Freelance work

loss4words

Hey guys,

So I started doing some freelance work besides my day job. I started posting on craigslist and I got few e-mails and I went out to do a fix twice I charged $60 for a repair both times. Is this fee ok, too little, too high?

Are there any other websites other than craigslist where I could post to offer such services?

Thank you!

xenodamus

That sounds like a reasonable price starting out. I do a little side work here and there and charge $50/hr for most calls. If I encounter an issue that would take longer than 2 hours onsite I would normally take the PC back with me anyway. Word of mouth is going to do amazing things for you when it comes to side work (if you're good at what you do). I do a job or 2 each week and I don't advertise at all.

veritas_libertas

Freelancing can be fun, and at times just horrible. I am so sick of it that I now charge $50 an hour. I use to do a flat fee until it would take hours at time. Sometimes it feels real uncomfortable to be stuck at someone's house chained to their PC. Even worse when the family dog decides it likes licking you...

vCole

I've tried posting on Craigslist but no avail.

veritas_libertas

I should also mention that putting a well created flyer at your local post office, or grocery store can work out very well. One of my best customers (thanks to her troublesome children) came from a flyer I pinned up at the post office.

Hyper-Me

FadeToBright wrote: »

I've tried posting on Craigslist but no avail.

I don't know about where you live, but here there are literally hundreds of people posting daily on the craigslist computer support area. People are undercutting each other so bad you can find people willing to drive 45 minutes and charge 15$ to work on a computer for hours.

loss4words

veritas_libertas wrote: »

I should also mention that putting a well created flyer at your local post office, or grocery store can work out very well. One of my best customers (thanks to her troublesome children) came from a flyer I pinned up at the post office.

Thank you. That sounds like an amazing idea! I'm definitely going to try this.

I am myself amazed that I got some responses and this is the first time I posted this kind of ad on craigslist. All the posts look so professional with images and bullet points with what kind of problems the technician can fix, and mine was a simple 3 sentence paragraph basically saying who I am and that I can fix stuff Maybe mine was different then most so I got contacted...who knows.

levar

loss4words wrote: »

Hey guys,

So I started doing some freelance work besides my day job. I started posting on craigslist and I got few e-mails and I went out to do a fix twice I charged $60 for a repair both times. Is this fee ok, too little, too high?

Are there any other websites other than craigslist where I could post to offer such services?

Thank you!

What kind of repairs did you do? What was your procedure like? Because I'd like to start doing some freelance work myself, I've been on a few with a parent of mine, we brought CDs..etc I got $50 for just installing the OS I was like wow! Can I do it again

vCole

Hyper-Me wrote: »

I don't know about where you live, but here there are literally hundreds of people posting daily on the craigslist computer support area. People are undercutting each other so bad you can find people willing to drive 45 minutes and charge 15$ to work on a computer for hours.

Yeah, I live in RI. Everyone is ALWAYS undercutting each other.

vCole

veritas_libertas wrote: »

I should also mention that putting a well created flyer at your local post office, or grocery store can work out very well. One of my best customers (thanks to her troublesome children) came from a flyer I pinned up at the post office.

Would you mind post and/or PMing me what yours looks like for ideas?

Hyper-Me

Just be sure its worth the headache.

I have cleaned Viri for people only for them to get it again a couple weeks later and expect me to clean it again for free. Saying that I didnt get it the first time (in some instances, after a total reinstall of Windows, etc)

I have gone to put new hardware in a machine for someone and it be DOA, when they watched me unbox it, and blame me for it not working and asking for me to pay them for it. Yeah right.

There are good customers out there and there are people looking for something for nothing.

RouteThisWay

Hyper-Me wrote: »

Just be sure its worth the headache.

I have cleaned Viri for people only for them to get it again a couple weeks later and expect me to clean it again for free. Saying that I didnt get it the first time (in some instances, after a total reinstall of Windows, etc)

I have gone to put new hardware in a machine for someone and it be DOA, when they watched me unbox it, and blame me for it not working and asking for me to pay them for it. Yeah right.

