It’s Free!
See, I bet I got you – you are reading this sentence now. From what I have heard, and maybe you have heard this too, the word “free” in printed material is like a magnet. Advertisers know you throw an exclamation point on it and you are almost assured of grabbing a reader’s attention.
And yes, some things in life are free. I have heard that said too. Love, a smile, happiness – you could argue in favor of these things. These things, one could say, are FREE. In other words, you have a right to indulge in them AND they come with no cost attached.
Stop though; this article is not intended to be a discussion on semantics and/or promotional strategy. I do not want to explore existentialism or other advanced thoughts on this matter. I simply want to state simple truths about common business practice.
Or is it?
Free is good. I like free, and I think you are on board with me on this one. Unfortunately, however, what I find is that most things are not free. The cost (and in this discussion it can take a couple forms) to negotiate, manufacture, manipulate, and otherwise process a commodity is budgeted and accounted for at some point down the line.
This is true of every piece of swag ever handed to you. Whether it’s a set of crab knockers you receive for being one of the first ten thousand in attendance, a pen bearing your bank’s brand, or wifi access at a local coffee house, these things have been bought and paid for by (or should I say for) you.
The thing is -- the cost of these perks is hidden. It’s hidden, in these cases, in the ticket price, in the monthly service fee, or under the whipped cream on your mocha latte. These things are free of charge because you do not trade money for them specifically, but they are far from having no strings attached. Included - maybe; Free - no.
You have to spend money to make money
So . . . is using the word “free” in promotional material false advertising? Is this business practice deceptive? By no means; it’s just smart business. And smart businesses are in business to recoup every dollar spent and more.
It costs money to be in business. This is a truism. And part of being in business is reaching a market, or audience, that is willing to pay for your services. Almost every business, large and small, has some sort of advertising or promotional budget. This is money that must be spent on the business to stay in business.
While the use of the word “free” could remain open for debate; this strategy, in principle, is an efficient, effective and proven means of executing promotions. And -- it should be said -- efficient promotions, i.e. maximizing output with minimal input, in theory, helps keep cost down – for both the seller and, well, the buyer.
I think you knew where I was going with all of this:
The Free Estimate
A quick search using Google’s Timeline feature shows the words “free estimates” in classifieds and other advertisements as early as the beginning part of last century. And while I am tempted to explore this, the history of it and how it evolved, I will not. I will leave it simply at – the free estimate, by now, has been offered, by many, for a looooong time.
And let’s put ourselves in the contractor’s shoes. Say you are in business in the home improvement field, do you charge for your estimates? Of course not, and this is one case where you fold to peer pressure. I mean, everyone is doing it; so guess what, you have to too. You offer Free Estimates and you promote that.
But you are not in the business to give things away; you are a professional. And professionals make money. So what do you do?
Time is money
They say, the collection of all humanity, “time is money.” This statement is no truer than when used to characterize an individual working and living as a small business home improvement contractor. Time and/or labor are integral parts of what he/she charges for. And just because – they may not be hammering a nail, installing a light fixture, or designing a kitchen – doesn’t necessarily mean that he/she doesn’t or should not bill for it.
The time it takes to examine, price and otherwise estimate a job is, if you find that contractor’s proposal agreeable, ultimately passed on to you. Free – Think again. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. It is smart business. And smart businesses stay in business.
He or she has accounted for the time it takes to estimate and sell jobs. It is factored into his/her overhead cost, and is later calculated as part of his/her hourly billable rate.
If it’s free, it’s on me
As a home improvement consultant, I say use them – get three or four. They are a great way to meet people, and further a great way to get various takes on a given project. There is, from my experience, sometimes a wide price range generated across a collection of estimates. This price variation is itself usually traced to the businessperson’s methods and means. And it may even tell you something of their work.
Not only does the proposal period on a project yield a menu of services to choose from, but, think of it this way, it also gives you the opportunity to get free consultations from qualified experts. While every estimate received may not nail exactly what you are looking for, it does usually help in defining what you are looking for. It gets the creative juices flowing and you begin to hone your communication surrounding what you envision for a project.
It’s a slippery slope though
As someone that has given estimates a handful of times, I know, as well as most of my contacts in the construction field, when a homeowner is just working it – the system. Using an appointment to collect ideas, or to establish a baseline without any real intention of considering the services being offered. And this, to be quite frank, is not cool.
