How to Make an Additional $110 per service call

johnwaddy

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I charge $75/hr and cap my labor charges @ $225. Most of my calls only take an hour ($75), but most computers does not have adequate RAM, so I can get $30 profit from a stick or two of RAM. I can usually convince customers to switch to AVG, because their McAfee or Norton has already proven to been useless, which results in $15 profit. Most customers are quick to say they don't know how to use Vista of Windows 7, so I can profit $15 by selling a Learning Windows Visually Book. Finally I can earn an extra $50 by offering one year of remote desktop support.

Most re remote support is trivial and can be resolved in a few minutes, and even simple virus removals are fairly automated. I can usually push the remote services, by discounting house calls inside the warranty to $60.

I know my prices are fairly low, but I have manage to make a few hundred thousand in a few years period. I automate a lot of my service offerings, and I stay on site until the Internet is up, and then I manage the rest through remote access. This allows my to spend about 20 hours in the field, and completing a bunch of work in the background while watching the kids or playing Wii.

I am now able to manage ALL processes with a netbook that sits by the couch and serves as a nightstand when I go to bed.

Another hidden gem is Netflix! Netflix is on the very of blowing up with their streaming service and people are fed up with high U-Verse, Cable, and Satellite bills. This and video games are going to force people to have Cat5/Cat6 jacks distributed through their house like phone jacks.

If you have the cat5 cable and tools you can make $150 in a couple of hours. We all now wi-fi is crappy slow, and is instant death in online multiplayer games.

Bottomline. Anticipate customer needs, and automate. You missed an opportunity when you hear a customer say they wish they had xyz, and you don't have it on you.

It may sound like MILKING, but you are making the customer aware of solutions they might not know is out there.

As far as Cat5 when I moved into my first house, I believe I wired cat5 jacks throughout the house before the furniture arrived. Now I enjoy crystal clear Netflix, and 10MB Internet connections in nearly every room.
 
there is a difference between doing stuff they actually need and want than milking. So long as you aren't lying to them about the benefits of the other options and such and they want it, then it isn't milking. Now, if you tell them that they must have CAT5 to use Netflix, that's different.

Sounds like you are doing great. I am debating a "Service plan" thing for home users. Got a remote monitoring service that I am charged very little for and might be able to incorporate it into the solution.
 
Like you I wired my house with ethernet as soon as I moved in. I lived for a week with wireless out to my shop by bridging 2 WRT54G routers together and it was horrible. The first weekend after we moved in I was pulling cable.
 
+1 on the CAT5: I'm wiring/wired our house up with CAT5e & 6 and coax. Much more reliable and better bandwidth than wifi

How does cat5 give you better bandwidth? bandwidth is bandwidth, you only have so much, and unless you find an ISP that gives you more than 108Mb down, then I fail to see where cat5 is faster than wifi. The only upside to cat5 over wifi to me anyways would be when transfering files over the network. I have a 10 meg comcast connection that when I tag usenet I get a very stable and fixed 1.5MB/sec down, this would be exactly the same wired. Wifi is faster than probably EVERY ISP out there, telling people they'll get faster interweb wired is misleading and simply not true.

**edit** I've also been running Netflix on the Wii every since it came out about a month ago with no problems at all. It takes 5-10 seconds to start and runs perfectly after that.
 
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How does cat5 give you better bandwidth? bandwidth is bandwidth, you only have so much, and unless you find an ISP that gives you more than 108Mb down, then I fail to see where cat5 is faster than wifi. The only upside to cat5 over wifi to me anyways would be when transfering files over the network. I have a 10 meg comcast connection that when I tag usenet I get a very stable and fixed 1.5MB/sec down, this would be exactly the same wired. Wifi is faster than probably EVERY ISP out there, telling people they'll get faster interweb wired is misleading and simply not true.

**edit** I've also been running Netflix on the Wii every since it came out about a month ago with no problems at all. It takes 5-10 seconds to start and runs perfectly after that.

I have 18Mb Comcast and every wireless device I have tops out at 5mb but the hardwire devices push 20+mb
 
Hey does have great ideas. But on the netflix thing, my roku box is setup to use wifi, and it works great. lol....

I like the idea of seeing people a book on how to use windows or office, etc etc but sometimes people want someone to teach them. Personally I love to each people how to use a computer or a type of program. Now that I charge for :)
 
Good post johnwaddy! You sound like the "big boys" I used to work for.
One thing, can you (or someone) elaborate on the Visually Learning books more. I found plenty of links, but I could use a link on reselling them.
 
Re: CAT5/6 cabling... I'm not sure about where you live, but if you get caught wiring someone's home or business in my state without a low-voltage cabling license, you could really get into some hot water - it can cost you some pretty hefty fines as well as possibly having your business being shut down for a few months. (Just saw this happen to a couple of companies near me recently). I'm also sure every state has different codes regarding which type of cable is required (i.e plenum vs. riser), whether it has to be fed through conduit or not, etc...

Not worth the hassle for me... I sub out all my cabling to a licensed low-voltage specialist.. besides, these guys/gals are pros and can do it in less than half the time it would take me.

Anyway... something to consider..

-Randy
 
I loved the 50$ for one year remote support.. I kind of give it for free for good customer.
Here are a few more:

Upgarde their mouse/keyboard
Offer them a new ISP contract
 
I spent 7 years working for a cable company and can really throw in wire fast. My first plans when I started this business was to do computer repair and low voltage wiring. I've got tons of coax, phone, and data wire plus all the connectors and tools. I could easily do it and make some money. But, I decided after the fact that I didn't want the hassle of it. I don't want to do grunt work anymore. I've got 3 bad discs in my back as a result of doing it and a bunch of particles embedded into my eyes from drilling, crawl spaces, and attics. Once I started doing the computer work again I realized I just didn't want to mess with the wiring anymore.

Re: CAT5/6 cabling... I'm not sure about where you live, but if you get caught wiring someone's home or business in my state without a low-voltage cabling license, you could really get into some hot water - it can cost you some pretty hefty fines as well as possibly having your business being shut down for a few months. (Just saw this happen to a couple of companies near me recently). I'm also sure every state has different codes regarding which type of cable is required (i.e plenum vs. riser), whether it has to be fed through conduit or not, etc...

Not worth the hassle for me... I sub out all my cabling to a licensed low-voltage specialist.. besides, these guys/gals are pros and can do it in less than half the time it would take me.

Anyway... something to consider..

-Randy
 
I'm interested in more info on the books as well. I could probably sell lots of those in my store.
 
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