That's kind of how I started out, then a couple clients had were small businesses with small networks and presto. The cool thing is when you find those guys they think your genius if all they've had are straight desktop folks trying to support a server.
I say try it out and see how it goes. I charged $25/hr for home stuff (this was years ago) but was always hesitant to go over $200 or so because you start approaching the price of a new system. Charge a little less than Geek squad or other local competition, build a reputation and then raise your rates. For me $25/hr isn't worth cutting into my personal time, but that's because I can charge a lot more ($80/hr, still cheaper than the market would allow by a fair amount) to my regular servers-owning clients. $25/hr is still *way* more than minimum wage. Also, don't hesitate to tap into your network of geeks for troubleshooting. Dave -----Original Message----- From: Joseph Heaton [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, November 09, 2009 12:12 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Side work Well, personally I wasn't thinking of doing business stuff. Just posting an ad on the local Craig's list, and taking in personal PCs for repairs, upgrades, minor stuff like that. >>> David Lum <[email protected]> 11/9/2009 12:08 PM >>> One thing I am 100% clear with on my side jobs is contacting me at %DAYJOB% is VERBOTEN unless business-down critical and my availability is limited to after %DAYJOB% hours. OTOH my current %DAYJOB% is aware of my side clients for my biz and it's understood I can take personal time if it's an *extreme* emergency for a client . Over the last 3 years that has worked out to a whopping five hours for one server down incident. If it ever became more than once a year I would likely drop the client to stay in %DAYJOB% good graces. Obviously it's something that can vary from place to place, but they key is setting expectation up front for everyone. As long as side job clients understand %DAYJOB% trumps everything else for priority we're good. My biggest client has 50 employees and understands this limitation but has been happy enough that this month marks 9 years of support. In fact I have never had a client drop me, although I have dropped one and turned down a few. Manage expectations, **know when to turn down clients** and life will be good. David Lum // SYSTEMS ENGINEER NORTHWEST EVALUATION ASSOCIATION (Desk) 971.222.1025 // (Cell) 503.267.9764 From: Jacob [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, November 09, 2009 11:54 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Side work I did side work, but it became a pain when someone would call during my "normal" job and they wanted me to either come to their house/small office now or walk them over the phone. Was not worth the hassle... From: John Aldrich [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, November 09, 2009 11:18 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: OT: Side work Anyone here do any side work as a PC Tech? I'm looking at doing some side work to bring in a bit of extra money during tight economic times. I'm curious whether you have customers sign any sort of release of liability for the equipment? I'm just trying to keep from losing money on this by getting sued if I take in a piece of hardware and it ends up that it's unrepairable or gets damaged worse in my custody... [cid:[email protected]][cid:[email protected]] ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
