Charge for your work by default. Create an invoice you can void if the fit isn't right, but rarely will you need to. This way you can afford to be genuinely generous when it matters for your reputation.
Charge for your services and don't be afraid to give them away. I know this feels contradictory, but I have found that a bunch of people are really afraid to charge for their services. Like, okay, we're going to have an initial consult, and then we'll do our, you know, next first engagement, and we'll kind of do that for free. And then based on that, we can sort of continue after that, see what's gonna be charged for it. No, don't be afraid to charge, you know, go ahead and make the offer that you're, you know, if it doesn't work out, you just won't send the bill, you'll tear it up, you'll part friends, it's totally fine. I've done that many times. And I've only had to tear up that invoice a few times, and each time I was very glad that I did because it was an engagement that I didn't want to get into either. The other side of this though is that it's not that you charge for everything, it's that your default should be to charge. You have lots of opportunities to be generous into the market, and when you can take those opportunities because you're not afraid that when time comes you can actually charge for your value, you will be able to be more generous and a giving participant in the market, and that will increase your reputation.
