issue, you may decide that you want to give it a go.
• You need to remember that you have bills to pay and that should be your priority.
• If someone asks you to go for a coffee, be wary that they may be asking to meet up with you to pick your brain or get free consultancy. When I first started out, I would meet everyone that wanted to meet up with me because I needed to network and grow my business – and that’s okay.
• If you value your worth, others will start to value it too.
• When someone asks you if you want to go for a coffee, directing them to somewhere where they can find the advice you would give can help save you some time. Not only will the resources already be available for them, but it will show who really values your advice and who doesn’t.
• Sometimes there are times where it’s okay to work for free, whether it’s for a friend or an instance where you feel you will be gaining benefit that is not financial. In most cases, this will be exposure.
• If there is someone you want to work with, why not get in touch with them to offer them something for free? Make sure it’s value isn’t too great in terms of your time and resources.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…

At the end of the day, if someone is paying you, they’re more likely to take your advice, ultimately resulting in more success.

HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• An Introduction to Working for Free – 04:38
• Ways People Try to Get You to Work For Free #1 – 08:20
• Ways People Try to Get You to Work For Free #2 – 10:40
• Ways People Try to Get You to Work For Free #3 – 15:30
• When I Will Work For Free – 27:50

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE

• Episode 34 How I Started My Business
• 5 Places to Use As Opportunities To Build Your List
• How to Produce A Webinar (Blueprint)
• Creating A Good Sales Page

Transcript below

Speaker 1: (00:33)

Whew. I finally have got an intro piece of music. What do you think? It took me ages and I decided obviously to do it myself with the help of Phil who edits my podcast for me and we've put that together. So I'd love to know what you think. I've never started the podcast with a woo. Maybe I should, I always get a bit bored of doing the same old hello and welcome to the podcast. So maybe that's a new way to start it. Anyway, I apologise if I scare you they slightly, um, I'll wake you up if it's early in the morning. So yeah, let me know what you think of the intro. I'm just glad we've got one now because I was feeling a little bit lost, which is really odd actually because I don't hear the intro. Obviously when I'm recording, I record my little bit at the beginning and I just come straight into this, so actually should have made no difference to me, but I knew from your end it would have made a difference, which is why it feels like I needed to say something.

Speaker 1: (01:30)

But anyway, intro's in. You'll have to know, listen to the end because obviously I've got a new outro as well. In fact, I've recorded two different ones because one thing I discovered or one thing I thought about when I was doing the podcast is I'm not very good at asking people to go and subscribe or give me reviews and I know that when I listened to other podcasts, they have really long outros or really long intros where they're asking people to do these things. So I have done a couple of, well I've got two different outros. They're still very short and succinct. I think one just say, go and give me a review.. asking nicely obviously, and then one just says go and check out the website just to kind of finish off the podcast. But actually it would be ace if you were happy to go and give me a review. I'd love that. That'd be so cool. I've had some awesome reviews, such lovely ones and I'm going to start reading them out on the podcast and obviously we want to give you guys a shoutout. So if you are happy to then I would love it if you could possibly go and give me a lovely five star review. That would be amazing. Thank you.

(02:35)

Okay, today's episode's going to be an interesting one. The other day I was having a call with a possible coaching client and she was telling me about her business now because this just happened to be in social media and she basically was doing what I've been doing for the past five years and she was trying to build a business and she just started out and we were having conversation about clients and getting clients and getting paid work, good paid work.

Speaker 1: (03:05)

And we talked about a few issues and one of the things that came up for me, which comes up for me a lot is the fact that people try and get us to work for free. So today I want to do a bit of a different episode, but hopefully a really helpful one where I talk about basically the ways that people ask us to do work for free or try and get away with not paying us and why you shouldn't do those things and how you can perhaps respond to them. And because I know that was one of the first things actually that when people did ask me, I find it really difficult to say no in the early days because I just didn't know how to say no. And I think generally maybe human beings, women, people, anybody saying no is actually a fairly difficult thing to do for most people I would imagine.

