How much would you charge for your services?

[LpNova_techi]

I hope he said thank you!

 

Either that or just knock up an invoice on word and charge him a Tenner? Stick it in his pigeon hole and see if he pays .........

 

Or dont charge, it's up to you hunni ........

[Gardinho]

It was ages ago now. That's just one example of why I decided to stop doing private jobs at work.

[Miscbrah]

"Bung us a tenner*" (I would like £10) or "Bung us a score*" (I would like £20) does for me usually. Phrases like that roll off the tongue quite nicely, and make you sound like a plasterer too.

 

 

 

 

 

*©London.

[LpNova_techi]

Oh right,

Yep dont blame ya, I used to have that problem when I worked with alot of retail customers, they would call me at like 11.00pm at night and ask stupid questions, then when it came to actucally going around and fixing the PC's they were reluctant to pay! The same thing happens with friends etc. I found in the end acting like I was stupid, gave me a breather.....

 

Miscbrah, That must be a London thing ...... I said that before now ..... lol

[Roberto]

My going rate: £600 per day or part thereof. Yes I know that's a bit "silly" in the context you're asking about, but I don't want to do jobs like this so I'm intentionally pricing myself out of the market, while leaving the way open for that small business that's absolutely desperate to recover their exchange database to make me an offer I can't refuse.

 

There is a serious side to that price too. Simply put: how much do you value the time that you have spent doing this job? How much do you need the money you could be making from doing jobs like these?

[Gardinho]

My going rate: £600 per day or part thereof. Yes I know that's a bit "silly" in the context you're asking about, but I don't want to do jobs like this so I'm intentionally pricing myself out of the market, while leaving the way open for that small business that's absolutely desperate to recover their exchange database to make me an offer I can't refuse.

 

There is a serious side to that price too. Simply put: how much do you value the time that you have spent doing this job? How much do you need the money you could be making from doing jobs like these?

 

I very much agree with this.

 

In my experience, if you limit your work to private businesses they will return to you in future (providing you do a good job), and pay you for the extra support. I'd rather do the odd week of work for £1000+ at a time than hundreds of small jobs for home users at a poor rate. Some people think that because they have given you £20 for a small job they are entitled to a lifetime of technical support!

[Disaster]

Before I judge whether or not to to take on the job, I ask myself 'Would this teacher offer private tutoring for my kids for free/a £2 bottle of wine/a box of chocolates?' If the answer is yes, I'd repair their machine. It's funny, however, how often the answer to this is 'No'!

 

Ha, the amount of times I wish I could have used this -though I don't have any kids. I'd love to see their face when offered this sort of deal!

[sted]

i only do out of hour work for a few people family/friends odd one offs if someones really being screwed over and in at least one case i have the opposite problem i wish he wouldnt give me money. id rather be owed a favour than money or just people being happy youve fixed it

[Pete10141748]

Last time I did a home-repair job for someone was an overnight deal (it took me several hours in an evening to do, remove all data, wipe & reinstall OS & software, restore data taken off) and as it was for someone's daughter at uni she needed it done right then that evening.

 

Charged her £80 for the work as it was a "last minute" thing (she phoned me about 4.30pm to ask me to do it, brought the laptop to my house an hour later). At the time that was cheaper than somewhere like PC World who also do not save your data for you, only install a fresh OS.

 

If I can do it in school hours I dont tend to charge as often they present more interesting problems than the everyday things we normally deal with, but something that has to be done at home in my own time I wouldn't do for less than £50 I reckon. My time is my time, and an evening with the missus is worth more to me than £20!

 

 

EDIT: Before anyone says it, for £50 my missus is happy for me to be sat at a PC all evening as it means I can then "buy her a present" < her own words

Edited May 9, 2012 by Pete10141748