FAQs
- What should the customer know about your pricing (e.g., discounts, fees)?
Ours is not complicated but I felt it was worthy of discussion. We charge flat rates. Having been in the industry for over 19 years I have seen the hourly rate IT professional abuse their clients. I feel that if you know your stuff you should be able to get the work done on average the same amount of time each time. I have taken the average amount of time a job should take and billed for it. I also have employees and sub-contractors who do work for me. I don't feel it is fair to send in a new employee in and because of his lack of knowledge charge the client for every hour it took for him to fix the problem. It also motivates the employee to not waste our clients time.
- What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
If you are in the field every day you are getting educated through the school of hard knocks. But that is not enough. Every IT person you deal with should be at least A+ Certified. This certification covers hardware and software basics. It is essential for any IT person. But then there are various vendors like Microsoft that have their own certifications. These are moving targets and are not very useful in the field as much as they are when an IT person is trying to get a job. They look great on a resume but offer very little support in the field. I have years of certifications but to be honest, if I was hiring someone to work for us, A+ Certification would be a requirement, and years in the field a plus.
- How did you get started doing this type of work?
I have always liked to take apart everything and see how it works. This has allowed me to see from the ground up how things work together. When I started with the IT field I started on a factory floor building computers to order. I believe with that experience and the way I 'think' I am able to turn computers into a real world analogy which I can describe to users. This always helps them understand the concepts much better.