So I started my own pc repair business..

[GWARGHOUL]

Ok, so heres the deal. I work at a ISP that is going out of business (sold dialup to Earthlink, and DSL to Primary Networks)

I have a week and a half left of stable income.
I've applied at a few places...

But the other day, I started playing a bit.
I got 3 pc repair job, and undersold my companmy's work by $5-10 an hour.
I'm A+ Certified, Windows Power User certified.. blah blah..
Years of experience including ISP's, mail server admin, pc repair, and I even worked for Gateway Computers before (tech support).

I started building and reapairing machines around 13 years old.
Almost ten years ago.

I go to my mailbox, and from a dentist I worked on a winsock issue on his computer, and put mayeb 2 hours into the whole thing...

I got a $120 check.
I then get a call to pickup a Pumbing company owner's pc. He's having too much trouble with the earthlink software.

When I take care of all the issues, and I'm going to try to sell him some RAM (he needs it!).. I might make $100 or so bucks for 2 hours of work.

And then supposedly this teacher is bringing me in a computer this morning, which needs a new hard drive, and the current oen backed up.
Another $100 for just a few hours work...


So I'm thinking about printing up some flyers, and business cards.
Posting em here and there etc.

Anybody have any advice/work for me?

I've never really ran my own gig... I'm liking it thus far...but don't really know what to set my expectations to, how to market myself, and what to expect.


Steve

[StukaJU87]

Congrats on starting your business. I will tell you it is tough.

When I met my girl, Kathy, 11 years ago she had a small computer biz just like you are describing. It was called Kit's Computer Service. She worked infrequently, maybe a few times a week. As her customers got to know her and became friendly with her, they started paying slower. I mean maybe months after the job was done.

The job needed to be done right away as their business depended on it. But they rarely thought of her and her business needs.

Eventually she got tired of chasing money and I could only carry so much of the bills around here. Add to that, she had no medical insurance and a son that was 7 years old.

She got a full time job with benefits at Minolta, on the helpdesk and has been there since.

I am not trying to discourage you, believe me. Just don't go into it with elevated expectations and you'll be ok.

[hippietim]

The best advice i can give you is learn about the various vertical market needs. Consumers more often than not will just drag their PC to Best Buy or where they bought it. But doctors offices, construction contractors, auto parts houses, etc. all are looking for a person to come to them and solve their problems in-place if possible. Learn about their software, specialized hardware, and their basic business needs. You will find that some of these folks are way ahead of the game and you should work for them solely to learn how they are succeeding with their systems so that you can go to the other firms that are behind the curve and get them more productive. Whether it's network topology, software integration, system administration, etc.

It really depends on how inclined you are to delve into these other aspects. I think to create a sustainable business in this field you need to be agile.

In a nutshell, think about how you get add value to these folks beyond getting their computers running again.

[Joe_Steeler]

Damn Tim for a long haired fella you give good advise.
Good stuff.

[jgcable]

Ok, so heres the deal. I work at a ISP that is going out of business (sold dialup to Earthlink, and DSL to Primary Networks)

I have a week and a half left of stable income.
I've applied at a few places...

But the other day, I started playing a bit.
I got 3 pc repair job, and undersold my companmy's work by $5-10 an hour.
I'm A+ Certified, Windows Power User certified.. blah blah..
Years of experience including ISP's, mail server admin, pc repair, and I even worked for Gateway Computers before (tech support).

I started building and reapairing machines around 13 years old.
Almost ten years ago.

I go to my mailbox, and from a dentist I worked on a winsock issue on his computer, and put mayeb 2 hours into the whole thing...

I got a $120 check.
I then get a call to pickup a Pumbing company owner's pc. He's having too much trouble with the earthlink software.

When I take care of all the issues, and I'm going to try to sell him some RAM (he needs it!).. I might make $100 or so bucks for 2 hours of work.

And then supposedly this teacher is bringing me in a computer this morning, which needs a new hard drive, and the current oen backed up.
Another $100 for just a few hours work...


