Although I don’t think I’m really ready for it yet, I decided to take on my first customer as owner and operator of Jiffy-PC, my computer consulting company. I say I don’t feel I’m ready for it because there are still a few things I wanted to get settled before taking on customers, like getting a separate phone line established and printing up some business cards. But my girlfriend approached me with a referral and I couldn’t resist.
I have had numerous customers before this, but they have all been off-the-record jobs, or jobs for other companies. The person I meet tomorrow will be the first official customer that I take on as a business. How does that differ from my customers before? Not much. The only difference, really, is that I will provide her with an invoice after my work is done. That invoice will contain my company logo and if she pays by check, it will be made out to Jiffy-PC. Other than that, nothing much is different from before.
The customer says her computer does not boot into windows and instead it gives her a message asking her to back-up her hard drive. What does that mean? Well, we’ll have to find out, but I’m guessing it’s a damaged hard drive or corrupt boot file. A big part of computer consulting is decoding “customer speak” to figure out what the problem really is. Luckily, the customer has agreed to give her computer to me to take home. Normally I wouldn’t do this without asking her to sign something first, but since she is a friend of a friend, I’m making an exception.
I’m charging her about half of my normal on-site hourly rate, because with her computer at my place, I have the luxury of taking my time with her repairs. Since I don’t have any prices published anywhere yet, I can be a bit flexible with my pricing.
Wish me luck folks, this job will set the tone for my business, so I hope it turns out well! I’ll be sure to let you all know how it goes.
Sweet! Good luck!
Thanks Jamie!
Good luck with your first “official” repair although I know you will do fine. Keep us updated.
Thanks David. I’ll let you know how it goes!
Couple of things. Actually, rather than interpret what the client is trying to tell you I find it’s much easier to try to get them to stop talking and let you figure out for yourself what is going on. Second, more importantly, I firmly believe in many of Alan Weiss’s Million Dollar Consultant principles, one of which is NEVER discount yourself. For me, I’m know I may be more expensive, and I’m worth it.
Hey Bill, great advice! Let me address both of your points:
I know what you mean about figuring out the problem yourself. All of my professional troubleshooting experience has been in the corporate world, where rules are clearly defined and each computer is more-or-less running the same stuff. In the residential world, things are so uncertain, and that will take some time for me to adjust to. Hopefully, I will get better at asking the right questions right off the bat, to avoid any confusion and ensure that I’m prepared for the job.
On to your next point, I have mixed feelings about the whole discounting issue. While I feel it’s essential to charge what you’re worth, and to not stray from those rates, I also feel like there is some value in offering the occasional temporary discount as part of a promotion or sales event…in order to attract more customers.
In this case, if I would have done the job on-site at the customer’s home, I would have charged my full hourly rate. Since she came to where I work to drop off the computer for me to work on at my leisure, I thought it was only fair to offer a reduced price for my services. I plan on continuing to offer reduced prices for work that I take home, though maybe not 50% reduced as was the case this time.
I tend to look at my services as a product, and not as hourly chunks of my time that cost the same no matter what. I fully believe that services I provide on-site should cost more than service I complete at my home. Am I way off on this?
Wow, you really got me thinking on this one. Thanks so much for your input…it’s consistently insightful and helpful!
Good luck with your first customer. I can’t wait to hear how your first “offical” job went. Were you able to fix the computer? How long did it take?
I’ll be sure to fill you in on all the details!
I’ve gotta agree with Bill on his point of not discounting yourself. You may think your services aren’t worth the price you charge, but if you give her that price and she tells her friends you’re now stuck with that cheaper price. I also charge more than I think I should because I know I’m worth it.
Plus, if you start out higher, you won’t have to raise your rates to compensate later if you feel they are too low. That’s a competitive advantage if everyone else is jacking up their rates and yours have been steady for a bit.
Other than that, congrats on getting official. Keep us updated on how it turns out.
Hi Justin. Thanks for your comments.
That’s a good point about starting high so that you don’t end up raising prices too soon. I plan on setting my prices right on par with most of my competition. I’m a little more expensive then some, and much cheaper than others.
I think I may have gone overboard with my 50% discount for the drop-off service, so I’ll probably end up increasing what I charge for that in the future.
Rates are always an interesting animal. I know of a guy locally that charges by the type of job instead of by the hour (he may still charge by the hour for some things, not sure). He has a flat rate for backups, HD wipe and reinstalling the OS, virus removal, etc.
I’m excited for you on your first transaction!
Thanks Tim!
Yeah, I plan on offering some “package deals” that have one flat rate. I think it’s a cool idea and more consumer friendly to offer some services like that.
I was kind of ornery yesterday, too. I was half-joking about the clients shutting up, but seriously, it’s much easier for me to figure out what is wrong by looking at the machine than it is for the client to try to explain it. The details they have usually don’t matter as much as what I can see in front of me.
As for rates, Justin has a couple of good points too. Raising your rates for existing clients is HARD. Honestly I’m not sure I’ve actually successfully done that over the last 10 years. Much better to start out high. For work I take back to my office/lab (sometimes I call it a lab to make it sound more technical – in reality, machines often end up on the floor in my office!) I still charge the same hourly rate. However I tend to back of my time a bit, depending on how much attention I’m giving the computer. Loading up Windows XP takes a total of a couple hours, but only a few minutes of my time.
I’ve been thinking about trying to come up with some flat rates but never really got around to it. Problem is, if I’m working on a bad problem in someone’s home (businesses are different) I tend to cap how much I’m going to end up charging them anyway. So I figure I might as well tell them that up front, except that I don’t know the details yet.
Good suggestions about on-site vs. take-home rates. I’ll take that into consideration.
Hey Matt,
Congrats on the first client.
For the phone number, try going with a Vonage line, it’s really great. You can also look into GrandCentral for a number.
Yeah, I ‘ve been looking into my options and will soon make a decision on which Voip provider I chose….I’ll keep you all updated!
Whoa – VoIP, yes. Vonage, not so much (expensive, hard to port, not a great company.) There are lots of good VoIP options but Vonage isn’t one of them.
Yeah, I’ve heard less than stellar reviews of Vonage as well.
You know, I’ve been happy with Vonage for the most part. They did raise some international rates on me without telling me first though…but all in all, it works pretty well for me.
Goes to show you, one man’s peach is another man’s poison! (I think I just made up that saying, but it sounds good!)
Good luck man!
I can see both point of views. Personally, I would probably give a decent discount, not 50% though, and just let her know that you gave her a good price because she is a friend of your girlfriend. If she gave out your business card, I’m sure she wouldn’t mention any amount specifically, just that you did a great job fixing her computer.
Yeah, I’m not sweating this one too much, but in the future I’ll be sure to be more mindful of my pricing.
Congratulations btw; must feel great having a legit business and actually putting it into effect.
Thanks! Yes, it definitely does feel good!
VoIP is a huge topic in itself, but if you have some time and want a full-featured, very professional phone system you should look into Asterisk, specifically PBXinAFlash at NerdVittles.com. Did I mention it’s free, too? And possibly knowledge that eventually you can put to good use for clients too.