Offering computer support services to small businesses
Know Your Worth

maddog advises computer-savvy students to explore business opportunities as a way to earn money for education.
I have been coaching a small group of university students on how to start up a computer support business as a part-time job to help finance their education. These students are only in their first or second year of university, but they have been using computers most of their lives.
When I mentioned some pricing models, the students told me that the prices were too high and that they could never charge such rates for the type of work I suggested. Often, they did work for their family and friends, and they did not think they could ask the rates I was suggesting.
In such situations, you have to look at the value of your work to the customer and what they would have to pay if they took their business some other place. Where I live, just opening a desktop computer costs US$ 90, even if no actual repair work is done. However, that type of expense is not the value of the work, just the cost. The value would be if the customer had to buy an entire equivalent computer system and regenerate all of the data on the disks to get back to where they were when the system failed, compared with someone fixing the system and retaining their data.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
Kali Linux 2025.3 Released with New Hacking Tools
If you're a Kali Linux fan, you'll be glad to know that the third release of this famous pen-testing distribution is now available with updates for key components.
-
Zorin OS 18 Beta Available for Testing
The latest release from the team behind Zorin OS is ready for public testing, and it includes plenty of improvements to make it more powerful, user-friendly, and productive.
-
Fedora Linux 43 Beta Now Available for Testing
Fedora Linux 43 Beta ships with Gnome 49 and KDE Plasma 6.4 (and other goodies).
-
USB4 Maintainer Leaves Intel
Michael Jamet, one of the primary maintainers of USB4 and Thunderbolt drivers, has left Intel, leaving a gaping hole for the Linux community to deal with.
-
Budgie 10.9.3 Now Available
The latest version of this elegant and configurable Linux desktop aligns with changes in Gnome 49.
-
KDE Linux Alpha Available for Daring Users
It's official, KDE Linux has arrived, but it's not quite ready for prime time.
-
AMD Initiates Graphics Driver Updates for Linux Kernel 6.18
This new AMD update focuses on power management, display handling, and hardware support for Radeon GPUs.
-
AerynOS Alpha Release Available
With a choice of several desktop environments, AerynOS 2025.08 is almost ready to be your next operating system.
-
AUR Repository Still Under DDoS Attack
Arch User Repository continues to be under a DDoS attack that has been going on for more than two weeks.
-
RingReaper Malware Poses Danger to Linux Systems
A new kind of malware exploits modern Linux kernels for I/O operations.