What to charge for small business computer help?

July 13, 2018 2:56 PM

Someone on Next Door messaged me about paying me for a couple of IT tasks. They are starting up a property management company and they're too busy to handle the tech end of it. I need any work and income I can get so I definitely want to do this, but I have no idea what to charge. I've posted their request inside.

Here's what she emailed:

#1 I have a computer to set up.

#2 I need to get into this program called Buildium. Google Buildium and you will get an ideal of the program. They have support and online video training. Video training on something like this does not work for me as I don't like doing things like that and I seem to forget some steps when I go to do it. I have started but then get behind in the things I need to be doing. I can export my data into csv format in the manner they want but I do something wrong when bringing the data in.

I also live close and can be here any time. My cell phone is xxxxx. My office address is xxxxxxx. I'm not sure what you would charge for helping but timing could be flexible so you can look for real employment and possibly help me out too. Thank you for considering.

I'm in Milwaukee so coastal city rates are not applicable. For scale, apartments in this neighborhood rent for $600-$800. I looked her up to make sure she's not an awful person (she's not) and this appears to be her first and only business. She's possibly retired from doing something else.

I'm also wondering if I should set up a LLC (??) for myself in case she or someone else has more work for me. I have extremely little knowledge about self-employment and I have very little to spend in fees and whatnot.

posted by AFABulous to Work & Money (16 answers total)

Response by poster: Oh, and I would bet money she is one of those types that will be calling me for "just little things, it'll only take 5 minutes" so I want to account for that in my rate.
posted by AFABulous at 2:58 PM on July 13, 2018

My computer guru here in the far northern suburbs of Chicago charged my small business $75/hour.
posted by DrGail at 3:16 PM on July 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

It is generally overkill to file an LLC before you're pretty busy/have employees. Sole Proprietorship is probably sufficient and maybe even overkill for one job you might make less than $600/year on, so you might just do nothing for now and see how the rest of the year goes.

I'm unsure what to say about rate, but do keep in mind that if you do this above-board and file self-employment taxes, you're really only "taking home" about half your rate.
posted by Lyn Never at 3:16 PM on July 13, 2018 [5 favorites]

I have done work of this nature in a medium-sized Midwestern city. Do you have, or can you figure out, an hourly rate from a somewhat recent previous job in the same / a similar location? If you were full-time and salaried you can assume you were getting paid for 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, regardless of your actual work schedule. Take that hourly figure and double it, or go with $75/hr, whichever is higher. Use a 30-min billing minimum, which will help people wait to call until they have a couple of “5 minute tasks” lined up for you. You don’t need an LLC until you get more consistent work.
posted by zebra at 3:31 PM on July 13, 2018 [6 favorites]

I'd suggest $75-$100 an hour. When you're doing freelance support work like this there is a lot of non-billable time so start higher than you might think is a fair "hourly wage." A good rule of thumb is that you need to be charging about double what you would want to get from a full time job. Don't forget that you'll probably be paying quarterly estimated taxes on this income if you turn this into a regular gig.

Have a minimum charge for remote support (could be 15 or 30 minutes) and be firm about charging it.

Charge 2.5x your hourly rate for responses between 5:00pm and 9:00am (or whatever counts as "after hours" to you).

This trains your clients that your time is valuable and it forces them to organize their questions and issues.
posted by bcwinters at 3:35 PM on July 13, 2018 [6 favorites]

Much depends on your experience + how long it takes you to perform the tasks.
posted by artdrectr at 3:38 PM on July 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

Rents here are about double that. I charge $60/hr for this sort of stuff. I'm on the low side for my area.
posted by humboldt32 at 5:22 PM on July 13, 2018

Set a minimum price as well, and bill promptly and bill everything. Keep up to date on the billing because you are working and it is worth getting paid for. Always.
posted by nickggully at 5:38 PM on July 13, 2018

I'd charge $50 an hour and I would do the following:

Hi Jill --

I'm happy to help with all of that. My rate is $50 an hour for the task-based needs you have immediately. Moving forward, my rate for support is also $50 an hour with a 30 minute minimum per support call or site visit.

If this sounds good to you, let me know and I'll be happy to meet with you at your convenience.

Thanks,
Jack
posted by DarlingBri at 6:00 PM on July 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

I charge $60/hour for this sort of thing only because it's pretty easy to divide by four and nothing, even a phone call, is less than a 15 minute thing (i.e. 15 minute minimum). I charge half my rate for travel time if people are further than "down the block" and I charge less if they come to my place. I send an itemized email invoice usually once a month, more often if clients want.

