Sometime very early in my life my parents (ever the cynics) must have warned me about things that claim to be "free". I didn't realize until sometime late in my thirties that the warning should go both ways. This article reminded me of a valuable lesson. I had been working for a company called Chambermaids, trying to decide if I wanted to pursue a business in the cleaning industry. Chambermaids had a fairly large and fairly affluent client base in the Detroit area. On one occasion, however, they had run a radio promotion in which they gave away one (or was it two) year of free home cleaning. As it turned out, the winners a) lived about 45-50 minutes away from the office, and b) were so slobby that it was hard to find the floor of their house. I'm not exactly known as a neat freak, but these people were out of control, as they say.

I suppose the real lesson is, beware of the sort of people attracted by things that are free. Or, conversely, your best customers are those who are willing and able to pay you.