(03:53)

So, especially when you're confronted with somebody very confident perhaps, and they've, they're trying to pitch a good argument and you've got to find a way to say no. So that's the first half of the podcast. And then the second bit of the podcast is going to be looking at actually ways that you could do some work for free and why I would on some occasions. So I'm just trying to help you think about how you're getting your clients and when some client does come to you and they want to work with you and they're trying to get something like paying and how you can deal with those situations. Because I felt like it happened to me a lot in the early days. So I'm just trying to give you a heads up so how you can avoid these.

An Introduction to Working for Free

So before I dive into telling you some of the very creative ways that people tried to get work for free, let's just start off by saying, if you have just started doing this as a job or just started this as a business, then you are going to be in a very different position as I was when I first started than I am now. The chances of me doing work for free now are pretty much slim to none. Don't get me wrong, I will do a sort of discovery calls with people and I give them lots of value on those calls and I will help people. I like helping people, but we're not going to do sort of consultancy or we're not going to do management and social media for free. That isn't going to happen now at this point because we don't need to. And because we've worked really hard to get to a level that actually if you don't value my service enough to want to pay for me, then obviously I don't feel that you value it at all. So that's honestly how I feel about myself today. However, when I first started it was different. So if you are just starting out or you're new to it, then you might want to view this in a slightly different way.

Speaker 1: (05:38)

One of the things that I did do when I first started is I did do training for free. I did help people out for free because in the early days I wanted to get my name out there, but I wanna just say something. I was really strategic about it and I chose those people and I went to those people. I didn't wait for someone to come to me and go, do you want this opportunity? Because the chances are they wouldn't have been the type of people that I wanted to have a case study with or work with for free. So I chose charities because that's a nice thing to do and I picked, this sounds really bad, like I was only doing this to boost my own business, but I'm going to be honest, there was an element of that obviously and it wasn't like it was an entirely one sided.

Speaker 1: (06:24)

They got my expertise for free, but I was doing it as a way to raise my profile. So I was initially, when I first started my business, I was looking locally, so a lot of my business came from the local area. So what I did is there was a really big charity event that's got a lot of publicity and a lot of people coming to it and it was really well known in the town and it was run by volunteers and it had a board of volunteers. So I specifically went and volunteered my services to them and said, would you like me to work for free and help you with your marketing and help you with your social media and do these various things for you? And really luckily and kindly, they said, yes. They did. And I worked with them during the event running up to the event and I attended the event working it for the, um, for the weekend it was on and I gave them my services for free.

Speaker 1: (07:19)

And it did me a real favour because it did help boost my profile. It got me networking. Some people that I didn't know, some businesses that I didn't know and it was actually a real benefit to me. But like I said, I went and found them out and thought that would be a great opportunity. I didn't wait for someone just to come knocking on my door go and I don't want to pay you, can you do it for free? So I'm not saying don't do work for free. And in fact I'll talk about that a bit right at the end, but I'm not saying don't do it for free. I'm just saying that obviously if you're going to do that, you want to reach out and find the work that is most benefits you. But I think of probably just at the end now. But anyway, we'll carry on.

Ways People Try to Get You to Work For Free #1

Speaker 1: (08:00)

But I wanted to say that the kind of prerequisite, if you're just starting out then you're going to have to kind of balance this. But what I don't want you to do is set a precedent for yourself where you are just, you've got yourself into a bit of a trap where you're giving away free work or work that's hardly paying anything and you're getting so busy doing that that you literally don't have time for anything else to actually then make money. So let's go through these ways in which people like to try and get work for free and bless them for trying because sometimes they're pretty good at it so you have to watch out for them. So the classics that I've had is, the first one is this will be a great case study now who unless that business was something amazing or a hugely massive profile or really niche brand or something that was so unique that I was like, do you know what?

Speaker 1: (08:55)

If I could say I worked with this person or worked on this brand, it would accelerate me to another level. Then thanks for the opportunity, the case study. But quite honestly I wouldn't want it. I think one of the things that I would be saying to these people is, well before I say it to them, the thing I'd be thinking is if you're coming to me and you don't want to pay me, then how willing are you going to be to take my advice? Because if you don't value my advice enough to give me money, then if I'm sat there saying, this is what you should be doing and you don't do it, or you don't want to do that particular thing where you don't do it as much as I've said or whatever, then obviously that's going to make a difference. Whereas I have found almost the more people pay me, the more they listened to me, which is kind of amazing and cool and I love that.

