Most people, in fact, almost everyone I know, starts a business because they believe they can add value to other people’s lives and by doing so, make money from it. This is completely legitimate as there is exchange of energy  – products & services for monetary income. Nobody in the right frame of mind would start a business in order to do charity. That should be left to the charitable organisations.

Being able to charge a fee, albeit nominal one for providing goods & services is the expected norm. If you can charge yet insist on giving it for free, then I think you must get your head checked. Checking your head will help ensure you don’t encourage the continued mass proliferation of criminal activity by virtue of your act of giving free. When you give something out for free, chances are that people are not appreciative of it at all. They feel they deserve it. Because it is free, you have planted the seed of thought in their head that you are not an authority in that field. Neither are you confident of what you have to offer. That’s why you are doing it or giving it out for free!

I’m not saying you can’t give things out for free. Yes, you sure can. But very often, there are strings attached for such freebies. In this internet age, nobody would voluntarily give you his/her email address unless he/she knows there is some soundbite size information that is useful and will help improve the quality of life. That’s why he/she chooses to subscribe to a newsletter for such free news. Similarly, nobody would deliberately give out free product samples on the streets without attaching a coupon saying “try me first before buying…”

Recently, we held an event which I was initially very much against. Yes, you guessed it right. It was a free event. Having done my stint in strategic planning in corporate before, I knew instantly that turnout would be bad. After all, it would not hurt people a thing NOT to turn up as they did not pay a single cent for it. All they had to do was to register interest to indicate they would be attending. This certainly wasn’t good enough.

On the event day, the actual turnout was pathetic. Only two people made the effort to make it for the free event. I cringed silently and shook my head. For the sake of just two people, was it even worth the time and energies to galvanise the entire team to action? Just imagine, the poor suckers like me had to sacrifice my sleep and wake up at 5am just to get to the venue, only to be disappointed from the lacklustre turnout. This is to be expected, my friends. If only people had heeded my advice prior to it. Charge a nominal fee for the event if you don’t want to make too much from it. At least, it helps to cover the cost of transportation, logistics and our team breakfast later.

Fast forward to March 2010. There are plans for another similar indoor event in an attempt to bring more awareness. And again there are suggestions to do it free.  Some people don’t learn, do they? But because I am in the driver’s seat this time round, I insisted on charging. If they don’t pay, I won’t do it. Period.

There is no free lunch in this world. Even if you want to pack some food home from the buffet for the evening or for your family, you still have to pay for the buffet meal first before proceeding to surreptitiously steal food home.

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