We ended up paying $300 a month and we are a small shop. This is a yearly contract.

I think it’s best to advertise when you can afford it. One newspaper here accepts ads that run for 3 months at time so that way you are not locked in for a whole year.

As to how to price your services I usually try to charge about the same as the other shops. I know customers are going to shop around because there are 3 other shops very close, 2 across the street from me.

So sometimes I’ll tell the customer well that’s the same price as the guy across the street if you want your pc cleaned of virus etc.

I have been reading this site everyday and made it one of my homepages. I keep seeing these references about fly by the night pizza technicians. The one question that has been burned in my mind is what separates them from this category especially when dealing with a client in the virus category. Maybe a topic of Dont be the pizza tech virus removal guide. From reading the classification of one is those that just run a virus scan and spy-ware tools. Elaboration would be appreciated.

I remember spending a fortune with lots of directories, but it was only
one directory which gave me most of the leads. The others were a waste of money.

Regards

The goal is always a customer who is able to do their work.

Normally, problems requiring more than two hours are not appropriate to be done on-site.

Tools are tools, skills are what they pay for.

Starting any business is hard. The first year is fatal to most and few make it five years so take the long view. Make lasting customers, invest in advertising, do what you are good at and get others to do the rest. And hang in there.