Offer Free Pickup and Delivery
This is another way you can make yourself stand out from other businesses in your advertising. I have found that people are either too scared to unplug their computers or simply can’t find the time to get the computer to you. This is better used for new businesses since the more busy ones may not be able to find the time to drive around or leave their storefronts. As for making up the time and money of travelling to and from your clients, just include it in your prices.

Offer a Free Second Opinion
This form of marketing is very easy and effective. You can mention in your advertising that you will provide a free second opinion. When a client comes in for that second opinion such as “whether the computer they are looking at is a good deal or not”, you have two chances to generate business. The first one is that the computer they are looking at IS a good deal and you probably won’t be able to beat that price. However, you can offer to set it up for them any install the appropriate security patches, antivirus programs etc..
The other option is that the computer isn’t a good deal and you can do better for cheaper and possibly get a new computer sale out of it.

Vehicle Advertising
If you do any onsite computer repair work, advertising on your vehicle is an amazing opportunity to have your name seen by many people all over town. Even if you don’t get any direct calls from the advertisement it will help build up your brand. For example, when a potential client looks in the local paper and is presented with a huge list of computer businesses that service your area; yours will stand out because they have seen your brand before.
There are 3 main ways to advertise on your car. One of the most popular are rear window vinyl that completely covers the car’s rear view window, but allows you to see out from the inside.
Another option is if you have a car that has a spare tire on the back (like a SUV), you can get custom made tire covers for around $100-200.
If you have the marketing budget, you can go all out and cover the entire car with your advertisement. I have seen a handful of computer businesses do this to their cars and it looks great. Do a search on Google for businesses that can do “car wraps” in your area.

Uniform
I have mentioned uniforms on Technibble many times before because they are just so important. A uniform can help build up credibility and shows your clients that you take your job seriously.
I personally wear a nice collared business shirt, dress pants and formal shoes. When I arrive at a clients house, I have my repair bag slung over one arm and my EeePC laptop in the other hand which makes me look the part of a computer technician. Some computer technicians who do consulting work for large companies will also work in a full-blown suit. This makes you look great for the larger companies but might scare off some of the smaller businesses and home users. Choose the appropriate uniform for the type of work you are doing.

People Do Business with People They Like
This seems pretty obvious. However, I have to mention this in the computer industry because many people turn to computers because they often lack good social skills. Being friendly with good communication, the ability to talk in layman’s terms without being condescending will help your business immensely.
You can take this one step further and become your client’s friend which has massive benefits of its own.

Newsletters
Many computer technicians are making use of postal and email newsletters as way to stay in the front of their clients minds. The client can sign up to their newsletter from the computer technician’s site or in person and they will be mailed computer tips on an ongoing basis.
The trick to having an effective newsletter is to make them either more interested in computers or tell them about certain dangers – rather than telling them how to fix their own computers.
For example, you might want to tell them about the benefits of having a wireless network such as the ability to use the laptop in any room, but then the dangers of it not being setup properly such as leaving their wireless network open to intruders. Once you have pre-sold them on getting a wireless network you can casually tell them that your business can provide the parts and set it up properly and securely.

Specialize
A lot of technicians try to get more customers by providing more and more services being everything to everyone. As the old saying goes “A jack of all trades is a master of none”. It is often a good idea to specialize your skills such as being the becoming a malware or data recovery expert. If a potential client with a virus is looking in the newspaper for a computer technician and are presented with 10 different ads; will they choose you as the “Virus Removal Specialists”? Or the 10 other businesses who do networking, hardware upgrades, new computers and virus removal? They will probably call the virus removal specialists.

© Technibble - A Resource for Computer Technicians to start or improve their computer business
To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. If you want to learn how to repair laptops, check out these narrated, high definition videos. These would pay for themselves in 1 repair job.

7 Simple Marketing Tips for Your Computer Business

Your ad is too busy
There is a certain pattern that our eyes follow when reading something for our first time and there are huge amounts of information on this topic that marketers have been talking about for more than a hundred years.

