IT nixers

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belmaynebuye

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23
Hello, I am thinking of doing some IT nixers (just bought a house and need every bit of money I can get). I have been working in IT for 6 years and was wondering what the general consensus is of people doing nixers in their local area. I have done a few jobs for friends and my name have been passed around and have gotten a few phones calls requesting my services. It hard not to turn down jobs.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?
 
If you have the patience, good luck!

Family & friends drive me demented (much as I love them!) being convinced that I am their personal help desk support.

My other observation is that there isn't the same appreciation of the skill and knowledge required to fix a problem; if you have it fixed quickly it's "ooh was it as easy as that..that didn't take long", or if you haven't seen the issue before and have to trouble shoot it's "I thought you'd be able to fix it quickly".

But maybe it's just family that get narky :) and paying customers won't.
 
Kildrought said:
Family & friends drive me demented (much as I love them!) being convinced that I am their personal help desk support.
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Me too although I don't really mind doing it but don't like being unilaterally volunteered to help others out... Maybe I should start charging them. :)
 
I would not charge friends or family but would charge people outside of them. I was thinking about 40 for the 1st hour and 35 after that. Considering Electricians charge you 80 to tell you your washing machine is broken and you need a new one I think thats a fair price!
 
I do "nixers" in my own time but if I charge for them I account for them in my tax return at the end of the year.....
 
belmaynebuye said:
I would be doing it in the evenings and weekends so it wont effect my day job.
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Not correct
Most contracts forbid employees working for themselves outsise company time.
Is's illegal not paying tax on income.
Will you have insurance to cover your work.
If you ues your car to drive to your nixer your car insurance is invalid as it proberly does not cover use for work.
 
sparkey said:
Most contracts forbid employees working for themselves outsise company time.
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And many such clauses in employment contracts (often simply copied from US or US style contracts) are extremely difficult to enforce and may be quesitonable under Irish/EU employment legislation. If you are not using company resources (including time, tools, software, intellectual property etc.) and are not competing with your employer then I can't see any way that you can be legitimately prevented from engaging in additional employment.
 
Such clauses count as restraint of trade and are probably not enforceable. One recent complication might be the Working Time Act, where all your employers are collectively responsible for ensuring you don't breach the relevant limits. Can't see how that applies in a self-employment situation though.

As well as income tax and insurance on the car, you should also consider some kind of indemnity insurance should someone claim you damaged their computer or caused data loss.
 
I work as a contractor and I am on a daily rate, if I dont go in I dont get paid. I would be declaring the money under the umbrella company I currently pay my tax etc through.

My employers would have to be complete tight arses to have a problem with me working outide of the hours I work per there per week. They already know anyway. I start work at 8 and finish at 3:30pm (i dont take lunch, Im waiting for someone to say that that's illegal I HAVE to take lunch!).

In this day and age of phone bills, tax, house prices, car insurance and vhi one can do with all the money they can get their hands on.
 
belmaynebuye said:
(i dont take lunch, Im waiting for someone to say that that's illegal I HAVE to take lunch!).
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Have you not heard about the EU Mandatory Employee Intraday Small* Repast Directive 2007 due to come into force next month? :eek:

* Substitute "Large" for Southern Europe.
 
ClubMan said:
Me too although I don't really mind doing it but don't like being unilaterally volunteered to help others out... Maybe I should start charging them. :)
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The straw that broke the camel's back with my husband was when neighbours started calling to the door at 9 a.m. on Christmas morning! They'd bought computers as presents for their children and hadn't a bull's notion how to set them up!
 
MugsGame said:
As well as income tax and insurance on the car, you should also consider some kind of indemnity insurance should someone claim you damaged their computer or caused data loss.
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The car insurance will only cost about €100 a year extra. Not sure about the liability insurance. That will depend on the amount of cover you want etc.
 
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done it a few years ago not worth the bother, an example, replace hard drive new cd rom load windows & drivers (search for them on net ,normally lost) and a little for your time ,trhe bigger the job the less for you . the cost would nearly run up to the cost of a new pc. also with viruses etc , normally got from dodgy sites(porn)
"and none of my dears would go near these places" so you were the last one with pc watch out!
 
I tell them the rough time its going to take before I do it. Average job takes about 2 - 4 hours. I leave it up to them if they want me to do it or not. They pay for all the parts obviously. If a pc is 5 years old and they need a new hard drive, cd rom more RAM I would tell them I would not bother upgrading it and they are best to get a new one. People appreciated not being lied to.
 
belmaynebuye said:
If a pc is 5 years old and they need a new hard drive, cd rom more RAM I would tell them I would not bother upgrading it and they are best to get a new one. People appreciated not being lied to.
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I don't necessarily think that this is good advice in most or all cases. It depends on what they want to use the PC for but for many casual users a 5 year old PC is more than sufficient for their needs. And if the problem is running a currently supported version of Windows (e.g. not W9x/Me et. al.) then there are always usable free options (e.g. Ubuntu/Xubuntu or many other GNU/Linux distributions etc.) which are more than sufficient for casual or even more frequent use.
 
As I said I would leave it up to them.

I dont see the point in Buying a hard drive for €80 (at least), CD rom for €30 and RAM for €80 and then their monitor goes dead in 6 months time and they have to fork out 200 (at least) on a new monitor when they could have gotten a whole new PC and monitor from Dell for €400 which is under warrenty for a few years.

Each to their own and all that I suppose.
 
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