As if I needed prompting!
This is what was said to me just a few months after I lost my job in 2009…. just at a time when I was job searching and trying to find a way to make a living.
I knew this person, and they knew my circumstances. They were then, and still are, working in the public service for over 20 years. Take a 2 week foreign holiday every year, change their car annually, and are on a damn fine salary and pension.
I remember standing in front of her, wondering is she in the real world at all? I was too dumbfounded to even respond.
In the past few months I have been angered by people who have approached us and asked us to work for ‘free’.
We both do our fair share of volunteering and are glad to do it.
However, like everyone else we need to make a living. Hence the reason I put this up on the blog and on the website. And, yes, it is tough out there.
There are weeks here when we wonder where the funds are going to come from to feed the pigs.
And yes, we know we are lucky too, as we have a very good life, and are luckier than some.
We’ve had people approach and ask us to share how we built the market for the pork. How we cost and price our product? One person even wanted us to write the Business Plan for his pork business!!! I kid you not.
However, perhaps the worst – and I had to calm down substantially before I could write about this – was being approached by a Government agency twice in recent months and asked to write blog posts for FREE!
On the first occasion I decided, in an effort to stay calm, to ignore the email – the topic was not even relevant to any of you, so why would I write about it?
The second time around – the agency was asking me to promote another commercial business – but again I would do so for FREE. Of course, I would – NOT.
The topic, by the way, would have put me in a difficult position with some other local producers.
I calmed down, and waited overnight to make sure I was calm. I wrote back and politely said that writing blog posts is what I do to promote our business, and that I occasionally will write a sponsored post, if it ‘fits’ into what we do here. I explained that while I would be delighted to advise the company on how to use social media, etc. to promote their business, naturally I would have to charge a fee.
To say their response was ‘out of order’ is putting it mildly. They were actually rude and totally out of line.
You can probably sense that I am still angry!!!!
This all coming from a government agency whose whole remit is to ‘support and assist’ small businesses.
Is it any wonder this country is in the mess it is in?
I love the insights I get from your blog about life on the farm. But this aspect of the business is one I hadn`t considered. And yet, it doesn`t surprise me. There are a lot of people out there with not one whit of feeling about others. And a lot of people with sheer brass neck. You met them both. And dealt with them well.
Thank you… sometimes I wonder what way people are thinking! We’ve had people just turn up at the door and expect us to talk them through how to set up a pork business!!!!!
That’s insane!!!
Maybe you should have asked for a brown envelope, to be handed over in the back of the church carpark?
And you know that would probably have worked!!!
the neck of some people is incredible! But that a government agency who’s goal is to promote small businesses tries and screws another is totally unacceptable!
And the just didn’t get it when I said this is how I make my living now!!!!
M
I sympathize with you completely. I had a similar experience recently when a friend asked me to teach a cooking class to a group of her friends. When I mentioned what the fee would be, she was shocked that I would charge for it. She actually demanded to know what the fee represented, so I explained food costs, time spent writing up the recipes and formatting them into a sort of “book”, printing and copying, preparing a working outline, and last but not least, my time. She was still shocked. And I was shocked that she was shocked. Her husband is an attorney, for crying out loud, so she is certainly familiar with the concept of billable time. And yes, it is tough out there. We all work hard, and it’s difficult to be taken for granted.
It is difficult to be taken for granted as you say.
When we look at new ‘ventures’, especially if they involve other people, you have to make sure that everyone is getting a reward, making money, earning a decent return.
I guess a lot of people are just so comfortable in their life, and have never really had to struggle to earn a living they get cheeky and complacent.
Margaret
Talk about trying to take advantage. The cheek!!! I am now angry for you!! I think magreenlee’s idea is the excepted norm with these guys.
As I said I had to calm down first, but then got angry again when writing it.