Two Years in the Books

Today marked the second anniversary since opening ACE Computer Services. I continue to enjoy the endeavor but I will admit I do not spend as much time doing the background work - web updates, page rankings, advertising, etc.

I'm coming off a successful year and my most successful quarter to close out 2008. 2009 has started just the opposite. Early in the month I was busy but by the end of January it turned out to be one of my worst months to date. I'm not sure if its a factor of the economy or the increase in rates. I tested a $75 per hour rate and I'm pretty sure I scarred one guy away with that so I went back to $45 per hour but adjusted the total time it takes to complete certain jobs to better reflect the actual times it takes - that sounds confusing but in reality I rarely charge people minute for minute on how long it actually takes to fix problems. That is great for the customer but it came time to make the adjustment to better protect my time and make things more worthwhile.

I'm really not sure what Year Three will bring. The sagging economy may create more opportunities as people look to fix what they have versus buying new. But that said people may freeze spending completely. We'll see.