I’m in Sumdood’s house, fixin’ his computerz
I’ve mentioned before that I do occasional freelance computer work on the side. Today a friend threw a job my way, and it sounded like easy money:
Client: I installed Service Pack 3 and now it just reboots over and over.
Me: Does it have an AMD processor?*
Client: It does, actually.
Me: Alright, I’ll be over in 15 minutes.
The actual fix took me all of 10 minutes, but I’m too honest:
Me: Well, you’re already paying for an hour of my time. Anything else I can fix for you?
Client: Yeah, there’s a few other things I need help with…
Long story short, I apparently impressed the hell out of him and now he wants me to build him a new website and become his go-to IT guy. I guess I need to decide which deadly sin is stronger here, greed or sloth. Right now I’m leaning towards greed…
* Bonus points for you if you know why that’s the right question to ask in this case.
That’s exactly the right tack to take.
In the past, I would have said “Aw… it only took me 10 minutes, don’t worry about it. Just call me whenever you need work done.”
And I’d never hear from them again half the time. The other half, they’d want something for nothing or for dirt cheap.
Now my policy is: Charge ruinous rates and then over deliver. As you discovered, that rarely fails to impress the bejabbers out of them and almost always leads to more work than I can deal with, plus referrals to boot.
Plus, I think it’s just good karma.
Joe
Comment by Joe Allen — July 18, 2008 @ 1:07 am