You consider yourself a good person. You have a kind heart and you want to help others.
This is wonderful. It is also a very important character trait for a successful business owner. Truly wanting to help people is the driving force behind most successful businesses. If you truly want to help others, then you will build a product or provide a service that truly meets a need. And if you are meeting a need, you will never run out of customers.
So kindness and the desire to help are great personality traits and it is important to cultivate them as much as possible.
But…
Do not fall into the trap of giving away your time or knowledge for free. Especially not to the people who can’t afford it.
This may sound counter-intuitive. You WANT to help and surely the people who can’t afford you need the help most of all?
Yes, the people who can’t afford your service probably are the ones who need it most. But here is one of the sad truths of human nature:
We do not appreciate things we do not pay for.
We value things according to how much we had to sacrifice in order to receive them. There are very, very few individuals in this world who truly appreciate the value of a free gift. Nearly every single one of us will take it for granted.
Now, you might not be offended by your customers taking your service for granted – you are giving it to them out of the kindness of your heart, not because you want credit.
The problem is, if they don’t appreciate the value of the knowledge you have given them, then they also won’t apply that knowledge. If they have sacrificed there own time or money in order to receive your knowledge, then they take it seriously. They won’t waste that knowledge. They won’t take up your time and your energy and then turn around and continue doing what they have always done – because if they do, then they wasted their own time and energy too.
You can offer as many discounts as you like. You can throw in extra services to sweeten the deal. But no matter how much you want to help someone, never do it for nothing at all.
Your time is valuable. Your knowledge is valuable. YOU are valuable. Do not waste these things on someone who does not value them. You both deserve so much more than that.
