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I’ve handled IT for my own business (small, three-location retail) for the last few years (self-taught) and am going to move on to IT full time very soon. I recently went back to school and got my BS in Applied Computing Systems. I just got a call from my university advisor about a server installation at a family member’s law firm. I said that I would take it as I need to start branching out because there’s no more learning to be done here, but I have no idea what to charge. They are a small firm with no IT staff and I need the additional experience. I was thinking of $50/hr. I know I could ask for more but I also realize that I may not knock it out super quick either, but I gotta start somewhere. I’ve installed my own server at work plus many virtual servers in my home lab during school. Any thoughts, advice, or additional considerations would be appreciated as this would by my first freelance gig. Obviously I’m also a bit nervous to be working on other people’s hardware as well. Thanks.

7 Spice ups
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100.00/Hr is what I charge and I make them sign a disclaimer calming I am not responsible for equipment loss or damage or lost/Damaged files.

4 Spice ups
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I would see what other MSP’s are charging in the area. $50/hr seems a little on the low side. Just remember, once you charge a client $50/hr they are going to put up a fight once you want to charge more, especially if you are going full-time on your own.

Do you have an actual business setup (LLC etc)? If not, do it before it’s too late and you have a client threatening to sue you over data loss etc. As Mattew6920 mentioned, have them sign a waiver and also a scope of work.

2 Spice ups
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3x’s your current hourly rate is a good starting point. OR if you have an agreement with the party to write a letter or recommendation or allow you to learn on their dime (which believe it or not there are some SMB’s that will let you do this as long as you aren’t destructive and give them good service).

2 Spice ups
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Make them sign a waver, and agree upon a scope for the project you are doing so you know exactly what’s expected of you. This will save you frustration down the road on all sides. Insure yourself to avoid anyone coming after you for data loss or lost revenue.

2 Spice ups
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I stopped doing side work because after I would work on a persons machine then a month down the road either something breaks or they have a virus it is because of something I did.

Disclaimer, discussion or not.

1 Spice up
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That’s for residential work; if you do for business work they usually aren’t like that - or shouldn’t be.

2 Spice ups
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get a quote for public liability and indemnity before you even reverse out of the drive. get yourself setup with a few suppliers in the area who can provide any equipment you need. have a contract drawn up to cya.

if you run over a child’s buggy left under your wheels for example, then guess who has to pay for the replacement? if it is a law firm, then you have to be way, way waaaaaaaaaaay above board. look after yourself before anything else. talk to a local enterprise board or whatever the similar facility is near you and cover yourself!

2 Spice ups
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I would think at least double, at least.

Assuming you are just adding a server to an already existing AD structure. Have up set up a server with the roles that they want before?

Get all expectations in writing, the roles they want the server to serve etc. Stick to the billable items no more no less.

2 Spice ups
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If someone is browsing the web from a server there are other issues, user training etc.

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First of all, stop thinking of this as side-work. This is a job that needs a written contract with specs and signatures before any work is done.

Now that your advisor has passed you this opportunity, you should only be dealing with the customer from this point forward. Do not fall into the trap where the family-member from the law firm is passing on questions or requests through the advisor. Get any changes or updates to the job in writing with signoffs as well.

Personally, I think $50/hour is way too low. You said you were going to be doing IT full time soon. Do you mean consulting or working for someone else? If you’ll be doing consulting work, consider what you will need to pay for insurance, accounting, billing, office space … whatever you would need to run the consulting business… this should help you with your pricing base.

Decide how you will be getting paid before doing any work, and in writing. You may want to get a portion paid up front, some mid-way, and the rest at a defined phase or finish point. Or you may want to bill them weekly or monthly. Don’t wait to get it all at the end. Changes and updates should not change when you get paid, other than possibly adding hours with another billing period.

2 Spice ups
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Thanks for the great tips and advice, everyone! The job was offered casually so until now I’ve had it framed in my head that way but I will definitely be putting the details in writing ahead of time - scope, billing, etc. I’m not looking to do freelance full time but it can’t hurt to still treat this event as such. As far as the waiver goes, I just googled data loss waiver a ton of forms popped up. I’ll probably just pull some from there and update details for my situation. I assume that after signing off on the work to be performed that the data loss waiver is the very next thing they sign, yes?

Snufykat, I don’t know any details right now. I’ve been playing phone tag and the message was “…a Dell server, or computer that will act as a server.” Don’t know if there’s an exisiting domain or what roles they’ll need. I have a feeling this is just going to be a file server. Who knows, we’ll see.

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If it is a job where the scope is set, you may want to think about doing a flat rate for the job. That way, you can charge a fair price for the job, but won’t feel bad if you need to take a little more time to get it right. I am an AV guy, but used to work for an IT company in Houston. Our network engineers were usually billed out at ~$150.00/hr. If you want to use the flat rate model, figure the number of hours that it should take and multiply it by your hourly rate. If you feel like you need to charge less per hour, think about combining it with a maintenance contract. That is how I do most of my AV projects. I will sometimes offer a lower price for the original job if the client purchases a maintenance agreement. The maintenance agreement guarentees you work every month and establishes you as the “go to” guy for all of their needs.

2 Spice ups
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Ok, so it turns out this will be an A/D migration 2003 → 2012. Small office, 10 users. No onsite backup (!!!) so will use the demoted server as backup destination - already getting push back for off-site solution. Asked for $75/hr. which they were fine with. Will draw up work order (incl. data waiver) and submit. Thanks again for the advice, everyone.

Yay Spiceworks! -

http://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/show/57636-migrate-active-directory-from-server-2003-to-server-2012-r2