Do you ever get free professional advice from your friends who are experts in a field other than your own? I think that there are times when this is appropriate. However I don’t think people should expect their friends to provide them with free services.

For example, I have experience working as a blogger. People ask me all of the time to teach them how to make money blogging. Although I don’t mind pointing my friends in the right direction, I do mind being asked to truly teach them how to do the work. It’s tough work and I find it offensive that they think it’s so simple that I can just spend my time teaching it to them at no cost to my own work. My time is valuable and it annoys me when they don’t respect that.

My way around this problem is to offer to barter for services. For example, I have a friend who provides debt consulting services. I offered to teach him how to blog for his business in exchange for assistance with my own business debt reduction. That kind of situation seems fair. Asking your friends to provide a professional service to you at no charge doesn’t seem fair at all.

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