killerbelow said:
ok got a preliminary pricing list up
tell me what you think
MSWord
I've been doing "computer consulting" for about 2 years now, mostly small networks, and general PC stuff, here's some advice:
1) Charge for your time, not for what you do
Flat rate it. I guarantee 90% of the time you are going to get onsite and find out that they want you to do a whole bunch of other crap as well. The easiest way to cover this is to simply charge a flat rate for your time.
2) Avoid "fixed price" items. They rarely work out. You expect them to be minimal, yet your clients will expect them to be all encompasing. Take for instance your flat rate software installation fees. Your viewing that as throwing a copy of Word onto a PC, whereas a client could potentially come to you with a program that will take several hours to install (after insisting that you fully configure it, and get any updates to the program, etc.), and you'll only make $10 or whatever you quoted yourself at.
3) Be VERY careful about what you are doing. To many of us, our PC's are toys that we goof around on. Your customers will be different (You aren't getting paid $50/hour because the guy wants to read TribalWar). I've had several close calls myself with this, and have friends who have been taken to court. If you end up doing work for businesses, they generally NEED their computers, and they will blame you for everything. Lets say they are running Windows ME, and have you come in and network it. Suddenly their crappy PC's start crashing all over. You usually won't get away with saying "Oh, too bad", and can be stuck trying to fix their problem for hours. If you walk away from it, you run the risk of being sued for loss of profit, breach of contract, etc. If you are going to do work for business people, I suggest getting a legal disclaimer written up stating that you are only liable up to the value of your services.
4) Pricing is deceptive
When I first started, I charged $25 an hour and didn't get much business. I was tired of dealing with all the crap for that little (yes, $25 sounds like alot, but you will usually put in 2 hours unbillable for every hour billable you make), so I bumped it up to $50. My clients changed dramatically. I went from being some amatuer guy that was treated as such ("Its broken, fix it"), to being a "computer professional", where they would write out detailed lists of the problems they were having, refer me to their friends, and treat like an equal instead of some joe repair guy that just showed up. The responsibility went up, but I got more work by RAISING my rates, the opposite of what you would expect.
