Services For Hire Overview

Rates for Services

    I strongly prefer to be paid for my services based on what is appropriate to solve each problem. Where my fee is based on the scope of the problem, but may or may not have anything to do with how long I spend to deliver the solution. (The more time and effort I invest "preparing in advance" to handle something, the less time I then need working at a computer system.)

    The fees listed in this section for Technical Support and/or Web Development are the "per task" amounts I would expect to be paid by an employer. Where for bookkeeping and legal liability reasons, I am paid as a (contract) employee, and any firm I do work for issues me an income tax receipt at the end of the year. That using piece-work employment in this manner enables me to concentrate on what I do best, while permitting me to exclude costs such as bookkeeping services and liability insurance from what I must charge for my services.

    So, as I am able to come up with fair pricing to do this, the work I am able to handle on a fixed rate basis is added to the Technical Support Services and Web Development Services pages. Otherwise, the hourly rates given below are my guidelines for the process of quote generation, and are provided as a courtesy.

    Payment Terms: All work is billable and immediately due upon satisfactory completion of each individual service incident, support call or development project. (Next payroll cycle accepted. But no Net30 terms, etc..)

Travel Time

    For any on-site service, travel time-- excluding any unreasonable delay-- is included in the billable time. The exception to this is any location easily accessible by TTC; for which I will usually charge a flat-rate $20 fee, to cover all travel to and from that site. (One charge for the "support incident" or project, even if multiple trips are required.) While for anything within about a 15 minute walk, I usually won't charge anything for "the opportunity to get out and stretch my legs".

Hourly Rates

    I also do not believe in charging clients for what amounts to my own research. As clients should be paying for my services, and the expertise I already have-- not my developing the "general method that works" to handle something. So for work billed by actual time, rather than a specific job billed by a firm quote, I do sometimes bill based on the time it would take to do the work again.

    It should be noted that the above rates are based on my working mostly from a home office, on completely flexible hours. Work that must be performed at some job site or "place of employment", or must be performed during specific hours, could incur a 50% surcharge. While any "leave whatever I'm doing, and handle this now" emergency will incur a 100% surcharge.

    Please also note that I reserve the right to change these fees, or how these fees are applied, without prior notification.