Is it just Ohio or are there a lot of people out there looking for Freebees all the time? We seem to get a lot of people calling us who think that we have a lot of free time and that since we are in business we have a lot of money and or time to "donate" to their various causes. They want us to make a donation of money or services and always give us the "since you are a business you must be looking for ways to "help" the community and we though this would be a great way.

I must get three to five calls a month from people looking for "donations" of free mastering or free duplication. They are very nice but they sometimes amaze me as to their lack of knowledge as to how hard it is to keep a business running today let alone how much time and money they are asking for.

Recent case in point this women recorded a public service song for the cancer society. She brought it to us for replication and mastering. About the third time she asked for us to make her 100 more CDs she said "Oh is there anyway you could do these for free since we are not making as much money on the CDs as we thought we would" When pushed further she said she was selling these for 5 times what it was costing her to get them made and she thought it would be nice if we could take a "big tax write off" for doing them for free so her cause could make more money.

I had to tell her the "facts of life" when it came to running a business today. (in this geographical area about 1 in 7 business have gone belly up in the past couple of years and it is getting scary and in some places it is as high as 1 in 3 which is NOT good news for those of us who are still in business)

Is anyone else getting this type of request on a regular basis? If so what is your response?

Hope your weekend is going well!