Moving from "mobile" to "mortar"

[Justin Beaudoin]

Hey everyone...

I'm wondering what your thoughts are in regards to a mobile computer business (on-site) moving into adding a storefront to their portfolio so to speak.

I guess what I'm saying is I have a successful business running out of my home with a few technicians that exclusively does remote on site support. It's great. However, often people tell me "I wish you had a shop so I could see your computers for sale". We have systems for sale, but sometimes people don't ask or think of us as a source because we don't have a "showroom". In addition, there's people I know that avoid using us because they can't drop off their computer and they prefer this service over on-site... despite offering a pickup and drop off service.

Do you think it's a good move to a have a store front? I think it has advertising benefits, new customer benefits, and new revenue sources from product sales.

Bad move, good move?

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

I certainly has some pros, but the added expenses add up quite quickly. I can say it has been good for us, but that is not everyone's experience.

 

[acscva]

I did this just over 1 year ago.

I have an 1200 sq ft office/showroom that I operate by appointment only. It has made a huge improvement to my business including picking up new business that I would have never got as a home based business. Also having a brick and mortar location has changed the impression from some of my previous customers were they can come and visit me. I think the biggest issue is finding a place that is a professional location, easy to get to and good signage capability. I spent 1 1/2 years looking for the right location and was well worth the wait and got a very good price for it as well. It is also nice that it is only 1 mile from my home. The way that I calculated the costs and return on investment is on how many inshop service appointments I needed to do for paying for it and last year my business was up over 80% and I equate this office location was the best thing that I did to improve this. 40% of my new business came from drive-by (People seeing my sign).

 

[mraikes]

I did this just over 1 year ago.

I have an 1200 sq ft office/showroom that I operate by appointment only. It has made a huge improvement to my business including picking up new business that I would have never got as a home based business. Also having a brick and mortar location has changed the impression from some of my previous customers were they can come and visit me. I think the biggest issue is finding a place that is a professional location, easy to get to and good signage capability. I spent 1 1/2 years looking for the right location and was well worth the wait and got a very good price for it as well. It is also nice that it is only 1 mile from my home. The way that I calculated the costs and return on investment is on how many inshop service appointments I needed to do for paying for it and last year my business was up over 80% and I equate this office location was the best thing that I did to improve this. 40% of my new business came from drive-by (People seeing my sign).

How does the "by appointment only" work? In my imagination, I see your office/showroom closed most of the time (unless there's an appointment) and drive-bys stopping, peeking in your window, knocking on the locked door and moving on. Sounds like that's not really the case, so how do you do it?

 

[L2CS]

I do not have an actual store or front where people can just pop in. However, I do a hybrid type model. I have a great relationship with another local business that I also work at in the evenings a few nights a week (non-tech job but love it) that my clients can drop off computers, pick up, pay via check, and there is a room I can use if I need to meet someone. I just barter and do work for them at a discounted rate or free, but they still pay for any hardware needed. It is great because today 2 clients dropped off their computers to them after talking with my assistant (who works out of her home) and the office lady at the physical location send me an e-mail saying so and so dropped off a computer it is behind locked doors in your "office" room.

I have no intentions of doing a storefront in the next 5 years but doing more of the in-home thing. All of my clients are either residential or small business (1-15 computers)

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

How does the "by appointment only" work? In my imagination, I see your office/showroom closed most of the time (unless there's an appointment) and drive-bys stopping, peeking in your window, knocking on the locked door and moving on. Sounds like that's not really the case, so how do you do it?

I'm struggling with this now.

 

[fencepost]

Probably a combination of "Work from the office not from home, so if you're doing remote work or managing patches, etc. you're there" and good signage. You don't want a sign that says "Closed", you want a sign that says "Out of the office servicing our clients" and if possible gives some idea of when you'll be physically there.

 

[Justin Beaudoin]

I did this just over 1 year ago.

I have an 1200 sq ft office/showroom that I operate by appointment only. It has made a huge improvement to my business including picking up new business that I would have never got as a home based business. Also having a brick and mortar location has changed the impression from some of my previous customers were they can come and visit me. I think the biggest issue is finding a place that is a professional location, easy to get to and good signage capability. I spent 1 1/2 years looking for the right location and was well worth the wait and got a very good price for it as well. It is also nice that it is only 1 mile from my home. The way that I calculated the costs and return on investment is on how many inshop service appointments I needed to do for paying for it and last year my business was up over 80% and I equate this office location was the best thing that I did to improve this. 40% of my new business came from drive-by (People seeing my sign).

