posted
Friends, neighbors and relatives are always calling me for "computer help". I hate doing computer work after hours after doing it all day here.
My 17 year old is thinking of beginning a small service in which he just goes around and helps people clean up spyware/adware off of their machines (since that is the majority of what the problems are when these people call me).
Nothing fancy - just in the local area - just helping people get spyware off after they have almost totally locked up their machines with junk (many of these people are senior citizens). He sees it as a way to make pocket money while also helping them.
So what would be a reasonable charge? Doesn't CompUSA do this service for about $30 flat (just for removing spyware)?
He understands he will need to educate them that he isn't preventing future spyware, just cleaning what they already have on there.
posted
I would depend on how bad the machine is. I mean, he may need to run multiple programs (like AdAware, and Pest Patrol, and Hijack This, etc.) to get everything bad off....
posted
Will he be simply coming in and providing the service, or is he talking the client through the process, and explaining to them and educating them as he goes?
posted
He can still charge more than CompUSA. He does home visits, he is personal, not impersonal, and he is probably a heck of a lot better than it, at least if they do it in-store. Plus, he can give a guarantee (if there's something he can't remove, half price or somesuch).
I'd suggest $40 for the first hour and a half, and $20 per hour after that. Senior citizen's discount of $10 from the first hour and a half and $5 from each hour thereafter (if a large part of his customer base will be senior citizens, having a senior citizen's discount will be a very good marketing tool).
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Oh, and in fact he shoud be charging more for the value provided, but since his target market likely doesn't have huge amounts of spare change floating around, the demand is low enough in order to keep volume reasonable he should keep the price down.
If he were doing this in an upper class neighborhood, $100 for the first hour, $50 an hour afterwards.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
(I have to quit leaving for lunch right after posting a question....)
I think most of his target audience would be senior citizens that don't feel comfortable taking their computer apart and driving the CPU into the city for service. But I could be wrong -- there could end up being a lot more. After all, my sister has had me come over and clean her machine up three times already this year...
He was planning on offering a senior discount of 10%
But yes, it will be in-home visits at their convenience, and he has lots more patience than I do, but I'm not sure how much he plans to educate them. I told him that if they start asking him to do lots of stuff besides spyware removal, then he should switch to an hourly rate.
Printer-friendly view of this topic
