How many of you have full-time jobs and a PC repair business?

[dhrandy]

As the title says, how many of you have full-time jobs and have a PC repair business on the side?

It looks like I will be back at full time work. I'm working for a contract company and it looks like I'll be contracted until hired on. I still want to have my PC repair business as part-time work to help pay the bills. And I enjoy helping others.

I'm just wondering how others work around a full-time job and doing the same. Luckily it looks like my hours will be from 4am - 1pm. This will be great for doing PC repair work.

 

[ProTech Support]

I work full time as a system admin from 9-5 during the week. After that I head to the store from 5:30-11 to work on various repairs or head to clients house's. During the weekend I am also working the store usually from 9-9.

I work a lot, but rather than have the store "to help pay the bills", I have an overall goal of making the store my full time career. My situation is also a bit diffrent as I have a storefront.

 

[Sevdog]

I am a contractor for a company for my full-time job and am lucky enough to telecommute from home . This enables me to accept dropoffs and pickup computers if necessary during the day. In the evening I do my PC repair work. Since my time as a contractor is limited to 1-3 years I have a goal of building the repair business into my main source of income and would eventually like to expand my range of services and have a storefront.

 

[blackburgpchelp]

I'm working a (nearly) full-time job, and my pc business has reached nearly part-time (20 hours/wk) status. I'm fortunate enough that my boss really wants to see my business succeed and is very flexible with me. I've now dropped Thursdays at the full-time job, and as my business grows, hope to be able to cut back my time more. Eventually, I hope to move my full-time job to one of my bigger business contract clients.

My goal is to have that happen in another year.

-Rance

 

[dhrandy]

I have an overall goal of making the store my full time career

That's also my ultimate goal, but I know that will take time since I just started my PC business in February.

To blackburgpchelp:

I'm also lucky that the company I'm working for also already knows about my PC repair business. I took several short jobs in the past with them and was lucky enough to get on an indefinite contract until they are able to hire more people.

 

[cmonova]

I've been a contractor since I retired from the military and owned my business. We opened a store-front a few years ago and I have 2 full time employees there and 1 part-time that gets about 25 hours a week or so.

Very hard trying to do both and keep an eye on things but I guess that is why you get 24 hours in a day.

 

[Jm Boyd]

I actually started doing repairs during college back in the early 90s. I work a Federal Gig now but maintain a steady group of clients for the repair/sales work and opened a store front 2 years ago with 3 full time employees.

Unfortunately, my day job limits my actuall "hands on" time at the shop...

 

[vr6rafal]

I work for a title insurance company 8:30am to 4:30pm right after than I usually have on-site or pick-ups arranged that I attend to.

I will be opening a store front in two months, which wife will be attending 11am till I get back. Hoping the store can generate enough to pay for itself and more, not expecting much but definitely needed to take business to the next level!!

I'm not planning to quit my regular job until my computer repair income can match my regular salary. Right now I have two incomes which is very nice, it would tough to give up any of it!!

 

[Blues]

I work for a company as a Network Admin and Help Desk, we are not too large so you get to do oh so many fun roles ;_;

I from time to time do side work as well mostly friends family and who the reccommend to me.

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

I do repairs on Macs all day every day. Its not my shop but I'm the bench tech with 3 other on-site techs. We've been in business for 25 years. It has crossed my mind I may start doing some side work.

This would be Windows stuff only, so I don't steal clients from my full-time employer. Although I've been offered tons of opportunities to do Mac side work I refuse every time and tell them to bring it to the shop. I find that kind of thing highly unethical. But it would in no way interfere with my day job if I took on some Windows machines on the side. Just hard to find the time!

 

[Jayson]

Running my repair biz is my full-time job. If you really want to make it grow you have to put at least 10 hours a day into it. And a physical location that is not your house is a plus but not a neccessity. We were lucky to find dirt cheap rent on office space with utlities included. We jumped at the chance becasue we are just off our main town square in our town.

Join your local chamber of commerce for the free publicity and the networking opportunities. Once you begin to network with people you will be surprised how many people don't know about your competition. Also, call your local papers and tell them you are a new business. They will do afree write up and it is worth WAY more than actual advertising. Word of mouth campaigns are better than advertsing as well.

I am rambling here but them main point is you got to give it all your time if you want it to support you.

 

[dhrandy]

Running my repair biz is my full-time job. If you really want to make it grow you have to put at least 10 hours a day into it. And a physical location that is not your house is a plus but not a neccessity. We were lucky to find dirt cheap rent on office space with utlities included. We jumped at the chance becasue we are just off our main town square in our town.