As I said above, time is money. Not only is the time it takes to estimate on a contract that is won factored into a contractor’s billing, so too is the time taken on contracts not won. Blatant disregard for this – in the end – has, and I am a believer in the butterfly effect, potentially distasteful ramifications.
It does nothing but drive up prices. For a small business contractor, especially in the current economy, this can be potentially dangerous. We are talking -- loss of work, loss of jobs, loss of tax revenue, and so on. And in the end, the homeowner, the one flapping the wings, will most likely find that it will only eventually come back around on them.
Is free a good value? (aka I really don’t care if it’s free – I just want value.)
You know Blogger is amazingly free. It’s the Web 2.0 mentality – If you want to fish, you need fish – so, just build an ocean. Sure, I have to fight back the urge to add Google Ads to this site, but I do because it is simply not the way I roll. And in the end: Am I the one working the system? Maybe.
Surfing the internet, you see, is really not that different from viewing broadcast television. You don’t have to pay to watch this show, but you are going to have to sit through these commercials. Is that a little bit like the free estimate? AND Is that freedom? Ok, I will save that for another day.
The point here instead is – it is not a bad idea to understand the contractor’s process. And further to have a general understanding of common business practices. It can lend peace of mind, and give you a picture of where that service company is coming from.
More Moxie:
*google timeline search on "Free Estimate": http://www.google.com/search?q=%22free+estimate%22&hl=en&tbo=1&num=50&ei=Hwk5Spq8KJC0tgerqezcDA&sa=X&oi=timeline_other_dates&ct=timeline-other-dates&tbs=tl:1,tlul:1920,tluh:1930
Social networking is a little bit like Easy*Baking
Right around my birthday last year, I let myself get coerced into signing up for this thing called Facebook. It may have been the onset of old age; or maybe it was just time, at 38, to check in. You know, to see what some old friends were up to, and in turn – to let people know what I have been doing.
I had been generally resistant to joining the social networking wave. I mean, with a 3- and 5-year old, and not much on my mind other than potty training, children’s television, and, well, home improvement, what did I have to offer this world?
But . . . I played with it for a bit. I liked it; fb is fun. And my statuses changed each day from one cryptic nothing to the next. “JB Bartkowiak is JB Bartkowiak.” AND “JB Bartkowiak is redacting (or is that redacted).” AND so on. . . . I'll admit it; I wasn’t usually doing anything – so I simply put up whatever quirky little thing I found in my head.
Then, on December 26, 2008 – I still remember the day, I changed my status. It read, “JB Bartkowiak just spent 2 hours making 2 cupcakes – 9 more hours of Easy Baking to go.” With that, I was officially a user.The day after Christmas is a little bit like Easy*Baking
True story -- that status from above: the day after Christmas. I would keep the girls busy that day – they were very excited to try out their new bake ware. My wife would take an obligatory day for shopping and returns.
And let’s get this straight: the girls didn't just haul in the Easy*Bake Oven (you know the classic from Hasbro); they also scored the Girl Gourmet Cupcake Maker and various other frosting applicators. Good times, much to try for sure. And I was looking forward to spending the quality time with them as they broke in this new arsenal.
So . . . the day after Christmas, I easy*baked.Designing a business is a little bit like Easy*Baking
If you have taken the time to look at the side bar over here, you may have noticed that this BlogSpot is of one of three total. Life, Jobs, Home; part of a larger business plan. That’s right – I am starting a business, but I also have a home, and at times – I try to have a life.
And while I don't speak specifically about my wife, my kids, or even my house in the pages of my business plan – they are written in there. In between every idea and every line of projected income is exactly how I am going to make this thing happen within the framework of my current dynamic.
I ask myself every day: how am I going to execute a service-focused venture without loosing the one and only full-time day job that our family has? It has been at forefront of my mind for several weeks now. A source of what seems to be extremely high levels of (yet hopefully short-term) stress.Cooking is a little bit like Easy*Baking
That Easy*Bake Oven hasn’t seen much action since the day after Christmas. We haven’t easy*baked, but we have cooked.