The first thing you need to do is grab their attention in a world where most people don’t read, but scan. For example, if you were scanning a publication for a computer technician because your computer is having problems. What would catch your eyes more:

ABC PC Services

or

Computer Problems?

Most people don’t know what “ABC PC Services” is while scanning, but they do know what “Computer Problems?” means and it will catch their eyes because they are actually having computer problems.

In some publications, there is a huge amount of competition so how can you get noticed? By being different. It doesn’t have to be anything wild. It can be something as small as a little color or a different background. For example, if there are a bunch of ads with black text on a white background, make yours the opposite with white text and a black background. The result will be this black box that the readers gaze will be attracted to.

Your prices are too high or too low
Your prices are not just a choice on how much you need to make per job to survive, but a marketing choice as well. If you are not getting calls, the traditional way of thinking is that your prices are too high. This is usually correct in the goods industry, but not the case in the service industry.

If you are not getting any calls, chances are your prices are too low. Having low prices can actually turn people away as it can send the message of low quality workmanship.

Imagine you need a electrician and you opened up the local publication and found two ads.
One of the ads has an electrician charging $40 per hour and the other electrician is charging $120 per hour.
Since you haven’t used either of them before you will have to make a judgement on their workmanship based on their ad. So who is the better electrician? The $40 per hour one or the $120 per hour one?

I personally would use the $120 per hour electrician since he working on something as important as my houses electrical wiring. Even though I have never met either, I would be afraid of the $40 one doing a poor job which would later put me and my house at risk.

Of course, overcharging can also be an issue as you need to charge appropriately for your area. Some technicians here on Technibble will charge $120 per hour while others will charge $40 per hour even though they have similar levels of experience. The difference between the two is that the $120 technician lives in New York where the cost of living is high and the $40 technician lives in a small town in the country where the cost of living is low.

I personally recommend you look at all the other computer repair services near to gather an appropriate price range for your area and then price yourself in the higher end of it.

Do you encourage word of mouth?
Advertising in magazines, newspapers or on the Internet isn’t the ‘be all and end all’ of marketing. Once you have had a few call-outs you need to make it easy for your clients to refer you to their friends. Before you leave their house or business, always give them a few cards and say something like “Here is my card if you need me again or have any friends who could use my services”. By saying “or have any friends..” it makes them actively think about whether or not they actually do have any friends that need your services and will possibly give them one of your cards. If you like, you could also offer a discount or some sort to people who refer you to others.

Tweak it
Small changes can make the difference between advertising that totally fails and advertising that pulls in most of your customers. It can be something as little as changing your ads title from normal to bold. Keep changing wording, font weights or colors until you find something that works.

© Technibble - A Resource for Computer Technicians to start or improve their computer business
To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. If you want to learn how to repair laptops, check out these narrated, high definition videos. These would pay for themselves in 1 repair job.

Help! My Advertising Isnt Working

Once you have been in business for a year or two you may want to raise your prices again because your experience is now greater than it was when you first started.

In fact, you usually need do this because can fix problems faster. If you charge according to time, you will actually make less than when you first started because you can do it so much quicker.

Of course, raising your prices is the easy part. The hard part is convincing your clients that you are more experienced than the guy down the street who charges half what you do per hour. The client often doesn’t know any better so you need to educate them. Here are a few ways to go about it:


Mention you experience in your sales pitch
I often do this when someone asks me to quote them a new computer. My computers are definitely not the cheapest around but I would say something like:

“As you know, I work as a computer technician and because of this I get to see which parts are troublesome and unreliable out in the field, because, well, its my job to go fix them. The salesmen at the big brand stores may know the features of the product he is selling, but he doesn’t know how reliable the product is once it has been used.

I only use brands that are known to be the most reliable and easy to setup.”

I know of some businesses that also mention their experience in their slogan (and having a stab at Geek Squad at the same time) by saying “Why hire a geek when you could hire an IT Professional?”.

Advertise that you are insured and/or certified
Advertising the fact you are insured looks great in the eyes of business clients. If you have any certifications, it might be worth listing them in small text down the bottom of your advertising material. Don’t focus on the certifications though since most people don’t know what CCNA or A+ means, but just having them listed helps build credibility.

