cpuenvy

I used to have a girlfriend who had that 'issue'.

I always thought it was kinda sexy.

If people didn't do stupid things on their computers many of us would not have jobs.

That explains why you don't know what you are talking about in this context. Completely different environments and completely different business models.

I used to work corporate too. While we had fun doing things like dressing up our cubes, we sometimes had to work our asses off. But the pay was always predictable and so wasn't the work (unless the mail server shat the bed or something like that).

On your own, you have no time to dress up your work-space let alone clean your desk. Any time not spent making money costs you money and reflects in your pay.

I own a computer repair store. Jobs come in and there is a $60 assessment fee which is waived upon a quote agreement. Malware cleanups and reinstalls are $160, which is an extremely fair price. The big stores can't do what we do for service, ever. And we have a location that is fairly expensive to run. If we charged 20-30 per hour, we would not be able to afford this location. If you think that is a fair price, you won't be in business very long. The bench makes money to keep the store open, not much more. The real money is in consulting.

The only businesses that I see who charge $40 for a malware removal (which is NEVER just removing a bug) never stay in it for long, or they do a horrible job. I have been doing IT work for 30 years and I can assure you that is unheard of where I am based out of. You are devaluing your career if that is in fact true. If a nearby place like Staples charges almost $200 for the same service that you charge $40 for, you are clearly not a businessperson and you will fail.

But my statement still stands. Unless you have 10 of these jobs going at the same time, all the time, there is no damned way you are going to make enough money to survive. I own a storefront in a busy college/tourist area and we bring in about 10 of these types of jobs on a busy week. You would literally need to have the customers lined up outside your door at all times to make money @ $40 per malware cleanup (which is a majority of our walk-in business). With just my utilities and rent I shell out about $1500 per month, not to mention the cost of other bills incurred.

Also, if your malware cleanup service for $40 consists of merely running a scan, you are doing it wrong. Let me know how that works out with the FBI bug that has been going around.