free

1. General: (1) Costing nothing in terms of money, such as a free service. (2) Having legal and political rights that confer civil and political liberties, such as a free citizen. (3) Independent, not subject to the commands, constraints, or domination of another, such as a free country.

2. Purchasing: Pricing inclusive of delivery charges up to a named point, such as in 'free on board.'

3. Economics: Characterized by choice and not by constraint or external control, such as a free market.

4. Law: Unencumbered or unburdened, such as a free property.

Young companies have to get the word out, but they also can go broke doing it. A decade ago, America Online spent so much money flooding the planet with free trial software that it tried to mask the bleeding by capitalizing those expenses on its balance sheet. (Regulators later nixed that accounting treatment, wiping out millions in accounting profits.) What percentage of sales should go toward marketing? As with sales, there is no one rule of thumb.

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