I am a part of the launch group for Google Hangouts. I’m offering two at the moment, one is essentially virus and malware cleanup, and the other is consulting on moving your documents to the cloud, adopting Google Drive, and how to access your documents from anywhere. When Google told me that I would be a part of the initial launch group, I was excited. They did a hangout video chat with me, asked me about my credentials, checked the space that I would be holding hangouts had adequate lighting, told me I should smile in my photos, etc.

But today Helpouts are live and I’m not that excited. The question that I never got an answer to is how are my competitors, people in my same space, pricing their Helpouts. They wouldn’t say. And then yesterday they sent an email stating that people should consider making their Helpouts free because that would drive adoption, and that I should make myself available as much as possible. Great— but I don’t have time for that, I booked more lucrative appointments. I wanted to hit the ground running and make money. And maybe that’s my fault, maybe helpouts isn’t a good venue for me because I already have an established client base and am used to making a significant profit every job I do.

If Google wants to encourage experts to give expert advice, then they need to understand that experts need to understand the market they are dealing in. The highly motivated people will simply move on if they don’t feel that they have a firm understanding. I know I did.