whats a fair price?

[findtim]

Dear Abby

i have a mate that fixes my computers if i have a bug, fan issue, hard drive or upgrade the ram etcccccc and i pay for parts but he never wants money for the time he spends on them, so what do you do?

i buy him a couple of beers when we go out but nothing major but i feel the "balance" is out meaning i ask more of him then he asks of me, i don't want him to think i'm using him as i am NOT..... we have been mates for 10 years.

how do you pay someone that doesn't want to be paid and THEN what do you pay them as they could say to themselves "thats what he thinks i am worth" because you just put a figure on it.

tim

 

[Data Glasses]

I think marie forlea may be the one to ask

 

[Cal]

Not sure if this helps...Firstly, I'm all for helping out someone and not expecting anything in return. I wish more people were like that. But when that 'helping out' stretches out to more than an hour or so on a regular basis I think the discussion about time needs to be had.

I have a friend who does work for me and I do work for them occasionally. We don't want to be invoicing each other because we're just helping each other out but everyones time is valuable.

What we decided is to share an excel file in google docs where we just keep track of what we do and sum up the hours we work for each other (we can then both access at any time without having to ask each other for an update). That way you can get an idea pretty quick if the balance is off and if we can't restore that, we agreed we'd look at invoicing for the time worked. It just keeps it fair, transparent and avoids any 'guess work'. But most importantly to me it avoids any unnecessary strain on an important friendship and shows we value each others time and help.

Might sound like a bit of over kill but for me I've seen situations like this seem harmless at first but then misunderstandings can flare up and cause damage. I'd rather be extra cautious. Hope it gives some food for thought

 

[James]

Depends if it is a mate probably do it for free, I have a good mate looking to set up a site I helped him with a few things to get it going.

Depends how good of a mate but because I have been doing SEO and Online Marketing for a long time, people come out of the woodwork you have not seen in 5 years and expect free help for a lot of hours, some times you do it but if you are busy its hard.

It also depends on how much time you spend on something too.

 

[findtim]

james: i'm the taker in this situation, but also i am also the giver in many more and i know how i feel when it gets all consuming.

tim

 

[payattention]

Better to feign ignorance regarding computers than be *that guy*. Come to think of it, I have not been asked in a long time, I'm guessing more people use their mobile or tablet and ignore the desktop these days.

 

[chris]

For sure, iPads are much easier to support than an old Windows machine

From what I've done, as Cal said a simple barter can work since it doesn't put a dollar figure on it.

If it's more than a few hours and they don't need anything from you, then think of something the really like and get them a gift in the ballpark of what you think it's worth to you, maybe?

Cheers,
Chris