I think I'm ripping myself off.

ruffilb

Diamond Member
Feb 6, 2005
5,096
1
0
I've always charged $20 an hour, and I've been doing this since I was 12 or 13. It seemed like a lot of money then, but I'm older now (although still not working).

How much do you all charge for your IT services? (Note, I almost always drive over and do the work there)
 

yobarman

Lifer
Jan 11, 2001
11,642
1
0
Depends. Are people only using you cause you're cheap? Do you have too much business because of your prices? Then perhaps its time to raise them. If you do decide to do it... make sure you do it slowly over the course of time. Tripling your rate to my guess at the market average would be a shock to most people.
 

ruffilb

Diamond Member
Feb 6, 2005
5,096
1
0
Originally posted by: yobarman
Depends. Are people only using you cause you're cheap? Do you have too much business because of your prices? Then perhaps its time to raise them. If you do decide to do it... make sure you do it slowly over the course of time. Tripling your rate to my guess at the market average would be a shock to most people.

They call me, and then I usually tell them my prices. It's usually word of mouth, or friends/friends-of-friends/friends-of-friends-of-friends telling me they need me to do work.

I've recieved several comments about how little I charge.
 

RaistlinZ

Diamond Member
Oct 15, 2001
7,629
10
91
Originally posted by: ruffilb
Originally posted by: yobarman
Depends. Are people only using you cause you're cheap? Do you have too much business because of your prices? Then perhaps its time to raise them. If you do decide to do it... make sure you do it slowly over the course of time. Tripling your rate to my guess at the market average would be a shock to most people.

They call me, and then I usually tell them my prices. It's usually word of mouth, or friends/friends-of-friends/friends-of-friends-of-friends telling me they need me to do work.

I've recieved several comments about how little I charge.

Bingo. Time to raise your prices. I'm sure they're used to paying a lot more. Shoot for at least $35/hr to start and see if you still get the same amount of business.
 

ruffilb

Diamond Member
Feb 6, 2005
5,096
1
0
Originally posted by: RaistlinZ
Originally posted by: ruffilb
Originally posted by: yobarman
Depends. Are people only using you cause you're cheap? Do you have too much business because of your prices? Then perhaps its time to raise them. If you do decide to do it... make sure you do it slowly over the course of time. Tripling your rate to my guess at the market average would be a shock to most people.

They call me, and then I usually tell them my prices. It's usually word of mouth, or friends/friends-of-friends/friends-of-friends-of-friends telling me they need me to do work.

I've recieved several comments about how little I charge.

Bingo. Time to raise your prices. I'm sure they're used to paying a lot more. Shoot for at least $35/hr to start and see if you still get the same amount of business.

Would it be a bad idea to hike prices to 25$ for current customers and 35$ for new customers?
 

imported_Phil

Diamond Member
Feb 10, 2001
9,837
0
0
I charge £30-£40/hr, which is something like $50-$70.
At work, the company charges my time at £60/hr, something like $100/hr. People gladly pay it.
 

ddviper

Golden Member
Dec 15, 2004
1,411
0
0
Originally posted by: sniperruff
what kind of IT service do you do? what certification do you have?

I was wondering the same thing. the amount of $$ you charge would depend on all that

-Got fair prices?
 

JS80

Lifer
Oct 24, 2005
26,271
7
81
You should be charging $50-200 an hour depending on the service and your experience.
 

yobarman

Lifer
Jan 11, 2001
11,642
1
0
Originally posted by: ruffilb
Originally posted by: RaistlinZ
Originally posted by: ruffilb
Originally posted by: yobarman
Depends. Are people only using you cause you're cheap? Do you have too much business because of your prices? Then perhaps its time to raise them. If you do decide to do it... make sure you do it slowly over the course of time. Tripling your rate to my guess at the market average would be a shock to most people.

They call me, and then I usually tell them my prices. It's usually word of mouth, or friends/friends-of-friends/friends-of-friends-of-friends telling me they need me to do work.

I've recieved several comments about how little I charge.

Bingo. Time to raise your prices. I'm sure they're used to paying a lot more. Shoot for at least $35/hr to start and see if you still get the same amount of business.

Would it be a bad idea to hike prices to 25$ for current customers and 35$ for new customers?

A better idea would be to raise it 30$ for current, and 50$ for new ones.
 

jadinolf

Lifer
Oct 12, 1999
20,952
3
81
I ran a business up until 1993. My IT contractors charged me $70 per hour at that time.

That was the going rate btw.
 

