Advice about taking Money

[thebiggoose]

Well, I have a problem. Frequently, friends, family members, and acquaintanes who know of my computer knowledge will ask me for help, and proceed to pay me afterwards. Usually they ask how much I charge per hour. I don't know how much to charge, so I was hoping for your advice.

Background Info: I'm a 15 year old guy. I am actually very very knowledgeable about technology and the like. I live in a pretty well-off community.Most people are upper-middle class ($100,000 a year family income) while my family is middle class (~75,000 a year).

I sometimes feel guilty taking money from friends. For example, the other day, my friend's dad asked me for some computer help. I worked on his computer for around 2 hours and then walked to his house (he owns a fitness club and thats where i was) When I was there, he asked me how much he owed me. I said "i dunno, whatever you think is fair" and he kept asking how much i charge an hour and i told him i don't kno. . i said just give me 10 bucks or somethign. and he's like okay heres 40. and gave me 40 bucks. i think taht is pretty much right, but i wouldnt want to offend someone by charging too much. What do you guys think I should charge an hour for general troubleshooting?

I can just see people posting "just send me the money" and I really wouldnt appreciate those kind of responses

 

[theman5725]

I'm also 15, but I don't help people a lot with my computer knowledge so I don't really have an answer to this. But recently I helped my neighbor set up their new computer/internet/router and they paid $50.

 

[dllavaneras]

That's a really tough question. I've always had a problem charging people. Have you thought of how much your time/effort is worth? Do you think you can put a price on that?

You can always ask someone who charges for the same thing to see how much you can ask for

 

[grafikat]

Call around to local support companies to see what they charge. Set your price from there.

 

[mkrishnan]

^^ that's good advice. You don't have formal training, but you seem like you're good. And people choose you because they're comfortable with you. I don't think you should charge as much as pro techs, but 30-50% of what they charge is probably not unreasonable. That'll probably mean $25-35 an hour (assuming we're talking about USD).

 

[ErikCLDR]

I never get paid by anyone really and I live in an upper-middle class town. I got paid $20 though to make a slideshow movie of my principal and the guy she was marrying from one of the secretaries. I got $10 to dunkin donuts for making a slideshow for another one of my teachers. I told my computer teacher/family friend to invest in apple and she made like $9000 and what did I get... nothing.

However, I did negotiate with one of my parents friends to sell stuff on ebay for him and I would take 15% of the profit, he thought that was fair. Little did realize that he wanted to ship the stuff and respond to questions, etc. So he came over to my house with 5 items, including a $1500 titanium mountain bike, 2 $650 carbon fiber exhaust things for a motorcycle, some $400 vintage gas tank for a motorcycle, $300 plastic motorcycle thing, and a pair of $200 skis. I don't expect the skis to sell but items similar to the other items do appear to sell. I also got paid $40 to put all the items on eBay. I kinda feel like I am taking wayyyyyyyy to much money so I think when the auctions end I'll give him some money back. I'll make like $500 if everything sells. Not that he needs it, he owns a company, has 1 kid thats almost out of college, has everything he desires, and he is a board of directors for a bank.