How much to charge for consulting on a basic small business setup?

[jtusa]

My mom works for a smaller company, no IT department or anything, no need for one really. They are looking to buy some new systems, just basic workstations with OS(edit: already have Office software). Anyways, I was casually talking to my mom about it and she said they were quoting her $2000 a system and I told her that's WAY too high for what they are wanting to do. So she said she might have the lady in charge of buying this stuff call me and kind guide her towards more of what they need, and she(my mom) said not to hesitate to charge them for my time.

So my question is, how much do I charge for something like that? Should I base it on how much money they end up spending, a flat flee, base it on how much time I spend talking with them and doing research for them about it?

She also said they might end up having me do the purchasing for them. If I do that as well how much more should I charge?

 

[imported_Phil]

Erm.

How much does, say, Office 2003 cost?

$2000 is a little high, but not amazingly so.

 

[FoBoT]

charge them the difference between what they were going to over pay and what they should pay for the hardware , -10%

see? you saved them 10% ,they should be so happy

 

[BCYL]

$2000 a system with all legit Windows, Office etc software licenses don't sound too high to me

 

[jtusa]

Originally posted by: BCYL
$2000 a system with all legit Windows, Office etc software licenses don't sound too high to me

Guess I should have made that more clear. They already have their Office licenses. So we're just talking system+OS.

 

[mattocs]

Get some Dells for like 1/3 of that.

 

[randal]

yea, I'd go buy some Dells on their corporate card - warranty, support, everything. Then, charge 'em $50-$75 to set them up / install software / whatever. Should come in at < $750/machine ready to rock, including install etc.

 

[thirdlegstump]

Let them buy Dells and then charge them $75/hr or so to set them up and lock them down. They'll save tons, you'll make money and have no hardware failures to worry about.