Speaker 1: (09:44)

But sometimes the people who you're doing a favour for you think, I've just told you all this amazing advice and you're still not listening to me. So actually what's the point? You know? And my advice doesn't have to be better than what they're thinking and it's their business at the end of the day so they can take it or leave it. But I do find that the more they pay, the more they appreciate what you're giving them. So if someone came to me and said, this'll be a great case study, my response back to them would be, thank you for the opportunity. Always thank them because we're polite and nice people, you know. Thank you for the opportunity. However, I do have a number of paid clients that I'm currently running case studies for at the moment and I can see how amazing it'd be to work with you, but unfortunately I'm not in a position where I can do that for free.

Ways People Try to Get You to Work For Free #2

Speaker 1: (10:28)

So that's the kind of language I'd be using back to them. Okay. The next one is a really interesting one and I'm going to argue myself in and out of this one is when people come to you and their business is starting out and they are super passionate about their business, obviously we all are and they say to us, I want you to do it for either really cheap or free because when this grows you're going to be in it and I'm going to pay you more. Now, I've had this said to me a lot and I've also had it said to me, can I work entirely for free but get a cut of the sale? So basically they're asking me to put my money where my mouth is because I'm sat here saying social media is amazing. My tips and tools and strategies, they're amazing. They're going to make a difference to your business and granted, if you do what I suggest in a business, it will make a difference and I will. It's suddenly double your sales overnight. Possibly. Not now or you know, will it make a difference in sales? That's really hard to say. So around this subject, the reason I would avoid this one, even though I hear what they're saying and you know what, it could be short sighted on my part. It could be, you know if this was a Virgin company as in like Richard Branson Virgin and he came to me at the beginning and I went, no, I'm all right, thanks Richard. And then suddenly it did blow up massive. Then I'm a little bit gutted I guess by that. But the problem is a couple of things. First off, if you have a team, well forget the team, you're part of your business, you have to earn money.

Speaker 1: (12:09)

But I find it easy when I was thinking about the team, I can't get one of the team to do something without paying them obviously because that's our agreement. So you're not only asking me to spend my time but someone else's time for free when I've still got to pay them, so I'm immediately out of pocket. So that just doesn't work in my head. Why would I go out of pocket in my business in order to support someone else in their business? I don't think that works for me. Secondly, the really and probably more strongly is that even though I have complete faith in what I'm saying, what I teach and how good some of the strategies I can put together are and how they can make a difference to your business, there is so many other things that can have an effect on that business and on the success of the sales that are out of my control.

Speaker 1: (13:06)

So I could do the best marketing in the world for a client or for a business. And then they could go into the shop and the person behind the counter could be horrible. And they don't want to deal with them or they could buy the product and the product be awful and then they write a bad review and that stops other people doing it or the people could just be a nightmare to deal with or the service isn't very good. Honestly, there are a million reasons why they might not be getting sales and it's not just down to the marketing. So for me that wouldn't work. I love the idea of it. I, like I said, sometimes I think is shortsighted personally I don't think it is. Also, they are obviously gonna be more passionate and crazy about their own business because we are about our own, so they're going to sit in and go, this is going to be a huge success. It's going to be amazing, it's going to be brilliant, but you don't know that and you've got to live right now. You've got to eat, you've got to put a roof over your head. I've got to clothe my children, I've got a lot of things that are going to pay for and therefore I don't want to take that risk. Now, if money's not an issue, then you might decide that actually it might be worth a go. But I think if you're going to enter into that, then you need to have some really kind of firm strong boundaries about how that works and kind of what impact other things might have on the sales. Like I said, there are so many other variables that come into play here that actually for me, it just wouldn't be worth it. So when I went back to someone, because I have had this asked me a few times, I just went back to them and my easiest excuse was to go back and say, I'm so sorry, but I have a team in which to pay for and I can't provide this work for free and pay that team.