Guarantee Your Work
When a customer is choosing a tradesman in just about any job they are taking a risk. Will this plumber be any good? Will this mechanic try to rip me off? and will this computer guy be competent in what he is doing?
By guaranteeing your work, it helps takes the risk out of potentially getting scammed by an inexperienced computer technician.

Look The Part
Looking professional isn’t just one thing, it’s actually an entire package that comes together to give a professional image.

A professional looking website can massively help with credibility. However, keep in mind a poorly made website can actually damage your company’s image. If web design isn’t your forte then don’t be afraid to pay a professional to make one. Computer technicians like to figure out anything computer related by nature and believe they can design a good looking website. The problem is while our technical minds can create the backend code, but most struggle with the design side of things resulting in a bad looking page. It’s kind of like the equivalent of your client’s 16 year old cousin doing tech work because he “knows computers”. Unless you have design skills, just get a professional to do it.

The same thing applies to your business cards. The ones made and printed at home just scream amateur. Get some cards professionally made at a proper printer for around $150 to $300 depending on volume. It’s well worth it.

To further separate yourself from those who charge less than you, wearing a uniform makes a massive difference. While some technicians wear a proper suit (though these guys are usually technology consultants) but I personally wear a nice black, long sleeve collared shirt. I believe it look professional, but not overpriced.
I have seen technicians do computer repairs in tracksuit pants and hoodies and it just looks unprofessional. I am sure you would question your dentist’s ability if he was wearing a hoodie and trackies rather than a white dental gown.

To further push the official look of a uniform, it might be worth getting a few shirts embroided with your logo as it only costs a $5-10 USD per shirt.

Lastly, having paperwork such as Work Orders with your logo up the top makes your business look very official since just about all of the “fly by night” businesses don’t have any paper work at all.

© Technibble - A Resource for Computer Technicians to start or improve their computer business
To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. If you want to learn how to repair laptops, check out these narrated, high definition videos. These would pay for themselves in 1 repair job.

How To Demonstrate Why You Charge More Than The Tech Down The Road

Why am I talking about cleaning cloths on a computer business site? Because your computer businesses can become like this. When things have been a certain way for so long, it becomes part of the background even though its out of place. You see it, but you don’t notice it.


If you ever watch a show like “Ramseys Kitchen Nightmares” you’ll know that Gordon Ramsey does this all the time with the restaurants he visits. He would go into a failing restaurant and tells the business owner some things that you and I would find to be very obvious mistakes as the lack of signage outside the restaurant and perhaps some cockroaches running around the kitchen.

So, lets take a step back and look at our own business with a fresh eye. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Is it easy for your clients to find your phone number? Your phone number should be on all your advertising material.
• Do you make it easy for your client to keep your number? Fridge magnets, case badges and stickers work well for this.
• If you have a store front, is your sign visible from the street, from the footpath and also at night?
• Are you keeping a record of your clients? Its a good idea to have a database for marketing purposes and it makes your business more attractive if you are selling it. If you need a client management system, check out something like CommitCRM.
• Call your own phone number. Is your answering machine message up to date? Does it give the customer the information they need such as your operating hours or an alternate phone number? If you have staff or an answering service where a real person answers, are they polite, easy to understand and provide the right information?
• Are your prices easy to understand?
• Does every part of your operation look professional? You may be wearing a nice shirt and carrying around a nice case for your technician tools but it the whole professional image doesn’t quite work if you are also wearing white runners.
• Do you know how much it costs for you to operate? Are you making more than that amount?
• If you have a website, does it load quickly? If not, optimize it and perhaps find a new host.
• Are you appropriately insured? If not, check out something like TechInsurance.com (US Only)
• How does your business stand out from the local competition? Why should they choose you over someone else?
• Lastly, whatever you answered for the last question, do you advertise this to your potential clients? There isn’t much point being more experienced or having better prices if your potential clients don’t know about it.

© Technibble - A Resource for Computer Technicians to start or improve their computer business
To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. If you want to learn how to repair laptops, check out these narrated, high definition videos. These would pay for themselves in 1 repair job.

