Businesses get goodwill by giving away services 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.