I'd be a little leery of "video training does not work for me" only because that may mean it's hard for her to learn other things. Nothing wrong with that, but that's going to be things she'll pay you to do and you may need to have some decent boundaries between what you are showing her how to do for herself and what you are going to continue to do for her. Nothing wrong with either model, it's just good to make sure you know which tasks go into which buckets.
posted by jessamyn at 6:42 PM on July 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

I ran a small consulting effort for a few years. I took my base salary hourly rate and x3ed it... let's talk about why.

First, if you are full time consulting, you are responsible for your health insurance, your taxes, and your retirement. You are your HR, your cafeteria, your payroll, your office supply runner - you are a one person shop. That means you have billable hours, and you have non-billable hours. Your rate is responsible for ensuring you are doing the job at a reasonable pay, but also so that when you have to handle a bank run, or a trip to your local office supply store that your hourly rate is effectively built into it. Understand - the cost of goods may not be, nor the mileage - but the time you spend doing overhead is still something you are owed. This also is the cushion with which you can reasonably look to acquire more contractor/consulting work. A buddy of mine who went from casually doing this into his full time gig puts it that if he only worked a 40 hour work week, only 10 of his hours would be billable, and then the other 30 would be drumming up additional business. If he only works those 10 billable hours, his rate has to cover those 30 hours of every thing else. Now, he usually works closer to 60 hours (30 overhead and 30 billable), so that means that he has a nicer office and can afford some hobbies outside of work. It took him probably 5 years though to get a steady client base.

I bailed on consulting when I could no longer do it on the side of what my full time gig was. It came to the choice of: LLC and do it, or take on more responsibility at work and don't worry about health insurance. I chose to not worry about health insurance. I invoiced, rocked the 1099s from each of my gigs, and gave a cash discount for paid in full services.
posted by Nanukthedog at 6:59 PM on July 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

I've charged $75-$100/hr in Milwaukee for similar work in the past year or two. That's probably a touch on the high end for this exact situation, but SaaS applications are becoming more and more critical for the day-to-day operations of small businesses, so be confident in your seemingly high rates.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 8:08 PM on July 13, 2018

If she'll be calling regularly with small questions, especially if things don't stick the first time, then may get awkward if you then bill a minimum for each and have to talk through an invoice. The mention of real employment makes me worry she may think of this as more of a favour / pocket money thing. So therefore consider a monthly retainer which includes all small calls and a few hours for bigger things with specific jobs on top. This helps set expectations for both of you in the expected cost going forwards.
posted by JonB at 12:09 AM on July 14, 2018

If you're good at what you do, you'll get more repeat business than new business. It's emotionally more taxing to impose a price rise on a good existing customer than it is to ask for more than you think you're worth from the get-go. If you have a range of rates in your mind that you think might be reasonable, always quote the highest end from the very beginning. As a guideline, think about what hourly you'd need to charge in order to motivate you to do a task you've already done so often that it's become kind of tedious.

Don't bother with the LLC until you're (a) doing enough business to need an accountant and (b) your accountant advises you to create one. Going corporate before you need to is just a way to piss money up against the wall on compliance costs you shouldn't need to be incurring.
posted by flabdablet at 2:13 AM on July 14, 2018

I did IT contracting work for 2 property management firms in the early and mid 2000’s.

It can turn into a LOT OF WORK very quickly, you will become a lifeline for her and you need to price your time as such.

Help her understand that she might end up spending multiple hundreds of dollars in the first few months. You will basically be a first responder for her business.

50 dollars an hour is a nice intro rate, you’re not going to save any of that but it will help get you through.
posted by nikaspark at 2:56 PM on July 14, 2018

Late to the thread, but if this goes well and you start thinking that you'ld like to expand this work into a longer gig, consider offering a subscription service to retirees. Many are tired of asking their kids to do stuff like set up printers or show them how to use FaceTime and getting the eye roll in response. I know your skills are much more sophisticated than this idea requires, but I've asked a bunch of older folks and small business owners here in Door County whether they'd go for the subscription model and they're enthusiastic. I would make it that they get X calls/time period and y hours of onsite help plus they have to let you remote into their systems. If they exceed the limits, you charge them hourly. You could have tiered service levels.

If you set it up as a monthly rate, instead of annually, you could more easily fire bad clients or abandon/sell your client list (sort of like the South American housecleaning networks) when you land full-time work.
posted by carmicha at 8:24 AM on July 21, 2018