Hi there, I am after a bit of advice really, I regularly do odd jobs for people at work who are not really tech savvy but usually charge in donuts for the office as I do it at lunch in work. On this occasion though I have been asked to a job and the guy insists on paying me, I'm not complaining but I just wonder what you think I should charge. He has 2 old P4's that he wanted ram upgrades and wireless adding to for his kids to use for studying. I have put in ram that I had kicking around in spares and 2 usb wi-fi that I also had kicking around, I'm thinking that the parts were worth £20-30 as new would have been £50 odd. He also wanted the PC's rebuilt and setup and help configuring a home network. He also wanted me to network his printer if possible, I have a USB print server doing nothing that he can have. Basically I don't want to overcharge or rip him off as he is a workmate, but in the same way I don't want to undersell myself either. I've always been a bit useless at "selling myself" so a little outside perspective would be great!
I would say £100-£150 but im also a bit rubbish at this kind of thing Edit: actually seems a bit high compared to what everyone else said
Take what you earn an hour, add a quid or two to that, charge that for the time + price of parts. Then at least you will feel as if you've added a bit to your wages and you weren't getting paid any less than you would were you doing work for that time.
For me, if it's a mate, id say pay me for the parts and you can buy me a drink at the christmas party. Say £30 for parts. £100 - £150 is a bit steep for work mates. I guess it just depends on how much you like him.
This. + £30 quid for parts. I would be taken-aback, cross, and yet feel obliged to pay if this is what I was quoted!
Thanks everyone. I'm thinking of suggesting £20 for each machine and £20 for parts. Re-Installs do take a few hours including patching and configuring but are largely unattended anyway. I know I spent a bit more time than I'm charging for but mates rates and all that. I think if it was someone I didn't know and they wanted 2 re-installs, 1 with data migration, memory upgrades, wireless cards and home network setting up and configuring that £100-£150 would be an acceptable price including parts, labour and travel etc. But as I said before the guy is a work mate... ...who I do like. As for the Christmas party, I'm not going. There are too many small parties from each department, plus I live in a different town with no public transport links which means I can't drink so I can get home, so I'm giving all of them a miss. If the company had 1 big do instead of letting all the departments sort themselves out that may be different. Thanks for the help, I'll rep you.
Why not ask what he would feel happy paying you if you're not comfortable working it out? Would seem fair to me and then you can both be happy, you can even knock him down on what he offers if you like.
Why not roll the dice - call it a favour and tell him you might expect a favour from him in the future. Leaves you out of pocket now but who knows what it could do for you down the line...
Parts + a case of beer (that's 24 beers around here). That means you can get drunk for as long as it took to redo the machines.
What, 30 minutes? You planning to order a pizza together? Seriously, see what he wants to offer. If he's happy with what you've done he'll be able to put some sort of value on it. Like I say you can always knock him down, so to speak.
Assuming what you earn per hour is legit, over the counter, tax/NI payable (which this will not be), that is excessive and the guy will know it. If you don't particularly like him or want to do him a favour then that won't matter. If you want to use such a calculation and be utterly fair about it though, take what you earn per hour then knock off 25-30% for deductions that you would probably anyway have on gross salary
This is a tricky one because it's not your main job. Whenever I do work for mates they pay me the going rate, but that's because it's my vocation and they recognise and honour that. Weddings are different because it's a big deal (>£1k) so I have done 50% off in the past, but it really hurt my business and I won't be doing it again. Ever. Since this is not your main job I'd agree with the suggestion above: ask your workmate what he'll pay, and go with that. I doubt you'll need to bring Trading Standards into it.
£30 for the parts seems gair, add another £25 for your time ? £55 all in doesn't sound unfair or unresaonable. I do something similar for my work mates too, although usually they pay me in cider, which is fine by me