There are good customers out there and there are people looking for something for nothing.

This is the biggest reason why I avoid doing any side work. People want something for nothing. And expect you to work for free.

Friends, family, I'm okay with. Usually I'll do the work for a case of beer or tickets to a Vols game or something. I don't feel comfortable taking money from friends/family. Usually it's just as a favor.

Hyper-Me

RouteThisWay wrote: »

This is the biggest reason why I avoid doing any side work. People want something for nothing. And expect you to work for free.

Friends, family, I'm okay with. Usually I'll do the work for a case of beer or tickets to a Vols game or something. I don't feel comfortable taking money from friends/family. Usually it's just as a favor.

A friend of my moms was saying her computer was messed up one day and my mom said "You should let Hyper look at it, he's good with computers. He works on them for a living" to which her friend replied "yeah but isnt he only like 24?" and my mom said "yeah but he's in charge of 13000 computers in the school district" and her friend said "i'd like to find someone with more experience"

RouteThisWay

Haha. I am sure she has no problem letting people who are up to 6 years younger than you wield an M16 and fight for her country. But you couldn't possibly work on a computer.

[Deleted User]

I wouldn't let Hyper touch my computer either! He's managed only 13,000 computers.. I think the GeekSquad gets like 5 million plus a day.. they are way more experienced.

impelse

xmalachi wrote: »

I wouldn't let Hyper touch my computer either! He's managed only 13,000 computers.. I think the GeekSquad gets like 5 million plus a day.. they are way more experienced.

Yes, they know more.

BradleyHU

Hyper-Me wrote: »

A friend of my moms was saying her computer was messed up one day and my mom said "You should let Hyper look at it, he's good with computers. He works on them for a living" to which her friend replied "yeah but isnt he only like 24?" and my mom said "yeah but he's in charge of 13000 computers in the school district" and her friend said "i'd like to find someone with more experience"

LOOOOOOLZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that is hilarious...i guess its a blessing for you, because you dont have to deal with her slowness....

i just signed up to post on CL....i'm really tryin to decide if i want to do this....i can just imagine the ridiculous lowballing prices out there, and then i dont want to have to deal with stupid folks either....THEE worst!!!

pinkydapimp

Hyper-Me wrote: »

Just be sure its worth the headache.

I have cleaned Viri for people only for them to get it again a couple weeks later and expect me to clean it again for free. Saying that I didnt get it the first time (in some instances, after a total reinstall of Windows, etc)

I have gone to put new hardware in a machine for someone and it be DOA, when they watched me unbox it, and blame me for it not working and asking for me to pay them for it. Yeah right.

There are good customers out there and there are people looking for something for nothing.

This is exactly the scenerio i think of when i consider doing side work for people i dont know. Anyone ever considered having them sign some sort of form indicating the service is complete before you leave? If their computers mobo dies the day after you complete work on it, whats to stop them from holding you responsible and insisting you pay for a new computer?

Hyper-Me

impelse wrote: »

Yes, they know more.

Sarcasm detection fail.

BradleyHU

impelse wrote: »

Yes, they know more.

yeah i really hope this is sarcasm....

impelse

Sure it is, jajajaajaj

[Deleted User]

Edit: Irrelevant post. Impelse is too fast for me.

Hyper-Me

impelse wrote: »

Sure it is, jajajaajaj

Missed a key there, pal.

