Imagine you own a food business. For our purposes, it could be a food truck, a diner, a gourmet restaurant or a catering company. Truthfully, the business could be any type, but food works.
You started it because you have a real passion for cooking for others. You love seeing the joy that your dishes bring to others, but now you’ve decided to try to make a living at it – to actually pay your bills doing what used to be a hobby.
Now, let’s assume people like what you do. They like it so much you are constantly being asked to cook for people. Sometimes, however, they want you do do it on your dime, and sometimes they want to pay you pretty well for your time and efforts, but there are fewer of those occasions than the other.
You get asked all the time to cook for fundraisers and charity events. You’re told it will be good marketing for your product, and occasionally it does pay off and you actually get new business from the people you see at the events.
Complicating things even further, friends and family are constantly asking you to cook for their events. For free. Because, you know, they’re family.