For example, I helped family members to fix some computers, and every time they would buy me a nice dinner, so it’s kinda like your free beers. But this doesn’t stop them calling you in the future for some small problems or questions that can be solved over the phone. Now you have a great dilemma, do you help them over the phone or not? I doubt they expect to give you a beer every time they call you. So what should you do?

Once I realized that most people are happy to pay for good service, that timidity went away quickly.

You have to believe in what you’re selling ultimately, because you ARE the product now. If you’ve got that covered, you won’t have any problem valuing it correctly.

I joined OnForce a few months ago. I work a “day job” as IT support for a local school system. My thought was that this would be a good way to pick up some extra cash to help pay down some debt.

Just now, I received an e-mail alert for a job. It was accepted by someone else within two minutes. I didn’t even stand a chance. The worst part is the fees I’ve been seeing. In some cases, gas cost alone would eat up almost half the fee.

I’m debating whether it’s even worth it to keep my account on OnForce.

I also see the devaluing through Craigslist. There are plenty of “pizza techs” and side-jobbers on there. I used to post years ago, but most people wanted low rates and very little brick and mortar businesses use it.

I recently started posting again because, well, face it, I need new business. But the “pizza techs” are dropping their rates to almost nothing, to a rate that know one can actually live off of.

For example, I got a call late Saturday afternoon from someone that needed a brand new still-in-the-box Windows Server 2003 to be setup and to replace an old Windows 2000 server in a AD structure. 30 desktop company. I thought “Great! Finally, real business”. But he only wanted to pay $20 an hour. Good luck in finding quality to do that. He said he would keep calling around.

I could have lowered, but it just didn’t seem worth it. Period.

So far, so good.

Immediate family and very good friends get free help and, ironically, the close friends are the ones who usually say they should be paying me, recognizing my skills are not come by cheaply.

“Pizza techs”…love it.
It reminds me of an article I read a long time ago about a guy whose computer repair business model involved him hiring waiters/salespersons to do the tech work. His philosophy was “it’s a lot easier for a customer service person to learn the tech side than it is to hire a tech guy and try to teach him people skills.”
While I like to think my theatre sideline helps keep my people skills in check, it’s been a good reminder not to be a tech elitist around my customers.

It is hard, sometimes, to “stick to your guns”.. especially when it comes to family (or worse, your ’significant other’s’ family) as I imagine anyone who does this well knows. (Can any say “Catch – 22″?)

As for a “solution” to the “pizza techs”…