My first blog post was on the costs and benefits of working for free.  Here it is if you missed it.  To show that working for free is a viable option I wanted to give an example.  Matt Cheuvront blogger at Life Without Pants and now unemployed, has decided to launch MattChevy.com, where he offers a multitude of web services.  To help launch the new venture Matt is offering to be a “Slave for a Day” (15 hours to be exact).

Here’s his pitch:

MattChevy.com “Slave for a Day” (or two) Giveaway from Matt Cheuvront on Vimeo.

This means that you can do whatever want with him.  Here are some of the examples from the site:

• Whip up a custom, “Slap Ya Mama” blog/web design
• Rock out your Twitter background & pimp out your Facebook fan page
• SEO optimization, keyword research, Google Analytics set up and tracking, you know…the works.
• Copy-editing your web content
• Teach you how to be a WordPress ninja!
• Wake up and have my morning coffee with you via Skype for two weeks straight.

Here Comes the Econ

You might say, “that’s a stupid idea, who ever wins will get what they need from him and never call him again.”  Maybe.  That might all be true.  But it doesn’t matter if the winner never talks to matter ever again.  You see, the idea of working for free is part of a larger vision.  He is acquiring long-term benefits and taking on short-term costs.

In order for somebody to win, they must promote the heck out of MattChevy.com.  The basis for a winner is who markets the site the best.  And this goes on until March 1st.  Because Matt is only one guy he doesn’t have the time to promote his services all over the web.  Instead, he is letting all of us do it for him!  It’s a brilliant idea really.  He obviously did a cost-benefit analysis of this situation before he launched the idea.  Congratulations Matt, you are a honorary economist!  The analysis that he did might not have been so explicit like my first post, it might have been a spit-second reaction, but it was a cost-benefit analysis.  Matt knows that the benefits of letting his network promote his new site and services is worth the cost of losing 15 hours of his time.

Lessons Learned

So what can we as people, businesses and organizations learn from this experiment?  Well here’s a few take aways:

• Let people specialize in what they do best.  Matt obviously wants to focus on doing projects that make money.  Matt also knows that there are people out there that are better marketers than him (although he’s a damn good himself).  So he is letting those people do what they do best: promote what they think is cool and tell their friends.
• Time is scarce, don’t mess around.  As a small business, freelance worker, start up, you don’t have the resources that the big shots have access to.  This means you have to be efficient with your time.  Don’t let commitments that do not benefit your organization’s prosperity get in the way.
• Innovation is a necessity.  Being conventional doesn’t always work.  Ask Seth Godin.  If you are small, try new ways to collaborate with coworkers.  Rethink meetings and communication.  Ask yourself, is there a better way to do what I’m doing?  Matt found a way to innovate, what about you?
  
• Embrace your size.  Being local is all the rage nowadays.  I think “going local” is not just about buying local foods and products, I think is stems from larger need to be part of a community.  And people/consumers are prone to look to small organizations for that community feeling.  Utilize this need to grow and thrive.