What to charge for computer work?

[badandy]

My friends get off cheap. I make them buy me dinner.

I charge my friends a fifth of my fave liquor... or any liquor for that matter.

[badandy]

There's always the annual income rule.

If you're only making 20k a year, charge $20 an hour. 115k a year, $115 an hour.

That must be contractor rates, own supplies, equip, taxes, etc

Because full time doubles your gross... 20hr=40k, 70hr=140k, etc...

Unless your me, I bill door to door, and work mobile. If I can do it at home with a beer in hand... rate decreases, and I'm still happy.

[not4un]

I like the idea of just agreeing to a price. I live in a semi-remote area and no one where I lives does any kind of computer repairs. It will mostly be spyware,virus remove, system recoverys, and some wi-fi stuff.

[DiscoBayJoe]

Geek Squad is not even worth what they charge, most of those guys are incompetent.

I coudln't agree more; however, its a posted set of fixed prices that could serve as a reference point for both the OP and the Customer.

[Elmer]

$125 hr
$50 travel fee

Good luck......

I used to fix computers for friends, (for free...that's not my profession). These days it's hardly worth even replacing a hard drive in most of the computers I get asked about. I've got a laptop here that belongs to a friend's daughter that's "running really slow". Duh. She's got 4 or 5 messenger programs that load, itunes, etc. It's a 4 year old Celeron. It's got a 40 GB, 4200 rpm drive, 256 MB of memory, and the dvd drive is toast. I told them for 300 bucks, she can have a brand new laptop that will be faster, and have a much bigger drive. I hate to think what would have happened had they taken it in to a shop.

With the price of computers today.... I'd advise anyone thinking about a career in consumer computer repair to learn the words, "would you like fries with that"?

[Malthusian]

Good luck......

I used to fix computers for friends, (for free...that's not my profession). These days it's hardly worth even replacing a hard drive in most of the computers I get asked about. I've got a laptop here that belongs to a friend's daughter that's "running really slow". Duh. She's got 4 or 5 messenger programs that load, itunes, etc. It's 4 years old. It's got a 40 GB, 4200 rpm drive, 256 MB of memory, and the dvd drive is toast. I told them for 300 bucks, she can have a brand new laptop that will be faster, and have a much bigger drive. I hate to think what would have happened had they taken it in to a shop.

With the price of computers today.... I'd advise anyone thinking about a career in consumer computer repair to learn the words, "would you like fries with that"?

Have a friend that charges exactly that ($125 with $50 travel fee). But he is good. Has a few business accounts. It is his only income.

Moved here from Russia, put up his shingle and is pulling in 100K.

I personally charge about $60-$65. I usually have to make a Fry's run and just add the never ending list of things I need for my computers to the tag and my customer pay for my indulgence. You cannot do hardly anything in an hour. Most tasks are 2-4 hours

[JDay]

I like the idea of just agreeing to a price. I live in a semi-remote area and no one where I lives does any kind of computer repairs. It will mostly be spyware,virus remove, system recoverys, and some wi-fi stuff.

Look on Craigslist and see what the going rate is, usually a fixed price for simple removal, more if you have to really dig in.

[Rob454]

Really depends on your skill and the difficulty of the job. I understand that people have a minimum rate but I usually ask what the estimate is. if you have the experience you should be able to tell me what the job total will be. If you are new just starting out you're better off working a little cheaper ( undercut your competition) and build a client list. As you get the experience and the clients keep calling you back then you can start charging more. ive had people who did work for me and Ive used them over and over but they give me good prices and they do good work,.

[Invicta]

Yeah, check the local market and look at your experience. If you haven't done a lot of this work before consider a fixed fee. That way you aren't billing people for your learning curve.

The company I work bills me out at $165-$225/hour and 1.5 times that after hours. That is for business level stuff like VMware, Citrix, SAN work, etc though in a large market (SoCal). Personally I charge $50 an hour for pc repairs for friends and family on the side from time to time. PC Repair is definitely becoming a commodity. Learn it well then move up to networking/higher level business stuff.

[Mute]

Depends on how badly you need to work. When I used to do IT work, I'd charge no less than $150/hr. $200/hr for Apples. It might be excessive for a Joe Blow at home on his PC, but I told people, that's my cost because I guarantee that I'll fix your problem and it isn't worth my time to charge less (unless you're a close friend or a relative). If you want to pay less go ahead and take your chance.

I do suggest you put together a business plan. Breakdown the cost for the type of work and charge accordingly. Also draw up a customer service level agreement to be signed by the customer detailing what your service will and will not cover, so there isn't any confusion. Some people think just because you service one area of their computing needs, all of a sudden everything related to electronics are a part of the process.

If you are going to seriously make this a business, you should have a business plan.

[perpetual otter]

PC repair can be costly. My techie buddy gets lots of food and beer from me when he fixes/builds stuff for me. I also trade him for reloads sometimes (I reload mass amounts of 223 and 45).

[Rob454]

Personally i always ask what the job costs. This way if you fix it quick then you make money. if you cant fix it then I dont pay or you lose money the longer it takes. I look at it this way. if you do a T&M charge then you have NO incentive to get it fixed quick and youre jsut gonna milk the clock. if someone knows what they are doing they know what the time to fix a problem is. Ive had a few computer problems i couldnt fix. my latest one was a vaio and it simply stopped working. used it the night before and the next morning nothing. no lights no nothing. Tried a different power supply etc. Did some basic tests and i called a few people. got quotes for 5-600$ to look and fix it or more if it was something else. Basically these guys priced themselves out of fixing it. no problem. i just went and bought a new one. I kept the old vaio in case someone wanted it. What sucked was i jsut had a new mother board and CDRW installed a year ago for the mother board and 2 weeks for the CD drive and it broke. I figure someone may need the screen or p arts off of it.

[perpetual otter]

PC repair can be costly. My techie buddy gets lots of food and beer from me when he fixes/builds stuff for me. I also trade him for reloads sometimes (I reload mass amounts of 223 and 45).

[kapache]

I personally don't think that their is much money to be nade repairing computers, specially with all the competition out there. You should consider doing Networking, or system administration to increase your chances of making good money.