When Free Advice is Bad for Business

Welcome to episode 326 of Hit The Mic with the Stacey Harris.

All right guys, today we're going to talk about when free advice is bad for business. Now, I want to preface this by saying I am all about giving it away. I'm all about providing free value. That's why we've done 326 episodes of this show. That's why I do guest posts, and I appear on podcasts, and I do all sorts of stuff. I do free challenges, and webinars, and speak, and do workshops and things like that, because I'm all about making this simple, making this easy, and giving you exactly, exactly what you need.

However, there is a time, there is a situations were free advice is detrimental to your business, and where asking for free advice can be detrimental for your business. That's in these situations. When someone with an expertise has hired you to provide a service, do not then ask them for advice. If you're a business coach, and your hairstylist is asking for business advice, or you are a graphic designer, and your landscaper wants logo advice, or if you are a copy-righter, and your masseuse wants copy advice, that's not okay. It's okay for you to say, "No." This is the situation I'm running into more and more and more frequently, where in person, I'll meet someone, I will be using their services, they'll ask me what I do, I will tell them what I do. Then, they proceed to ask for social media advice.

Or, I will have hired someone to do something in the business, and we will be working together, and they will ask me to, "Just real quick, did you hear about whatever? What should I do about that?" Here is the deal, the person paying is the person receiving the service, not the person getting paid. Make sure when you're providing a service that you're providing the service, nothing more, nothing less. You're certainly not asking the person, the customer, for free advice. Make sure if you're the customer in this situation, that you are setting the boundaries and standing up for your value.

Just because you happen to be sitting in their chair, or in their office, or wherever, or on the phone with them, doesn't mean that you have to answer whatever's being asked. Now, don't just ignore it. That's pretty awkward, but be really clear that that's not okay. This has happened to me a lot recently. We moved to Southern California recently. I've been going to a lot of like consults to keep the hair pink, and getting a new trainer, and a new massage therapist, and a new nail tech, and new lash person, and all of the things I need to look like me. I've been re-finding those service providers. Inevitably we have the conversation of what do I do? Then, inevitably the conversation rolls into, "Did you hear about this? What do I do about that? How could I? What do you suggest?"

It becomes very quickly, if the boundaries are not laid out, and I have learned this from this going badly once or twice, and not setting the boundaries, into me giving them a consult for however long the rest of my appointment is, which is sometimes line an hour. Which, if you know me, to book a one-on-one hour with me is $297 at the time of this recording. For me to be paying you X amount of dollars to do this for you is a bit counter-productive to my business plan. I learned that I really have to set the boundary. To do that I don't have to be like, "I'm not answering your question, screw off." Although, I have had to do that too. I give them a resource.

Somebody texts me and says, "Hey, how do I XYZ?" I go, "You know, this is the exact kind of questions I answer inside of Hit The Mic Backstage. You should check that out." That's the end of the conversatio

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