1

Hey all,

I’m going into a bit of a dry spell at work where there’s not as much to do and I typically try to find ways to make a little bit extra dough. I’ve done some general freelance IT work for friends and family but generally I don’t find it to be worth my time. My aunt giving me muffins is sweet but can’t pay a mortgage in muffins!

So I’m curious, for those who do IT on the side. How do you put yourself out there? How do you keep up with stuff? What’s your hourly rate? I’m a sponge at this point and want to soak up as much knowledge as I can!

2 Spice ups
2

It all depends on out experience and knowledge my friend.

on the other side connections plays the biggest role!

tell us more about yourself

3

For sure!

So I’m an IT Administrator for a non-profit shelter for at-risk youth. I have experience with everything from installing OS, to building a computer, to computer cleaning and maintenance. My job is not largely tech heavy, as I mainly stick with the 30 or so odd computers we have for the youth and the 10 or so computers for staff.

One area I’m not too familiar with is servers, hence my suspicion that I should stick with side jobs for home users.

4

You may want to check your company’s policies about side work. That might derail this in a hurry.

5

They’re fine with it as long as it doesn’t interfere with my day job.

1 Spice up
6

See if there are any IT consulting firms, MSP’s or computer shops in your area that could use someone to do service calls. That way you don’t have to worry about advertising and making contacts. It’s also nice for someone else to do the billing.

If you go it alone a simple Craigslist ad might get a few calls. Determine your pricing ahead of time and make sure your clients know how you are billing them. In this era of Google people, home users especially, seem to think everything about computers happens for free.