Mikado

So I tried to do a search on the subject, but for some reason it says I don't have permission to access that part of the forum. I guess maybe it's been disabled?

Anyway, I'm currently working in the family buisness in which we have roughly 200 clients and several hundred leads or clients in limbo. I've been talking to my dad, who owns the company, about ways to generate more income. Mainly for myself but also for the company as a whole. One suggestion we came up with was to offer some IT support for our clients. We had considered adding it to our list of already supplied services. So my question to anyone doing similar freelance work would be how to go about such a venture. Things that come to mind would be how long it should take for a job, how much you should charge, how much man power should we consider taking on, etc.

To give some background on myself, I've been doing contract IT work for several major companies here in Houston for about 5 years. I've done everything from a 2,000 piece rollout to a 5 computer office network. I've got my A+, Net+, MCSE and I'm slowly working on my CCNA. I've also got a background in some webdesign as well. I've got past experience working with ASP, PHP, Mysql, Access, etc. So I feel confident enough that I can get a job done based on the client's needs. Most of our clients are small buisness owners and would probably only require small IT support. Be it troubleshooting, networking a small office, or perhaps a web presence.

So, anyone care to share their freelance experience? How long it typically took to complete a job. How much you generally charge. How many people you needed to take on to help with any work. Etc.