Look at Your Business with a Fresh Eye

William H asked:
When installing Firefox on a clients computer. Is it immoral to set the homepage to a site I own if the client does not have a preference?

I believe its our responsibility as Computer Technicians to set it to what is most useful for the client, whether you own the site or not. If you happen to have made a site that is useful to them, go for it. If not, its best to set it to Google or something similar.

William H asked:
Using remote software (Teamviewer, Logmein, etc…) whats to stop a client from learning the software tools I use, and using it themselves?

There is nothing to stop the client from learning what you do when you fix their computer. However, in most cases there is a lot more to fixing a computer than just using an application. Its also identifying what the problem is and knowing what the appropriate application is in order to fix it, even if all you had to do is press a button. In my experience, most of my own clients are too scared to load up the antivirus that is already installed on the computer and run a scan because they are afraid they might break something.

Of course, you will always have clients who are tinkerers and will download AdAware or a similar “one-click-fix” application after they saw you use it, but once they hit something that AdAware cant deal with they will probably be calling you again. I wouldn’t worry about it too much.

Jonal C asked:
Ive always had a hard time coming up with prices for my services… I thought about looking at Geek Squad and other businesses so I could of course undercut them.. but by how much? any help would this would be appreciated…

Knowing how to price your services is always difficult. I wish I could tell you what to set your prices to but it is always different depending on where you live. For example, we have some very experienced technicians on the Technibble forums who charge around $40 per hour while another very experienced technician charges $120 per hour. The difference is that that $40 p/h technician lives in a small town in the country where everyone may earn less, but the cost of living is also much lower so the $40 her hour is about right. The $120 p/h technician lives in New York city where the cost of living is much higher so he needs to earn more.

I recommend you call the nearby mom-and-pop computer repair stores and find out their prices so you can get a price range. This will help you get a ball park figure that takes into account the cost of living in your area. Then, try to gauge the experience level of these stores and adjust your price based on where you believe your experience level is at. Once you have a figure in mind, take a look at this article and make sure you have set it high enough to cover your expenses. Don’t try and be the cheapest guy in town because you will most likely attract cheap customers which will make your job a living hell. You need to not only make enough to survive, but to thrive as well.

Tom M asked:
How much web development/design skills should a Tech support technician have?

If you are a computer repair business and would like to expand into doing web development then the developer should have very good HTML and CSS skills to the point where they can easily create a website in notepad without the help of a web page builder. They should have an understanding of web standards and know how to create valid XHTML/CSS markup that can pass the WC3 tests. (Yes, I know Technibble doesn’t pass WC3 tests but its difficult to do so with such a large and constantly changing site. However, I made my clients sites to these standards)

It used to be a case of firing up Frontpage/Dreamweaver, place an image here and some text there, upload to a server and your done. In the past 5 years or so the web has become more standardized and creating webpage’s in WYSIWYG editors without code knowledge is no longer acceptable. Its kind of like your clients 16 year old cousin calling himself a technician because he can run AdAware and a virus scanner.

Learn how to create a web page in notepad without the use of tables (use CSS div’s instead) and make it pass the WC3 tests and you are up to the right standard to do good web development work.

Tim Chesterman asked:
Is there a standard for how long computer repair tasks should take? i.e. Auto mechanics have a book that tells them how long each job should take so that they give an accurate estimate to their customers.

There isn’t a standard on how long a computer repair should take. In order to give your clients a ballpark time you need to base it off your own experience with how long it would take rather than comparing it to some sort of industry standard. What would take me 1 hour to fix might take a beginner two hours.
I try to avoid giving any sort of time and cost estimates but if I must I would say something like:

“Unless I see the computer, I cant give you an exact figure on how long it would take to remove the virus. However, in past repair work I can remove a virus in an hour most of the time. If its a really nasty one, possibly two hours. My rate is…”
This way, they are aware that the time and price can be open ended depending on the situation.

John Souris asked:
Ok,I have one for you. How long is too long at the customer’s home? For
example: On-site virus removal,tune-up,network setup and security.

