charging for web development - aside from my current employer

[Belfast_tech]

I've designed and developed websites for several linked schools which I was asked to do as part of my employment at this school - all done & everyone happy (including me as I enjoy doing this type of work).

Now... 1 of the schools has asked me if I'd consider doing a similar website for another school (not linked to this school in anyway) - with no mention as yet of possible payment. Now, I am employed by this school, so not as a contractor.

I would only be able to work on the new school site outside of my working hours, so it would involve my own time being spent entirely on it. Obviously I'm going to want payment for this, but as I'm not self-employed as it were, how do I stand in charging the new school for my time? I certainly wouldn't be charging a large amount for this site. Do I need to run this past my current employer as I'm going to possibly be benefiting from work I done through this employment?

Cheers for any advice.

 

[peterwalkley]

Check your contract of employment very carefully and also ask HR/Personnel.

It is very common for contracts to say that your employer owns the rights to everything you develop whilst an employee - even in your spare time with your own equipment. It is usually a blanket thing put in to stop people profiting on their time, with their equipment and with knowledge/training gained at company expense - this last point is especially relevant - the new site its the same as you've already done, just for another school.

 

[alle]

...I got conned into doing websites for a few of the schools I go to but for one outside of my cluster I was only going to charge £50 (although I got bartered upwards to £100 ) for a simple 5 pages or so.