Stop Working for Free! How to Turn Your Strengths into Income

Just as birds fly effortlessly and fish swim with ease, you likely excel at several activities due to your strengths, gifts and talents. These are tasks you perform naturally, with grace, ease and perfection.  It is this combination of strengths that make us both unique and valuable, leading friends to seek us out to perform several tasks such as baking, maintenance, consulting and others. However, people often err by offering their skills for free. Just because you enjoy or excel at something doesn't mean it should be done for free. Your expertise is valuable and deserves fair compensation. Consider Apple, whose key value proposition is integrating hardware and software into a user-friendly interface that is unique, customer-centric, intuitive, and functional. Apple's products are widely popular but never offered for free. Rather they are sold at premium pricing because they are valuable.

Nothing of value is ever free so why should your most valuable strengths and assets be offered for free? This is one wealth generating secret that people often ignore. Here are three tips to start getting paid for your strengths. First, start by recognizing the value in others and compensate them adequately for services rendered even if they are your friends or family.  Stop looking for freebies and start paying for value. Recognize value in others and pay for it even when they resist. If you don't, no one will see your value or pay you for it. Next, inform your friends. Let them know that while you will handle their current request free of charge, future requests will incur a fee. They may complain, but anyone who doesn't value you is not a customer, even if they are still a friend. Finally, understand the cases where you can offer your services for free. These include when you are refining or marketing your skills or service (e.g. giving out free samples for feedback), or when you deliberately intend to be a blessing to others. It is appropriate to utilize your skills to assist others for free, provided that you first have a foundation of adequate compensation for your work.  

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