As you can imagine I get lots of requests for help from entrepreneurs, many of whom are in dire financial straights and need urgent assistance to get their business back on track.
But the one thing these cash strapped ‘wantrepreneurs’ all seem to have in common is that THEY DON’T WANT TO PAY FOR HELP.
Logical, you may say! If they are cash strapped how can they afford it?
But let’s look a little closer at the relationship between not having any cash and always wanting to get things for free…
I’ve been mentoring for five years now (as well as speaking for Business Link events and at various government funded events) and it never ceases to amaze me how little people value advice or assistance which is dished out for free. ‘Fully booked’ events frequently result in half full audiences and free advice is rarely followed.
I am sure you know that I am passionate about helping entrepreneurs at whatever level – so have developed a range of services where I help businesses, from a £10k consultancy at one end of the spectrum to a £1 trial mentoring at the other.
But I can tell you that the conversion rate from emails asking for my help for free to a payment of £1 to obtain the said help is negligible.
In other words, people want my assistance – but they don’t respect me enough to pay £1 for it!
But something deeper is happening here – and a recent experience at one of my workshops brought it home to me.
A friend of mine is a Transformational Coach and at a time in my life recently when I needed some help I booked a session with her and took along a bundle of crisp £50 notes in payment.
The same coach booked on one of my recent workshops, and brought along an envelope containing an almost identical amount of £50 notes.
So the transaction was actually money neutral – we’d both in reality given the service for free.
YET WE HAD RESPECTED ONE ANOTHER’S VALUE ENOUGH TO EXPRESS THE TRANSACTION IN MONEY
And by doing so had actually (energetically) said ‘I AM PAYING YOU THIS BECAUSE I AM WORTH IT’.
So, next time you try to leverage a freebie, with the same old excuse that you ‘can’t afford it’, consider that putting money energy behind your committment is one of the keys to unlocking your own flow of wealth.
If you don’t respect others’ value enough to pay, why should anyone respect yours?
Even if it is only £1.
Rachel