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Anyone do side jobs for people, if so how do you bill it. I’m fairly new to field, and to compete with some others i usually end up doing like $30-40 for most jobs even OS reloads.

Usually it’s more just a few minutes here, there and wait for things in between. So i tend to just add up the times estimate i would actually be doing something on it.

15 Spice ups
2

Do yourself a favor and charge hourly. How much you charge hourly is going to be up to you. How much is your time worth?

I try not to do side jobs anymore, the wife and kids require my attention to much. When i did though I charged $75 an hour for pretty much everything.

Now I only do side jobs for friends with expensive scotch.

10 Spice ups
3

Think about travel and preparation when you decide your hourly. You don’t have to include it but, you should have it is part of your hourly. Like DD said, “How much is your time worth?” It’s your personal time you are giving up.

3 Spice ups
4

This is a frequently asked question - you might look back in teh archives here and see some earlier answers!

If you are doing the odd job here and there, then you could consider it your investment in relationships. Some people buy the wine, others do the computing stuff.

But if it goes beyond that, then it’s starting to be a business and you should treat it as such. You should charge what the job is worth, And have some insurance in place should things go bad.

In terms of billing - bill the time things take. remember that once you start setting any rate, raising it becomes progressively harder!

1 Spice up
5

Do yourself another favor and charge a lot more than what you think you are worth. Why, because you have a highly valuable set of skills that are worth higher prices. I cringe every time I see somebody charging less than $100/hr for this kind of work. Go price what electricians, plumbers, hvac, etc. charge per hour. Are you not worth at least what they charge. I’ll answer that for you, you are. Also the headaches you’re going to get from doing side work are just not worth working for what amounts to pennies per hour by the time you factor all the free support you will end up giving.

When I was doing work like that, I charged $125/hr. I really didn’t need/want the work and it was a good way to get people to go look else where. Today if somebody was insistent that they wanted me to do the work, I’d charge at least $250/hr. Like I said, I don’t need/want the side work.

When they complain that “I could go get a new computer from Best Buy for that amount!”, I reply “Yes you can, but it still won’t do what you want it to until someone like me makes it work”.

DD - you need to charge more.

4 Spice ups
6

Phill I don’t think it’s fair to charge more for the geographical area I am in. I see what your saying for sure. Most MSP’s around here charge 125 for hourly stuff (depending on what it is). You will never get a consumer to pay that though. The small repair shops are around $85 an hour in this area. So my logic is coming in a bit under the local repair shops is whats going to get you the business.

It’s different everywhere. If cost of living and gas is higher in your area, charge more… But around here you can buy a house for the price of a VCR so yea…

Oh and always charge mileage if out of your local city

3 Spice ups
7

One of the concepts of business school is “next best use” or “opportunity cost”. It’s a way of objectively analyzing a situation and making a decision. In this case, what’s the best use of your time? Is it worth $30 to miss your kid’s football game, time with friends, traveling, or just simply enjoying time off?

If those things don’t apply to you, or aren’t that valuable to you, what’s the next best use of your time? Maybe it is fixing computers at $30 an hour.

But speaking for myself, $30 or $40 an hour is not worth it. I would rather forgo that $30 for a weekend with friends hiking or kayaking.

3 Spice ups
8

If it’s nice weather doesn’t matter what they are paying, you always choose kayaking every time! The river doesn’t wait for you, when you have the opportunity, seize it!

2 Spice ups
9

You also charge more, because at a company they pay contractors more, due to them receiving no benefits. Since the side jobs offer no job security or benefits they have to pay extra. Also I would set a minimum hours of pay for a job. Set a minimum of at least one hour if not two. Even if you finish early you then charge for your minimum. This will keep you from doing 30 minute jobs for little pay.

2 Spice ups
10

I know staples when they had a store here were like $100, also like 2-3 small 1 or 2 person shops that run 50-75. Maybe that’s an hour i don’t really know. I think staples was like a one time fee for any job.
I know another person does SMB stuff he said he does around $100 an hour for these places. And generally don’t touch home stuff because it’s then like get a new system, or their running almost obsolete junk and expect a miracle.

I would kind of agree, but i also don’t think most people really have a good idea how to migrate their docs, etc to something new.

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If its an SMB charge more totally. I thought you were talking consumers.

1 Spice up
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As others said $30-$40 an hour is insane! Especially if you are doing work for businesses. When I walk into a business and hope that they are setup like a business and not a Workgroup, I charge $125 an hour with a 1hr minimum and if not they will find someone else and probably have to call me back anyways.

