[TriLUG] Off topic: Side work

[Aaron Joyner]

On Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 5:22 PM, Michael Kimsal <mgkimsal at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 5:03 PM, Jason Watts <jsnonzzr at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I'm sure quite  a few of you do side work so I wanted to ask two questions:
>>
>> 1)  is there any good place to look for people that need work done?  I'm
>> not
>> looking for web work which I can find all over Craig's List, I am more so
>> looking for networking or pc, possibly server setup stuff/break-fix.  My
>> skill level is not as advanced as some of you, but I'm at a point where I
>> can start picking up side jobs and figuring things out on my own.  also, I
>> cant do this work during the day, so I'm sure that will rule out looking
>> for
>> work from some small businesses.
>>
>
> Networking at various events has led to some word-of-mouth referrals for me,
> and I suspect it's the same for many others.
>
>
>
>>
>> 2)  I was just offered 10 bucks to re-image 4 computers from a daycare (no,
>> not even 10 bucks a pop)  how many of you receive insulting offers like
>> this... or is it just me?
>>
>>
> It's not just you.  While understandable that a daycare *might* not have
> funds for standard-rate IT work, that is still somewhat insulting.  It would
> have been better to ask you to do the work for free in exchange for
> something else (pro-active referrals to other businesses the daycare works
> with, for example).  And perhaps you could offer to do it for free in
> exchange for those referrals, or a written letter of recommendation, or
> something of similar value to help jumpstart your sidework work.

A lot of parents pass through a daycare.  There's a *lot* of
networking to be had from a good experience with the staff, and with
them having a high opinion of your work.  As Michael suggested, you
should be rather clear that you don't work for free, but you'd be
willing to trade your time for something in kind.  I'd suggest
advertising near the front door in some conspicuous place, for a fixed
period of time, for a fixed quantity of work.  You could even offer to
make up and print the sign for them, think of it like the guys who do
gutters, if you let them put a sign in your front yard saying "The
fantastic gutters installed by Joe's Gutter Company", they'll give you
a discount on your installation.

Aaron S. Joyner