Enlarge By Joel Salcido for USA TODAY Watts Wacker, a futurist and management consultant, sent an e-mail to a handful of his best clients in which he volunteered to work for free. Out: a day's work for a day's pay. In: a day's work — for free. In the midst of this job-eating, business-depleting recession, some entrepreneurs — particularly owners of small businesses — are taking a step few could have seen even one year ago: working for free for their best clients. Some are doing it to stay in the good graces of key clients. Others are doing it to keep their names and faces in the public eye — to market themselves or their businesses. Some are just trying to keep their employees busy. And a few are doling out free labor, in part, to help folks that need a lift. While only a fraction of the nation's 27 million businesses are taking such unconventional actions, the wave is crossing industries. This is not about bartering. Nor is it about charitable or pro-bono work. This is free work, plain and simple, for clients that matter most. "There's a whole bunch of this stuff going on out there," says Todd McCracken, president of the National Small Business Administration (NSBA). One information technology vendor recently gave his organization five free computers worth more than $6,000 to retain its business for the long term. "This is absolutely amazing," says David Van Fleet, management professor at Arizona State University. "It's all about keeping personal relationships with clients. But you have to be very, very cautious, because when things pick up — and you start charging — you've got to open negotiations all over again." While there's no term now for these efforts, Robert Ford, management professor at University of Central Florida, is happy to coin one: pragmatic idealism. "If your clients weather the storm, they'll remember that you were willing to give them a hand when they needed it most." Of course, nobody wants to work for free. But better some free work — with the possibility of some goodwill, good karma or maybe even future payback — than doing nothing. Watts Wacker is a 56-year-old futurist and management consultant who refers to himself as a professional wizard. Wacker saw the future and blinked. His business has been hammered by the recession. He's owned FirstMatter, a consulting firm in Westport, Conn., for 11 years. His average annual revenue had been $800,000; this year, he fears, he won't break $200,000. And that's got to cover him and two employees. Wacker says he may go 18 months without paying himself a full salary. Yet he's got two kids in college. "Even when you plan really well, it's pretty hard to plan for a 200-year storm," Wacker says. Alternative to moping Instead of moping, Wacker got a novel idea from listening closely to President Obama's inaugural address urging Americans to act with hope and virtue in troubled times. He e-mailed a letter to a handful of his best clients. He told them the nation's business model had to change during this downturn, and he volunteered to go first. He told clients that if they had some work — but no dough to pay for it — he'd do it for free. Earl Broussard responded first. The Austin-based president of landscape architectural firm TBG Partners met Wacker seven years ago at an Urban Land Institute convention in Las Vegas where Wacker was a keynote speaker earning up to $30,000 a pop. They struck up a friendship, and soon a business relationship. For his company's 20th anniversary, Broussard hired Wacker to speak to employees and help plot the firm's future. After receiving Wacker's work-for-free offer, Broussard, a local board executive for the non-profit Urban Land Institute in Austin, asked Wacker to speak to the group for free. Wacker will do that next month, with only his travel expenses paid. That's not the end of the story. It's just the beginning. Broussard's business, which posted $15 million in sales last year, is struggling, too. He's slashed his workforce by 30%. He's trimmed staff salaries by 10%. And he's chopped his own salary in half. He's also stopped getting $40 haircuts and goes to a $12 shop. Broussard says he doesn't feel indebted to Wacker for the freebie. But he felt it his duty to take Wacker's free work concept to the next level. In February, Broussard sent a letter to his three best clients. He offered to consult, project costs and even do full drawings and graphics for future developments — for free. In return, the letter asked his clients simply to assist someone else who needs help. He was so eager to get the letter into his clients' hands, that Broussard, 60, sent it out without first running it by his partners. "I'm from Louisiana," explains Broussard. "When I grew up, it was common for folks to catch lots of fish, then share their catch with the whole neighborhood." Unlikely business model In an economically beaten-down nation where business-as-usual simply isn't working, this may be an unlikely business model that helps keep our economic boat from sinking: Share the catch. It didn't take long before he heard back from W. Douglas Goff. Goff is director of land development for Johnson Development, a big Texas land developer. He's known Broussard for 20 years and has often turned to him to help design projects from several hundred to several thousand acres. But Johnson Development is seeing tough times, too. Revenue will be off at least 20% this year, says Goff. It's also had to let go of about 20% of its employees. But the company has to plan for the future. It has to have plans ready so it can react the moment things turn around. Thus, it took Broussard up on his offer. On his own nickel, Broussard drew up plans for a potential themed residential community with a major hotel and up to 1,000 homes at the edge of the Colorado River. He's worked on the drawings, on and off, for a couple months. He figures he's put about $40,000 worth of his time into the effort for free. Never mind that Johnson Development doesn't own the land yet. And that the whole thing is pie-in-the-sky for now. "They think it will happen if the economy turns around," says Broussard, and this way, the developer has physical drawings to show to hotels and potential investors. For Goff, taking Broussard up on his offer was a no-brainer. With no revenue coming in from the potential project, every cost has to be measured closely. Meanwhile, he says, "Earl knows if the project comes to fruition, he will in all probability be involved with it." And Goff also took Broussard up on his request to help another struggling business for free. A builder new to the Houston market had just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Goff's company could have ended its contract with the builder. Instead, it dug into its pocket to help the builder market itself locally. Johnson Development hosted a reception for real estate agents to meet the builder's principals. "I could have easily gotten another builder in there to do what they're doing," says Goff. "But these guys just needed an opportunity to prove themselves." Others have taken Wacker up on his offer, too. He recently hosted a free Webinar for the Outdoor Advertising Association of America — which paid him upwards of $60,000 just two years ago to moderate and help organize its annual convention. "He's not expecting quid pro quo," says Stephen Freitas, marketing chief of the group. "But it's a chance for him to market the Watts Wacker brand." Also for no fee, Wacker hosted a focus group for a new board game that toymaker Hasbro is developing. The fee normally would have run about $25,000, Wacker estimates. "I told them I'm having more fun working for them when I'm not getting paid." Too bad, Wacker adds, fun doesn't pay the bills. Being proactive With purse strings tight at the NSBA, McCracken, the small-business advocacy group's president, was floored last month when its information technology consultant looked him in the eye and said, "I know times are tough. I'm gonna give you new computers." Five of them. IT consultant Emmanuel Nzai says his decision was simple. His company, Linkagepoint, is just 4 years old and the NSBA was its first client. It's certainly worth lending five computers worth $6,000 to a customer that spends about $3,000 a month for its IT services. He's made the same offer to two other clients. "Times are rough for everyone," say Nzai. "It only makes sense for us to be proactive and show that we want to help." Back in Austin, Broussard is trying to keep his landscape-design business above water. He remembers the pain he felt at age 14 — and, again, at 19 — when his father's contracting business went through bankruptcies. The family lost the house and cars. Creditors hounded them. "I went to Harvard so that wouldn't happen to me," he says. Yet it's staring him in the face again. "The only way we get out of this is to band together and hold hands and hope we're not going off a cliff." Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more