Re: Re[2]: FN-FORUM: Advertising for 'home PC repair' work..

date posted 5th January 2005 17:07

On 5 Jan 2005 17:23:41 -0000, Tony Crockford [EMAIL REMOVED] wrote:
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> At 17:13 on Wednesday, 05 Jan 2005, Sherry L Boettger wrote:
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> > of a computer mess with it. My clients tend to discover quickly that w=
e
> > know what we are doing.
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> the burning question is what do they pay?

I charge =A335/hr to business clients - even the home based ones. They
want an invoice. Non business users I tend to be more flexible and
play by ear. If there's a late model BMW in the driveway of a 'posh'
area I am less 'flexible' than I might be if it's a single mother in a
council flat kind of thing. I flat-rate my charges if I'm following a
well travelled path such as upgrading them to OSX. I do like to see
=A350 as a minimum unless it's just down the street. In London, travel
time can add up but there's only so much you can reasonably charge for
that - I apply a =A315 flat rate if outside my local postcodes. I did a
job last year on a Sunday afternoon - charged =A350 to remove a jammed
ZIP disk - spent all of 20 mins there but it killed Sunday afternoon
getting there and back - but I now know where Sidcup is!

> do you do a PC world style tarriff just at lower pices, or a fixed price
> plus parts or an hourly rate or what?

I sometimes work on stuff at home - I charge =A330/hr for that and of
course no travel time. But most of my work is 'onsite'.
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> I've been toying with the idea for ages (targeting the silver surfers) bu=
t
> never got round to it...

The silver surfers are the best! Especially with the 'treats' like
home made cakes and sarnies and glasses of Shiraz.
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> Any other good tips...

Smile, sense of humour, listen, have patience and remember that if
they had a clue, they wouldn't be paying you to sort their problem.
The WORST clients are the ones who think they know what they're doing
and try to second guess you, fiddle around after you've left and then
blame it on you. Though that tends to be rare.

Also telephone support is NOT free. I'll let people off for 5 minutes
but after that - I want at least a tenner.

Dave
> --
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> Call 0870 870 4414 or visit www.prosperity4.com
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> To advertise here: http://www.freelancers.net/advertising.html
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>