'Free' Might End Up Costing You (a lot) As Entrepreneur

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So I wanted to shoot this audio, this recording real quick, and it's about doing things for free as an entrepreneur. And I know this is a very difficult topic. And the thing is, To really start with the main issue is that the reason why many entrepreneurs, especially starting entrepreneurs, um, are doing stuff for free is because they are actually scared of charging their true value. And so what they do is they think about when they do things for free that it will be easy to get, you know, first group of people together, get some experience, see what works, see what doesn't work. Um, get some reviews of clients, um, and then, um, go from there and then, uh, start charging once they are already have this experience, already have this group, um, of, of these people who get stuff for free. Now, my opinion. This is really one of the worst moves you can make as an entrepreneur. And the reason why is because what you're not seeing is when, um, you have a problem, uh, maybe, I mean, you have a problem charging your true value, but maybe you have a bigger problem is that you don't know what your actual value is. That's one major part. Um, I'm not gonna like go deep on that issue in this audio. Um, I think we can go much deeper into that in another recording or in another video. But the other problem, um, is that if you're gonna do stuff for free, uh, for people, you're going to attract people who, um, expect stuff for free or who are not ready to actually invest and commit to themselves. And so your whole feedback loop will get distorted because you're going to get, going to get feedback from people, um, on what you are delivering. And these people are, I mean, they're not used to investing in themselves. So they, they usually also don't have experience in that. So they're, they're truly beginners. Um, you will notice that somebody who is actually committed to themselves, who is experienced with investing in themselves. Who is committed to change in their lives, chances are that they're going to do something for free. Um, it's extremely low because they know how that works. They know what that's about. And so they'll, they'll usually turn those kind of offers and services away because they just understand that It can be, it can be really good. It can be good value if you, if something is for free, because either, um, the person who's creating it or doing it has no idea what they're doing. Um, or secondly, it's free because it's an, or it's built as an upsell towards something that is truly valuable, which the second option is actually, or might actually be a good thing to build inside of your business. But again, that's not the scope of this audio. Um, and it's not necessarily that you have something free to help people to, um, get into your high ticket offers. Many entrepreneurs might think, Hey, you know, I'll start with something that's for free. Um, and then from there on, I'm gonna build high ticket offers and I'm gonna build a business around that. But that's really the wrong way to do it because as I said, the people you're gonna try to upsell are not the right type of people for your actual, um, valuable offers. You're going to have to do it the other way around. You're going to have to start by creating an offer that is profitable, that is scalable, that is something that represents your actual value, and that is tailored towards the right kind of people that you truly want to work with and that are truly served the best by your services. And then at some point, um, when you need to grow, when you want to, uh, scale your business. Of course, you're going to get, you're going to need a constant stream of leads and you're going to want to, uh, maybe automate that. And that at that point, it could make sense. It could not necessarily, but it could make sense to create something that is way cheaper or that is, um, for, that is free. in order to create like a, like a filtering system, um, to have people, you know, get to know you, get to trust you. And then at some point, uh, actually get to work with you. And so This whole part of this whole idea of creating a, um, something for free can be, um, a tactic or strategy that's used in your marketing in order, um, for guiding people through this awareness journey that, um, sometimes is needed in order to really, you know, um, expand your business at scale. But again, it's not something that you need to do or it's not something that has to be available, um, in order to grow your business. Um, this depends on many different factors. Um, so again, um, trying to do something for free, uh, first, instead of first trying to build something that people will actually pay good money for, um, is just gonna really You're just screwing yourself. You're going to get stuck in that business at some point, uh, and it's going to be hard doing that because the whole foundation of what that business is built upon, um, is the wrong foundation. It's the wrong people, the wrong pricing. Um, and of course, you know, if people are used to, uh, pay, pay nothing for your time and energy, uh, do you. really believe that they're gonna at some point then all of a sudden are going to start to want to, to pay something. Um, now what I'm also seeing is that this, um, free thing of, or this, yeah, this way of, of offering stuff for free, or even just very low ticket, It ties in with this whole new trend in the online coaching, mentoring, education space, which is like, uh, membership slash communities. You know, everybody wants to be part of a community. Um, everybody wants to start a community and everybody wants to have like this. membership model because you know, they're told that this is recurring revenue and this is good. Um, and this is a easy passive income and it's easy to get people inside of these communities or inside of these memberships. Um, this whole, Um, movement or this whole trend is heavily, it's actually a narrative and it's being heavily pushed by, um, some, uh, new software that's on the market. For example, school and if you know, I don't know if you know school or not, it's definitely worth checking because it's, it's actually quite good. I've used it myself, but. These guys, Alex Ormosi is of course a very, very famous and very good marketeer. Uh, and Sam Ovens, which is a very experienced entrepreneur in this space, very successful entrepreneur in the space, space of online coaching and mentoring and, um, um, and now having software