I’ll have to be sure to stop by and thank her personally. Wish I was able to pump out material as easily as she does.

She is damn good, isn’t she.  But then, so are you.  I sent an e-mail to her yesterday about this - hope you don’t mind.

*hugs, hugs, hugs*

I wish I could help you… I am so sorry!  If I get something in, I will send you something.

Happy to help out, Les. Send it back once you’ve earned your first billion.

Herewith please find enclosed payment for 1 share of SEB Class A Uncommon stock.  Purchaser hereby acknowledges that said shares have no voting rights and may not be redeemed for value until Les Jenkins is damn good and ready.

Hey dude, I’ve just chucked 20 bucks your way via amazon. It’s not much I know, but I don’t get paid for another week and I’m a bit broke myself at the mo.

Your website makes a bloody good read and you keep me really entertained so consider it a late payment for services rendered.

BTW… what’s with the “12 Seconds to midnight productions” stuff all about at the bottom of your page? meeesa confuseda.

Dammit… Amazon Honor System doesn’t like my credit card, so I’ve used Paypal instead.

Every little bit helps, Andy. I appreciate the help just the same. As for 12 Seconds to Midnight Productions, that’s the name of my pretend company. If I ever do anything that would require me to actually have a company name that’s what it’ll be.

I would say why not register the DBA.. I dont think it runs much more than 10 bucks in Michigan.
Makes It easier when a situation arises and an “ Im doing somthing moment” comes along..  .. and it keeps it from being ‘stolen’ not to say that you are probably already ‘protected’ under the DMCA somewhere in there

DBA? is that the Dirty Bastard Association?

Hey les, if you fancy moving to the UK the hosting company I work for by day are looking for a couple of people for the technical support dept.

Uh, Les- I just got paid for a couple of bows, and could afford to help you out a little. But is there any other way to get a couple of bucks to you? Paypal doesn’t like my credit card (although it works for everyone else) and Amazon says someone else has my email address.  Can I mail a check?

Les, I’m not a big poster, but I’ve been hanging around long enough to know you shouldn’t be in the position you are in.  Get a job you bum!  Seriously, I think I just sent some bucks your way.  I’ve been very fortunate to not know your situation, but it still hurts to see someone else go through it.  Best of luck.  Send me a shirt or something when you get back on your feet.

Ha ha Andyk now that would be some shit wouldnt it? naw.. its much more mundane - DBA ‘Doing Buisiness As..”

Qoayn, I may just do that. I just thought it sounded like a cool company name. I’ve evolved my pretend company name from “Jenkins & Company” (which sounded stupid) to “Les’s Place Productions” (which was a reference to my old BBS days) to the current 12 Seconds to Midnight Productions.

Zilch, absolutely. I’ll drop you an email with my address. Not that it’s hard to find my address online these days, but this way I know you’ll get it.

Chad, thanks for the help. I really do appreciate it. The response has been very uplifting for me.

Man, I finally had a chance to catch up with some of my fave blogs and was hoping I’d see that you’d been able to find a job by now. I’m so sorry that you haven’t. I’ve been in the scary place before, so I sent you a few bucks via Amazon - sorry it couldn’t be more.

Now, that aside, I have a question. I’ve been building some sites with ExpressionEngine, and there have been a few times when I’ve just wanted to ask somebody who knows what they’re doing with it a few questions. You seem to know what you’re doing and so I’m wondering how much you would charge per hour to do some EE consulting? Like if I had some EE how-to questions that were driving me nuts I would love to be able to give you the questions/problems, the password, and have you take a look under the hood, so to speak. Is this something you would consider?

Thanks for the generosity. It will come in handy. As for EE consulting, well, I’m a member of the EE Volunteer Technical Support team so I tend to do quite a bit of consulting. I’d be happy to help out with any EE related questions you might have and I don’t normally charge anything at all for the service. I usually just asks folks to pick something off of my wish list if they want to. So toss any questions you have my way and I’ll see what I can do. I’ve also been known to tinker under the hood at various sites when asked. No problem.

Les:

I’d be happy to help out with any EE related questions you might have and I don’t normally charge anything at all for the service.

Being part of the volunteer tech-support team does not mean you are an indentured servant

May I be so bold as to suggest you start charging for things you do outside the support forums? Seriously!

If you think about the number of people who need help with EE and the experience you have, you could start a niche business that may help hold you over for a bit… it wouldn’t hurt

I don’t think Rick & Co would have a problem with it ... so why not

In addition, there are people who may be unable to justify a donation for other reasons, but who may be able to pay you for your services.  For example, if someone wanted to get your advice/consultation on doing something that was business related, and which they could then submit to their employer for re-imbursement, it may be a lot easier for them to help you in this regard.

Think, man, think!

Eggzactly. Check with Rick et al. and find out if it’s ok. Then set a rate. I can’t exactly tell my client(s), “ok, I had this guy look at it and I paid him with a coupla Foxtrot anthologies ... “ That wouldn’t go over very well—not even with our mom and pop clients.

Think, Les, think!! Hang out your shingle! What else can you do? My husband/partner is building quite a nice sideline business helping people wrest their computers back from virii and spyware (especially folks with teenagers)—and it’s all been word of mouth (someone else we know of posted one of those tear-off notices at the grocery store and the library, and he’s doing too well, he says!)

Oh I’m sure it would be fine for me to charge for consulting on EE. I just haven’t given much thought to charging mainly because I’m not asked to do so that often that it’s come up before and most of what I’ve done so far has been pretty simple stuff.

Now I do charge for in-home PC consulting and I specialize in cleaning up infected PCs full of viruses and spyware as well as general tech support stuff. I also do consulting on PC purchases, custom PC builds, and tutoring on how to use your PC. I charge $25 an hour for that stuff and I’m told that’s an excellent price. I’ve worked up a business card that I need to get printed out and I’ve been considering the tear-off supermarket posters as well.

$25/hr is some price allright - $50/hr is more typical.  Home service has a lot of overhead in the form of transportation time and contact time so it is appropriate to charge more. 

At the computer store where I used to work, we charged $65/hr in-shop and $100/hr in-home.  That was too much but I didn’t get to say how much we should charge.

I use a consultant occasionally at work for things I can’t figure out myself and I pay between $50 and $90/hour.  And that is for a retired engineer!  My last guy cost me $140/hour!  Another company that keeps trying to get my business charges $90/hour and more depending upon the work.  We’re talking about a small server-based network with about 25 computers.  Of course, I am in Massachusetts where a lot of salaries are over-inflated, but I’m sure you catch my drift.

Hope things start to get better Les. I just picked up a couple of steins, I realize you don’t see much of the money but I figured any little bit would help. Besides, they are pretty cool beer mugs.

So you guys are saying I should raise my rates, eh? Originally I started it as a means of having some splurging money, though it wasn’t long before it became supplemental money. This is part of why I don’t start my own business. I have no clue how to do it.

Terroran, every little bit helps. I’m thinking I need to sit down with Cafe Press and set up multiple shops each on dedicated to a single design for the products. Have the WTF tagline all in one shop and just the SEB logo in the other so folks will have an easier time getting what they want on the item they want. That sound like a good idea to everyone else?