Need some advice on opening a PC repair business

[Vickus]

So I've been working and playing around with computers for the passed 8 years and I've finally decided I'd like to open a computer repair shop, I'm pretty confident that I can diagnose and fix most if not all problems when it comes to computers. I can even make them run better than new as long as the hardware isn't damaged, so I'd like any advice you guys can give on getting started out. I don't have any experience with legal businesses but I can manage money well enough and I'm a quick learner.

 

[Davidgilinsky]

well as long as you have that kind of background and determination go for it, but you need to make sure that the place that you will be residing your business is a good spot, and make feasibility studies always make sure you have business cards to give to a client so that your pc repair business also spreads by word of mouth, check other competion about haw much they charge, once you know how much they charge do not make your fee lesser it will only make it worse for you both but make your services better instead, make them want you instead let your clients learn basics on how to fix/clean their systems/ they will surely appreciate that, they also learn while spending time having their computer fixed

 

[Uneventful]

I ran my own computer repair business for a number of years, but I was never able to grow it to a point where it would fully support me. It was more of a way to work flexible hours while taking my mother to her doctor's appointments as she died of cancer. I did learn a few things during that time.

1. Networking is absolutely essential. The hardest part is not fixing computer, it's drumming up enough business. I joined my local chamber of commerce and it was the best decision I made. If I had it to do over again, I would join my city, my neighboring cities and the county chamber of commerce. A large chunk of my business came through them, some times working directly for the chamber (fixing their computers) or by referrals from them. Advertisement is also important, but you have to have an idea how much to spend and where to spent it more effectively, and knowing how to replace a motherboard won't help in that situation. Which leads to the next point:

2. Understand how to run a business. Knowing how to fix computers is essential, but is only 20% or less of what you need to know to make a living doing this on your own. You have to educate yourself on how to run a business, no other way around it. In fact most of your time and effort will be spent on the business aspects: taxes and accounting, purchasing and invoicing, making and managing contacts are the areas where the real time and effort go.

3. Figure out how much business you can actually do. I never spent 8 hours a day fixing computers. If I had I would be making a great living at it, but it never works out that way. Sometimes you have 4 jobs in one day, and some days you spend all day waiting. Figure out how much time you spend fixing a computer vs all the other time you spend on that job. (Traveling, ordering parts, picking up parts, making phone calls, sending emails, researching online, creating invoices, mailing invoices, receiving payment, depositing money, paying city, state and national taxes) Your billable time will shrink in comparison to all the time it takes to run the business. So:

4. Don't under sell yourself. You will never be working 8 billable hours every day, and most of your time won't be billable. If your work is good and you are honest and have real people skills you should be able to charge a pretty high hourly fee (for the things that you do that aren't billed at a flat rate) and your customers won't have a problem paying it. But the key is:

5. Make sure every customer gets there money's worth. I have known other independent PC Techs who went on site to a small business customer and charged them a triple digit hourly fee and after several hours left with actually fixing anything and sent the customer a fat invoice. That is by far the clearest example of short sightedness I have ever seen. Needless to say, my competitor's small business customer became my small business customer and one of my most loyal one's at that. I always had a mental policy that if I ever charged a customer for anything then they would always know exactly what they were getting for the money. If I needed to do something like extensive research into a problem before I would be able to solve it, I always make sure they knew ahead of time what they were getting into and gave them a clear estimate for what to expect.

There are probably a million other things to think about if you are starting down this road, but these are just a few at the top of my mind. Good luck, I know that there is a real need for honest, reliable computer repair professional in my area and so there is probably a market for your services if you are willing to make the effort. Just don't have any illusions about the amount of work required to be successful, there are no short cuts. -Dave

 

[Vickus]

Thanks for the great advice you two, at first I had planned on selling services for less than my competition I'm glad I know not to do that now. I also know what you mean about no shortcuts, there are times where I spent over 5 hours trying to fix a problem with extremely limited resources. Also a lack of customers is never any good, I've experienced that a few times before.


I have what I like to think is a pretty good idea for advertising though, I have at least 200 friends on facebook from my town and I planned on paying for the advertising. Maybe even make a post that says if you share my facebook page you get a 15% discount or something. Kijiji is pretty great too, especially if you pay for it.


One of my main concerns is location, there are 6 other computer repair shops in the towns surrounding the one I live in so I'm pretty sure there is a lot of room for business. I know the downtown area pretty well and it looks nice enough on the outside but it's pretty damn ghetto and I'm not sure it'd be the best place to set up in, but it's pretty far away from all the other repair shops so I guess that's a plus.

