I think I found one of the hardest parts of doing business on your own..

[draggar]

Recently I've started to do some minor IT work for friends / family. The "friends" I've been doing it for are family friends (not acquaintances) and I'm usually willing to do some small things for very little (one cooked dinner for my wife and myself when her sister was in town (who is also a friend) but recently acquaintances have started to ask me for help with their computers and some web work.

Here lies the toughest part - asking for money.

We have emails going back and fourth and we discuss what needs to be done (well, they tell me what they want and I tell them what needs to be done) and after all is said and done I freeze when it comes to asking for money.

Did anyone else have this problem in the beginning?

 

[Rockefeller]

One think to remember is that by nature, people will normally lag when it comes to paying money, I normally tell people right upfront what it will cost, this way it leaves no room for the weird money talk. Be upfront and treat family, friends etc exactly like you would treat a client living 2,000 miles away, I've always done this and find it helpful.

 

[hugegrowth]

Deal with it upfront, give them your hourly rate and an estimate of hours it will take, or a price for the whole project, but do it at the beginning so they can agree to it or not. As long as you give a fair price it should sit well with you, if anything you'll end up doing extra because it's for people you know, and they should be glad to be dealing with someone they know well.

 

[Jilo]

Whenever I do retouching work, the first thing I mention is the pricing. Otherwise I find some people will always deliberately shy away from the obvious money question! Which is natural I suppose! It's up to you to mention it up front Draggar

 

[tekz999]

Just say I do not have the word "charity" labeled on my head and they will understand j/k

Well, you can say I can provide suggestions and minor help for free, but if you are looking for serious and very time consuming tasks, then I advice we go to the more serious level and pay an hourly fee because I am an online business entrepreneur and this is how I make money. I have other clients pending which I need to take care of as well.