Dear Entrepreneur, Consultant or Freelancer,

If you’ve experienced fear, frustration and maybe even anger, stemming from people asking you to do things for free – and all of the emotional baggage that goes along with it – I believe I have the solution. After you read through the rest of this letter, you’ll find out how you can feel in control by knowing what to say and do when people approach you with free requests and you’ll be able to start using free to generate more paying business.

Let me share my own story…

I’ve always intentionally been an “under the radar” type person. I’ve had success in business, but I prefer being out of the limelight. In late 2008, that changed for me as I started to become more known in the world of social media.

I had personal accounts on social media and used them to relax, share music and other things of interest. I basically used social media as a virtual water cooler and not something I used to intentionally generate new business.

For years prior, I’d already been getting quite a number of requests for helping friends, family and acquaintances out for free. But the more I became known due to social media, the more free requests I was getting.

I’d like to consider myself a nice person and I found it pretty difficult to say no.

I was spending more and more time on social media, spending more and more time on helping people. Although I was getting new business from social media, most of that came because of my visibility rather than the free things I was doing.

I was spending more time answering tweets, DMs on Twitter, private messages on Facebook, jumping onto Skype or the telephone for free than I was with paying clients.

I felt trapped. It was like this snowball effect. The number of hours I was “working” had doubled. I was making less money than ever. People who asked me for help once often came back again and again. I’d have people gripe that I didn’t give them enough time. I’d spend time helping people who did nothing with the assistance I provided.

The situation just plain sucked.

So what did I do? There was no program like Converting Free to Paid around. I had to dig deep to get answers. I researched a lot. I watched what other people were doing. I read a lot of psychology books. I came up with a personal game plan. I implemented it. I tweaked it.

The end result? I started finding I was a lot happier. I was able to spend a lot less time on free and the free things I did do were directly tied into income-generating activities. Most of my non-work time became about spending time on my passions rather than someone else’s.

How Converting Free to Paid Came to Be

About a year ago, I wrote a post about the 7 reasons why I can’t do free. I wrote it because – in spite of having a good handle on the issue myself – I had many friends who told me they were struggling with free and brain picking requests.

The post resonated with a lot of people. I had over 1000 social shares within 24 hours. I had dozens of comments and an even greater number of personal messages. I realized that a lot of people needed help and that many were feeling considerable stress. I put together the Converting free to paid program based on the questions and comments I received.

Maybe you’re where I was. Maybe it’s not the same volume but it’s still causing you stress.

If you find yourself frazzled by…

		Not being able to say no to people because of not being prepared
		Not knowing when to draw the line between free and paid
		Not knowing what you should be giving away and what you should charge for
		Not knowing how you can use free to generate paid business…

If you have questions like…

		How can I avoid being put on the spot when people ask for help?
		Where do I draw the line between free and paid?
		How can I say no without upsetting him/her?
		How can I get comfortable with telling people this is my work, I charge $XXX and convert them to a paying client?
		How can I use freebies to get paying business?
		How can I make money from those who need help but can’t afford my rates?
		How can I avoid the frustration of helping people who need/ask for it and then they don’t follow through?

I believe that my Converting Free to Paid program can help you so that you are never left feeling uncertain about how to handle requests, you’ll have a clear path to follow, you’ll have more free time and you’ll start to make more money.

WHAT WILL YOU LEARN IN THE CONVERTING FREE TO PAID PROGRAM

“Converting Free to Paid” contains 3 modules in a members-only area. Modules are released one week at a time. Each module contains bite-sized videos so you can go through the material at your own pace. There are also MP3s of each session so you can listen on the go. I’ve also included homework and cheat sheets to ensure you take action and formulate a game plan to using free to generate paid business.

Laying the Foundation

In the first module, you’ll discover:

		Why we have issues offering free help from an emotional standpoint & why it causes stress
		How to lay out a game plan for using relationship-based rules for free versus paid
		What you should be charging for and what you should be giving away
		How do things differ for a start-up getting established versus an existing business
		When should you offer a free consult and under what circumstances
		How bartering, masterminds and swaps can fit into your game plan

Show Me the Money

Of course, it’s not enough to simply know how to handle free requests, but you also need to learn how to use free to generate more paying business. In the second module, I’ll help you get there by showing you:

		How to develop a marketing funnel that helps you monetize more “free” requests
		How to create products below your “hourly” rate to ease people in
		How to package your knowledge & expertise
		How to use “free” requests to generate more paying leads
		How putting out more “free” can help you build a mailing list of hungry prospects
		How to use FAQ pages and Q&A posts

Be Prepared

I wasn’t a Girl Scout, but I like to abide by their motto: “Be prepared.”  I firmly believe that success in any area of life is about being prepared to the best of our abilities. In the third module, I’ll help you be prepared so that…

		You can handle phone or in-person requests without panic
		You’ll learn how to say “no” gracefully
		You’ll be able to phrase communications to elicit the right response

Go Ahead and Pick My Brain

Most of you who go through the program material may be able to take it all and just run with it. But I know some of you may run into some issues and have some questions. In the 4^th week of the program, I’ll be hosting a live question and answer session where you’ll be able to throw at me questions you may have. Can’t make the session live? No problem! You can submit your questions ahead of time and listen to the replay.

Plus… I’ll Also Show Walk You Through Step-By-Step How to Create Information Products Inexpensively and Rapidly, Even if You’re Not a “Techie”

I’ve created a series of product creation video series that you’ll get as a free bonus when joining Converting Free to Paid.  In this series, I’ll be walking you through step-by-step how to create your own products – ebooks, reports, audios and videos – and how to easily set up payment and delivery for them. I’ll show you low-cost/no-cost solutions.

Create awesomeness daily!

P.S.  I first offered Converting Free to Paid in June 2012.  This is outside of the scope of what I normally do in business and I have a pretty full plate. This is the first time I’ve reopened the program since then. The content has been updated based on new things I’ve learned and input. I don’t have a lot of time available and since I do offer a q&a session as part of the program, it does require scheduling on my side. I’m not sure when I’ll be offering this program again in the future – if ever.