My former coworker (and friend) reached out to me over the weekend to get some job search help. I am a Career Coach and she needed some help with a job application she was working on and really wants. I was a bit caught off guard that she called me for this help on a Saturday but I listened to her request.

She needed help to answer a case study question and offered to pay me for my time. There was a part of me that wants to help (because she is my friend) but also another part of me that felt weird about the money offer. I asked what she was thinking in terms of payment and she said $125 for an hour which is about 1/3 of my current rate (which I did not share with her). She said she didn’t know my usual rate so didn’t know what to offer. I told her I don’t really do this kind of service so it’s hard for me to say what my rate is. After a back and forth, I told her instead that I was happy to just give her some thoughts over email instead as a friend (for free) but that I had a lot on my plate already so don’t expect all that much.

I have noticed that I tend to get “weird” when my friends reach out for my help in my coaching expertise and not sure how to tell them exactly how they can work with me.

My questions are:
1) I am wondering if I am “blocking” my abundance to making money with this tendency to just offer help for free. (In this case, I didn’t really want to spend a whole hour working with my friend even if she did pay me my usual rate. I didn’t really think telling her my rate until after I hung up)
2) How should I go about charging friends for my services that feels right? And just helping them as friends?

Thank you as always, team.