.....sorry been tied up cleaning windows for free
....obviously this depends on the quality of the customer, only you can judge whether its a one-off or not. Needless to say I wouldnt make it a regular thing, and if you think about it they're unlikely to advertise that they were skint and accepted charity....i find people generally only shout when they're winning (e.g. had my best day ever...)
As an example i did a builders clean for a lady recently, they were a bit skint but wanted a regular service, i did four hours work for £26 as I wanted to be in the street/ area. Now its like the lady works for me in terms of advertising, I've got another four jobs from her and she's still spreading the word....all young mums in the area, total monthly value £80, @ 3x thats £240 quid...good return on my four hours, no?
As for giving her a few quid to tide her over? hahah, everyone old enough to vote knows the answer to that one, but a one-off freebie to show you arent a pure money machine won't hurt, especially in this environement.
In my humble opinion, there are too many Kiddies out there thinking you have to be like an Alan Sugar apprentice to make it work in business, a little kindness goes a long way to spread he word in my view....comments welcome though.....