Young IT Technican Wage?

[Busconian]

Hi. I am Jayden and I am 15 years old living in Canada.

 

I work at local Computer store that gets pretty busy in town. They charge $50 minimum fee, then $80 an hour.

We remove viruses, copy over data to new machines, re-build systems, and basically everything else.

 

So I have pretty good knowledge, I built my own PC (Ryzen 7 1700, 16GB of RAM, GTX 1080, Define Nano S) and take good care of it.

 

Now family members are starting to want my help with there systems.... I do not know how much to charge and I am very curious to see how much you guys think is fair?

 

If its a quick fix, of course I'll charge nothing. But for something like a total virus removal, putting in a new SSD and copying over data..... Or the dreaded failed/corrupted Windows updates....

 

I was thinking $30 an hour is fair for me and my customer or whoever it is. Should I charge more? Should I charge less? (If the job takes me 30 minutes it will cost $15, no minimum fee)

 

I make $12 an hour at my work. (Not a lot but it is not a full time thing)

 

Thank you!

 

 

[Canada EH]

Big City or Small City?

 

3 minutes ago, Busconian said:

Thank you!

 

[Busconian]

1 minute ago, Canada EH said:

Big City or Small City?

 

 

Small city. Nothing like Vancouver or anything.

[Canada EH]

Then your reputation is everything. Charge reasonably!

So you live in a city the size of what? 100k+ or is it a small town like say a handful of intersection lights

[Busconian]

1 minute ago, Canada EH said:

Then your reputation is everything. Charge reasonably!

So you live in a city the size of what? 100k+

In 2016, about 10k people lol. But, if you travel about 20 minutes down the parkway there is a city that has about 80k in 2011.

[Canada EH]

3 minutes ago, Busconian said:

In 2016, about 10k people lol. But, if you travel about 20 minutes down the parkway there is a city that has about 80k in 2011.

10k is nothing! 80K is where you want to move to when you are 18!!!!!!!!!!

In the meantime setup a good business, sole proprietor $50 or incorperate $200 to lessen liability.

Then build a good brand for your company. Make some business cards and posters and start plastering them in your little 10K community. Make it look good though, like you are a professional.

[Busconian]

Just now, Canada EH said:

10k is nothing! 80K is where you want to move to when you are 18!!!!!!!!!!

Aha, I don't see myself doing this as a career in the long term. I just want to know how much I should charge at this age to work on some side jobs.

[Canada EH]

Charge $75 for complete pc build

Virus Removal should be $30

Install o/s maybe $45

t/s $30/hour

 

[LtStaffel]

4 minutes ago, Canada EH said:

Charge $75 for complete pc build

Virus Removal should be $30

Install o/s maybe $45

t/s $30/hour

 

I agree with the $75 for the build. You could charge $100 if they want custom hardline cooling or extra stuff, so set those extra prices ahead of time so you don't make them up on the spot in front of your customers.

 

I disagree about virus removal and OS installation. It should not cost $45 to install Windows, that's a $10 quick job because they should be able to do it themselves, even if they aren't a techie. You can never be truly sure that a virus is removed, even after running a good anti-malware like malwarebytes. And honestly, are you going to charge $30 to run a Malwarebytes scan? Don't do that. If you can, reinstall the OS. That's the only true way to clean a computer (and even then one could argue about rootkits). It's an automated thing (a Malwarebytes scan) that costs you nothing, charge $10 at most.

Not sure what "t/s" stands for, technical support maybe. Can't comment without knowing what it is exactly.

[Theguywhobea]

When I was younger I usually charged like $40-50 (but more often nothing) for family members. Think of it as paying them back for everything they've provided you so far.

[dizmo]

I don't think you should be charging per hour, but rather per service. You can generally get away with more money, and it won't seem like a rip off.

As for what to charge, depends on how you value your time. I'd probably price yourself lower since you're so young. People are less likely to trust you.

1 hour ago, Canada EH said:

10k is nothing! 80K is where you want to move to when you are 18!!!!!!!!!!

In the meantime setup a good business, sole proprietor $50 or incorperate $200 to lessen liability.

Then build a good brand for your company. Make some business cards and posters and start plastering them in your little 10K community. Make it look good though, like you are a professional.

You don't have to pay anything if you make less than $30,000. You just include it with your personal income tax.

[dalekphalm]

I'd agree with those who said:

1. Price based on the service, not per hour

2. Price on the lower end - you're 15, and no matter how much you think you know, you don't (no offense  lol)

 

A business can charge $30 per hour (or more) because they have a wide range of services reputation to make that price worth while. You don't have the equipment, the office, the staff, to justify $30 per hour.

 

If you had 5-10+ years experience in the business actually doing PC Repairs, sure you could charge $30 per hour (or more), but you don't.

[Canada EH]

Charge whatever you can get!!!!!!!!!!

So look at what other companies are charging, and go from there.

