The saying goes that "there is no such thing as a free lunch" and yes it is often true but there is more to consider.

I constantly give advice for free, in fact most service industry professionals do. But of course we need to make a living so how can I say that IT advice should always be free?

Great IT advice saves you money or makes you money, fact!

As an example my local radio station is running an advert currently for software that allows you access to your PC from the Internet, its great software and does the job, however it comes with a charge. There is another perfectly good piece of software available that for most companies will do the same job and do it very well, this software is free. There you go great free advice that saves you money, you are already up and that's just one tip.

When great IT professionals give advice they look at the needs of a business. A Business needs to serve its customers whilst at the same time make money and good businesses look to see how they can save money on their costs. Great IT advice targets these aims. So even if you pay a fee it still is free once you factor in the money made or saved.

IT is not alone in this of course I have recently spent money on great HR advice that has saved me time and money, this is free advice for me and the list goes on.

Of course bad advice can cost you money so it's not just a case of advice is good, even free bad advice can cost you money, so you need to be really careful who you choose to give you IT advice.

Choose well and your advice will be free, take a wrong turn and you could be paying for a long time to come.

Have a great and profitable week

Regards

Julian.