[Deleted User]

To get this thread back on track after I derailed it. I believe there are options online for freelance work but I think it is kind of like Hyper said that people are undercutting each other terribly. Also, I saw a lot of people from other countries participating in the work on these sites so you probably aren't in good favor to get a decent rate on those websites. I personally would only do freelance work with a professional organization and with a contract in hand. That's my opinion though, I don't want to get into messy situations like Hyper described.

loss4words

levar wrote: »

What kind of repairs did you do? What was your procedure like? Because I'd like to start doing some freelance work myself, I've been on a few with a parent of mine, we brought CDs..etc I got $50 for just installing the OS I was like wow! Can I do it again

Hi Levar. The first one I went to was a virus issue on a PC. Took me about 2 hours to get cleaned it out without doing a clean install. I got paid $60 for the whole time I was there, but the lady was nice and offered me tea and cookies, while I was waiting for scan to finish

The other one was a corrupted XP profile. Something happened and when the user logged on he couldn't find stuff he had previously saved on the desktop, my documents, etc. Anyway, browsing to "documents and settings" and backing up the right profile, and then rebuilding it fixed it.

I didn't post anything on CL today and didn't get any e-mails since yesterday. There are just so many of these ads there, mine just got lost in the shuffle, I guess.

varelg

Hyper-Me wrote: »

... and my mom said "yeah but he's in charge of 13000 computers in the school district" and her friend said "i'd like to find someone with more experience"

In your face Hyper, in your face
On the serious side, I know a guy that started out exactly a side work like what was described at the beggining of this topic, by advertising it in local newspaper, started out first doing PC repair work for his fellow compatriots (Miami being ethnically always charged town it is only logical) a lot of on-call repairs, this guy doesn't even have a hint of an IT background and I was astonished to see how his volume of work was rising. This was pre- craigslist, the-dominance-of-the-desktop non-wifi internet era.
Not only knowledge, it takes some sence for business management and knowing your customers if you want to rely exclusively on this type of work to be your bread winner. Not all customers paid my friend in full though, but he wasn't shining with honesty either. Not everybody is cut out for that kind of work and it isn't enough to be a PC virtuoso, you have to know how to get your money from all kinds of people.
Last time I saw my friend, he was laying cables for a video surveilance installation in an ice cream store, brand new SUV being in his possesion, trying to explain how he expanded his services to network management of a medium-sized company somewhere in Miami...
Come to think of him, I haven't seen any advertisement of his company in the newspapers in which he regularly advertised for quite a time...
And yes, nowadays there are leaflets everywhere people advertising their PC repair skills, low price and might find a bargain if I didn't know how to do it myself...

RouteThisWay

varelg wrote: »

nowadays there are leaflets everywhere people advertising their PC repair skills, low price and might find a bargain if I didn't know how to do it myself...

That's because everyone and their mom thinks that because they put in the newest graphics card so they can play Call of Duty at high res with high FPS, they think they are the next greatest thing in IT.

"Omg this is so easy. Hear it's great money!"

Hyper-Me

RouteThisWay wrote: »

That's because everyone and their mom thinks that because they put in the newest graphics card so they can play Call of Duty at high res with high FPS, they think they are the next greatest thing in IT.

"Omg this is so easy. Hear it's great money!"

You shut yer mouth when yer talkin to me! the guy at ITT said if i sat in class for 2 semesters I could make 250,000 my first year!!

RouteThisWay

Where's the hot chick I was promised?!

laidbackfreak

RouteThisWay wrote: »

Where's the hot chick I was promised?!

still cooking at kfc

thompjac

I've only done a little bit of freelance but the advice I offer may be beneficial.

- If it is someone you don't know (not friend, family, etc), have them sign a small waiver saying that you aren't responsible for lost data, faulty equipment, voiding warrant, etc. Some people don't like this because of the bad vibe it starts with, but it'll save you if the customer feels the need to exploit you.

- If you are watched as you work, don't just sit there for 30 minutes (especially if you charge by the hour) while it is scanning for malware or what not, act busy (open command prompt and type various commands with output, open up task manager and go over the processes/perfomance chart, etc) otherwise they might not like paying you to sit around.

-Be prepared, make sure you have all possible CDs/software, or tools you may need (don't rely on their internet access)

-Look, Act and Be professional : I swear I was driving around a month or two a go and I kept seeing these card board signs everywhere (like 8 signs all around an certain area of town) saying "Need Puter fixed?, $30, xxx-555-555" in black marker.