So I'm thinking about printing up some flyers, and business cards.
Posting em here and there etc.

Anybody have any advice/work for me?

I've never really ran my own gig... I'm liking it thus far...but don't really know what to set my expectations to, how to market myself, and what to expect.


Steve

Its a tough extremely competitive business that can work providing you have enough contacts in the business to keep you busy. Its all based on word of mouth and service. The only people I know that have made it in that kind of business are the ones that also do web design, consulting, custom software writing or if they have a really good contact in the business bringing them business. Computers work really good nowadays. Dell computers are so inexpensive its not even worth fixing your old one. On top of that... the people who do repair or build their own computers rarely bring one to an outside repair place.
Why don't you go get an IT job somewhere. You could make big bucks and have full benefits.
Picking up the occasional side job is cool but I would count making a living doing it unless you have a ton of connections. The yellow pages is a great place to advertise.. IF YOU COULD AFFORD IT!!! Its REALLY expensive.
Good luck.

[OnlineStageGear]

Cool beans. My business is still probably about 30% PC Repair. Strange to walk into my store and see 1/2 the store guitars and 1/2 the store computers.

Business cards, fliers and advertising is dependent on your location and what type of cutomer you are after. For the most part I have relied on word of mouth advertising.

You will need every version of XP on hand. Home Retail, Home OEM, Pro Retail, Pro OEM, and Corporate as well as 98 and ME. If someone brings me in a system with 95 on it, I usually tell them it is too old and can sell them a used system for a few $ more then what they would spend to fix that one. Smaller computer shops will tend to get a lot of business from people who are too afraid to walk into a Best Buy or Comp USA and deal with them. They are intimidating to them and they would rather deal with a smaller place with better service.

Most PC Repairs should take less than an hour if you sit in front of the machine the whole time, but the good thing about it is you really don't have to sit in front of it the whole time and can end up doing a few repairs at the same time. CompUSA charges $100 for a PC repair so there is plenty of room to undercut them and make money. You will need a good source for replacement parts. Distributors are good if they have the components, but more and more I find myself dealing with some of the big Retailers. They cost a few $$ more but odds are they have the components. Buy boxed retail parts whenever possible for the manufacturers warranty. It may be a few $$ more but will save you more then that in the long run if you have to replace a component out of your own pocket because the OEM warranty ran out but the item failed within your own warranty.

Here are few things that have really been a god-send.

1. Multiple current versions of anti-spyware software since the #1 computer failure has been spyware.
2. Every version of XP on hand.
3. USB to Ethernet adapter. (Best $25 I EVER spent)
4. A network with a separate system for software storage and data backup.
5. Patience to deal with people who really shouldn't own a PC to begin with.

Things to avoid:
Have the customer throughly describe each and every problem they are having before you give them a price for repair. That way you know you are fixing everything for them and you may find yourself giving someone a discount cause all they tell you is the CD Drawer won't open and while you are testing the drive they happen to tell you "Oh ya, can you see why my email program locks up ?" You can find yourself doing a 2 hour repair on someone's PC for what you thought would only be a 15 minute job and quoted them a price for the 15 minute repair. Avoid not having your warranty policy posted clearly in your store. You also need to post that the warranty period begins at the time your repair is completed. I cannot tell you how many people bring in thier PC months and months past the warranty trying to tell me they just hooked it back up and it failed. Meanwhile you see tons of stuff added to the PC since it left your store. Ya right, I may have been born on a weekend, but not last weekend.

I have rambled on enough for now....

Matt

[OnlineStageGear]

JGCable touched on a couple good points as well. We would have sank a few times if I wasn't able to adapt to the new market and if we didn't have a couple good contracts with some larger businesses and the Government. We have gone from doing almost all the Computer Monitor repair for all of the Central New York area, around 50 or so a week, to about 5-10 a year. We also had CompUSA, Best Buy, and a couple others all open around the same time here as well as the Peter Trap Computer Show once a month all take a hefty hit on our sales, but the turnaround there was people were buying a lot of stuff they had no clue how to install properly, so we were able to get a lot of installation and repair work from that.

