How Much Should I Charge...

Meetre

the trouble with this kind of thought is, they are paying you. They want your best work. and cheap. and they tend to be some of the biggest pita customers there are. I'm not against giving a lower price, but family gets a market value quote, and IF they take it and IF the job goes great and they are greatful for you effort, then, at the end, give them a discount. If you set the expectation that they are getting it cheaper, they won't value your work. I've had experiences with MY OWN SISTER complaining about the lower price I gave her. I made the mistake of caving and lowering even more. didn't make enough to cover my costs in the end. cause, she's my big sister, I didn't complain, and now, I don't charge her for work. but you can bet your arse he husband is helping me do the free work now. and it's not going to happen when i have other work to do.

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justinae

Thankfully I'm still new enough that I don't have any pita experiences yet.

Yeah i hear ya but I wouldn't do a job if I didn't think I could do it well, even if it took me longer because of a learning curve. I just don't work that way. If I can do it I will, if I don't know how I'll learn, if I learned and still can't, I'll bow out.

sorry to hear about the sister part. Sounds like you came up with a nice compromise.

Meetre

It works, she just has to wait until I have some extra time. if it's anything more than an hour or two of work, it may be a while til I get to it. It just funny to argue with family about how much I charge for my time, so I asked her how much she makes an hour, plus her benifits, and vacation and sick days, yearly bonus, etc. and then compare that to what I ask her to pay me for my time. Kinda stopped the disagreement right there, but for my sanity, and the fact that she is the only family I have left now, it's free most of the time. keeps us getting along better.

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rsss396375

If they know you well enough, then they know you do good work (I assume you do). They should be lucky to have a friend or family member that will do the job right and be willing to pay them your going wage. If it's free they want, give them a map to H.D. and tell them, "you can do it, they can help"

justinae

meetre I like the arrangement you made with your sister. she's lucky. does her line of work provide anything that she could do for you for free?

Meetre

She is the IT purchasing agent for the company she works for. Let's just say I have a new palm smart phone(they tried them at work, didn't work with MS exchange correctly so it cost me $50 with every goody to go with it), just about any software for the computers(we have 7 running in the house and home offices). So it works out well. She is a great sister, just that her and her husband like to trade a bit more than pay.

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wallmaxx

every time i see a "How much should I charge?" thread, I scramble to locate "the football" with the nuclear codes so I can initiate a pre-emptive strike.

Charge zero...no wait....charge $300,000.00...okay, maybe somewhere in that range is a good number.

ChainsawCharlie

That amounts to a 25% discount.

My friends pay me my full price for the work I do for them.
I pay my friends their full price for the work they do for me.

As for family, I have a brother and sister. I will help and advise my brother and brother-in-law on small projects. Big projects, I need to be paid. I will give them a deal, though.

As for Mom....she never charged me for all the food, clothing and shelter she provided me for the early years of my life. How could I possibly charge her in the later years of her life?

behrco

here is what I learned about friends and family if they insist on paying full price like the one guys sis, then get freaked because of the hourly rate (which really is the fairest for everyonre right?) well I try to give them a figure if possible. you can tell someone:" hey it will be 240 bucks it'll take me the better part of the day to do it ( about 6 hrs to you and me) you buy the material to save some money" they go oh great awesome deal . or you can say hey pay me 40 an hour you buy materials then you get holy crap are you insane i'm your cousin for pete's sake.. never fails same goes for customers quote hourly they freak quote price they love it.

deckman22

The golden rule for contractors is, do not work for family or friends.

If it's your parents, sure you do it free. Anyone else, if you have free time then go help out for free. Do not get money mixed in with family/friend relations. If you do you'll why the golden rule soon enough.

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