Sometimes I realize the other techs are the ones giving me a job

[neferde.livejournal.com]

Backstory: I managed to get a computer lab tech job in college despite no real computer knowledge and then got promoted to a managerial position after one year because I learned so much about troubleshooting both Macs and PCs. Why is this relevant you ask? Thanks to my friends (and family) bragging about how helpful I am ("Just doin' my job ma'am") I have been whored out as a tech for the last 2 years. This has lead to me being dropped without warning into situations from "the mouse won't work" (plugged it back in) to "it won't let me install this program because it's already got a wrong serial number in it and it won't let me enter another one" (registry editing) to "Well they said to do this but I don't know what they're talking about!" (tech-speak translations).

My current (paid) job is in-home computer technician and tutor. Yes, that's right. TUTOR. I get to teach little old ladies what the right mouse button really does and other mundane run-of-the-mill tasks. Yes, _I_ am the person who teaches the end users that the Desktop is not the Screensaver, all the while hoping that if my clients have to call in to get real tech support they'll at least be able to follow directions without the poor tech resorting to "thingy" at any point!

Sadly enough, as bad as these little old ladies can get, the local techs I've encountered while working with them have caused me to headdesk more than the little old ladies have.

Examples:
1: I tell the client I don't know how to make Outlook start up with the default screen being an off-site calendar rather than her never-used inbox. She calls up her company's on-call tech to ask, figuring rightly enough, that the tech would devolve into "techie speak" and start doing "techie things" and she'd like me to translate so she knows what's going on. Twenty minutes later the tech has created a shortcut which opens the calendar in a window all by it’s self, all the while ignoring repeated interjections of "I don't care if it's just a blank screen and I have to click on an icon (Oh Rapture! She remembered what an icon is!) to get to my calendar, I just don't want my inbox as the default (Yes! She remembered that too!) screen!" 3 minutes and one quick search of Outlook's Help menu after she tells the tech to not worry about it anymore, I have the default screen set as a blank screen with a nice easy icon on the side for her to use. WHY did the tech ignore her for 20 minutes in favor of such a complicated and time consuming "fix"? He's not even paid by the hour! Oh, he's also told her never ever to turn off PC Anywhere and that there's no way to disable it or turn it off or even alert her to when someone is watching her computer. She now knows the joy of Right-click + "Cancel Host" so that she can work on private things without the fear of being watched.

2: I received a cry of "Help! The computer's not working!" from one of my mother's friends who I've been whored out to in the past. I find out she's taken the computer down to one of the local little computer shops to have the battery on the motherboard replaced and it hasn't worked since. Great. I can guess what's happened. Opened up the case and, sure enough, I was right. While the tech had managed to correctly put the PCI cards back in, he hadn't bothered to connect up the cables to anything but the floppy drive! I'll give him the benefit of a doubt though and assume that he was just busy or rushed and wasn't deliberately trying to make this slow-speaking, white-haired grandmother come back in to pay a minimum of $20 straight-up fee, plus another $30 (half-hour minimum) just to plug in the cables again. Or to try and sell her another computer...

3: My mother has a new nickname for her company's tech support fellow; Twit. My mom's machine was (I've managed to get her upgraded in the last 2 weeks) Windows 98 First Edition on a 400MHz Pentium with 256MB RAM. Old, but still stable (no blue screens of death in the last 3 months!), just a little slow because of its age. Twit gets called in to see if there's anything he can do to make the computer faster. He looks, gasps in horror, pronounces DOOM upon it if the "load" (he never specified which kind) isn't reduced immediately. Pulls out his trusty USB drive and tries to plug it in... Big surprise, he can't use it. The stumped look of "Oh SHIT, what do I do NOW??" almost made my mom do a headdesk. Her words "Hasn't he ever heard of floppy disks?"
Well he takes it back to the shop, ghosts the drive, fiddles with it, then comes back a week later proudly proclaiming that the "load" had gone from 51% to over 80% now. (I'm going WTF at this point as I hover in the background) But... He’s about to prove he deserves his nickname. Like most end users my mom is picky about how her Desktop looks. And somehow he's managed to do SOMETHING to the computer so that it will change every Appearance color but the Desktop. "Well that's not a problem" he sputters, "because it's the custom colors that you're trying to make Windows do that are causing your computer to be slow!" By now mom's smelled a rat and states that she doesn't care if the computer runs a tad bit slower, as long as her icons aren't black-on-black so she can read them! Twit then seals his fate by confessing, in a burst of what I can only describe as sheer bowel trembling terror and guilt, that he DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO USE WINDOWS 98 AT ALL! Mom (politely, she is a lady after all) threw him out of her office and left instructions for him to never touch her computer again. I walked over, moved the mouse, clicked a few times, and changed her colors to burgundy with white.

