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When Should You Charge for Your Expertise?
And when to give away knowledge for free.
When you’re a solopreneur, there’s a fine line between charging for expertise and building trust by giving information away for free.
You share as much as possible, because you’re a helpful person and you know that trust will eventually lead to sales. But, at some point, you’re selling yourself short.
Charging for your knowledge is how you make money. So what’s the tipping point between free offerings and paid products?
What to charge for:
There are a few things you should never give away for free, even in your earliest days as a solopreneur. These things come at too high a “cost” to your business, or take advantage of you.
1:1 calls
As you start to grow your audience, you’ll get a lot of requests for 1:1 calls. People will frame this as wanting to “pick your brain” or “ask for some tips.”
I get these requests a lot. People see me as a successful freelancer and want to learn, especially as they are first getting started. I used to take calls — because I genuinely wanted to be helpful — but they weren’t a good use of my time.