When I first started out I did the whole $50 an hour thing, later on when I realized my worth as an IT Professional I had to raise my rates…lets just say I lost those customers cause they were fixed on the $50 an hour and not a penny more. So no need to learn the hard way. Charge what an IT Professional is worth, look up what the local rates are in your area and even go to the SpiceCorps meetings and talk to other IT Pros around you and see what they suggest.

1 Spice up
13

SMB $200 or more an hour easily.

Home users less, what i charge can depend on if i actually want the job. $50 an hour and up, up, up. I agree with DD, if it is summer and a sunny day they can forget it i will be on my motorcycle. You can not buy a sunny day no matter how much money they have.

2 Spice ups
14

I guess it is going to depend. Do you want to do the side jobs? If so, then you are going want to be competitive with other folks in your area, whether national retailers or local places. If you don’t want to do many of the side jobs, then charge what other places charge or more. It will discourage folks from bothering you. Especially if they think that they can get services for free.

1 Spice up
15

… And generally don’t touch home stuff because it’s then like get a new system, or their running almost obsolete junk and expect a miracle.

I think most of us could trade a few face palm stories about things like this. I had a friend that heard about Kubuntu and wanted to try it by making his laptop dual boot. Only problem was that this laptop (literally built in 1999) with 256Mb of RAM, a 933Mhz Celeron processor, and 180Mb hard drive didn’t come close to meeting the minimum specs for Kubuntu.

1 Spice up
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I mean in general for pricing either friends, etc or even SMBs

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Should probably also consider reputation, etc of the other people. I know one almost lost his full time job losing data last he told me he did side jobs like $50ish. Would i let him work on a computer if i couldn’t? Probably not does the normal person know this unless they worked there probably not.

I clonezilla everything i work on to an external i have then about 24 hrs after they receive unless they say something i wipe the drive. I don’t usually have issue, but there is always chance esp with reload and if your relying on their backup. HDD could crash during transport, etc. The average user really care or understand that possibly, is it worth more to them maybe. Is it worth it for me so for not really, but something i like to have just encase they gave me wrong windows disk, key, thair backup is toast, etc.

1 Spice up
18

Always Ask for more than what your head says.

You will be surprise how easily people say OK. You will be more into what yor are doing because you are making more money than you expect. (you’ll be happy). the customer will not discard you like a disposable napkins because they are invested in you.

If you don’t, soon you find people trying to lowballing on you thinking that 40 dollars is a lot FOR YOU.

19

I’ll typically charge a flat rate, but try to avoid an in-house fix, rather I will ask to take the system home to work on it, that way it’s on my own time and not in an uncomfortable, stare-at-digital-grass-growing kind of situation…

I live in an area where there are lots of retired folks and other fixed-income situations, but there are also the wealthy ones that live in the big houses and condos near the jetty. Those ones I don’t shy away as much when I give them a quote, but the low-income people I’ll offer my usual rate, then depending on how tight things are, I’ll knock off 1/2 or 1/3 of the cost for them and even offer to take payments ($20 for dust removal, $40 for troubleshooting systems/replacing of a part - customer buys the part but I offer to search for a good deal for them on the purchase, $60 for virus removal, and $120 for building a computer from the ground up - again, customer buys the parts, I just slap 'em together and install OS and software to their liking - anything over $50, I knock the dust off free of charge, and if I can’t fix it, I don’t charge at all).

One nice old lady, I cleaned up her computer and she agreed to the full $60, but had to wait until next month to pay, which I said was perfectly fine.

This pricing template works for me in this area, but I worked this out from copying a buddy of mine as well as looking at prices from local businesses (nearest ones are 25 - 30 miles away). I offer at least $15 less than the least expensive place in town, and anything I can do to keep people from being scammed is a victory for me.

I’ll even offer to cleanup someone else’s mess, or failed job, for free if I can. One customer payed well over $200 for a job that the guy took weeks to do, and still didn’t fix it, then kept demanding more money… I offered to fix it free, but she still paid me when I knocked it out because she was grateful to have her computer back so fast, and with an honest job done.

20

Agreed with the Doughnut Destroyer - I would charge a business more than a private client indeed.

Speaking of obsolete junk, I have a customer that refuses to upgrade from XP, which is fine, it’s her system, but when she has me remove the malware periodically, it’s like pulling teeth… Just getting some of the routine maintenance applications to run takes forever, so I end up having the thing for several days regardless of how “clean” it is…