A few days ago I asked the Technibble readers to ask me a question about the computer business. Here are the answers:
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I often write about how to work on your business, your computer or your client; but in this article I will be focusing on working on ourselves. It takes a certain type of person to become successful in the computer repair business and here are 5 tips on how to become that person.
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One of the most important skills for a young computer business to master is advertising. I see it time and time again where technicians will ask “what form of advertising worked best for you?” only for the responses to be fairly mixed. One will say that their Yellow Pages ad brings in 90% of their clients while another business will say that he only gets 1 call a month from it.

I wish that I could give Technibble readers a silver bullet for advertising, but what worked well for me wont necessarily work well for you. What I can do however, is tell you the factors you need to take into consideration to eventually find what works great for you.
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You may be a brilliant technician, but providing computer training is a completely different game than fixing a computer. It doesn’t rely so much on technical skills; instead it requires social and teaching skills which many computer technicians don’t necessarily have. Here are some tips I learnt over the last 8 years to be the best computer teacher you can be.
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In my many years of dealing with computer repair clients, I occasionally get asked questions where I have to justify my prices. I have a handful of responses that I use to answer these questions and I would like to share them with you in case similar questions arise for you.
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What is Marketing? It seems like a stupid question. Most people think of marketing as a glossy flyer, a business card, an advertisement in the telephone directory or a sign out front of their store. After years of fine-tuning my business, my definition of marketing has changed.
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Placing advertising and getting phone calls is only half the battle, once a client calls, you still need to turn them into a service call. Many of the phone calls that a technician will receive are only “price checks” as clients make their way down the list. In this article, we’ll show you some ways to turn price checks into service calls.
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A computer technician on a site that I occasionally read brought up the topic “phone support should be the most expensive service we bill for”. Personally, I think hes right.

For example, if you call up the manufacturer of a router they will help you up until the point where they know the problem isn’t being caused by their hardware. They will then pass you onto a paid helpline that often charges $80 per hour and upwards. Yet, we as freelance computer technicians often give phone support away for free. When its free, it becomes hard to track and leeches billable time off you and your employees; something that a small business can hardly afford.
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You read it right. If you are a self employed computer repair technician, what you wear is more important than your certifications; especially when you are visiting the client for the first time. Don’t get me wrong though, certifications are generally needed if you plan to work for someone else because many of the employment agencies use certifications to screen people. However, they aren’t very important if you are self employed.

If you are certified and self employed you can hang them on your workshop walls to impress clients but keep in mind it isn’t the testing you had to go through to achieve that certification they are seeing, they are seeing that you look like you know what you are doing, even if they have no idea what they mean. So again, how you look is more important than your certifications.
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A topic that is frequently brought up in the Technibble forums is whether they should offer the “no fix, no fee” guarantee. Some people see it as a way to get more clients while others think it will cause problems. So, should you offer it? Read on.
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