Ways People Try to Get You to Work For Free #3

Speaker 1: (14:56)

That just doesn't make financial sense for me. And although the product's great and I think it's wonderful what you're doing, I wish you all the luck. But right now, unfortunately we're not in a position to do that. So that's another really interesting one. Like I said, I have had it quite a few times and I find it really fascinating because it's like, well, if you think you're so good and it's so brilliant, then you know you're going to obviously make lives of sales me and therefore as I sell, you'll make money and it's like it doesn't work like that. Okay. The other classic that I get is, Can I have a coffee with you? Oh man. I've talked about this on the podcast before about being asked to be taken for a coffee and having your brain picked. Now, I do not mind at all when I'm on a masterclass, when I'm doing any kind of teaching, when I'm on a podcast, if I'm on a Webinar, I will literally give you, oh speaking, I will give you value, value, value, value, value.

Speaker 1: (15:55)

I'll tell you what's in my head and I will literally lay it all out. One of the things that I am very luckily known for when I speak is that you literally walk away with pages of notes because I don't hold anything back. I give you the knowledge, I give you the stuff you needed to know. And I like that. That's how I teach. That's how I think. And that's fine by me. However, there is a big difference when someone asks you to come and have a conversation with them and you give your ideas directly to them and it might be personalised, it might be, you know, much more specific to their business then you would have done obviously on stage or on a podcast or on a blog or whatever. And then they're not paying for that service. Now I know this because I have been burned more times than I care to remember. Times where you think this is definitely gonna turn into a client so you go along and you do the pitch and part the pitches that you're giving loads of ideas. I've done that a million times. I've often been caught out by uh, friends, colleagues and yeah, friends, it sounds bad. Like, I don't wanna give him my friends advice. Of course, I do. And I do give a lot of advice to friends. Um, if you are in my circle, then I will happily help you out if I can. However, sometimes, you know, when someone says, oh we should meet for coffee and then they're kind of picking your brain, it's like, hang on a minute, you know, it's not like, you know, you wouldn't go into a shop and say, ‘Can I just wear this for the weekend then bring it back?' It really is a case of that's how I earn my living and actually, if someone is a friend then they wouldn't ask for that for free.

When I Will Work For Free

Speaker 1: (17:37)

So for instance, I've got lots of friends who do different jobs and businesses and that sort of thing and I've got friends who do nails and hair and various other different things and businesses and skills. And I think if I was going to use that business that I would be expecting anything for free. Like I have had a little bit of free advice before I had a very lovely lady who was a counsellor for children and we had a question about one of the children and she very kindly gave me half an hour of her time. However, my question to her was, how much would half an hour of your time be? I want to ask a question so I didn't expect it in the first place anyway, enough about my, my my own moral thing when it comes to paying other people, but so people coming to you and saying, can we have a coffee?

Speaker 1: (18:20)

So I want to put this two ways. First way, I used to meet everybody that got in touch with me when I first started my business. They'd contact me and obviously it early days and I needed to earn money. If you haven't heard my story about how I started my business, then please go back and check out episode 34 so teresaheathwareing.com/34. I'll also link in the show notes. I tell you my story and part of my story is that I was on my own with my daughter when I started my business. So I had to earn money. So I know what it's like. You're starting the business, someone contacts you and says, ‘Hey, I'd love to have a chat. I need some help my social media'. And you think, brilliant. Yeah, great. I'm gonna get a client. So you're immediately book a coffee meeting with them and you meet them and you start talking to them.

