When it comes to offering a service people usually charge customer based on various factors such as expenses one would have to incur to do a job. Then of course their time to actually perform that job. It’s that time factor that is usually the mixed opinion part and at the same time is usually where consumers with no knowledge of a subject would understand.
This got me thinking as today I was helping a family member who needed very technical help in migrating a website to a different server. For myself it is rather easy since I am around this kind of stuff all the time. But for an average person this would be like trying to skate on ice for the first time. I didn’t want to charge any money for it. The thing was too the person clearly recognized the monetary value they were getting and to me as long as people see that when you do stuff for free then that’s cool I feel.
Because usually if you do stuff for free people just assume you taking one minute to do something is the equivalent of just walking for one minute. So they value it as not much of a skill and will persist in asking you continuously. You wouldn’t do that if the person presented you with a $60/hr invoice as an example. That’s why for myself I tend to make sure that the person actually values what they are receiving as if they were being billed hundreds of dollars but was given it for free. It just makes things more professional overall too I feel.
I know some people say they will never do things for free because it devalues you period. But for myself I usually like to help people when I can. As long as they don’t undervalue what they are receiving.