Similar to the last question, it depends on what work is being done. Personally, I start to feel like I have been on-site for too long after 3 hours. I feel most single issues can be fixed in under 3 hours (not including the client asking you to fix multiple problems). For example, if I am doing a manual virus removal and I am not getting anywhere after 2 hours then I will take it back to my workshop to be formatted.

Ben asked:
I am having a hard time getting a client to get new servers the current servers are over 5 years old. I would love a document to show them that it’s time to replace the systems with new ones

The first thing you need to do is ask yourself “What is the benefit to the client if they were to replace the servers?”. You would probably be thinking that the old servers a slow, may not support the most recent hardware and parts are becoming unreliable.
If the servers are running slow and the employees have to wait for the server to load things then tell them about the increase in productivity amongst employees. It will only be a few minutes each day but after a year that is.. etc.

If the servers older operating system doesn’t support new applications that they want to do, tell them about the new features that are possible with the new operating system. I would also use a little scare marketing and tell them about the security risks involved in having an older operating system (that no longer receives patches) and what could happen in a worst case scenario such as all of their clients personal data or trade secrets getting published on the internet.

If the parts are becoming unreliable then tell them about the failure rates of old hardware and use a little scare marketing again saying “How would your business cope if the server went down right now? How much money would be lost?”.

To convince any client to do anything, you need to tell them how it benefits them. Not you.

Scott asked:
I’ve been in business a year now and I’m struggling financially and I was wondering if it gets any better in the second year? I realize its the toughest the first year but does it get better? Some months I’ve done really good other months nothing.

The first year is always the hardest but it usually gets better. The trick to gaining both income and clients is finding the most effective form of advertising for your business. When I found my most effective form of advertising, it cost me around $95 per week and it would almost always generate at least $300 per week. Also, those clients would continue to use my services later down the track which is where the real money is. I advertised every week and I could come out at least $205 in front while building up my client base. Once you find out a form of advertising that always puts you ahead each week, it gets much easier.

Thanks to those who have sent me any questions so far and if anyone else would like to ask me something please send them in and I will do my best to continue answering them. To those who have asked a question and it wasn’t answered it here, I will be answering them later in a post similar to this or doing a large article about it.

© Technibble - A Resource for Computer Technicians to start or improve their computer business
To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. If you want to learn how to repair laptops, check out these narrated, high definition videos. These would pay for themselves in 1 repair job.

Answers to Questions About The Computer Business

Keep On Learning
I bet you know more about computers than anyone else you know in real life and your family and friends look up to you as if you were some kind of tech god. Your parents and teachers said you were some kind of computer prodigy and you probably were compared to the others in your class. That is all well and good when you are comparing that to people who aren’t in this field, but what about when you compare yourself to people who are? These are the people who you will be competing against.

The computer industry moves much faster than other industries so you have to keep on learning or you will fall behind. The moment you think you know it all is the moment you stop learning. If you stop learning then that is the moment you don’t know it all.
I have been in this business for almost 9 years now and I learn something new every day from the Technibble forums.

Money
There are many people who don’t follow their dreams like starting their own computer business because they don’t have the money. Don’t ever blame lack of money because there is always a way you can make it happen.

I personally know people who are having trouble finding enough money to put food on their table at the end of the day. They complain the welfare system is rubbish because they don’t provide enough for a family to survive on. These are the same people who smoke, have a big plasma TV, cable television and brand spanking new mobile phones.

Quitting smoking will free up a few hundred a week, selling the TV and buying a $250 one would free up enough money to go see an accountant and a lawyer to set the business up legally. Disconnecting the cable television will free up $50 – 100 per month which you could put into advertising and a cheap mobile phone and an pocket organiser is all you really need.

If someone isn’t willing to give these things up to go after their dream, then they don’t want it enough. Instead of buying luxuries, buy things that make you money like a technicians on-site repair kit. I recently bought a Macbook because I wanted to learn both Mac hardware and software. In the few months I have owned the Macbook, I have already earned more than the cost of the Macbook by working on Mac’s armed with the knowledge I attained from breaking and fixing my own Macbook.