Speaker 1: (19:06)

And I have the best classic example of by foolishness is I met this one lady and I think I'm, I really struggle with this point where in your head I'm thinking, I don't think she wants to pay the money I want or I don't think if I was her size of business than I would be paying someone like me to do this. And, but you should never judge that. So I try and sort of remove that out of my head because who am I to say whether they'd want to pay money to do that or whether they could afford that or not. So try and remove that out of your head. So I obviously went along and met her and I sat down with her. With her and her husband and they were telling me about the business, which was really interesting and it was excited and I get excited about every business. Not Kidding. Honestly. I've had some really interesting ones and they get really excited about it. I'm like, oh you can do this and you can do this and you can do this. I sat there, are you ready for this? For three hours, three hours. I literally unpacked my entire marketing brain, my 15 years of experience and knowledge and work and all the extra kind of courses and conferences and millions of podcasts and millions of books I read and I literally unpacked it on the table for, I went, there you go. There's everything. Here's all the ideas you need. Like an absolute fool. What an idiot. Anyway, cause she sat there for three hours. I gave all the ideas, they took manic notes and shock and then I went back to the office. So I've driven to somewhere I've sat three hours, I've driven back.

Speaker 1: (20:37)

So let's call that four hours. Then in the early days I used to write up these big proposals. So I wrote up this big proposal where I talk more about the business and more by kind of what she could do. And here's some more ideas cause I haven't given her enough in those three hours and I sent it to her. So I probably spent another hour, maybe hour and a half and then plus a bit of chasing. So let's say all in all, I probably sent five, six hours almost an entire day with this lady on this lady and she emailed me back eventually and went, “I'm sorry, I can't afford you.' And I was just like, you are kidding me. And I did this numerous times before I finally worked it out in my head that this was not a great strategy. So I want you to think about those people. Now I changed the way in which I meet people now. I rarely meet people. I tend to do a call online, a Skype or a zoom call. It tends to be short. I'd get the gist of what they need. I then give them a cost for that either on the call or after the call. And then there's some other stuff we do as well, but then basically they've sort of had that cost fairly quickly and they can decide whether that's going to be something that they want to go ahead with it or not. After that, if they're local then by all means I'll meet them. That's fine. And if they want to go ahead or after that, if they're not local, we'll do a much longer call and we'll go into things in detail. But it was just wasting so much of my time in the earlier days. There's meeting people for coffees and chats and helping them out.

Speaker 1: (22:15)

The other thing that really helped, which I have talked about before on the podcast when I talked about money and paid to get over a sales mindset, was that I didn't really know how to put a value on me and my time and my head. So when people said, oh, can we meet for coffee and can I share some ideas? I just went, yeah, okay. Cause I didn't value it myself. So therefore I wasn't surprised that they weren't valuing it. So one of the things that really helped was the minute I went to a conference in the States and I paid to go out there and I paid for my accommodation, I paid for my ticket, I paid for my flights and all in all, it came to like three, 4,000 pounds I think in total. And I got back from that conference, which was amazing by the way, the first main conference I went to just to be in that experience, in that room with those people was totally worth the money.

Speaker 1: (23:05)

Hence why I do it lots, you know, even to this day. When I got back, I literally had about six people immediately messaged me, email me saying, oh Teresa, I seen that you've been to wherever it was. I'd love to hear what, what you learn. Can we meet for a coffee? And suddenly my head went, hang on a minute, I've just spent 4,000 pounds, which is hilarious. I didn't actually think, oh I've just spent 10 years of my life. Cause at that point it was only 10 years in marketing that somehow I didn't have a value, but going and spending that money suddenly made me go, oh wow. Uh, no. Unfortunately you can't because I just suddenly felt like you and I, you know, you have the opportunity as much as I have the opportunity to go. If you wanted to, then you'd invested that money and you had gone like I did.

Speaker 1: (23:55)

And obviously I did blog posts. Obviously I talked about it publicly and that's fine. However, I'm not going to go and sit down with you and give you all these suggestions and ideas. So my tip for this one is if someone says, can we meet for coffee? Can I pick your brain? Have you got half an hour? There's a couple of different ways that I get out of this, or I deal with this because some people absolutely fine if they're a friend, if they were or whatever, and they literally want to ask me a question. Then, like I said, I'm happy to answer that question. That's not a problem. So in some cases I'll say yeah, no worries. Uh, you can book in a free, and I mentioned it a free 15 minute call or 30 minute call depending, but I ensure, I say you can book in a free call because I want them to be under the impression and understand that that's free cause normally I would charge for it.