Join your local chamber of commerce for the free publicity and the networking opportunities. Once you begin to network with people you will be surprised how many people don't know about your competition. Also, call your local papers and tell them you are a new business. They will do afree write up and it is worth WAY more than actual advertising. Word of mouth campaigns are better than advertsing as well.

I am rambling here but them main point is you got to give it all your time if you want it to support you.

Thanks for the advice, but most of us already know this. It's not something you can just do overnight. It's one of those things where you need more money to get some of these things done.

It's easier and cheaper to have a full-time job and slowly raise your clientele. Then you can afford the store front and advertising to go along with it.

I'm sure if you're in the right area, you maybe could do it overnight.

 

[manderso]

I'm a full time contractor for the Fed. I'm looking forward to investing more time, money and energy into the business. So much to do, so little time...

 

[NTS]

A lot of folks here seem to have really flexible work schedules that allows them to manage their pc repair business quite well.

I on the other hand am stuck in the office from 8-5 pm - Monday through Friday. Does anyone here have any tips to share for us full-time folks on how we can expand our business while working full-time?

 

[Bullfighter]

Are you building up your business so you can quit your day job?

If not, IMO, it is just about impossible. 10 to 1 you will become one of the examples I use to my clients why they should go with me and not someone who "does it on the side".

One day after a year or three years of trying to balance a full time job and a side job, you will finally realize how much work it will be to do both and your "side jobs" will slide... and who can blame you, who wants to work 40 hours a week for someone else and then run around for demanding clients, bookkeeping, taxes etc, etc. I know this, because it happened to me, before I decided to get serious about my tech business.

If you are trying to build up your business so that you can quit your day job, your only real hope is to target residential users, since businesses are mostly closed when you are able to work. Plus, you can't help businesses in an emergency since you'll be at work.

I would start a referral program with your existing clients. There is also Craigslist. And for Pete's sake, please charge the going rate for your area. It'll bite you in the ass later if you don't.

EP

 

[LunchBox]

Right now my day time job is my side business. I normally work in IT desktop support mainly and systems engineer for about 6 months. I got laid off twice in 1 year so now my side job is my full time job.

I would love to have my own full time business but I live in a very competitive area so while I do work on some cleints during the day and night I also spend time applying for IT jobs all around.

My main problem is that I have a family and little money left so if the corporate world start calling I will take it.

Since I have spent time here reading and learning about running a business I would then grow the clients and income until I cant quit the day time job. Don't get my wrong I do have a business but it is very small.

I cant compete when half of the county I live in have a regular job during the day and a side job at night charging $20 us. I even seen one guy who runs a dry cleaning business and on the side does computer, server and network support.

 

[supertech365]

i work as a fire fighter with 24 hours on duty and then the next 48 hours off. So every three days i go to the station. Because of this schedule, I work very long hours on my 2 off days, which may be 8 am until 10 pm. I've done this for a few years and in about 2 years i will have a store front and hire two or three part time techs to run office on my days at the fire station. BTW, I make more money repairing computers, I just love the Fire service equally. The other full time shops are so shady in my area that any client who calls while i'm at the fire house always waits until my first available so they can do business with my company.

 

[dhrandy]

It is very rough out there right now. I really hope the eCONomy picks up so these guys can get back to working their normal jobs and leave us full timers a lone.

My question was more for those that want take there part-time business to full-time status. Not everyone has the money to just take a business to full-time status. It would be nice if that was the case.

 

[SPTech]

I've been doing PC/Laptop repairs for couple years now. I started this fulltime January last year after completing a placement at Uni. I had to complete my Computing Degree before I started out so not been in the business that long.

However in that time i've been building up my customer base and getting my business recognised by small local business's. This is where I get most of my work.

I also do work for normal homeuser clients as well but I take the machine/laptop back to the workshop and offer free call out and drop off same working day, and yes I get alot of recomendations because of this service but its not easy!

Im also opening up a small shop so I can get walk in custom but the shop isn't open just yet. Its taken me atleast 2 years to get all this sorted but its slowly coming along.

 

[thor999]

I deal poker full-time, have a house I am renovating AND trying to keep up on my business; I recently finished my office, now I just have to drop lines and get it all hooked up, so I'll be able to spend more time on my business I was working w/ a guy that paid pretty decent, but that rate went out the window when I slowly ended up driving 60+ mi in a day to make $50.00 so we're done w/ that. I really want to start focusing on Ubuntu Linux and building HTPC's its a real pain learning Linux but its incredibly rewarding when you finally get everything set up and working and never ever have to touch it again. Ever. You can't make me.