After switching jobs, having surgery, being laid off, and denied unemployment, faced with mounting debt, bills, and the financial stresses of starting my own web and millennial strategist business, why in the hell – some people ask – do I teach weekly, hour-long social media classes for $1?
Let’s look at the question a different way: what value am I creating or enabling by teaching the class?
Logically, I’m place a value on every hour that I work. Today, the going rate for Nick Armstrong – web and millennial strategist – is $50. In order to “break even” on the value of my time at $1 per person, I’d have to ensure that my class size was at least 50 people or charge classes of 49, or fewer, more per person.
Most social media classes range between $25 and $100 per person.
When a businesses is paying at that rate, it’s affordable – hell, that’s a bargain. But when people like you or me have to pay that rate just to get “expert” tutoring, that seems a little outrageous. Why?
I can pretty much guarantee that the average user will create or save at least $1 worth of value with the knowledge I impart. If not, then I’ve only robbed them of $1. But $25? $100?
Common knowledge, like how to Tweet, how to post a photo to Facebook without your boss seeing it and firing you, how to create a LinkedIn profile… these things are important. They should be known by anyone and everyone who wants or needs to know. And the barrier should be so low that anyone who wants to can do it. It doesn’t take a web and millennial strategist to figure that out.
If I charge $1 to help cover the cost of the MeetUp group, I know I’ll meet that goal before I have to pay for the next 6 months of MeetUp. I also know that anyone can find $1 to spare. Why not charge more and meet that goal faster – like a regular businessman?
The question that haunts me is, if I’m responsible for the barrier, if I don’t share that knowledge, what creations have I prevented?
2 Comments
I totally agree. I do presentations for free, but nothing regular like one every month. I think it is valuable for all of us to have a really low barrier to entry for getting people familiarized with social media. The more people participate, the more we can be productive together. I hope you keep it up.
Thanks Ron!
I absolutely will keep it up, I have no inclination to stop teaching those social media classes. My other thought was to change the payment to requested donation.
-Nick