to run these communities on. It's a narrative like the, they're trying to push this idea that, um, That the courses are dead or that programs are dead and that the future is, um, communities and, um, recurring memberships, which I think can be a, a super powerful tool for your business for sure. But what I see is that many people are falling for this narrative thinking that It is the way to go and it is the only way to go, which is just completely untrue. And um, you see all these super cheap membership, memberships like growing like explosively. Um, and what you get is, um, that there's going to be only a few, only a very, very, very few that are actually going to make money. truly good money with this. And the reason for that is that if you want to really be able to grow a business that is mainly, um, or that, that's, that's, uh, consists of mainly a recurring cheap low ticket membership, and you want to make a big revenue on that and you want to make a profitable, scalable business on that, you're going to need an extreme amount of volume. You're going to need loads and loads and loads of members. You're going to need thousands of members, thousands and thousands of members, in order to be able to really scale that business and grow that business and keep that business profitable. But in order to get thousands and thousands of members, The question is, how are you going to do that? Because most of these memberships are tailored to beginners. So you're going to have to continuously try to find these beginners, because they're not all going to stay. There's going to be a huge amount of churn as well. So they're not all going to stay. So you need to continuously grow the new members, because old members are going to go. So you need to continuously push this. And the way you're going to have to do that, you're going to get stuck on this. You're going to, you're going to be Um, obligated to do this, to do this is to play the algorithm game because you're gonna continuously need to draw the attention of, um, beginners Yeah. Of, of, uh, the, the type of person who are more beginners. And so you, you're continuously gonna have to draw their attention to try to get them into this membership. So you're gonna have to build all these funnels online. Um. In order to be able to draw in enough attention and to filter these through scarcity marketing tactics in order to get these people inside of your paying membership. If they ever want to actually start paying for it after you've done all this work for free. So you're just going to get stuck in algorithms, in funnels. You're going to get stuck working with beginners, which I mean, there's nothing wrong with working with beginners, but if your whole business is gonna. be built, um, and funded by beginners. This will just not be a sustainable, healthy, durable way of building a business. Um, so my advice is really just to turn it around. Now, I have had this membership. I have, I just actually ended being membership, which was bringing me every, every, uh, which was bringing me, um, in between seven to 10 K, um, in its peak, it was about 10 K per month. Um, but I wasn't really doing that much marketing for it, which also learned me how much marketing it needs in order to be sustainable. Um, because it's really about you pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing this membership. It's not just going to grow on its own. Forget about that. There's just. That's just not how it works. Um, you really need to capture attention and use marketing tactics and scratch the marketing tactics in order to grow. So I've been through this experience and, um, it was a nice passive income because I didn't really have to work much for myself because I didn't intend, uh, for it to really be the centerpiece of my business and for it to, to grow on autopilot. But I've learned these lessons and I see this bigger picture now that is, that is unfolding in this whole online education space, uh, that there is a push and I see many entrepreneurs kind of falling for this narrative. So that's why, um, I wanted to share this, this, this audio. But my advice is to do it the other way around is to first find a few people, the right people, people who are committed to change, who want to invest in themselves, uh, people who are usually, or usually already have invested in themselves. That's not necessarily, um, a prerequisite, but I think it helps. On the other hand, there's always people who are just new to investing themselves, but are really ready for it. But you really need to find your first people who are ready to commit and invest in themselves, are willing to pay for it, are willing to pay a few thousand dollars at least for, um, for what you're offering. Then by working with these people, you figure out where the actual value lies from what you do. Because what you also will notice is that if you work with beginners, um, you continuously have to feed them stuff, you know, they live on content. Um, so you are You need to tell them what to do. Well, if you can work with people who are committed and have already invested in themselves, they do the work. You just guide them. You just support them, but they do the work. With beginners, it's the other way around. And it might also start to extremely frustrate you when you see that people are not truly making change or not truly taking action, but are just there sitting and waiting for you to drop new content, consuming that content and, you know, That's basically where it ends. So you also usually not creating true radical change. So as I said, my advice would be to turn this around, to start with a high ticket, to really get to, uh, who your ideal client is and what the value is of what you offer, the change that you can bring, transformation that you can bring. And then at some point, if you, if you're ready to really grow that business, you already have a solid, uh, base that actually delivers client results that is actually profitable and that is actually a proof to what you do and what your value truly is. And from there on you can, if it makes sense, do something for free, um, or Create a low ticket offer in order to just, um, grow your business, grow your leads, get new people in, um, take them through a journey of awareness in order to really filter out the right people for, uh, what your bi, what your business is actually built on a, a, a very profitable, very impactful, high ticket offer. Fly. Guys, that's really what I wanted to share today. I hope this, uh, this can be interesting. Cheers.