Stay Focused on Marketable Skills
There are a lot of cool things you can learn about a computer such as extreme overclocking, phase change cooling and squeezing a few extra frames per second out of your video card. However, you are unlikely to need any of these skills when working for a client. Instead, its better to learn skills like virus removal and networking since you are much more likely to encounter these while on-site. They aren’t as glorious as overclocking, but they are more likely to bring in money for your business. Also, while you are building up your marketable skills, build up your marketing skills as well because you may be the best computer technician in the world, but if no body knows about it you aren’t going to make much money.

The Hard Slog
Whats the difference between someone who just joined a gym, and a body builder at the same gym? One of them has gone through the hard slog. Both of them are pumping iron but the body builder has pushed his way through the hardest part where most people quit. The same thing happens in the computer business where a young entrepreneur will be excited about having their own business and thinking about all the possibilities. After a few months the excitement dies down, you have dealt with a few soul crushing clients and the computer work that you used to enjoy has become just work. This is where many people quit the computer business (and the gym) leaving only a select few who have survived the hard slog and come out the other side with a successful business (or a buffed body).
This is why there are so many businesses starting up all the time but there are only a small handful of really successful businesses. Most of the small businesses dropped out when it got too hard and didn’t push through the hard slog. If you push through the tough part and stay at it, you’ll be one of the few on the other side.

© Technibble - A Resource for Computer Technicians to start or improve their computer business
To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. If you want to learn how to repair laptops, check out these narrated, high definition videos. These would pay for themselves in 1 repair job.

5 Tips To Become Successful In the Computer Business

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.

Average Income Level
In the first couple of years of starting my own business, I put some small ads in the local weekly newspaper which worked pretty well for me. The great part about the local papers is that I could specify which group of suburbs I would like my ad to appear in. In the first year or so, I made it so the ads appeared in all the suburbs, in all directions, within a 30 minute drive from me. It was great to get the work but after doing a few hundred jobs I started to notice a trend, the people in the wealthy beachside suburbs closer to the city brought in much more money for me than the poorer, inland suburbs further away from the city.

Now, I charged the same for both suburbs so how did one create more than the other? In most cases, the people in the wealthy suburbs were business owners and they would either get me to do more work requiring more hours or buy more stuff. They also didn’t care as much about the price since they can write much of it off on tax.
Another thing that happened is after these clients were happy with my work at their home, they would often get me to look at their businesses computers as well. Also, business owners usually have friends that also own their own business and thus more likely to recommend you to them.

On the other hand, when I was doing work in the poorer suburbs the jobs were often harder and didn’t pay as well since they wont spend a cent on the computer until it had completely failed. Chances are they bought a cheaper computer to begin with.

Type of People In the Area
The type of people that reside in area of town you are advertising in is another important factor to consider. Are they young and funky? families? go getting professionals? or the elderly?
I found the young and funky are usually Mac users and are either poor (university students) or have access to someone else who can fix their computers.
Families can bring in a decent amount of income, especially around the beginning or end of the school holidays. I found the professionals to be good clients because they understand they need to spend money to make money. The elderly also make good clients because once they find someone who is patient with them and they can trust, they tend to keep calling you back.

However, this not to say that you should try and target one type of client over the other, you may not have much of a choice. If the majority of your town are elderly, there’s not much point targeting the few professionals that are around. To target the elderly, you will need ad copy that will appeal to them like “Inexpensive, Friendly and Patient computer education. Learn how to email, surf the web, use your digital camera etc..”

Ad Size
A bigger ad is better if you can afford it, right? Well, not always, it depends on your market. The wealthy professionals may be attracted to it, but the impoverished young and funky university students, the families and the elderly may be completely turned off. Why? Because a lot of people believe that if you have a big ad, your services are going to be expensive. I have personally encountered this where I made an ad smaller and it surprisingly did better. If you are targeting businesses, then a larger ad may be better.

