Ive been doing a lot of reading all around the net about starting a computer repair business and I am excited about maybe starting this but there is a lot of people saying that it is not worth doing anymore. I would be taking a risk starting up so I want to make sure I'm doing the right thing.
Is it worth doing
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SelbyComputerRepair
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Depends what you mean by 'taking a risk'
If you are giving up a solid 40k salary to do this then I'd say think again.
Other factors ...
How big is your catchment area?
Are you going to rent a premises or be mobile and work from home?
What sort of skill set do you have? Are you expert in one thing but useless in others? Or are you a jack of all trades?
You are dealing with the general public, and I think most will tell you on here that some of them (some weeks all of them) can be an absolute nightmare. And who will take the brunt of your frustration?
Can you deal with chasing unpaid invoices and sometimes being pretty abrupt with stalling customers?
Some jobs pay well, some don't. Driving to the edge of my area to pick up a laptop with a broken screen and then delivering it isn't my best earner but driving to the outside of my area to fix a windows profile logon error is a decent earner.
I'm sure I could think of another hundred reason against it but the one big one for me is the freedom it gives me.
I answer to me! (my wife really), I can take a few days off without having to book them. I can be as busy or slack as I want, depending on how much I have in my pocket.
If you are giving up a solid 40k salary to do this then I'd say think again.
Other factors ...
How big is your catchment area?
Are you going to rent a premises or be mobile and work from home?
What sort of skill set do you have? Are you expert in one thing but useless in others? Or are you a jack of all trades?
You are dealing with the general public, and I think most will tell you on here that some of them (some weeks all of them) can be an absolute nightmare. And who will take the brunt of your frustration?
Can you deal with chasing unpaid invoices and sometimes being pretty abrupt with stalling customers?
Some jobs pay well, some don't. Driving to the edge of my area to pick up a laptop with a broken screen and then delivering it isn't my best earner but driving to the outside of my area to fix a windows profile logon error is a decent earner.
I'm sure I could think of another hundred reason against it but the one big one for me is the freedom it gives me.
I answer to me! (my wife really), I can take a few days off without having to book them. I can be as busy or slack as I want, depending on how much I have in my pocket.
TurricanII
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'worth' is a relative thing. When you run your own business there are many more challenges other than actually doing the job, like setting up suppliers, advertising, money management, setting p internal systems. Some people relish this challenge/gaining experience and so that is 'worth' something. For me it has been valuable to be able to take my son to school and get into work 9:30am, as well as leave early to pick him up often, instead of having to account for every minute when working for someone else. Business owners/self employed people can control their working environment 100% and choose who to work with, which is worth something.
And other than that comes the money - can you make enough to pay the bills? Save up a fund to pay the bills in case you fail. Have a plan. Many people go from employed to self employed by starting the business on the side. When the 'on the side' business demands that you give up your job then you will be able to see if it worth giving a try. Check you employment contract though - you may have agreed not to work elsewhere when you agreed the contract.
And other than that comes the money - can you make enough to pay the bills? Save up a fund to pay the bills in case you fail. Have a plan. Many people go from employed to self employed by starting the business on the side. When the 'on the side' business demands that you give up your job then you will be able to see if it worth giving a try. Check you employment contract though - you may have agreed not to work elsewhere when you agreed the contract.
I don't have a job at them moment I had a technician job for years previously. I'm worried about not making enough to pay the bills I'm Thinking of running the business from home And I have skills In lots of fields. The idea of being my own boss is ideal and would help with my health problems
SelbyComputerRepair
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In the UK you may get help from the tax credit department. I have a mate who started doing this after being made redundo from a safe Uni IT job and he had two kids and went self employed and got £200 a week from the tax credit people.
That should go some way to helping with your bills.
That should go some way to helping with your bills.
TurricanII
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If your illness was stress related or if you could be susceptible to a recurrence of your illness through stress then I would advocate getting a full or part time job instead, and starting the IT business on the side. In any UK job you can be fired in the first two years with simple "it's not working out" without entitlement to redundancy procedures/no recourse to the Employment Tribunal - but that is still less stress in my opinion than starting up and running an IT firm properly.