You should know: Evyn loves to cook. And Eva, well, she loves 
to do anything that her big sister loves to do. So when I get called upon to make dinner (every now and then), it seems always that I have an assistant or two. And it is a good thing; it is fun. I especially appreciate the distraction that they offer.
You see, I will be honest; cooking kinda stresses me out. I don’t know if it is simply because I don’t do it much. Or maybe it’s all the multi-tasking -- the figurative several irons in the fire. But inevitably, I almost always feel flustered, confused, rushed, or simply one step behind at some point in preparation process.
We cooked together the last two weekends, and I had been hearing it pretty consistently throughout. “Dad, can we easy*bake?” Evyn asked. My response, “No, not now; it takes too much time.” Cooking is one thing, easy*baking is a whole ‘nother thing. Or is it? You must set aside time for it.Home Improvement is a little bit like Easy*Baking
Our home, maybe you have read -- is a project. It needs a lot of work. And in this market, and with not much of a working budget, it is me – part time – all the time. And I will admit it; when I am confronted with a task that I haven’t performed, I feel some level of stress.
Reality is – how can one man be master of all things? Sure, I know how to lay out a project. Sure, I can cut and install wood. I can even lay some tile. I do all of this; I work and I help raise two beautiful daughters.Easy*Baking is a little bit like home improvement
I finally broke down and we easy*baked the other day.
If it has been awhile since you have easy*baked yourself, let me refresh your memory. The Easy*Bake Oven is a stand alone contraption, plastic knobs and stickers on the front, two slots one on each end of it (yeah – like the one you’d find at Quiznos).
Items are baked individually by a 100-watt light bulb (not soft white or long life – to this, not super easy to find these days). Two not highly engineered metal doors close down around the heating chamber. There is a yellow tool then that can be used for inserting and retrieving baking pans – it actually works.Our Easy*Bake project: flower-shaped sugar cookies
We pulled out the oven, cleared the kitchen table, put on their aprons, and opened the package. Along with 2 packets of cookie mix, 2 packets of frosting, and some nonpareils, a four-page instructional booklet slipped out. So I read – working as we went.
We have two pans, but the recipe for a single cookie mix packet is laid out for three cookies, and only one pan fits in the oven at any given time. In this process – easy*baking -- it works: mix, prepare, bake, cool; mix, prepare, bake, cool. (Kinda like a round in singing class.)
And we mixed, according to the instructions, adding the precise amount of water. While I usually let Evyn mix – I intermittently get my hands dirty too. We added the exact amount of water, I swear – yet our mix didn’t quite look like dough. So as I would with any cementitious home improvement product – I added just a drop, didn’t want to over-hydrate and ruin the mixture. This time with a delicate hand, I nailed it.
We then took our dough and kneaded it in some flour (wow, what a mess). We now had to take it and split it into 3 equal parts. What the instructions didn’t count on was that the girls had been hitting it up for minutes. They systematically licked everything clean, the bowl, the utensils, while simultaneously consuming any piece of dough not firmly attached to our mound lying there.
We didn’t have enough to make three cookies, despite what the instruction said. But two would do; just the number we needed. The cookies went into the oven, came out and cooled. (Evyn had enough self-restraint to wait for her sister's to complete.) They iced them, and they consumed them, gorgeously decorated and personalized. Blogging is a little bit like Easy*Baking
I will be honest – some of these words, as with many you will find on this blog, may be intended for no one other than me. My point, and I try to be transparent, is at times when you have a job, an idea for a business, a home to work on, and a family to help operate, i.e. several things going on -- things may spill into each other somewhat. It can be a very good thing, if you are of right mind. For me, I often find that I must look to seemingly unrelated aspects of my life to find inspiration I may need in others. It helps, too, for me to have a place to dump my thoughts . . .read or not. You just trust yourself (whether you are designing a business, cooking, doing home improvement, blogging, or easy*baking) to lay it out, knead it and make it into something good. * my apologies -- should have taken some pictures of us easy*baking, but hopefully Easter Egg pictures from facebook are close enough.
More Moxie:The Classic EASY-BAKE Oven: http://www.hasbro.com/easybake/The Girl Gourmet Cupcake Maker: http://www.thisnext.com/item/D970FA20/Girl-Gourmet-Cupcake-Maker
