How much should I charge someone for my services?

[RossMAN]

I helped my sister's boss buy a new computer and he wants to pay me for my help. Since it's only going to take 1-2 hours of my time, I was just doing it because I am after all Grand Nagus. Since I already get free movie tickets up to wazoo how much should he give me? I helped him buy a decked out Dell Dimension 4100 P3/1GHz for $1409 which included a free Epson printer and free CD-RW. I also suggested he purchase a Samsung 955DF for $249 (little did I realize you buy buy it for $202 today, d'oh!). So all I did was ask him questions to find the right computer, spent 1-2 hours pricing and waiting for the right promo's, ordered it for him online and when the computer arrives I'll bring it to my house pop in some more RAM, d/l a bunch of stuff since I have broadband, then bring it back to his house and set everything up.

Although I wouldn't mind being paid for helping him, I'm fine with doing it for free also. It's not rocket science after all. So what's a reasonable amount that he should pay me?

 

[JACKHAMMER]

I would think $7-10/hr would do it. Just round it off to something like 20 or 25.

 

[kami]

$30-$50 sounds reasonable. You are kind of going out of your way for all that.

 

[HansHurt]

Bird dog fee is usually 5-10% isn't it, but I think 25 bucks would suffice in this case.

Although you probably would feel more rewarded if you did it for free


Oh, and YHPM for an OT question

 

[db]

It just may be rocket science to him. Don't charge too much and don't charge too little--then it's fair to both of you. How much that is, however, I have no idea....

 

[ToBeMe]

All you can!

 

[atom]

I did something similar for my mom's boss last year. I built two systems for her, configured software, and set it up on the office network. She wanted to pay me and I just told her to pay me what she thinks it is worth since I didn't really care what I got paid.

I ended up with about 60 dollars.

 

[N8Magic]

Geez Ross, you already charged your sister for a leftover pizza! Let her have the money at least!

 

[RossMAN]

Ok $20 sounds fine with me but if he insists on giving me more then I won't argue, thanks guys.

N8Magic - Hey! Them's fightin' words ...