One good and positive thing is that, thanks to all of the above, I now feel justified in raising my prices from $13 an hour to $20 an hour! (higher for more complicated matters and drives over 15 miles) Before I didn't feel like I was really earning that much. But if the above are any examples, I think I'm more than justified in charging at least half of what they do!

Comments

[bekscilla.livejournal.com]

I think $20 an hour is still too low!

[neferde.livejournal.com]

For basic hand holding and tech-speak translation work? I set my price at the current private language tutor prices that were advertised all over campus (figuring that it's just another language). For actual real tech support the prices in the area are so outrageous and all over the map that I really don't have a clue what to charge, so I just defaulted to the $13.

[bekscilla.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, private language tutors don't get that much?

I definitely think $13 is far too low, even for basic hand holding and translation. But if you're really teaching them stuff about general use, I don't think $20 is too high. Mind you, it depends on the user - some you'd deserve loads more than that!

[neferde.livejournal.com]

*nods* my other concern is that it's pretty much under the table payments since I'm not set up as a business. Most of the time it's one-shot cases but clients who have me come over multiple times per month, well, I think I'd rather earn a little less if it means that I don't have to deal with the IRS forms and hoops, especially since I'm not sure at what monetary point I become an "employee" of whomever is paying me.

[3arabi.livejournal.com]

Hello, Ash here!
I loved your story, very cool :) Since the clients Don't have you in their PayRoll, wouldn't that make you a freelancer ? I don't think FreeLancers have to file IRS forms or anything like that. Also another thing you should concider is, what are your Clients telling the IRS about the money their giving you. IF their paying in cash and do not have your SS# then you can atleast deny! :) but if they are paying in company checks then you might atleast have to deal with taxes, which shouldn't be THAT bad! :)

take care.
Ash

[teriwyn.livejournal.com]

Not exactly correct on the tax stuff. It makes one an "Independent Contractor" and taxes still should be filed. In the cases of odd jobs that are paid in cash, people often don't, and if the person who is paying you doesn't have you fill out at 1099, then there's really no way for the IRS to know that money changed hands. Meaning, IRS probably won't know about the services rendered when dealing with little old ladies, but when dealing with small businesses that want to write your services off as an "expense" of doing business or somesuch, the story will be different.

The OP would *never* become an "employee" of these other businesses based on the amount paid. Instead, the relationship is that of Independent Contrator, or perhaps a Sole Proprietorship of a business (Not a sole proprietor until you register a trade name, at least that's the case here in MD) providing service to "customers".

[neferde.livejournal.com]

Hmm... I didn't know that! I haven't been worried about the one-off jobs, since sometimes I don't even get money but food or equivalent trade instead, but it was the little home businesses that were making me wonder... If I keep getting the same amount from one of the businesses for the rest of the year (doubtful as she's taking three weeks off from work before the new year) I will have made ~$600 from them. She hasn't asked me for any sort of IRS form at all or even my social security number, but she's paying me with company checks so I'm getting a bit confused. She does all of the finances for the company too, so I'd assume she knows what she's doing...

[sketchydave.livejournal.com]

Your clients don't have to give you any type of forms or anything. Have you ever been given an IRS form whenever you have bought goods or services?

Definitely look into incorporating yourself. You will make a ton more money. Buy a new notebook and use it for a single job and its a business expense. Have a car to get to locations, payments, gas, and insurance are all expenses. Have an office in your apartment, another expense.

Its obviously not that easy, you need to go to city hall, hire an accountant, track all receipts and the like. But it can be very much worth it. Plus it looks good on a resume.

