Offering computer support services to small businesses
Know Your Worth
maddog advises computer-savvy students to explore business opportunities as a way to earn money for education.
I have been coaching a small group of university students on how to start up a computer support business as a part-time job to help finance their education. These students are only in their first or second year of university, but they have been using computers most of their lives.
When I mentioned some pricing models, the students told me that the prices were too high and that they could never charge such rates for the type of work I suggested. Often, they did work for their family and friends, and they did not think they could ask the rates I was suggesting.
In such situations, you have to look at the value of your work to the customer and what they would have to pay if they took their business some other place. Where I live, just opening a desktop computer costs US$ 90, even if no actual repair work is done. However, that type of expense is not the value of the work, just the cost. The value would be if the customer had to buy an entire equivalent computer system and regenerate all of the data on the disks to get back to where they were when the system failed, compared with someone fixing the system and retaining their data.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Related content
-
Doghouse: Computer Training
"maddog" looks at some ways that computer science education can be made available to students of all ages.
-
Doghouse: Know Thyself
Mission, vision, and value statements can help define small businesses, corporations, and movements – including FOSS.
-
maddog's Keynote for the Idlelo 4 conference in Accra, Ghana
-
Doghouse: Making Money
"maddog" offers some tips to help you determine the real value of your services.
-
Doghouse – Project Cauã
"maddog" provides an update on Project Cauã, with new focus on helping university students and small businesses.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 Drops bcachefs
After a clash over some late fixes and disagreements between bcachefs's lead developer and Linus Torvalds, bachefs is out.
-
ONLYOFFICE v9 Embraces AI
Like nearly all office suites on the market (except LibreOffice), ONLYOFFICE has decided to go the AI route.
-
Two Local Privilege Escalation Flaws Discovered in Linux
Qualys researchers have discovered two local privilege escalation vulnerabilities that allow hackers to gain root privileges on major Linux distributions.
-
New TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro Powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300
The TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen10 offers serious power that is ready for your business, development, or entertainment needs.
-
Danish Ministry of Digital Affairs Transitions to Linux
Another major organization has decided to kick Microsoft Windows and Office to the curb in favor of Linux.
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.
-
Go-Based Botnet Attacking IoT Devices
Using an SSH credential brute-force attack, the Go-based PumaBot is exploiting IoT devices everywhere.
-
Plasma 6.5 Promises Better Memory Optimization
With the stable Plasma 6.4 on the horizon, KDE has a few new tricks up its sleeve for Plasma 6.5.
-
KaOS 2025.05 Officially Qt5 Free
If you're a fan of independent Linux distributions, the team behind KaOS is proud to announce the latest iteration that includes kernel 6.14 and KDE's Plasma 6.3.5.