What do you charge for tech work.....?

[hollowman]

i don't do any tech unless i must. tech support is just a pain in the ass

 

[yakko]

Originally posted by: Adul
somesimt hourly, sometimes a flatfee, someimte both

$35/hour is my rate

Can we get an automatic spell checker for Adul?


My price varies by job and person. Almost no one gets free except for my nephew and my mom.

 

[hungrygoose]

doing work for favors is a good way to run out of time to do anything else......people will call you to do anything and everything that they need done if they know they can just cook dinner and let you eat!....in the business world, you can't do favors.....if you charge $100/hr., and don't work for some company where you're insured in case you screw their comp. up, i don't see how anybody would hire you to do anything!.....most of the stuff i do is maintenance related like format and reinstalls, virus cleaning, hardware installs and upgrades, the usual stuff like that.....there's now way i could get any business at $100/hr.......also, a good way to get business is to post business cards on apartment complex bulleting boards!

 

[freegeeks]

no more tech support except for close family -- if you don't draw the line you're just the private helpdesk for everyone and his dog

 

[Spamela]

for me, a big job would involve several hundred hours of custom software development & a small job would involve some short-term consulting or minor system admin stuff.

so, $75/hr for big projects. for people who've given me big projects in the past i do small jobs for free.

i don't do small jobs for other people, except relatives, who get them gratis, of course.

 

[joohang]

I work in exchange of good food to my friends.

 

[hoihtah]

Originally posted by: joohang
I work in exchange of good food to my friends.

me too... an arm and a leg. what can i say... i like meat.

 

[PlatinumGold]

if you charge $100/hr., and don't work for some company where you're insured in case you screw their comp. up, i don't see how anybody would hire you to do anything!.....most of the stuff i do is maintenance related like format and reinstalls, virus cleaning, hardware installs and upgrades, the usual stuff like that.....there's now way i could get any business at $100/hr.......

so your saying that what you do has less value than say a plumber, an electrician, an HAC guy or even the office ladies in my shared office space?

have perspective. I understand that your just getting a little on the side and so it doesn't seem like much but if you want to do this for a living then you have to position yourself in such a way so that you look professional to your clients. part of that includes knowing what your value is. If you charge significantly less than you competitors than there is a question as to your credibility. if i'm going to hire a CPA for example. I don't want the cheapest guy on the block. I want a guy who is as confidant of his ability as I am of mine. that means he's going to ask the going rates.

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: aircooled
Not exactly hardware, but probably the most appropriate place to post....

This is for those of you that do work on the side (not your primary job).

How do you base your fee... hourly?? or flat rate the project..?

Like I said, this is just for side jobs, not building a computer for your bud ;-)

I'm just trying to get a feel for what a small business owner would expect to be charged for some general IT work on the side.

Thanks all!

I flat rate the project. Think about it - if every tech did it hourly, then the ones that had no clue what they were doing and took longer to troubleshoot something, they'd be making more than the person that could fix a problem in 5 minutes.

I don't push the cost of my inability onto the customer - but - if I quote them a price let's say $48 to fix an issue, and I fix the issue but there is another issue that needs fixed, then I may raise the price since it wasn't what I was being paid to fix - and ALWAYS explain this to the customer ahead of time and before working on the second issue.

 

[hungrygoose]

so your saying that what you do has less value than say a plumber, have perspective. I understand that your just getting a little on the side and so it doesn't seem like much but if you want to do this for a living then you have to position yourself in such a way so that you look professional to your clients. part of that includes knowing what your value is. If you charge significantly less than you competitors than there is a question as to your credibility. if i'm going to hire a CPA for example. I don't want the cheapest guy on the block. I want a guy who is as confidant of his ability as I am of mine. that means he's going to ask the going rates.

my point is, that if i charge the same rate as a business such as compusa that is insured if they screw up your comp., then why is someone going to pay me to do it instead?....most of my business i get b/c i can do the same work as somewhere like a compusa, for cheaper.....it's called competition.....what you're saying is that hourly rate portrays confidence in your work.....that's crazy!....the CPA comparison you made is different b/c they are all CPA's....i agree that going cheap is not always the best idea by all means, but just b/c you charge/pay more, doesn't mean you give/get more