Ad Frequency
As I mentioned earlier, I used to place ads in the local weekly paper. One time I tried the big, state wide daily paper which was considerably more expensive because I had an ad in 7 issues to last throughout the week. I expected it to work great but it turns out I didn’t get a single call. The reason why the local weekly free paper worked so much better because:
1, It was free so everyone had it
2, What do you do with yesterdays daily paper once you have today’s? Throw it out. What do you do with the weekly paper? Keep it around the house all week (with my ad in it) until the next issue comes in.

Tracking Your Ads
The most important thing with any advertising is to track your results. If you don’t track your results, how are you supposed to know whats working and what isn’t? In most cases its as easy as simply asking them where they heard about you and writing it down. However, if you are testing various ad sizes/text/location in a single publication you may want to offer a discount voucher or something with a special code each time you change it so you know which one worked. I have personally had people who cut my ad out of the paper, put it on the fridge and called me a year later. If I didn’t put a discount voucher with a tracking code in it I wouldn’t have known that ad was from a year ago.

As I mentioned at the start, there is no silver bullet answer I can give you about your advertising. You need to keep testing various publications using various text and sizes and to track it. Keep advertising in the ones that work, stop the ones that don’t and put that money into testing out another ad elsewhere. Eventually you will find out what works for you and you’ll have highly effective ads for your money.

© Technibble - A Resource for Computer Technicians to start or improve their computer business
To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. If you want to learn how to repair laptops, check out these narrated, high definition videos. These would pay for themselves in 1 repair job.

How To Find Advertising That Works for YOU

Explain things clearly and in great detail
Instead of saying something like “open Internet Explorer”. Say “See that blue E in the top left corner that says Internet Explorer? Can you double click that with the left mouse button for me please”.

Don’t be surprised that many clients wont even know what Internet Explorer is, often they just use the top default link in the start menu which is labeled “Internet”. Always explain in detail.

Put them in the drivers seat
Most people learn better by actually doing the task themselves rather than watching you do it. Get out of the computer chair, give it to them and you can watch over their shoulder to guide them. I find this is the most important thing to help them remember what you are teaching.

Get them to write it down in their own words
Its quite common for the client to forget what they learnt once you leave the premises, especially if there were many steps involved in the task. Get them to write the steps down in their own words that they can understand.

Make them do it again without you helping
Many clients will say they are keeping up with you while its being done the first time, but don’t really understand or remember it. The best way to make sure that they learnt what you are teaching is to make them do it again, based off their own notes without you assisting. Be patient and let them take their time. Some people have narrow vision and have to look at every icon on the desktop before they find the one they want. If they get stuck, give them some hints and let them try again. If they are still stuck, show them that step again and afterwards, make them do the whole process again without your help.

Be patient
We need to remember that many people weren’t brought up in the computer age and/or it just doesn’t come as naturally to them as it does to us. Be patient with them and let them learn at their own speed (besides, who cares how long it takes if you are getting paid per hour?). Also, keep in mind that people who are not good with computers aren’t dumb. Everyone has their own skills somewhere (I can fix most computer problems but I can only do the basics when troubleshooting a car problem). For all you know they used to run a multimillion dollar business. Everyone is each to their own.

Make it easy
For the people who are very new to computers (we’re talking barely-managing-to-use-the-mouse new) and they want to do some basic things like how to find something with Google. Make it as simple as possible by putting shortcuts on the desktop like this and hiding unnecessary things. Other things you can do is make Google their browsers start page and make things happen automatically like the computer choosing the appropriate program when they plug in their digital camera without their intervention.

Once a client finds someone who is patient, lets them take their time, explains things slowly and makes them feel they’ve accomplished something because they can remember the steps, they’ll keep that person for a long time. Make sure its you.

© Technibble - A Resource for Computer Technicians to start or improve their computer business
To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. If you want to learn how to repair laptops, check out these narrated, high definition videos. These would pay for themselves in 1 repair job.

Providing Computer Training

When you fix a clients computer after only pressing few buttons, the client says..
“That’s all you needed to do? I could have done that myself!”

