Please Help! Should I Help Her?!?!?
I’m an event planner and a friend asked me to help her. She refused to let me do it for her for free so we agreed on her paying me 5% of her budget which I usually charge 15% for full service wedding. We had several meetings, I researched 4 countries and their laws on Catholic weddings as well as call the Catholic churches to see if it were possible to get married without being a member or resident of the country. I purchased several phone cards as well. Her family came to town for the holidays and decided she should use someone located in that country so she decided to go with that idea instead. So all of my hard work (hours of research) and money spent on phone cards went down the drain. She recently emailed me to say hi and to have me look over her budget and help finalize it and wants to discuss it with me. How do I respond? She’s a friend, but not one that I talk to often and I feel like she dissed me after doing so much research, having 3 long meetings with her and her husband, and losing money. What should I do?
i think she should atleast pay u back for the money u spent on her
rrate ur friendship on a scale of 1-10………………………………… if its a 1-4 i wouldnt respond………………………..if its a 5-7 id respond but tell her i was really busy right now and cant do it ………………………….if its a 8-10 i would respond and help her out
if shes a real good friend id help but if not she can find sum1 else
good luck
=)
don’t help her after that! just put it nicely. tell her you think someone else could be more assistance and give her a number of someone else.
well tell her what you did and everything you spent am sure she will understand. by the way she refuse to let you do it for free
You should talk to her about how you felt the last time, and if its going too be like that refuse it. Dont Help her
be more direct and be sure what she really wants
first off,u should never do business with family or friends – u set urself up for this kinda stuff. second, if u insist on doing so, agree BEFORE the next time that it it strictly business. have a contract as u would with any other “client”. as for the situation ur in now? tell her how much time and energy u already put into her gig, and that if she wants ur professional advice, u’d like to be compensated for at least what u have already done, plus a flat fee for what u r going to do next. MAKE IT STRICTLY BUSINESS or dont do it at all. If she doesnt agree to pay, tell her u feel its just not good for your friendship to be that involved and that she should consult her family or another local professional. she’ll see how much someone else would charge who is not a friend, and maybe come back to u. that is, if u WANT her as a friend any longer…..
Well, first you offered to do it for free and she refused. So, you would have done all that work for nothing at all.
I would stick to your agreement with her, and let her know that she needs to reimburse you for the phone cards you purchased. Did you tell her you were purchasing phone cards? Does she know you put your own money out?
Point is, you offered to do a friend a favor, and you should stick to your word. But be open with her about any out of pocket expenses and let her know that she’ll need to reimburse you as well as pay you the 5% fee as agreed.