In Massachusetts I know that we can make up to $800 in unclaimed income. I haven't bothered incorporating myself yet because I rarely make more than that. Its just my spare time thing. But all my consultant buddies have been telling me to do it, and it is worth it in the long run.

Definitely something to look into, it keeps you out of any tax trouble, and it does work in your favor.

[3arabi.livejournal.com]

very cool!.. I never knew that! :)
so are you an accountant in MD ?

[teriwyn.livejournal.com]

Haha, no. However, I did have to become intimately familiar with how that sort of thing is taxed, since I insist on doing my own taxes and have been filing as an independent contractor (as well as a standard employee of my full time job) for a couple years now. I also obtained a sole proprietorship in the state and registered a trade name because that is required to set up a vendor->distributor relationship with many vendors. (In other words, necessary to purchase items at wholesale).

[3arabi.livejournal.com]

more power to ya!.. I'm very intreged by your knowledge of such a complex and 'Red Taped' process. *tips hat off*

:)
maybe I'll have a sit down with you when April comes around! :)
have a great weekend.!

ash

[bekscilla.livejournal.com]

*nods* Makes perfect sense...

Though you could be your own business entity, then you'd be *your* employee, and the people would just be customers of your business.

[katyism.livejournal.com]

WTF. I grasp every opportunity I have to try and teach people the basics on the phone like you do for a living (it's not in my job description) but most of the time it's sideswiped by "I don't care what this is called and what it does, I just want you to make it work" and for this I get $9 an hour. I really should consider a slight change in career. I enjoy it when people want to learn and I have something to teach them, but currently I get paid by people who want others to do everything for them including wiping their asses, and correct their same mistakes over and over and over.

[katyism.livejournal.com]

So on a more constructive note, are you self-employed then? What kind of area do you live/work in? I might be interested to hear how you got started...

[neferde.livejournal.com]

Yup, self employed while I look for a career position somewhere. I got started when someone remarked that I should really be charging for the amount of tech work that I was doing since it required specialized knowledge and was a valid job skill. The next time I was whored I told them that I charged and things went from there. I get work all the time from word of mouth, especially from the little old ladies who want to KNOW what's going on in/with their computers. I get a LOT of "well, I want to buy a computer for so-and-so, what should I buy?" requests too. *shakes her head* The ladies will get together for a party or meeting or something like that and whomever I'm working with will start gushing about how patient and knowledgeable and non-condesending I am and by the end of the meeting there'll be two or three more ladies with my contact information in hand! I'm even on-call with a client who's transferring her home business onto her computer from faxing and actual mail who pays me to come in and sit for 4 hours so that I'm there if she has a question or problem.

I work in the Seattle-Tacoma-Olympia area in Washington. It's a fairly high-tech region, but there's still a ton of people who are just now being forced to learn how to use their computers, mainly old people, so there's a pretty good niche market right now for the sort of services I provide. I've had requests for everything from terminology lessons to how to use Ebay, to finding airplane tickets, to doing a complete hardware and OS upgrade.

If you're patient and can handle the people who have no idea that AOL isn't the internet and that there's a difference between dial-up and cable modems, just put up a few flyers, especially around senior centers or other senior hangouts and see how many calls you get. There is a market out there, I just found it accidentially!

[katyism.livejournal.com]

Wow, that is awesome. I probably need to sharpen my people skills if I attempt something like that, though.

[neferde.livejournal.com]

PATIENCE. Oh gods, so much patience does it take! One of the ladies likes to "tease" me by being dense on a subject I KNOW she knows inside and out just so that she can point out that my hand is twitching towards the mouse! She thinks its absolutely hilarious! I make sure I don't ever have sessions of more than two hours with her.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

It really depends on what your goals are as to what you should be charging.

If you're just getting started (no experience etc), charge a low rate.

If you want to have work coming in, but not be swamped by it, slowly increase the rate until the incoming requests match the number of hours you want to work.

If you want to maximise your overall income, increase the rate slowly until the hours-x-rate calculation peaks and starts to drop off. Note that depending on the area and the amount of advertising you do, this peak may not be where you expect - it could be at $50ph or $100ph or even more than that.