Speaker 1: (24:48)

So that's the first thing I would do if I wanted to go ahead and give them some time, but I'd book them in for a call. I rarely meet them because honestly by the time you've driven, they're driven back. By the time you've sat down and had a chat, got a coffee, done your stuff, we're not talking half an hour. It might end up being a half an hour chat about that thing. But we're talking an hour and a half, two hours out of your time for you to do that thing. So I again, I want you to think about that and just be a bit more strict with your time and just value your own time. Because if you're not valuing it, and this is something I've had to learn and I still work on, no one else is going to value it either. So like I said, I either get them on a call or if I don't want to go, if someone does contact me and say, can I get on a call or can I speak to you? Can I, whatever, pick your brain and I don't want to because I know that actually you're just trying to get free advice from me and that's not fair. Then what I will do is I would say to them, um, I'm really sorry. I'm ever so busy. I've got lots on. I'm booked up, and that's often the truth. But I would say that, and then I would say, however, if you want to go and take a listen to my podcast, then honestly I give so much good value there. Or if you do a blog, go and check this out. Or if you're doing Facebook lives, go and check that out. So I will then direct them to where there is free content and honestly, you know, I'm on episode.. What episode am I in? 70 and how many, you know, 70 episodes all well, anywhere between half an hour, an hour.

Speaker 1: (26:18)

That is a lot of content. So it's not like I don't put very guns and eight there. So for me those are the two ways that I deal with. I don't tend to meet them. I give them a call for a set amount of time. Also I try and book it in with other calls around it so that I'm strict with myself about, right. I've got to get off this call because I've got another call or I'll say to them, I'm really sorry. I would love to catch up with you, but I just don't have the time right now. I tell you what, why don't you go check out the podcast? Or if it was something particular and I knew I'd done an episode, then I would literally send them a link to that episode and say, but I answer loads of stuff in here if this helps.

Speaker 1: (26:56)

And genuinely I do love helping people. So it doesn't necessarily fit with me by saying no. And I do find saying no really difficult. But it's really important because honestly you can spend your entire life helping other people doing freebies, getting case studies, getting testimonials, doing all that good stuff for free. And your Business fails before you've even started because you can't afford to get it off the ground because you're so busy doing free stuff. So for me, if someone really does want your business, then they value you, then they'll pay for you. And if they can't afford you, then okay, I'm sorry. And if I can suggest someone else that's a little cheaper or different or whatever, then I will. But if they can't afford you, then they're not for you either. So for me, that's how I deal with those things. And like I said at the beginning, although I said I would do it at the end, there are a couple of occasions where I will do stuff for free.

Speaker 1: (27:51)

So for instance, if like I said it's a charity and I'm can see that they need some help and it's maybe an hour of my time. In fact, I did this just a few weeks ago, so it's not that I don't do anything for free now, but a friend of a friend again. So there was a personal connection said to me, will you meet with this charity? They could do with a sort of, you know, a bit of guidance. And I literally met with them for one hour and I blurted a load of stuff out and then I went and that was fine by me. That's okay. So I will do stuff like that because that makes me feel good and I'm happy to and it's easy. I don't find that difficult. The other thing is I will give stuff away for free if there is something coming back to me.

Speaker 1: (28:33)

So this is a two way street here. You've worked really hard to get where you are and to get the services you've got. So therefore if someone wants your service free, what are they going to give you in return? What have they got? That actually is a good trade off. And again this was a great thing to do in the beginning. So my first website was created because I swapped trades with someone. So I gave my website guy a strategy and we did a marketing strategy for his business and he gave me a website. Brilliant, perfect. Thank you so much. That worked like a dream. So either a trade or a kindness thing because you don't mind but only do really strict amount of times. Or like I said in the early days, if there is genuinely a good great case study or you're trying to make it into a particular niche or a particular area, then I would consider picking a really good company but make it obvious to them.