You say..
“Although I fixed it by pressing a few buttons, I knew which buttons to press. It looked like I pressed a few buttons but I was drawing upon my knowledge obtained after X years at University doing X course and my X years of experience seeing similar problems onsite. I analysed this issue, referenced it with my past knowledge and took the appropriate steps which happened to only be a few buttons”

The client says..
“You charge $XX per hour? I get less than half of that per hour!”

You say..
“Actually, much of that $XX goes to my advertising to make sure I keep on getting work, furthering my education, buying test equipment and of course there is a ton of unbillable time such as invoicing, driving and picking up stock. Then there is business insurance, my superannuation etc.. You most likely cost your employer more than you think per hour because your employer has to pay for your superannuation and other benefits, you just don’t get to see it because its being done for you”

The client says..
“Can you give me an estimate of how long it will take to fix this?”

You say..
“Without taking a look at the PC I cant give you a time estimate. Sometimes these problems can be fixed in a few minutes and sometimes it can take many hours but until I see it I cant tell. Its like going to a doctor and saying “I have a pain” but not saying where. He needs to spend some time doing various tests before he knows what the problem is.”

A client brings in a system that isn’t working. You spend half an hour doing diagnosis work and find that its a motherboard problem and it will cost $200 for a new one. The client decides not to get it replaced but purchase an entire new computer instead. So, you charge for your diagnosis time and the client says..
“You want to charge me? But you didn’t fix it!”

You say..
“I have no problems fixing it as I know what the problem is, but you chose not to fix it. It takes time to diagnose these problems and I need to bill for it. If I was doing free diagnosis’ all day I would be working 8 hours a day, not make a cent and going out of business. Would you not pay the Doctor if they discover you have an illness but you wont take the medication?”

The client says..
“Why should I pay you when my 16 year old cousin who ‘knows computers’ can do it for free?”

You say..
“Its like going to the doctor because you have a headache. You could listen to what your cousin says just take a pain killer; or you could go to the doctor who might even say the same thing, but the doctor takes into account things like your allergies, is this pain killer safe to take based on your current medical conditions or does he need to test further for something more serious like a brain tumor. Its just not the same”

The client says..
“I could just go to (insert bigbox computer repair company here) and get it done there”

You say..
“You could, but remember they employ young teenage boys who are usually fresh out of school so they often lack experience. Also, my reputation and direct income relies on my clients being happy with my work unlike the bigbox stores where the teenager will still get paid his hourly wage no matter how badly he treats you.”

The client says..
“Why should I buy a system from you when X has it $XX cheaper?”

You say..
“As you know, I work as a computer technician and because of this I get to see which parts are troublesome and unreliable out in the field, because, well, its my job to go fix them. The salesmen in other stores may know about the features of the product he is selling, but he doesn’t know how reliable the product is once it leaves the store. I only use parts that are known to be the most reliable. Besides, I don’t want computers coming back to me to do warranty work on them. So I only use the good stuff.”

Of course, always watch your tone when saying any of these as you don’t want to sound condescending or that you don’t appreciate them.

Are there any other questions like this you are frequently asked? If so, whats your usual response to them? Drop us a comment.

© Technibble - A Resource for Computer Technicians to start or improve their computer business
To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. If you want to learn how to repair laptops, check out these narrated, high definition videos. These would pay for themselves in 1 repair job.

Dealing with Client Questions

I’m sure many of us have come across a shady salesman who looked immaculate, his sales pitch was great but there was still something not quite right. It might have been his cheesy smile, his beat up car parked around the corner or the fact that their phone line redirects to some other country; but something turned us off. The funny thing is, that sales person will probably think it was his pitch that made you not do business with him when its really something he didn’t even think about.

You need to look at your own business from the outside in and see what can be improved because it is the “whole picture” which makes up how your business looks to customers. It is often a good idea to get an outsider to suggest improvements for your business because after a few years you becoming blind to things which may be extremely obvious to your customers. Ask them to be brutally honest because even though it may be painful while they are telling you how you do things wrong, its worth it in the long run when more customers feel comfortable doing business with you.

© Technibble - A Resource for Computer Technicians to start or improve their computer business
To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. If you want to learn how to repair laptops, check out these narrated, high definition videos. These would pay for themselves in 1 repair job.

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