After college and before I got my job, I supported myself on freelance computer repair. I generally didn't do work for friends and family, but mostly for people in my neighborhood. That was a pretty good balance of convenience and emotional distance. I didn't know most of these people.

Plus, the work was easier. 95% of the many jobs I had consisted entirely of removing spyware and viruses. This meant spending many hours watching Ad-Aware and AVG do their thing, with little interaction from me. When I started I wasn't very confident, so I charged something like $10 or $15 an hour. By the time I'd finished I was charging $45. People around here still paid that.

My tactic was to quote higher numbers to people I didn't want to do work for. There's one family that really gets on my nerves for too many reasons to list here. I quote them $85 an hour