How much do I charge my friend/small business for my IT services?

[Christopher Rutter]

Thanks for all the great feedback everyone,

On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 8:57 PM, Jack Coats <jack-rp9/bkPP+cDYtjvyW6yDsg at public.gmane.org> wrote:

> What do commercial consultants in your area get, without body

shop/head hunter fees with your skill set.  .. I start there.


On Sun, Mar 29, 2009 at 3:20 PM, Tom Metro <tmetro-blu-5a1Jt6qxUNc at public.gmane.org> wrote:

> > ...so I am looking to this community to get some unbiased feedback on
> > what I should be charging?
>
> No one here can answer that question for you, as they can only provide
> single points of data, and what you really need is to arrive at an
> average, that's been adjusted for the type of work and the region. Sites
> like salary.com specialize in providing this kind of data. Other similar
> sites:
>

I did some research on Salary.com, and out of the 350+ job titles for the IT
industry I broke it down to 43 that roughly fit the description of what my
Job entails, and I put it into a spreadsheet here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pF00TXHXg2iqAFQH9P133Mw

Now some of these are ridiculous because they are meant for a large
organizations (i.e. CIO, etc), but I read through all of the descriptions
and these all loosely fit what I am doing for my small business.  The
minimum salary ranges from $22,788 (entry-level data control clerk) to
$134,218 (CIO).

Also I should have disclosed this earlier, I don't have a college degree.  I
went to Northeastern for 2.5yrs, but a combination of partying too much and
Calculus got in the way (math and I don't get along), I did however ace all
of my Computer Science classes but that wasn't enough.  With that being said
a majority of these jobs listed on Salary.com require a degree.

So how can I figure out what my worth is?

On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 8:57 PM, Jack Coats <jack-rp9/bkPP+cDYtjvyW6yDsg at public.gmane.org> wrote:

> To fairly price it as an 'outsider', you might consider getting 3 bids, and
> pricing your services
> similarly.
>

How would I go about getting these bids?  What would I search for in the
yellow pages?
I think the jod description is pretty unique in the fact that it covers a
whole slew of fields [see
spreadsheet<http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pF00TXHXg2iqAFQH9P133Mw>]
(Webmaster/PHP/MySQL/General XP & Linux knowledge/etc.) including a general
knowledge of the industry of the business (drumroll...) bail bonding.

On Sat, Mar 28, 2009 at 2:26 PM, <jay-R5TnC2l8y5lBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org> wrote:

> Given that you have a stake in the company you'll want to adjust based

on the company as well. If its growing quickly leaving more cash in the

company will likely help your investment. If its pretty stable then you can

take more out with out hurting growth. Either way be fair to your self and

Jacks numbers sound like a good guide.



On Sun, Mar 29, 2009 at 3:20 PM, Tom Metro <tmetro-blu-5a1Jt6qxUNc at public.gmane.org> wrote:

> Is that 30% interest something that currently benefits you (i.e. in the
> form of profit sharing) or is likely to benefit you in the future?
> (Practically speaking, an ownership stake in a small business often
> doesn't translate into anything tangible, except in a few circumstances,
> like the business being sold at favorable terms.)


On Sun, Mar 29, 2009 at 4:29 PM, Ben Eisenbraun <bene-Gk2boCrsRs1AfugRpC6u6w at public.gmane.org> wrote:

> As others have mentioned, your ownership stake in the business complicates
> matters.  What does your partnership agreement say about how profits
> will be taken out of the company?


The way we've been handeling how profits are taken out of the company has
been that we get together and see if there is excess funds in the bank in
order for us to take a disbursement, and if there is we both come to a
mutual agreement on how much the disbursment should be for and then take
it...
The business is thriving, however we are currently in a lease/option
contract with the property our office is located at, and we've been pumping
alot of our income back into the company.  So there hasn't been much in the
way of disbursements since last year, and we don't anticipate being able to
take any disbursements until late 2010 at the earliest.

On Sun, Mar 29, 2009 at 3:20 PM, Tom Metro <tmetro-blu-5a1Jt6qxUNc at public.gmane.org> wrote:

> Your best remedy is to do some research and share that research with
> your business partner.
>

Hence my email to BLU :-)
I intend on sharing all of this feedback with him.

On Sun, Mar 29, 2009 at 4:29 PM, Ben Eisenbraun <bene-Gk2boCrsRs1AfugRpC6u6w at public.gmane.org> wrote:

> I've always liked this answer:
>
> http://dashes.com/anil/2005/05/pay-by-the-hour.html
>
>  1. Slap the client in face.
>  2. Tell the client your hourly rate.
>
> If the person looked more shocked, horrified, offended, hurt,
> saddened, or wounded by the slap in the face, then you are still
> pricing yourself too low.
>

Nice one, I don't think that would work remotely, so I would have to fly
down there and maybe add a third step:
3. Charge the client for the travel expenses in order to deliver the slap in
the face.
:-P

Thanks again for all the great feedback,
-Chris