I can imagine that it can be stressful starting any business. It is something that I have always wanted to do and with having a job I never found the time to be able to do anything on the side but now with not having a job there is nothing really stopping me except myself. There are people on the net that are saying that years ago it was easy to make money doing this but now with people saying that there son or family friend can fix the problem there is not as much work. I would prefer to deal with business customers I think but wouldn't turn down a residential client. I'm debating going to talk with some local businesses, introduce myself and then see what services they currently receive or services they would like to receive.
SelbyComputerRepair
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You could probably do ok fixing the machines that these sons and friends have fixed first
mraikes
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You're in for short pay and long stress. How will that affect your health problems? And while almost everyone professes to love the idea of being their own boss, many people are that boss's worst employee. (see what I did there? ;-)
It might be worth doing, but you haven't provided nearly enough details for us to advise you properly. Like no details really. My suggestion is to ignore what is said by people who don't know you, and take a strong and honest inventory of your abilities, strengths, skills, relationships, financial assets, competition, geographic reach, etc. THEN ask yourself if it's worth doing. And if the answer is yes, come back here and talk to us about HOW to do it. Not whether you should do it.
I know it will be hard and its not easy. The job I had before was very stressful I looked after a system that had 1000 users every day for 10 years, so I'm able to cope with the stress. I don't have a ton of money to set off with but I do have some saved. I think that I am going to give it a go. I'm glad I found this forum as it seams like a great place for us to bounce ideas around and help each out. I'm sure I'm going to need some help along the way.
lan101
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If you can make it through the first few years it should get smoother as time goes on hopefully. I'd strongly suggest getting into doing work remotely when you can. You may still want to do onsite calls to meet your customers etc. Once they gain your trust doing remote work becomes easier and make sure you can take payments through paypal or some means of collecting via debit/credit card.
Krynn72
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So here's 2 cents from someone who is just starting out himself (working as a side job with plans to break out full time this summer). This is my take based on what I've discussed with other business owners, seen on forums like this one, and general research over time.
Don't expect to make big bucks in break/fix repairs. The real money is in providing services, not repair. Repair, in my opinion should be a stepping stone in your company's path to a different ultimate goal. Something to pay the bills so to speak. It's easy work (dealing with customers will be the hardest part) but it's low margin, with the margins shrinking each year as devices become cheaper and parts become more expensive. Plan out additional services for you to offer in the future, and while you do the simple and easy break fix stuff, learn how to do those new services.
For me, I eventually want to be able to do security cameras and alarms, PBX phone systems, and server support. These seem to be a natural progression from break/fix.
Don't expect to make big bucks in break/fix repairs. The real money is in providing services, not repair. Repair, in my opinion should be a stepping stone in your company's path to a different ultimate goal. Something to pay the bills so to speak. It's easy work (dealing with customers will be the hardest part) but it's low margin, with the margins shrinking each year as devices become cheaper and parts become more expensive. Plan out additional services for you to offer in the future, and while you do the simple and easy break fix stuff, learn how to do those new services.
For me, I eventually want to be able to do security cameras and alarms, PBX phone systems, and server support. These seem to be a natural progression from break/fix.
Markverhyden
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I've said this many times. People don't plan to fail, they fail to plan. To be successful in anything, including starting and running a profitable business, requires realistic planning.
Draw up a business plan. Don't get caught up in the mechanics of the process. Make sure to be brutally honest about your strengths, weaknesses, and market opportunities. Governments everywhere want people to create businesses and succeed. This is from yours - https://www.gov.uk/write-business-plan.
On TN there is the Computer Business Kit V3 to help aspiring IT business founders. Don't try to make your business model follow some document template, whether it's CBK 3 or your government provided forms. Templates are guides.
On top of the many great suggestions above a very important part of the process is to act. Another saying over here, not sure if it translates, at some point you have to make a decision, to fish or cut bait. You can only do both for a limited time.
Many of us started out working from home or part time when they have a full time job. In my case I had a part time business but when the company closed up I took the dive. The first year or two was really terrifying. But I made all of my financial obligations and things are working out.
Draw up a business plan. Don't get caught up in the mechanics of the process. Make sure to be brutally honest about your strengths, weaknesses, and market opportunities. Governments everywhere want people to create businesses and succeed. This is from yours - https://www.gov.uk/write-business-plan.