Speaker 1: (29:32)

Cause if someone said to me, can I come and work for you for free? I would be a bit like, hm how good are you going to be? So that if they gave me a really good reason as why and actually it was really key for them to build themselves in this area and to have my name on something as a testimonial, blah, blah, blah, blah, then I would seriously consider it. So if you were going to go to a company that you wanted to work with because you knew it'd be really good to have them on your kind of portfolio and a testimonial from them, then I would consider going to them and saying, can I do something for you? I wouldn't offer them free management. I wouldn't offer them anything kind of ongoing. I would make sure it was some kind of project work because the problem is the minute you get really busy and things start getting brilliant, they won't want to pay for it because I am telling you, if they're not paying you now, the chances are they never will pay you because why would they? Seriously. If you were getting something for free, why would you suddenly start going, oh, I know I'll, I'll just start giving you money for this thing that you've given me for free, for ages. So definitely have a think about that one as well. But do it as a project. Say to them, I would like to manage your Instagram for a month, or I would like to create 40 bits of content and upload them into your page. Or I would like to write you three blog posts for free, but make it really specific and sort of say, this is the deal. This is what I'd like to do. But also if you're doing it for that reason, you're going to want to say to them, but from you, what I need is access to your Google analytics so I know how many people have read them or I need you to tell me how many impressions it got or whatever it is.

Speaker 1: (31:07)

Because again, you're going to be doing it for a reason. You want to be able to get those stats back. So a bit of an odd one may be today, but I think, I think useful hopefully. Did you think useful? I think so because it really did happen a lot in my business when I first started, and I know there's a lot of you out there who do social media. I know there's lots of Solopreneurs, lots of people who run their own business and getting clients can be tough and getting clients who will pay well can be tough and sometimes when we're desperate and we're in the early days or we've works, gone a bit quiet, we're coming, we're in some holidays soon and actually that was always a quiet time for me. Then suddenly you think, oh my gosh, what am I going to do? Then that's when you might let your guard drop and I just want you to think about you and your value and actually what it's going to do for your business in the long run because that work you're doing for someone for free.

Speaker 1: (32:01)

Ultimately, if you didn't have them, you could fit in someone else who could pay you and surely that's much, much better. And you, you are worth the money. You are worth every penny. We worked so hard. I work so many hours. I learned so much stuff. I attend conferences, I travel. I do so much crazy stuff sometimes just to make sure I'm good at what I do and I know what I'm talking about. So if someone doesn't want to pay for that, then like I said, that's not necessarily the kind of people that I want to do business with. So anyway, I hope this has been helpful. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Also, don't forget that I've got some freebies for you. So I have got a Freebie to do with building your email list because you know I am super passionate about that. I love social media, but if something happens to your account, you've lost those people, that following does not belong to you.

Speaker 1: (32:50)

So get them onto your email list. So if you go to teresaheatwareing.com/listbuilding, you'll find a download. There are five ways in which you can build your list that you might not be using right now and that lots of people forget about simple ways as well. Don't need loads of money, don't need any money I think. And then the next one is if you are going to do a Webinar, I have literally given you my webinar blueprint. I've talked you through the three main sections that you need to talk about in your Webinar. So the kind of content you need to include to make sure that you can sell effectively on that webinar without it feeling horrible and sleazy and which I hate. So that webinar blueprint is there. So if you go to teresaheathwareing.com/blueprint, you'll find that.

Speaker 1: (33:38)

And then the last one is if you're creating a sales page and a sales page, basically it doesn't have to be a sales page that completes as in click the button to buy the products. It could be if you're talking about your products or services, then that is a sales page too. So definitely go and download that one because that's a really good one. I've given you 10 things that I always include. I say always, I always caveat this with do as I say, not as I do sometimes because sometimes I'm not smart enough to take my own good advice. So 10 things I recommend you do and things I should do but sometimes forget. Anyway, and you can get that. If you go to teresaheathwareing.com/salespage, I hope I said all those links correct and actually if you just go to teresaheathwareing.com there's links to all three of them on that homepage so you can find them all. Also as always everything is linked up in the show notes. Anyway, let me know what you think of that episode. If you do get chance and you can go over and give me a review, I would love that so much. Thank you very much and have an amazing week and I will see you next week.