IT Rates

[theboss]

Garethgtt said:

theboss said:

Garethgtt said:

Hi,

Not sure if this is the right forum but..

Im Currently a full time IT Manager, prior to that i was an IT Consultant and Senior Network Engineer for a large Reseller.
My question is...

Im often asked by small companies and private individuals to do out of hours IT related jobs for them small Network installs (SBS server etc), home wireless installs etc etc.

As a consultant i used to be charged out at £120 per hour and can do these things in my sleep. I have over 10 years experience of doing large scale installs and have all the relevent qualifications.

I know there are a lot of IT industry guys on here who must do similair things... what kind of rates do you charge?
obviously im not going to bill some home user anywhere near £120 an hour

thoughts anyone?

I'm in a similar position with similar background, and recently decided to incorporate and VAT register to cope with the demand from all these out-of-hours customers. What started as an experiment is now looking like a very promising second income, so it's definitely worth embracing these opportunities providing that they don't conflict with Mon-Fri working - at least that's the rule I've set myself.

I tend to charge £500/day or £300/half day on-site in the South East, typically these are smallish businesses with 1-10 servers including the occasional SBS. I don't charge on an hourly basis unless it's from home.

In my circumstances that's enough for it to be worthwhile to me, whilst also cheap enough for the customer to appreciate that they are getting a very good rate. If they quibble then I remind them that through a reseller then they'll pay twice that rate, and on a weekend (when many such jobs have to be done) 3 or 4 times.

As for home users - I avoid them as I suspect them to be the most demanding *and* tight-fisted, i.e. most likely to quibble over 50 quid then phone you up every time their computer 'stops working because you fixed it'.

Good luck with it!

I found doing some of the bigger installs, they encroach on my mon-fri job, ie having to spend time placing/chasing orders, dealing with business package ISPs (only open weekdays). If its for a business they expect to be able to reach you during the weekday if they have a problem..etc etc for me thats a step too far and i dont want my full time employment to suffer.

Yes the biggest concern I had before undertaking recent work was that it would end up encroaching on my job.

The most important thing was to ensure that realistic expectations were set with the customers right from the beginning. I have always been completely straight up about my other commitments and the fact that I am rarely available during the week. In several cases where I expected to lose out because of this, the customers have surprised me by wishing to do business, and in every case it has been successful.

I'm also lucky to have a 'full time' job which often involves sitting at home thumb-twiddling.

[JonRB]

Plotloss said:

If I turned up in a Bugatti Royale towing a 250GT I still wouldnt pay £35 for a Norton product.

[mc_blue]

A family relative did our network and VPN. A big mistake, he took ages (months going on years) and wasted our time. The other thing is you can't really have a go. With hindsight I would have quite happily paid up to £100/150 per hour for someone who could get the job done in a couple of weeks...

[Garethgtt]

mc_blue said:

A family relative did our network and VPN. A big mistake, he took ages (months going on years) and wasted our time. The other thing is you can't really have a go. With hindsight I would have quite happily paid up to £100/150 per hour for someone who could get the job done in a couple of weeks...

That brings me to another point, you get what you pay for and often going for the cheaper option ends up far more expensive than spending the money and doing it properly in the first place.

In my last job they used to charge me out at £600 for half a day to set up a Cisco Firewall and site to site or remote VPN, now i can have the whole thing installed/ configured within 25 minutes ive done it that many times--i dont even need to use a serial cable anymore.

[TB Rich]

peterh2 said:

I could possibly be interested in doing this on a part time basis but would prefer to deal with businesses instead of home users. Does anyone have any tips on how to build up a small client base of local small companies without too much effort?

I to would be interested in advice along these lines. Thanks.

[fade2grey]

I do occasional work outside of my main job @ ~1k/day (min 1/2 a day) My brother actually runs his own IT services company & I can get drafted in to move machine from one place to another or completely redesign entire systems. essentially the work I actually end up doing doesnt matter, provided the need is enough to motivate the finance required.

I don't do nearly as much outside of work as I used to because I generally work (main job)in the very large enterprise space so have lost touch with the SME world somewhat. I don't need to (for the money that is). And I used to find it encroached on my main job if things go belly up regardless of who caused it/sorts it/carrys the can.

Oh yeah & I'd never go back to home users... nightmare!