Just starting out

[cstech]

Ok so I have been lurking for a good while on this board and am just not posting. I just was notified today that my full time day job is "downsizing" me as they are not going to have full time workers... Not going into the whole story but I worked for one of the big box stores in the tech department selling and was the main technician. I always went that extra step for the customers and because of this our store was able to bring in a many number of computers that we would not have because of what our "limitations" were. Without going into too much of a "poor me" story I am looking at this as a kick in the pants and a way to use the time to get my own business going. Why work for the man when you can be your own boss. I have at my disposal many tools and around 20 years of computer experiences (nothing too intense... built my first system while I was in seventh grade) The down side is I have no formal training or certifications as my college major was in business, music and education... Great combination I know. What I am doing is looking for some ideas about how to get up and going... as well as resources for ideas of marketing. I will be working out of my home doing pick-up and on-site work to begin with. There is no way I can afford to start out with a "location".

What I am in the process of doing is making up business cards, flyers, tri folds, and other promotional material that I can give out to friends and family as well as a few customers that will follow me from my recent job. Use this as a way of "please hand these out to your friends and let them know I am available" promotions. Pricing is something I am not too worried about with setting... I know what the competition charges as I was the competition, and I have researched the other competitors in the area. The next research I am doing now is "how are they advertising" for new business. Word of mouth will get you many places but it does take a while to get circulating.

We have a very transient population (university students and second home people as well as tourists) The university students will always typically go to campus for their repair work. The second home people and the tourists that need a quick fix are the main ones I will start working to capture. Also going to venture into gaining a bit of the Home office, small businesses market by simply putting myself out there. There are a lot of small businesses here with only a few employees that have only a couple of systems but they are the type that are still running Win XP and ancient software. While working in my other job I have brought a few of them up to date with ideas of things they could do with the right hardware and software. I am going to pursue that with other business to get them in a contract for setup and on-going service.

This is long I know and am sorry... Does anybody else have any thoughts as to where to go for gaining business? Thank you in advance.

 

[Wheelie]

First off ... congratulations! You live in one of the most beautiful places on earth!! The Blue Ridge Parkway would constantly distract me and I would get nothing done! The Linn Cove Viaduct is amazing! Hiking, rock climbing, hunting, fishing, street & trail motorcycling!! I'd go insane!!

Since you're audience is predominantly college related (student/faculty) you might try putting up flyers around campus (in and around the dorms & apartments) and use Craigslist to give bonafide college students 1/3 off discounts or something like that. But to be sure - your demographics there are going to be your biggest challenge. It's a small town. So your job will be to create a very low cost advertising campaign and to keep it going month after month. Facebook allows very accurate targeting using demographics and you might try very carefully using it. It works for me. Craigslist is free and should also help. Newspapers are expensive to advertise in but they sometimes will announce a new business that is starting up so try that. Sometimes they'll even do an article if there is something that's actually newsworthy in the story (comes from you). If there are any subdivisions that distribute newsletters put ads in them. Those work amazingly well and are usually fairly cheap. Just realize one month of ads >>anywhere<< will not bring in business. It is repetition that works ... month after month after month of running ads that brings in the steady revenue. People respond to repetitive ads so you have to find inexpensive ways to do that without spamming or pssing people off.

 

[brandonkick]

My advice is to find another job (part time or full time depending on your financial needs) and do the computer gig part time for a while to see how it goes.

I don't think you'll get many businesses on with you because well you probably won't appear professional enough to trust putting their businesses needs in your hands. There are a lot of residential folks you can target as well as college students.

Some colleges do not offer tech services at all let alone for a fee. A crashed or failing computer is a students worst nightmare. They just finished up a report that's due tomorrow and the machine won't boot into windows. So you fire up your hirens disk and copy the file over for them so they can finish it up on a library PC, print it and not lose months worth of work. Your name will quickly become a fixture after only a few of these life saver scenarios. And you'll make money doing it. College kids are broke (many of them) but many of them have families willing to foot the bill for such an emergency.

Advertise in every free way you can. I know the local newspaper put out a full 8.5 x 11 insert in color for like $500. That's like 5000 copies of this, 2K for him to keep and 3K to go out in newspapers. Something like that would be a great idea. Hang signs up at local stores and restaurants that allow it.

I would also research all of the tech's in your area, be it kids doing it out of their parents basement or full blown respected repair shops. You want to be priced higher then the craigslisters or the kids next door but want to come in just at or ever so slightly under the established shops. You want people in the door, you want your services to be considered but you don't want cheapo clients who don't want to spend a dime.

 

[callthatgirl]

If you read the business and marketing forums here, you will get a ton of good information, things tested and tried. Be careful about paying for anything big right away, there are oodles of free stuff to do first.

Get insurance!

 

[ohio_grad_06]

I agree if you can at least get a part time job, do so. Just to have a little extra. It was a year or so before referrals really started giving us steady work.

As far as tools are concerned like screwdrivers etc, grab a couple small sets off amazon or eBay. Those should get you by until you can get better. Also a way to put the name out as you get comfortable, if you find a reputable business that does like office supplies and stuff see if you can pay them a little a month to put up a sign. That way your name gets out there.

One thing I love that we did, someone showed us Microcenter. It's a little ways for us not bad though, but we get nearly all our parts there and mark up. This also means we keep almost no inventory but can have things quickly. Offer to recycle machines too. Doing that gets your name out there, and if people are throwing away old machines or dead ones, you can at least mine like the ram out of them and sell ram used as upgrades.

Also you may look at other towns nearby, see if they are under served. We were able to market to a decent size town not to far out, no PC repair there at all. Nearest was best buy more than 15 minutes away.

 

[Steve202]

First off get Technibble's business kit. It contains so much information, various forms, etc it unreal and will save you a load of time.

Secondly have a read of the marketing section on the forums. To get you name out there, get a load of flyers printed and hand them out to people, put them in local shops, etc, the idea is to get your name in front of people then you can look at word of mouth. If you want to focus on word of mouth advertising remember to ask people to refer you and then ask some more.

Oh and welcome to the forums

 

[mr m]

I've been a casualty of downsizing 3 times. The final straw was when an arrogant area manager told me I was being "rightsized!" That fool was let go a week later and I heard he stormed out of the office in a petulant frenzy!

The hardest part is taking that first step. Don't let the downsizing influence your confidence. You did nothing wrong. Upper management screwed up, not you.

I too work out of a home office but earn very little. My kid is grown, my mortgage is paid so I can squeak by. If you have kids or a stack of bills you will need a "job" while you're building your client list.

You will learn to be a businessman/woman as you go. That is the hard part. Be on time. Be honest. Be courteous. Be able to fix. Keep your sense of humor. You will prevail.

 

[Markverhyden]

Congratulations!!!! I do mean that in a good way! Employment is such a transient thing these days. Being self-employed is not for everyone but it is for me. After being downsized (position eliminated) and then outsized (company closed) I decided to strike out on my own 7 years ago. It was a very stressful first couple of years.

This site has a ton of information. The Computer Business kit is a great way to get a bunch of forms quickly.

Start out by making a business plan and make sure to include some basic financial goals. This is a way to keep your eyes on the prize - profits. Obviously when you are just starting out you need to get a revenue stream as quickly as possible but do make a serious effort to get business customers. The consumer market has been slowly shrinking and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. But businesses value their IT resources and will pay better. Not to mention they are more likely to continue to use things like desktops, laptops and servers. Also work on getting up to speed on things like networking, cat5/telco cabling, and Apple.