I've long hankered after giving up what I do (sales rep) and setting up a small business offering local PC repairs, problem solving and basic tuition - that sort of thing. Seems to me that we have plumbers, electricians, plasterers etc - but there's a lack of PC repair people - even though the overwhelming majority of people have computers at home these days. I'm also regularly called upon - by friends, colleagues and family - to sort out their PC issues. I've not had to buy beers for the weekend in years. There are others out there who do this, and I sometimes - not regularly - get flyers through the post offering services. I've enough saved up to buy a small van, I have a website, and I have a friend - who is web design and networking to my hardware and business software - who is also interested on a casual basis. So - if anyone is out there who already does this, and doesn't mind giving the advice - - What sort of jobs do you commonly get called to do? - What should I charge? How much should I expect to generate in turnover? - Do peope see "value" in what's on offer - or is the cost of repair high in relation to simply buying a new PC? For exmple, if it's going to cost £200 to fix, and you can buy a new PC for £300 - then do people plump for the latter? This is where this service differs from electricians and plumbers - if your central heating breaks down, you can't simply go out and buy a new one. - How do you go about marketing your services? - Is domestic work a viable business on its own? Or will I need to consider commercial work as well? - Would my total lack of qualifications halt this in its tracks? - Clearly, I can get qualified - Am I being ridiculous?
Unfortunately I don't have any advice to give you, however there was a similar thread on here not tooo long ago - have a search for that as it may be helpful (I'll have a look too) EDIT: Seems as if I remembered wrong - this is the thread I remembered which is more to do with setting up a business to build computers rather than repair them - might have some useful information in regardless. GK
Think you may need to do some reading on this subject as well as asking for advice on here. This sort of thing requires a lot of work to take it past the "on the back of a *** packet with a pint of ale" stage. Some general recommendations; Go here for loads of free advice on setting up a business (and there is tonnes of free stuff) http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/home You need to write a business plan (theres info at the above but most of the banks have links to templates on their website like this one http://www.barclays.co.uk/Startupsupport/Writingasmallbusinessplan/P1242559649359 You need to carry out some market research, look at your competitors and what they currently charge. See if they have overheads (like a shop) which will increase their prices. Work out what sorts of things you will commonly need to repair/sort and how long it will take you. Then work out how many repairs you will need to do each day. Will you need to carry stock of bits etc... How much money will you need to make to support your current lifestyle. You need to think about profit, holiday (you wont get paid it so what will you do?). There will be tax considerations as well so you will need to think about that. Once again Business Link will give advice on lots of these. I'm sure others will offer advice but I am not convinced that this is the appropriate place to get answers to some of your questions. If you have a slightly more detailed plan you may got more constructive advice then
I hate to say it but you will be lucky to make a decent living from just supporting home users, unless you've got a massive customer base you'll be lucky to get enough work to survive. Supporting businesses is the bread and butter of most small companies with home users as extra income. How much other competition is in your area? It's going to be tough to break into as you need enough money saved to live off while you build up your customer base. Your best bet is to stick with your day job and do build up your business in your spare time, doing visits evenings and weekends is going to be more convenient for home users anyway. Certainly don't buy a van, a car is fine to start out with. You can hire a van for a day if you get an install big enough to need to bring that amount of kit with you but it's going to be a business job to need that much kit moving and then they are likely to get it delivered direct to site from dell/hp.
- As far as PC repairs go, I get called to everything from the simplest task like installing a new USB wi-fi dongle or a 3G modem, to full service and repair jobs on computers that have been neglected without regular maintenance for years or that have developed faults. It goes without saying, but every PC repair tech needs to have extremely good virus/malware removal skills because I encounter silly amounts of that. There's hardly a residential computer that I work on which hasn't got some form of malware on it, and if it's not malware, it's bloatware that doesn't like being uninstalled. Business customers usually want advice on their network or system, service/maintenance or quick repairs. - How much you charge is entirely up to you. If you're going to travel long distances to do repairs, you'll have to work out travel costs. Because you've mentioned "local" I'll assume you mean very local and won't be travelling much. I charge different rates for repairing machines that are delivered to the workshop and collected again than I do for ones that I have to go on site to, assess, transport back to base and then deliver again once it's repaired. Then there's on-site rates for equipment and network installs, electronic repairs etc. Your rates will vary between jobs, there's no avoiding that. You can set fixed rates for things like general maintenance service on laptops, desktops, servers etc and callout charges. Expected turnover depends entirely on how much work you can get through. The key with any repair service is quality and volume. The more you repair, the more you'll earn. - I have no problem telling people that it's not viable or economical to repair something that's had its day. If I declare something beyond economic repair, it's going to cost more to repair it than the cost of replacing it with a similar or better piece of equipment. If I declare something economically repairable but outdated and worth upgrading, it's something that I can repair for less than the cost of a replacement but something that is realistically not worth spending money on any more. I'm quite active in "killing off" the throwaway society as far as household appliances and computers is concerned. I always encourage the repair of PCs and laptops that are not that old and will still serve the intended purpose if and when they are repaired and maintained properly. Whether people see the value in it or not is an entirely different matter and depends on how you explain it to them. People will take any advice you give them on board and use it when deciding what to do with their equipment. If you tell them that a £200 repair is required on a computer that could be replaced with a newer, faster machine for £300 and you make it clear that the new machine will be a big improvement on the old one, they will consider that carefully and more than likely go for the newer box. It does depend on the individual customer though. - I advertise in local newspapers, the BT Directory, Yellow Pages, on Facebook, in local shops and around local areas with leaflet/business card drops. - I find commercial work to be very good for business, but also very demanding. At the moment, I don't think I could survive only serving residential customers. If you have the time and resources to serve businesses as well, it's worth while. - Qualifications are handy and undoubtedly allow you to charge more for a more advanced service, but there's no substitute for experience. I had no qualifications when I started and I'm still studying for a couple that I consider to be important for the line of work that I'm in, but the nice thing about being self employed is that you can do both at the same time - study and work. If you think you have enough experience to get started right away, go for it and do the qualifications as you go. There's no doubt that the training helps though, so if you think there are things you need to learn before starting, go that route. To put some context on it, I'm still learning new things (not just about computers, about all the fields that I work in) every single day because I'm still studying. I never thought I'd pick up so much new information before I started actually studying. - You're not being ridiculous at all. It's great to want to do something like this. Even if it's extremely hard work just to scrape by at first, the fact that you want to do it means that once you're on your feet you will enjoy it and will be able to do everything possible to make it a success. Looking back, I picked a pretty bad time to start a business and despite being busy all the time, in terms of the bottom line it hasn't been a wonderful couple of years, but I'm confident that it'll pick up again and in fact I can already see signs of that happening. What I must warn you about is local competition - I have quite a lot of that here which has meant having to travel farther afield to get work, but they key to making sure that rival businesses don't put you out of business is to make sure that you provide a better service than they can at a more competitive rate, and that you out-advertise them. Hope this helps - good luck with your new venture!
I woul research your area to see if there any other similar businesses as competition won't help you as you will be a new company against an already exsisting company with an already established consumer base.
Cheers all - particularly Unicorn - but all of you as well - much to chew over there - I'm in your debt Thanks !!!
