Setting up on my own in IT

M

mortgageqs

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Hi,

I've just left my permenant job as an IT manager with a relatively large company and setup as an IT consultant - network installations, general maintenance etc. I'm in the West. (I'm a sole trader)

It is going well enough but I'm beginning to wonder about my pricing strucutre. I have lots of work but don't think I'm charging enough! I charge between 50 - 60 ph depending on how much work I am getting off different companies. I get about 5 hours a week from each of my best clients at the moment and only charge them 50ph.

I'm very good at what I do but very bad with money. I also haven't been using maintenance contracts. I'm sure if I read this post written by someone else I would think "what a plonker". I'm not the most savvy on fees either. (I know this should have been researched before I started but I had work offered to me and just jumped in)

Any tips!?!

Thanks
 
It sounds low what you are charging.

You have got to be charging alot more for being available for a short number of hours or being available when required

It also depends on whether your clients are small businesses or not,the bigger companies obviously have much bigger IT budgets.
You should know yourself from working as an IT manager what your fees should be ?
 
Any of those "IT support" people I've seeing calling to peoples home and doing support, seem to be charging 90~100 per visit, which is usually an hour or so. Most of them aren't qualified and I wouldn't even consider them power users. Thats in Dublin. But you could get 150~200 from some people.

I'd suggest approach it from the point of your costs. Do up a budget of your monthly week costs, inculding a resonable salary to live off. That should be the minimum you need to charge.

While theres a temptation to worry about charging too much, especially when you have any one and their uncle doing IT support. The reality is that you can't compete with them so don't. You want people/companies who are willing to pay extra for more a professional. Thats where you'll make a profit. If you aren't covering your costs, and making a decent profit its not worth doing it.
 
Thanks for the replies guys, I suppose comming from IT Mgt I am more in tune with permenant salary costs for support people rather than how the nitty gritty of the contract world works.

My costs are minimal since I am supplying a service, I price the hardware for companies and they order it directly and I set it up and maintain it.

I don't want to give the impression that my service is somehow below par if I'm not charging as much as other companies in the region. There is a lot of work in the area and I suppose I am starting to realise that I could raise my game..............maybe its psychological reassurance I really need!
 
IBB Broadband 40pm
Blueface voip phone 99pa
Mobile 150pm
3 mobile broadband 20pm

don't know what a/c fees are :-o
prob spend about 40pw on petrol
parking prob 20pw

home office insurance 450pa

that's about it
 
You should talk to others in the same line of business (preferably not your direct competitors) and get a feeling for pricing etc from discussions with them.
 
I've used the services of 2 different IT companies and both charge about €100 ph. But set your pricing at a level that gets you the type of business you are aiming at and gets you enough business too.

You should maybe also offer two pricing structures, one for those on a service contract and those who just require one off's.

But definitely sounds like you are charging too little, and chance of you coming to Dublin with those rates???
 
I probably wouldn't be able to afford the transport at these rates Michael :p

My general living costs are about 800 pw when you budget in everything for the year down to school trips. My partner contributes about 700 pw. We've included holidays etc in that too.
 
The house insurance is with Allianz, they cover home office equipment. I would only need cover for the hardware (laptop, pc, printers scanner, networking equip etc).

I don't know what the stituation would be if you had an office with a lot of paperwork (dockets, drawings, client folders) etc that would need to be covered.

60% of the time I'm in a clients office , the rest of the time I'm logged in to their server remotely, so afak the insurance I have is sufficient for me!
 
If you have regular clients and they give you a certain volume of work that pays the bills then probably leave them as is. But maybe test the water with slighly increased rates with new clients.
 
mortgageqs said:
The house insurance is with Allianz, they cover home office equipment. I would only need cover for the hardware (laptop, pc, printers scanner, networking equip etc)...
Click to expand...
This is all I'm looking for as well. I just want to be covered if someone breaks in and nicks my business laptop. Hibernian said they won't cover it as it's for busines use and their policy doesn't cover it. You'd think they'd just amend the damn policy to suit me, the customer, rather than telling me "Sorry, we don't offer that so you're out of luck."

I think a phone call to Allianz is in order.
 
why cant you just say that the laptop is for personal use? having a pc, laptop, printer router camera, isnt unusually any more
 
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