6. Beware of pro-bono work that you want to believe is prospecting. I have seen many early-stage consultants spend time on projects they hope will become clients later – but which cannot afford to hire them now, usually from mismanagement or naïveté. By “hoping” the organization will grow enough to compensate her, the consultant puts in many hours of expertise (and project work) for no compensation, and often with no agreement for compensation in the future!

7. Beware accepting “stock” or “participation” in such naïve enterprises – this is often vapor-paper and never comes to anything.

8. Do not work without an agreement covering your involvement, lack of liability, and all parties’ expectations, even if no compensation is involved.

9. Know when to walk away: if you are contributing to an organization, and you come to understand that this organization cannot succeed, even with your help and your network, or you find that fatal flaw that cannot be overcome, excuse yourself with an appropriate termination time to wrap up or transfer your responsibilities. Then find another organization with more chance of success which can use your expertise.

Your personal pro-bono work

10. Your personal time can be spent on any contributions or community involvement you choose. You can spend as much of your non-work time (other than the 40-60 hours per week required for your business).

11. Do not work without an agreement covering your involvement, lack of liability, and all parties’ expectations, even if no compensation is involved.

12. Remember to balance your work, your personal pro bono efforts and the rest of your life, so you have all of them.

My experiences (read, errors) exploring these opportunities taught me about pro-bono work (see sidebars). As we can see, my weaknesses are for excellent, early ideas, charismatic leaders, and dreamers. What are yours? It is good to find out, and to remember. Best of all, these experiences led me to understand how to handle my pro-bono work. My current single pro-bono client is a delight, with exchanges of value, mutual appreciation, and pleasure.

Experience One

I once spent years (off and on) providing pro-bono strategic consulting to an exciting product still in its development phase. The factors that got me included: the CEO was a close colleague; he was charismatic; the software product idea was simple, elegant and ahead of its time; I was given 5% of the company. For me this was more like play.