I too would like to learn more about the "by appointment", how does it work for you? What's the idea?

 

[Justin Beaudoin]

Probably a combination of "Work from the office not from home, so if you're doing remote work or managing patches, etc. you're there" and good signage. You don't want a sign that says "Closed", you want a sign that says "Out of the office servicing our clients" and if possible gives some idea of when you'll be physically there.

Exactly what I was thinking as an option... since our business is 24/7 I am never closed. You call at 3am, we will be there. It's happened!

 

[Justin Beaudoin]

I do not have an actual store or front where people can just pop in. However, I do a hybrid type model. I have a great relationship with another local business that I also work at in the evenings a few nights a week (non-tech job but love it) that my clients can drop off computers, pick up, pay via check, and there is a room I can use if I need to meet someone. I just barter and do work for them at a discounted rate or free, but they still pay for any hardware needed. It is great because today 2 clients dropped off their computers to them after talking with my assistant (who works out of her home) and the office lady at the physical location send me an e-mail saying so and so dropped off a computer it is behind locked doors in your "office" room.

I have no intentions of doing a storefront in the next 5 years but doing more of the in-home thing. All of my clients are either residential or small business (1-15 computers)

Okay, this I kinda have now. There's a company in town that offers per-hour office space. They also offer mail services. With the mail service people can drop off their system and pick it up. Problem being, they sometimes don't trust leaving it to the general office person in charge of all clients. He/She also can't answer technical questions. I know people walked out because it wasn't really us. Kind of the same set up you have, it's been useful sometimes but still isn't that "storefront" feeling.

 

[L2CS]

Okay, this I kinda have now. There's a company in town that offers per-hour office space. They also offer mail services. With the mail service people can drop off their system and pick it up. Problem being, they sometimes don't trust leaving it to the general office person in charge of all clients. He/She also can't answer technical questions. I know people walked out because it wasn't really us. Kind of the same set up you have, it's been useful sometimes but still isn't that "storefront" feeling.

Yea, I get that a little bit but not too much after we started explaining it and telling the client it goes right to a locked Layer 2 Computers room.

 

[fencepost]

our business is 24/7 I am never closed. You call at 3am, we will be there. It's happened!

Two notes on that:

• I hope you have a significant upcharge for overnight work. Overnights for MSP working on servers or patching are one thing and I'd call it "part of what people pay those monthly fees for," dealing with customers who call up is something completely different. Which reminds me, I need to go enter a charge for the remote access call I was dealing with at 9:15......
• If you don't mind the overnight work and are looking for more business clients, find out who runs overnight shifts in your area and make sure they have your contact information. Some options might be: 24-hour stores, restaurants with computerized systems but no national chain support (e.g. McD's probably can call corporate, 5-location pizza chain not so much), and possibly manufacturing businesses. You might also see if you can talk to the police - explain who you are & what you do, and they may share with you who's regularly working overnight.

 

[ComputerPro]

We just posted some tips about storefronts etc in another thread. It could be a great move for you but it has to be done right or it could be a money drain too.
https://www.technibble.com/forums/t...tinued-from-my-future-post.67826/#post-530394

We did a quick article on TN also:
https://www.technibble.com/setting-up-a-storefront-the-right-way/

 

[gikstar]

You might also see if you can talk to the police - explain who you are & what you do, and they may share with you who's regularly working overnight

You might also contact the local security companies... the ones who provide drive-by security.

We have systems for sale, but sometimes people don't ask or think of us as a source because we don't have a "showroom"

At this point in time though, maybe you should have photos up on your website listed under 'Great Used Computer Deals"...

We have a commercial location which is listed on Yelp where we have a server rack and we also a "workshop" at our home. Since most of our work is for our managed service clients, we are the ones bring the computers to our "workshop".

 

[CTL]

I did this just over 1 year ago.

I have an 1200 sq ft office/showroom that I operate by appointment only. It has made a huge improvement to my business including picking up new business that I would have never got as a home based business. Also having a brick and mortar location has changed the impression from some of my previous customers were they can come and visit me. I think the biggest issue is finding a place that is a professional location, easy to get to and good signage capability. I spent 1 1/2 years looking for the right location and was well worth the wait and got a very good price for it as well. It is also nice that it is only 1 mile from my home. The way that I calculated the costs and return on investment is on how many inshop service appointments I needed to do for paying for it and last year my business was up over 80% and I equate this office location was the best thing that I did to improve this. 40% of my new business came from drive-by (People seeing my sign).