I should also probably mention my town has 157,000 people in it.

 

[Uneventful]

Thanks for the great advice you two, at first I had planned on selling services for less than my competition I'm glad I know not to do that now. I also know what you mean about no shortcuts, there are times where I spent over 5 hours trying to fix a problem with extremely limited resources. Also a lack of customers is never any good, I've experienced that a few times before.


I have what I like to think is a pretty good idea for advertising though, I have at least 200 friends on facebook from my town and I planned on paying for the advertising. Maybe even make a post that says if you share my facebook page you get a 15% discount or something. Kijiji is pretty great too, especially if you pay for it.


One of my main concerns is location, there are 6 other computer repair shops in the towns surrounding the one I live in so I'm pretty sure there is a lot of room for business. I know the downtown area pretty well and it looks nice enough on the outside but it's pretty damn ghetto and I'm not sure it'd be the best place to set up in, but it's pretty far away from all the other repair shops so I guess that's a plus.

I should also probably mention my town has 157,000 people in it.

It sounds like you have done some thinking about this, which is good, but make sure you put together an actual business plan before you commit to anything. Before I started I read some books about running your own business, but once I started it was clear that I didn't have anywhere near enough education for the business aspects of it. I had a BS in CIS but no business classes under my belt. I even considered taking some of the business classes at the local community college and if I ever decide to go that direction again I will.

I used to work for a local computer shop in their repair shop while I was in college and I learned a lot about the computer repair business while I was their, mostly what not to do. But because I and my coworkers were just cogs in the machine we never got to understand the business the brought customers to our counter. It was a favorite past time to dream that we could work for ourselves and make a decent living deposit the entire invoiced price directly into our pockets instead of the 1/8 amount that our hourly wage was in comparison to what we were charging the customer. The reality was very different. The customer base needed to keep one tech employed at a reasonable wage is always way bigger then you think. To make $30k a year you need to average $15 an hour of pure profit. So if you are charging $60 an hour (just to make the calculations easy) you need 2 billable hours of work every day. Lets say that each job has a minimum of 1 billable hour, then you need 500 jobs a year. If you have a loyal customer who needs computer help regularly then you might be able to count on one job every six months from them, but they will be in the minority. So if loyal customers only make up 10% of your business, then you will need 25 of these loyal customers for 50 jobs a year. The rest will be one job per year or less, so you will need another 450 new customers every year. If only 1% of the population pays for computer repair then you need to be the first choice of 45,000 people, so that when they do need computer repair and are willing to pay for it, you are their computer repair shop of choice.

So just think about that, you need to advertise to 45,000 people and convince them that if they actually do need computer repair and are willing to pay for it to choose you, all so that you can make $30k a year charging $60 an hour. This is why you need a written down business plan, something other people can look over and tell you were you are making good guesses and where you are way off base. Having an idea of your target market (Home users vs. small businesses) and how you intend to reach them and why they would choose you over your competitors is essential. Are you going to be a one man shop or are you going to have other employees? Are you going to work out of your garage or are you going to have a store front? What services are you going to offer and what will be your store policies? Are you going to sell parts directly to the customer and if so what is going to be your return policy, will you mark the items up or sell at cost? Will you offer a warranty on your work?

What will be your make or break point? Do you know at where you are getting your start up capital and how long can you survive before you can break even? Have you talked to some of the other computer repair business owners in the area to find out how they are surviving? There used to be about a half dozen or more independent computer store with repair shops within 10 miles of my house, now I can only think of one still around.

There are lots of questions to be answered, and fortunately there are a fair number of places to get help if you are willing to look and ask. This is what I meant about there not being any short cuts, running a business, any business, is a lot of work and if what you really like to do is fix computer then work for someone else, because very little of a successful computer repair shop's owner's time is spent fixing computers. If they are big enough to actually make a living at it then it is very rare that they are a one man operation. It's just the nature of the business.

-Dave

 

[Vickus]

I plan on hiring an employee once I get settled down, I'm also planning on hiring an accountant right off the start. I have enough money to get things going. I was also planning on selling other services like putting together budget gaming computers, training for keeping your computer healthy, stuff like that. Oh and I plan on getting a storefront.

I should also probably point out that I'm used to living off of around 12,000$ a year between two people. If I could make even half of 30k a year I'm pretty sure that I would be pretty happy.