I hope the first part already got you started. Having a mentor at your side really gives you the assurance that you are on the right track and you’re giving the best you could.

Part two of this series says, you have to give it away for free first. Now this idea has been around for quite a while now. This idea gave birth to “free taste“, “free sample“, “free trial“, and all sorts of free stuff with the major purpose of having the market TRY IT OUT. The same thing goes for your skill, if you are too afraid to know if your market will put less value to your skills/products, give it away for free and let them decide how much is it worth. Everybody nowadays wants it for free, so you can be sure that your market will warmly welcome your offer. Now you might think, “they might give me an even less value now that they know I gave it away for free”, the answer is that THEY WON’T, they might even give you a higher value than what you expect. Of course there are these type of people who really abuse the offer because of their “poverty mentality” but these people are not your market. You’ll offer this to those you know will pay for it if it has value. And the value is very important and it has to be there because this would chart your course of your future relationship with a particular client.

When you give something away for free, it doesn’t mean that what you’ll be giving doesn’t have value. All the more that it has to have a value because this should be a very good example of what you could offer them. When you give a free taste don’t let them have the excess, when you give a free sample don’t let them have the reject, when you give them a free trial don’t give them less features. The free you give away should represent the whole thing you are offering so it should be the best that you could offer. And as long as the value and quality is there, you are assured of return customers, now that’s what we are after. What is the first-time-for-free worth compared to a regular client that comes back every month? You’ll recover your investments in no time.

The idea takes the fear away. You don’t have to worry about what they’d say because first and foremost it is them who’s getting the favor (but i’ll tell you later how they could return it back to you). So even if the client doesn’t like it, it is very unlikely that they’ll reject it (it’s very rude for them if they do, and if they did, these are the type of clients you wouldn’t like to be around, “hard to please rude clients”). It could also be a source of feedback (this is where you get your investment back). You do not take off with a perfect product, especially when you are a start-up, there’s always room for improvements. Be sure to know if they liked the product, what else do they want with it, how can it be improved, etc. The answers should be considered in order to recreate what you offer into something that your market will really value. And doing this regularly, you’d be amazed of how far you could go in perfecting your product that it actually sells itself. Lastly, before you part with the client, ask for a referral, somebody who might need your services or product, somebody who thinks that what you offer has a value.

Things to do
1. Define the particular thing you are trying to give away
2. Define your market and locate them
3. Get to them and make sure to give it to those who have the capacity to pay
4. Get their feedback
5. Ask for a referral

Again, this is a very good idea to get started. you’d learn to improve your product along the way and you’d know if your product really has value. It is hard for a customer to buy your product especially if they still have the “fear of the unknown”. Let them have a good taste of your product first, let them have a good feel, let them take a look closer and if your product really has value for them, THEY WILL BUY IT the next time.

But don’t take this too far or you’ll end up piled with weeks of work without any pay. The following are good points to consider when giving free services:

1. Make sure something will come back - it won’t be in the form of money but potential future business deals, referrals and connections.
2. Limit the alloted time - maybe a day or two in a week might be a good place to start. If this will work well with you, you’ll have enough referrals from these people that could generate a week’s worth of work. But limiting it is very important so keep a record of your schedules and avoid saying YES immediately without planning.
3. Finish it quick - you should always remember that your hour here are being consumed without pay so the quicker you get out of it without sacrificing quality, the better.
4. Pick the ones with a good action plan - when practicing this idea, be careful of those who asks help out of whim, there’s a big chance your work won’t be put to good use. avoid these type of people who just want waste your time.
5. How much value does your work have for them - evaluate if they really need your services. what we are trying to establish here is a relationship. if you think your services would not in any way improve their lives or has no value to them, you have a slim chance of getting the bonds you need for a stronger relationship.

So there you go, I hope this helps!

ONWARDS