On TN there is the Computer Business Kit V3 to help aspiring IT business founders. Don't try to make your business model follow some document template, whether it's CBK 3 or your government provided forms. Templates are guides.
On top of the many great suggestions above a very important part of the process is to act. Another saying over here, not sure if it translates, at some point you have to make a decision, to fish or cut bait. You can only do both for a limited time.
Many of us started out working from home or part time when they have a full time job. In my case I had a part time business but when the company closed up I took the dive. The first year or two was really terrifying. But I made all of my financial obligations and things are working out.
brandonkick
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Some great advice so far.....
Seeing as you currently do not have a job, you don't have as much to lose. Until you get your name out there,
it will most likely be slow going. It will take a lot of hustle on your part to get established. Break / fix is a hard market
when there are $300 crappo systems brand new in places like walmart, best buy and so on. A lot of people don't
understand and don't care that what they get for $300 is junk. All they know is that it costs $300 for a whole new
computer, so why pay $250 to get the old one fixed? You'll kill yourself trying to educate them too, you'll never get that
point across to the majority of customers. You'll run into cheapo's as well who will want everything including the kitchen
sink for free or darn near it.
Best advice I can give is price accordingly, competitively and high enough to keep away the riff raff. If your in an area with
a good population, you have a shot at getting a decent amount of clients that understand and value the skills and knowledge
that you have. And if the general area your in has a decent income level, you won't have to worry quite so much about the
cheapos and the $300 walmart special folks.
If you can, maybe try to get a few smaller businesses to do some managed services type contracts. The steady, predictable
income can help you a lot. If you can get a couple of those established earlier on, it should make the stress of the first few years
a lot more manageable. I'd say in general I'd say that trying to support small to medium sized businesses are going to be a much
better avenue then trying to make a living off of residential break / fix type work.
Seeing as you currently do not have a job, you don't have as much to lose. Until you get your name out there,
it will most likely be slow going. It will take a lot of hustle on your part to get established. Break / fix is a hard market
when there are $300 crappo systems brand new in places like walmart, best buy and so on. A lot of people don't
understand and don't care that what they get for $300 is junk. All they know is that it costs $300 for a whole new
computer, so why pay $250 to get the old one fixed? You'll kill yourself trying to educate them too, you'll never get that
point across to the majority of customers. You'll run into cheapo's as well who will want everything including the kitchen
sink for free or darn near it.
Best advice I can give is price accordingly, competitively and high enough to keep away the riff raff. If your in an area with
a good population, you have a shot at getting a decent amount of clients that understand and value the skills and knowledge
that you have. And if the general area your in has a decent income level, you won't have to worry quite so much about the
cheapos and the $300 walmart special folks.
If you can, maybe try to get a few smaller businesses to do some managed services type contracts. The steady, predictable
income can help you a lot. If you can get a couple of those established earlier on, it should make the stress of the first few years
a lot more manageable. I'd say in general I'd say that trying to support small to medium sized businesses are going to be a much
better avenue then trying to make a living off of residential break / fix type work.
lan101
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Brandon's right on the el cheapo 300 dollar walmart special thing for some residential clients. I've come to find it's easy to snuff those people out in under a minute or two over the phone. I just quickly explain my services and if they see no value in that then we move on. Some see the light and will believe in you and what you say and others will just look for the cheapest route. When I first started I would take out extra time and try to win everyone over as a customer that I could. I certainly don't take that time now, but if you have nothing but time anyways you should try and earn as much as you can. The only mistake I made in the beginning was being a little too cheap but I quickly raised prices after my first year and no previous clients questioned it. Matter of fact I had a few upscale clients tell me I wasn't charging enough in the beginning. Try and gauge your market correctly from the start if you can.
I started my business about ten years ago and I have to say business peaked in 2010 and has been declining since the smart phones and tablets came on the scene. I make just a part time income now, but if I went after more business clients and managed services it would probably be better. The residential has really dried up, basically just seniors and a lot of Windows 10 issues now. Very few hardware fixes, touchscreen laptops have screens that are too expensive to replace and the ultra thin laptops have ssd drives that seldom fall or are integrated. I would do it as a hobby if your talking just pcs . But it also depends on your demographic and competition.
IT Pro Home Solutions
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depends on you personally and whether you have the right mindset and the determination and skills
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