While on vacation in Quebec this week, we stopped a campsite at a national park had featured wonderful showers.(Note: When you’re camping, any shower is wonderful!). So it was with some excitement I headed towards them with a vision of rustic luxury.

Sadly, the showers required two quarters to work. Sadly, I was standing there with $1 and $2 coins, and there was no change machine that could spit out the quarters. If if was possible, I would have paid more than 50 cents in a heartbeat.

So what’s this post about other than remembering to bring a bunch of quarters next time I camp?

Well, it reminded me of a struggle I had with a client who insisted on offering a completely free online service, while I was advocating he also provide a premium option because there are consumers who actually want to pay for something.

After much back and forth, the client prevailed but it didn’t dissuade me about the fact there is a segment of consumers happy to give you money if you let them. You don’t necessarily have offer a rich set of features but enough to convince them that upgrading to the premium version makes sense.

The thinking behind my “if you let them, they will pay” thesis is grounded in the idea that expectations are higher if you pay for something as opposed to getting it for free.

For some consumers (and I stress some) there is comfort in knowing that paying offers them not only additional features but other considerations such as better customer support and knowledge they are providing the company with money so it can continue to provide the service.

And I don’t think these consumers expect significantly more features than a free version of the product. There only needs to be a small set of features that offer more performance, convenience and usability.

This is the reason most startups should build in premium services into their service rather than coming out with a free service, and then looking to create or launch a premium service down the road.

The problem with only offering a free service initially is while it can attract customers, it can be difficult to effectively introduce premium services later. Why? It has much to do with setting expectations. If you come out of the gate with a free service, consumers may have a difficult time seeing you as anything other than free.

If, on the other hand, there is also a premium service with a few more features, expectations has been established from the start. The premium services may need to be overhauled or tweaked but they will already have a place at the table and, as important, consumers may decide to pay, which will provide much-welcomed revenue.

My belief is many start-ups embrace free-only because they’re more concerned about attracting users and/or they don’t have an strong idea about how they will generate revenue. This approach is a mistake for many reasons.

The key is not only creating a cool service that people may want to use but doing the required legwork to discover what consumers want and what they would be willing to pay to use.

It’s a simple proposition but frequently ignored. If a start-up doesn’t think their service is worth paying for upon its debut, neither will consumers – now or down the road.