I'm interested in how you handle by "appointment only" too.

Are you a solo operation? or Do you have staff?

 

[jzukerman]

After being in business for 11.5 yrs, I made the move from home office to real office space back in Nov last year. One of my clients had an open office space (used to be their conference room) and I picked up a 1 yr lease with them. Price is a little higher than I wanted to spend but it includes electricity & cooling. About a 12ft x 20ft room. More than enough space for my 1-man operation. I love it. A lot less distracting than at home. Less chance for me to goof off. I get a Main Street entrance with plenty of on-street parking, a large sign on building (3ft x 8ft), and my client's receptionist will handle any clients dropping off computers or annoying sales people that drop by. I made it clear with my client that I am not to be bugged by their employees every 5 minutes for IT issues. If they have an issue they'll get serviced upon my availability just like my other clients. So far so good.

I think the most valuable advantage to an office is that in the morning I leave my house, go to work, get work done, and leave work at the end of the day. No bringing it home with me. I leave work mindset at work. Sure I have my phone and laptop with me for the occasional emergency but that's few and far between. This peace and less stress pays for itself.

Downsides would be that my client closes their doors at 4:30pm when I usually work till 5 or 6pm, so I have to let my clients know that if I am out of the office and they want to drop off a computer for instance. Also my room has no outside windows. No natural light which kind of sucks. Heat is really bad in this room, so I purchased an electric heater that works well.

I'm still working out the exact details.

As a side note, I have a UPS Store mailbox so my mail still goes there, as well as packages. I mostly only have SMB clients so most of their work is done onsite; they don't drop off computers very often.

tl;dr: got an office space last Nov after having a home office for 11.5 yrs. and I love it.

 

[acscva]

Basically on the front of the building I have all of my company details, website, phone number on a big 8ft sign and on the door a sign says "Available by Appointment only (Day or Night)".



I also have my business cards available there for people to pickup.

I have an answering service available 24/7 if we don't pickup the phone within 3 rings it automatically goes to them. I also monitor and record all incoming phone calls so if someone calls and doesn't leave a message I will call them back to follow-up on the missed phone call.

I have a part time person available when needed and also my wife and daughter help with the business.

I know some people may not call to make an appointment but I have been averaging 20-22 new home users or businesses per month that come in for service via making appointments for sales or service needs.

In the future I will be hiring someone that will be at the office Monday through Friday 9-5 that will handle any possible walk-in business along with some administrative assistant needs and light tech work.

 

[CTL]

Basically on the front of the building I have all of my company details, website, phone number on a big 8ft sign and on the door a sign says "Available by Appointment only (Day or Night)".

I also have my business cards available there for people to pickup.

I have an answering service available 24/7 if we don't pickup the phone within 3 rings it automatically goes to them. I also monitor and record all incoming phone calls so if someone calls and doesn't leave a message I will call them back to follow-up on the missed phone call.

I have a part time person available when needed and also my wife and daughter help with the business.

I know some people may not call to make an appointment but I have been averaging 20-22 new home users or businesses per month that come in for service via making appointments for sales or service needs.

In the future I will be hiring someone that will be at the office Monday through Friday 9-5 that will handle any possible walk-in business along with some administrative assistant needs and light tech work.

Do you mind letting me know how many drop offs (Appointments) a month you get operating this way? Any issues with people not showing up?

 

[acscva]

Do you mind letting me know how many drop offs (Appointments) a month you get operating this way? Any issues with people not showing up?

I already listed that above....20-22 new home users or businesses per month.

I have had a couple of people that have had to reschedule but not many.

 

[Justin Beaudoin]

Two notes on that:

• I hope you have a significant upcharge for overnight work. Overnights for MSP working on servers or patching are one thing and I'd call it "part of what people pay those monthly fees for," dealing with customers who call up is something completely different. Which reminds me, I need to go enter a charge for the remote access call I was dealing with at 9:15......
• If you don't mind the overnight work and are looking for more business clients, find out who runs overnight shifts in your area and make sure they have your contact information. Some options might be: 24-hour stores, restaurants with computerized systems but no national chain support (e.g. McD's probably can call corporate, 5-location pizza chain not so much), and possibly manufacturing businesses. You might also see if you can talk to the police - explain who you are & what you do, and they may share with you who's regularly working overnight.

Sure do, emergency fee is added to the normal rate anything after midnight/before 8am usually.