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[quote=Anonymous]Sounds like this is settled, but I still wanted to chime in. My husband runs a business out of his home and routinely gets into these kind of nebulous arrangements with friends. I always tell him you've got to make it clear that you're in business. Yes, it's awkward, but as a business person doing business, you've got to tell people what you charge. If you want to give a friend a deep discount, then you'd say "I run a little side business with this, here's my website, but let's talk - I will charge you cost because we're friends and if you'd like them, I always appreciate word of mouth referrals!"

On the other hand, it is rude to assume that just because someone does this work, that they'd be glad to do it for you for free. Still, the way OP put it, it was never even mentioned that this was a business! My husband's situation is a little bit different because people clearly know he runs a business - it's a very specific thing that he does. Even so, you would't believe the people who think he's going to do it for free.

A good friend of mine runs a cake business and she made my wedding cake gratis, but told me that she was going to do that for me as my wedding gift.

My husband's business situation is that he ends up doing things for people without discussing the rates first, and feels they should know what he charges and shouldn't enter into things without looking into it. That makes me crazy! You need to be clear up front that you're in business, if you want to do business. And if it's awkward at first, it won't be after you develop your own style going into it.

After a few thousand dollars in losses, my DH has learned this lesson and now says up front, here is what I charge per hour - you get the friends discount of X. If people can't afford it, and plenty say they can't, and he really wants to do the project, he might cut them another deal. But at least that way every one knows going into it. [/quote]

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