TechBoyJK

Lifer
Oct 17, 2002
16,701
60
91
if you charge too little, it may scare people into thinking you dont know what you are worth, and they will wonder what else you dont know. I would bid each job depending on the work and the time involved. I wouldnt announce a flat rate, but an average rate so people can get an idea of what your services may cost.
 

KrillBee

Golden Member
Nov 17, 2005
1,433
0
0
ha, i do work for friends sometimes and their parents, and only charge maybe 10 bucks for labor (usually they bring their computer to my house and it only takes half an hour to fix or so) and of course i charge them for parts :)

maybe i should be more serious about what i charge and everything. there is definately money to be made doing this, since people charge WAY too much for this sort of thing.

$50 an hour I think is too much, I mean computers require no real tough manual labor. When people watch me work, they see how computers actually are pretty simple if you care to pop open the hood. As long as they pay for the gas and my time driving out, and pay me what say a basic tech in a business earns per hour, then I'm happy. (I figure if most jobs take half an hour, and i get 10 bucks for labor, then im basically making $20 per hour)

I cant believe that there are places that charge up to $70 or $100 an hour. I mean this is a computer that we are working on here, not a frickin car! lol. I think computers are way easier to work on than cars (not as dirty, not as painful to the body, not as risky, etc) to charge $100 per hour for computer tech labor is insane.
 

ruffilb

Diamond Member
Feb 6, 2005
5,096
1
0
Originally posted by: ddviper
Originally posted by: sniperruff
what kind of IT service do you do? what certification do you have?

I was wondering the same thing. the amount of $$ you charge would depend on all that

-Got fair prices?

I do anything from your simple malware removal and prevention to printer troubleshooting to complete computer salvage and hardware replacement (Mostly dead PSU's in Dells).

I don't have any sort of certification, which is one of the reasons I charge so little - but I've never had anyone dissatisfied.
 

TechnoPro

Golden Member
Jul 10, 2003
1,727
0
76
Originally posted by: KrillBee
ha, i do work for friends sometimes and their parents, and only charge maybe 10 bucks for labor (usually they bring their computer to my house and it only takes half an hour to fix or so) and of course i charge them for parts :)

maybe i should be more serious about what i charge and everything. there is definately money to be made doing this, since people charge WAY too much for this sort of thing.

$50 an hour I think is too much, I mean computers require no real tough manual labor. When people watch me work, they see how computers actually are pretty simple if you care to pop open the hood. As long as they pay for the gas and my time driving out, and pay me what say a basic tech in a business earns per hour, then I'm happy. (I figure if most jobs take half an hour, and i get 10 bucks for labor, then im basically making $20 per hour)

I cant believe that there are places that charge up to $70 or $100 an hour. I mean this is a computer that we are working on here, not a frickin car! lol. I think computers are way easier to work on than cars (not as dirty, not as painful to the body, not as risky, etc) to charge $100 per hour for computer tech labor is insane.

Do you truly believe that people can support themselves on $10 an hour? Or $10 per job? How old are you?
 

TwiceOver

Lifer
Dec 20, 2002
13,544
44
91
$55/hr... I get calls all the time. Local place is $75/hr at location. I charge less if I can take the system with me, usually around $45.
 

TreyRandom

Diamond Member
Jun 29, 2001
3,346
0
76
My personal rate is $60/hr for friends, $100/hr for everyone else.

The company I work for charges from $100 to $125 per hour for my services... and we've got so much business, we don't have enough techs to handle it all.
 

ruffilb

Diamond Member
Feb 6, 2005
5,096
1
0
Thanks for all your responses. Anyone have any suggestions about how I should go about advertising myself?
 

SupaDupaCheez

Platinum Member
Nov 21, 2000
2,034
0
0
Run down 'Main St.' doing the 'Pee-Pee Dance' ;)

Seriously, If you are a member of a Church, throw a card up on the bulletin board. Make the card a 'coupon' for $x.xx off the first 'fix'. You'd be surprised how many referrals you can get from something like that. Especially in a Church since everyone knows how 'gossipy' church people can be :)

Or look into supporting a local city youth sports team/venue. You can usually donate a relatively small amount and get to place a banner at the ballpark or venue. People who have kids (and kids in sports) tend to need a lot of virus removal :)
 

DaiShan

Diamond Member
Jul 5, 2001
9,617
1
0
It really depends, we don't do any residential stuff, only business, I've got guys that I bill at $15 an hour, and guys that I bill at $75 an hour, it just depends on the job.