Undercut them by a bit or a lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Guest]

I'd charge $0 because family

[Jtalk4456]

$200/hr

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

2 hours ago, Canada EH said:

Charge $75 for complete pc build

Virus Removal should be $30

Install o/s maybe $45

t/s $30/hour

 

I'd say less actually. NCIX only charges 50 bucks for assembly and that comes with not only OS and driver installation, but also system stability testing and quality control inspections before delivery to the customer. If I had no knowledge of this stuff, I would be very skeptical to see a 15 year old charge me this amount of money when a fully established business charges less. I've been working for my family and friends for well over 5 years and I haven't charged them even a penny. That includes end system service (PCs and odd ball Android TV boxes), networking, home theater setup, etc. 

[Yoinkerman]

1 hour ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

I'd say less actually. NCIX only charges 50 bucks for assembly and that comes with not only OS and driver installation, but also system stability testing and quality control inspections before delivery to the customer. If I had no knowledge of this stuff, I would be very skeptical to see a 15 year old charge me this amount of money when a fully established business charges less. I've been working for my family and friends for well over 5 years and I haven't charged them even a penny. That includes end system service (PCs and odd ball Android TV boxes), networking, home theater setup, etc. 

ncix went out of business

[LAwLz]

I strongly believe you should not charge your friends and family when you help them. It just seems very distasteful. 

I would feel confused and betrayed if for example I had to pay my mom when she helped me move, or my stepdad when he helped me change tires on my car. 

 

Do it for free and they might slip you some money if they are grateful with the work, or they will repay you by helping out in the future. 

[scottyseng]

13 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

I strongly believe you should not charge your friends and family when you help them. It just seems very distasteful. 

I would feel confused and betrayed if for example I had to pay my mom when she helped me move, or my stepdad when he helped me change tires on my car. 

 

Do it for free and they might slip you some money if they are grateful with the work, or they will repay you by helping out in the future. 

I agree here (Just to a reasonable limit, if they're banging on your door every hour, then yeah, I would start charging).

 

I don't charge my close friends and my family, but they usually end up paying me anyway as respect of my kindness. From my friends, I found people who needed help building PCs that consulted me to build them for them and paid me.

[Jay Deah]

never charged close friends and family.

 

agree what most others have said, you cant justify retail pricing in your current situation. 

[JaegerB]

1 hour ago, LAwLz said:

Do it for free and they might slip you some money if they are grateful with the work, or they will repay you by helping out in the future. 

Totally agree. Did some work on some family members computers relating to OS reinstall and file recovery, if you don't ask for money good things will come eventually. TBH asking for money makes you look a bit like an ass.

[dalekphalm]

7 hours ago, LAwLz said:

I strongly believe you should not charge your friends and family when you help them. It just seems very distasteful. 

I would feel confused and betrayed if for example I had to pay my mom when she helped me move, or my stepdad when he helped me change tires on my car. 

 

Do it for free and they might slip you some money if they are grateful with the work, or they will repay you by helping out in the future. 

You have to be careful with this.

 

If you're some teen who isn't a professional? Sure.

 

But if you do the work for a living as a well paid professional, you need to make sure your family knows that your business, and your work, is valued.

 

Take a photographer, for example. As a professional photographer, you might charge $2500 for a wedding. Should your Sister get married, are you really expected to work for 8+ hours on the day of, plus however many hours of editing, corrections, sorting, etc, before producing the final product, all for free?

 

If you are well off ("wealthy") and can do without the pay? Sure, I guess, give it to them for free.

 

But for a normal person, I think giving a discount to close family and friends is probably the better thing to do. Now if they want to negotiate with you to "trade" your skills for something else (Eg: a nice cooked meal, or helping you move later, or just "owing you a favour", etc), that's your business.

 

Now, for the OP? He's like 15 or whatever, so he doesn't have the experience and skills to be a professional yet.

[Yoinkerman]

A wise man once said if you're good at something never do it for free.

 

I don't charge my immediate family.  Anyone else? You bet.  My time has value and if they think different they can take it to geek squad idgaf if their stuff doesn't work.

[Beef Boss]

Why would you charge your family? If something costs money to do, then you have to ask them about it. Don't just go repairing and replacing parts if it costs money to you, without them being informed of how to solve the issue. Every week for almost a year I came over to help my grandmother with her pc, I never charged her and refused to take any money. When her computer completely crashed and I told her it would cost money to fix it, I told her also different options she could do instead of trying to fix an older computer. She has a Mac now and no problems. Yes it was a 3 thousand dollar fix, but still you need to inform them what the problem is. And asking a forum how much to charge family members for computer help is just ridiculous and rude. 

[Cookybiscuit]

17 hours ago, Busconian said:

Now family members are starting to want my help with there systems.... I do not know how much to charge and I am very curious to see how much you guys think is fair?

Terrible idea to even go near them. They'll want you to work for free, or near free, and will endlessly pester you about it because once you've touched it people perceive it as your responsibility.