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@ Bob Young
2025-03-04 04:44:59
<Insert curse words here> I made a mistake. A person emailed me today to ask for a half hour of my time to discuss a problem they were having with a federal grant project. In other words, they're making money off of the project, and they needed my help. They said it was urgent. Included lots of details. So important we could discuss it after hours. We set up a time this evening and did the Teams meeting.
My mistake: I didn't discuss rates in advance. He thought it was free, just a conversation between friends.
I told him never mind, I won't invoice it.
IT'S A FEDERAL GRANT PROJECT. HE'S MAKING MONEY. HE ASKED ME FOR HELP. And he expected me to give him my knowledge and advice for free.
It's my mistake, because I didn't make it clear earlier today when we were scheduling that this is a legitimate billable use of my time.
It's his mistake, because that "friendship" is over. Business only from now on.