I'm not counting the days until retirement. Or living for the weekend. I love what I do. And I often say "If I won the lottery I'd still do this".
Finding opportunities where I can make a difference is important to me. That's one of the reasons why I volunteered my skills through the Taproot Foundation to Seattle's Lighthouse for the Blind. And one of the reason's why I often sit down and discuss branding and marketing topics without asking for anything in return.
For very small businesses I will sometimes charge "what you feel this was worth to you". It's more gratifying to receive the equivalent of a weeks profits from a entrepreneur just starting out than thousands from a going concern.
For individuals working on understanding "personal branding" I just meet for coffee and share a few simple models for discovering their brand and applying that knowledge.
Anyway, that said. There is only so much pro-bono that I can afford to do. So the standard is to provide a sliding scale depending on the revenues a non-profit has and the scope of the work that needs to be done.
One secret for success is to contact me (or any professional really) as early as possible to get the best value for the time to be spent.
