I have written this due to reading a great and controversial blog by Velvet
Angel that was linked from Google+ explaining why people shouldn't and can't give
their services away for free.
This is the blog link:
Besides all the other
things Velvet Angel says in her blog there is also the cost and time involved
in all the training required to just be able to offer the services in most
cases. I know there are a lot of people with no training whatsoever who
charge extortionate prices but don't you get that it all fields - you can just
as easily get a builder who does a bad job or an expensive job, as you can get
a good reliable reasonably priced builder. It is up to the customer to do
the research on who they are going to use beforehand.
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This blog has been
discussed on Google+ (go to my Google+ page if you want to see the discussion
as I shared the blog to my page) and there have been numerous comments. There are comments both for and against
giving free sessions. It is such an open
ended thing as the fees for most holistic sessions vary from free to quite
extortionate prices. But then it is
surely up to the individual who is effectively buying the service as to who
they want to go to and how much they want to pay. If they want to go to a very well known
person then they will undoubtedly have to pay a high price for a session as
that person has reached high in the profession (although may not necessarily be
any better than a low priced person in comparison) and the client may or may not
get what they pay for in this undetermined field of work.
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Mediums really come
into a different category as they are effectively serving the church so they
willingly give their service for free (and just get paid travelling expenses) and
also most development circles are free as it is a way of helping other mediums
to develop. Spiritual healing is also
given freely at churches and sometimes outside of church. But really it falls into the same category as
Reiki healing. Bereavement counselling is
also given freely, usually via the church.
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All other types of
holistic work (and writing plus other things as it was pointed out in the blog
and comments) fall into the wide open category of how much to charge for a
session and should anyone be entitled to receive it for free. Unless the client is a friend or relative
they should not expect to receive anything free – they should no more expect to
have a service for free any more than they should expect to go into a bakery
and expect to be given a loaf of bread for free. Everyone can “afford” to pay a different
amount and in some cases with healing a minimal amount is charged as it makes everyone
involved comfortable that a mutual exchange has taken place. The problem is that many of the lower income
people are more likely to offer to pay than the ones with a higher income who
are just trying to get something for nothing.
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At the end of the day,
if a person cannot afford something they should not ask for it. These things are not essentials in life but “extras”
– no one actually NEEDS a tarot reading, Reiki session, massage etc.
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On the other side of
the coin, it also comes down to whether the person giving the session could
actually afford to give a free session or not.
They may have less income coming in than the client. They may have “a day job” and do this type of
work in their “spare time” so be more open to working for free or for very little. On the other hand this could be their sole
form of income and they rely on the money from the sessions to pay their bills so
if they are turning away paying clients to give “a freeby” then they and their
family will suffer. It is also not fair
on the paying clients who possibly saved some money for the session and yet the
person before them had a free session and was then going on to the pub to meet
their friends and tell them about it.
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On a slightly different angle, when I ran the Entertainments Booking Agency we were often asked if we could get a band or a comedian etc. for a charity event and expect the artist and us to provide the entertainment for free. We always had to explain that the artists could be out doing charity events every night of the week but they can't pay their bills without any earnings. When we asked the client if they were going to give a whole days wages (+ the cost of the fuel to get there) to the charity they finally realised what they were asking. They never seemed to mind paying for the hall and the caterers for the event but for some reason they seemed to think that entertainers would be willing to work for free. So we could rarely find an entertainer who would travel and work for free unless they felt strongly about the actual cause.
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In general do people
think just think services should be given for free more than actual goods?
