Should I offer different pricing for friends?

Corey Winter 0:01
Welcome to 10 minutes to being boss, a bite size show for creative business owners where we give you actionable insights, tools and tactics. I'm Korea winter. And here's your host Emily Thompson. Okay, Emily, I have a question for you. And it's something that's actually recurring in my life as I've been taking on more client work. But this is actually a question I got from the community. And it is how do you manage pricing for friends, especially those that you want to help? But you know, they can't pay full price?

Emily Thompson 0:35
Tell us all this time, I daresay. Right, I've gotten this question a million times. And it is something that I mean, I think we all struggle with it. Anyone who has a business struggles, especially anyone who has a business and wants to help people struggles with the idea of giving, especially friends and or family discounts to what it is that they provide. I think with this question, in particular, I need to start with mindset. Because you said, helping those that, you know, can't pay full,

Corey Winter 1:13
like I know. And one example and my personal life, there's a friend that I want to build a new website for, because she's an amazing artist, and she wants to start selling her artwork. But she's just starting out, she has no money at all. And I know that for sure. So I want to help her. But I also don't want to spend 4050 hours building her website if I'm not going to get anything in return.

Emily Thompson 1:35
Right? I heard that you did good feelings don't count. And actually in that, that's even part of my answer, which I will get to in a second. So okay, I think there is a deserving people that you know, cannot pay you. And people that you're just assuming, cannot pay you. So they that sort of the mindset shift that anyone to make who's dealing with this is there's difference between thinking people can't pay you and knowing and if you think they can't pay, you actually don't know. So don't make the never make that assumption, it's a very bad habit to get into whenever it comes to selling. So first, check your mindset and make sure. Next up, let's say that you someone is in your case, or you let's say are in this this case where you know, someone cannot pay, and you really do want to help them. Like there are a couple of ways that you can go at this and going to that good feelings thing. One way to think about this is what non monetary benefits can you get from doing this project? We often think of business very specifically, and we should because that's what business says. But we think of it, and they sort of action or an exchange of value and when one way or the other. But usually one way is in receiving or the exchange of money. You can exchange other things as well. Let's say this friends has this friend has chickens. And you want

Corey Winter 3:00
why is that the metaphor you're going?

Emily Thompson 3:02
Oh, no, he just came to mind, I need to do some grocery shopping. Um, let's say that your friend does have something that you should just say you can't barter. It doesn't have to be you could be a nice chicken dinner. It doesn't have to be money, there can be exchanges of other things in these situations. The idea though, is to still make it an equal value transaction and one way or the other. bartering is still alive. And well. And I think in these times may actually end up becoming more of the norm, which I'm totally down for. I've always, I've always throughout my career, and even now have some relationships where I'm bartering in non traditional ways. I have some long term bartering relationships with some vendors and things that just work out really well with everyone. Because if he is an equal trade of value, so consider that consider what other things can be traded that isn't cash money. Another thing to consider is to set a specific discount for your friends and or family. That way it's just standard, it can be a standard thing that you just sort of give out. No matter what it is that you do what it is that yourself set that rate, whatever it may be, and either they can make it or they can't. But choosing a set discount can be a really easy way to sort of go at these conversations and someone's like, I really want you to do this thing for me and be like You know what, you're your friend. So I'm going to give you a 30% off discount or whatever it may be as a tip here too, is to always invoice them to show the discount so invoice as usual, but show them the discount that they that you're giving them so that they understand that exchange of value. This was our this conversation has been had in the community. And one boss had a really great idea. She's a designer and she came in and said that one way that she's heard of doing this is to offer discounts. But say that in exchange for those discounts, you get 100% creative freedom, which I think is quite an interesting the I'm not really sure how that will work. But the idea here is that you can make these arrangements look like whatever you want, especially in this sort of design realm where like, I often find that discounted or free design projects are usually the most difficult like these are going to be the people that are going to be the most nitpicky, they're going to come in and have the most edits, more so than any of your, like best paying clients, or sometimes worse paying clients, these people are going to far exceed those. So a way to combat this is do require 100%, creative freedom, even create something for them, give it to them, they like it high five, if not, they can go pay someone else to do it, which I think is an interesting and interesting idea. I also want to say that if you are but if you are wanting to do projects like this, it's very important not to hurt your business in the process, which can be a very easy thing to do. So it's very smart to create some boundaries around you offering discounts, or discounted services or products to friends and family. So guess what, you have that set discount, that's a nice little boundary. And people can use that as they wish. We've done this. I've done this with product things before for sure. You can also do this with services. But especially with services, think about how it is that you can put some boundaries on that. So that let's say you're only doing one discounted project per quarter, or port per month, or whatever it may be so that you are not sort of working at a discount always. So if let's say your mom comes, she's like, Hey, can you also make me a website, but like, sorry, mom, or maybe this should actually let's say you're doing one for your mom, let's actually not make mom a part of this at all, at all. Let's see, friend number one comes around and they're like, I need a website, you decide to do it for a discount for number two comes around, and they're like, I need one to also a discount. Instead of doing both of those at the same time, push the second friend off to the next quarter. That way, you're not really taking a huge hit across your entire business by doing too many discounted projects.

Corey Winter 7:24
For your friends. My mom comes along I'm not saying oh my mom.

Emily Thompson 7:28
I know. I know. That's why I took mom out of this a whole different set of rules apply to mom, for sure, for sure. And then I also want to say that if you have if you are struggling with people coming to you asking for discounts, you can say no. You can say no to any friend, you can say no to any family member, you could probably even say no to your mom.

Corey Winter 7:52
Okay, so quick follow up, man, how do you say no to your friends without hurting their feelings?

Emily Thompson 7:59
You have no control over their feelings? Number one, that's a very important thing to understand. You could say yes or no. And their feelings are on them. 100%. I love and this is what I actually learned from Kathleen, I love replying with I just don't have the bandwidth right now. Or I don't have room for it in my schedule, or whatever it may be so that you are not it's not that you're making a decision is that your business or your current project load, or whatever it is, is actually making this decision for you. I mean, that's probably one of the easiest tactics. You can also go further like if it's if you are saying no, because you don't think you're the right fit. Tell them that be like, you know, I know that I design websites, but I actually have no idea how to use this platform that you're wanting to use, or I have no experience working with your kinds of businesses, or whatever it may be, you can actually give them a good reason why it is that you're saying no. So I think those two things are my biggest tips. You can also just like know as also a full sentence. And then their feelings are on them. You can then buy them a cocktail.

Corey Winter 9:10
Or you can even once they do go and find someone else to do the thing for them, you could support it once it's live,

Emily Thompson 9:18
for sure. And I mean, that's the thing to feel free to recommend them to someone else, whatever it may be. Regardless, this can be a sticky situation, but doesn't have to be and I think the key here is to be proactive. I think about any sort of boundaries or discounts you can go ahead and a lot to these things prior to this. Consider other things in your life that you would take instead of money, whether that be eggs or art, whatever it may be, because I think there's some interesting opportunities there as well.

Corey Winter 9:53
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