Yes, and there is DELL to deal with. Their PC's are very cheap, but cheap isn't just referring to the price. The poor saps who don't pay for the extended warranty find their cheap ass Maxtor drives crapping out after a year, as well as motherboards and ETC.... I have yet to have a person who has had to have after warranty service done to a name brand PC go back to name brand PC's. A PC built from scratch with Boxed Retail components will have manufacturer's warranty for 3 years on most components.

Matt

[Deneb]

My Dells run great...but the only stock parts in either of them is the mobo and the processor. Every single other component has been changed out. (well not in my old Dell, it has this piece of shit Rambus ram in it and it's too expensive to upgrade, for all I use it for, it's fine).

Lots of room to undercut like Matt said. Problem is, you go into retail, you're going to deal with people you don't want to deal with. If you can get past that, you'll be okay.

[St.James]

One thing I keep in mind is with business, "It's not what you do, it's what you know".

[OnlineStageGear]

My Dells run great...but the only stock parts in either of them is the mobo and the processor. Every single other component has been changed out.

Is that becuase all those parts died ??

Just kidding.

Matt

[Carbuff]

Wow, I used to do this but had to stop. Most people have no clue as to how a computer works or the difference between a software and a hardware problem. They pay slow and once you touch their computer you are married to them. Every little thing that happens, like if their pc freezes because they continually surf porn sites and load up their computer with spyware, its your fault and they expect you to fix it for free. They think because you installed some ram in their computer that you are now their personal tech support phone guy. They call you night and day with stupid problems that they could have solved with a simple google search. I got fed up with it and now tell everyone to just buy a dell. I dont do repairs/upgrades anymore. Dont even ask about family and these things.....

[GWARGHOUL]

I haven't opened a storefront-yet.
I'm doing this out of the ISP I work out (stealing a customer here and there), and out of my attic.

Word of mouth hasn't had a chance to show me any prospects just yet. Its only been a few days.

I'm going to try an ad in the papaer here ( a local county paper) its only $15 a week. I'm also tryign tot alk the owner here at the isp into lettign me use her sign , to post my repair business and #, since shes closing doors on the second , and will have the lease till the end of June.

Meanwhile I'm looking for a steady job too.

So we'll see what happens- I appreciate your advice, and keep it coming!
If I can sustain a living, and go to college, and cover it if my g/f falls behind-- I'll be happy!

As far as on hand, I've got a lot of OS, software, hardware and tools, even caps, diodes etc.
I've got a KVM switch for quick connecting computers to be worked on.
A network drive...

7mB net access...

Been doin this for almost 10 years, as a friends/work only thing. Only now am I starting on my own...
I have a lot of experience, and several years of customer service experience.
If I can get down the books/schedules/ managment... I'll be alright if thigns go well.

[kith]

tough biz... theres always that boy next door who 'knows' computers...

sincerely, wish you good luck.

[PowerTube]

I have yet to have a person who has had to have after warranty service done to a name brand PC go back to name brand PC's. A PC built from scratch with Boxed Retail components will have manufacturer's warranty for 3 years on most components.

Matt

Yep. I can't tell you how often someone will ask me, "should I buy a Dell or a Gateway or (insert proprietary name brand here)?"

I always tell them......none of the above. I explain to them that they should find a reputable local mom-n-pop shop and let them spec it out. At the very least, they have someone local to yell at if they have a problem, as opposed to dealing with the phone menu of a corporation that's way too big.

In my last job, we were an authorized Compaq service center. I left there back in 2000 and I still hate Compaq to this day.

[PowerTube]

tough biz... theres always that boy next door who 'knows' computers...

sincerely, wish you good luck.

Exactly. In my last job, where we took in work from individuals, I can't tell you how many times I went behind and repaired after the neighbor, cousin, nephew, or friend of a friend who "knows all about computers."