John Papaloni posted:

I've often been told the following statement: "Anything's better than nothing, or its better to get some money versus getting no money"

I personally believe its a crock pot, and my reasons for saying this is, that often the person telling you this statement is the same individual that requires your services and does not have a budget for it so its a way that people use to try and bring your price down through devaluing what you have to offer by using the fear of having nothing.

My other reasoning for this goes back to consistency, if you were to pay me $10 an hour for a service now, why would you pay me $50 an hour at a later date? or if your friend paid me $10 an hour and I charge you $50.00 per hour then you will feel ripped off and never hire me again, and worse spread the news about how you were ripped off.

If your going to do something for charity, then do it for FREE as charity, preferably to a reputable association, but if its a fee based job, don't sell yourself out based on fear, as my 2 above examples will demonstrate that yes its better to have nothing than to offer low income work that will eventually put you out of business anyhow.

You will end up spending more time servicing customers that hardly pay and neglecting valuable clientele that are willing to pay you a reasonable fee for your services.