Note also that as you increase your rate initially, you may actually get more work coming in, as people often feel more comfortable paying a mid-level rate than a rock-bottom rate, because of the extra feeling of security it gives them.

[neferde.livejournal.com]

*nods* You've actually hit upon part of my problem... I'm competent enough to handle everything that's been thrown at me (so far! *crosses fingers*), from a network with a Win95 server, 2 98SE, one 98FE, and one XP Pro machine on it where they want full access between all machines and both printers (hooked to individual machines) shared, to explaining that yes, windows can be moved around on the screen so that you can see what's underneath them. If I don't know the solution to the problem I can figure it out, usually within a few minutes (and sadly enough, using the Help menus has actually helped me a few times!). I'm not super-uber-tech like most people on this forum are since I've never had any formal training, but I can handle pretty much anything that's thrown at me from an end user. Hence the problem. I feel I'm worth more for my skills, but I feel guilty charging for skills that the user isn't using! And I definately do NOT want to overcharge because I'll lose business. I AM going to raise my prices to $17 for handholding and a min $20/hour for the real tech work and then see how it goes from there. Hopefully the L.O.L.s won't throw too much of a fit.

[jenocyber.livejournal.com]

I used to charge 90$ an hour for tutor/training/handholding. This is in Manhattan.

[neferde.livejournal.com]

*jaw meets floor* And they PAID!!?? Hmm... my sister IS moving to New York next year... maybe I should join her!

[jenocyber.livejournal.com]

Yeah the hardest part is getting and keeping clients, you really have to be able to sell & market yourself. But it is lucrative. There are plenty of rich people in Manhattan who rather pay someone to come to their house and hold their hand while they do their quicken, than learn something.
Oh the stories I could tell you. I had one guy complain how he could never go on vacation because he had to write his articles. Never mind that it was laptop! He rufused to plug the thing in himself, he looked at like menial labor. He had his bulter bring me espresso.

[jenocyber.livejournal.com]

Excuse all the words I left out, please?

Here they are in order:

would
a
it

[neferde.livejournal.com]

*grins* Fully excused if you ignore the fact that I had to reread that three times to figure out where the missing words should be... :p

[sketchydave.livejournal.com]

I charge $50 an hour in Boston for my tutoring / support and its a bargain. Don't feel guilty, ever, about charging what you are worth. You are not forcing them to accept your services, its not like you are a plumber and they have a busted sink.

I also highly recommend finding local training centers that a user could go to. High Schools usually have some type of adult ed that is cheap and local colleges do as well, although more expensive. Give that info to your clients if they want indepth help. I've always thought of myself as a band-aid when some clients need a turniquet!

[neferde.livejournal.com]

*laughs and nods* Oh yes! Especially when any break from the computer longer than a weekend causes them to start hemmoraging what they've already learned! Sadly enough the only adult computer ed classes in my area are a minimum of $300 for tuition and another $100 or so for the textbook and are notoriously crowded. So for those users who need to go slow and repeat everything in order to learn it's a waste of money. They'd rather have one-on-one tutoring, even if it ends up costing them more in the long run. Plus it's much more convinient and less intimidating for them since they get to work on their own computers in their own time. I just feel... guilty charging what the super-uber-techs with actual real formal training get when all I've got is on-the-job experience.

[sketchydave.livejournal.com]

LOL, I think you are selling yourself way too short, definitely for the tutoring aspect of things and probably for the technical side as well. A couple points in no particular order:

• Super-Uber-Techs: They did not get where they are from formal training. They were maded that way, gifted our cursed depending on who you speak to. I went to school focusing on computer science and multimedia development (and beer) and nothing that I ever learned in school applied to my technician skills. Nada. I got the way I am from taking apart VCRs, TVs, radios, all that fun stuff. I don't claim to be a super-uber-tech, but I am a good tech


• Patience: Super-uber-techs are not on the front lines. They do not deal with people because they can't.


• Tutoring: No super-uber-tech will ever, ever, ever be a good tutor. They just aren't wired that way. It takes someone who likes to teach and has an incredible amount of patience.


• On-job Experience: beats classroom experience every time. There is no class on Spybot, AVG, and msconfig!