My New advert: what do you think ?

[Andyuk2007]

Hey All, i've had a new advert made and would like your input on it, bear in mind i cannot get it changed but i am having yet another designer make me a second one. please click on attached images to see it


As you can see i've gone for a different look and the wording has been made to not sound too business like, I put myself into the shoes of an ordinary person who may not understand computers and put on the most common problem as a question. all the wording was supplied to the designer and i must say she did a terrific job

if your wondering why my hourly rate is on there well i did look at a few other adverts from the likes of www.pc2mend.co.uk i did get some ideas of wording from them but changed it alot so it doesn't look like i nicked it and that company has an hourly rate of £15 too, i might raise it to £20 in the new year but i'm getting a fair bit of work at that price of 15.

bear in mind i airbrushed out my telephone numbers for security reasons.

 

[Simmy]

Changes I would make for the next one

• I thought you were going to leave your hourly rate off the advert?
• Change "Optimize registry" to "Optimise registry"
• What does scan hard drives mean?
• Merge the first two lines into 1 - "Install/Upgrade hardware and software"
• and finally, something everyone has been telling you to do since the dawn of time and certainly something I will continue to pester you about...Raise your prices!!!

I like the layout and general design of the leaflet though

 

[Andyuk2007]

Changes I would make for the next one

• I thought you were going to leave your hourly rate off the advert?
• Change "Optimize registry" to "Optimise registry"
• What does scan hard drives mean?
• Merge the first two lines into 1 - "Install/Upgrade hardware and software"
• and finally, something everyone has been telling you to do since the dawn of time and certainly something I will continue to pester you about...Raise your prices!!!

I like the layout and general design of the leaflet though

oops, I will get those spelling mistakes changed right now, i will raise my prices in the new year I think £15 is very reasonable and also another computer repair place has £15 an hour too

thanks for the input i didnt notice the spelling mistake, i will also have "scan hard drives" removed

cheers

 

[Simmy]

If you want to run a car, you'll need to raise it to alot more than £20. My car costs 40pence a mile to run. Assuming you do 1 hours work for a customer living 10miles away (20 mile round trip), that's cost £8 to get there and back leaving £12. Then you have to pay tax on that £12, you're barely making £10 an hour.

And as everyone else on here has said, you can charge £45 per hour and upwards and people are prepared to pay if you do a good job.

At the end of the day it's entirely up to you how you run your business though Have you been running for a year yet?

 

[Andyuk2007]

If you want to run a car, you'll need to raise it to alot more than £20. My car costs 40pence a mile to run. Assuming you do 1 hours work for a customer living 10miles away (20 mile round trip), that's cost £8 to get there and back leaving £12. Then you have to pay tax on that £12, you're barely making £10 an hour.

And as everyone else on here has said, you can charge £45 per hour and upwards and people are prepared to pay if you do a good job.

At the end of the day it's entirely up to you how you run your business though Have you been running for a year yet?

i've been running for a year now yeah and i will raise my prices once I've learned to drive but at the moment i just get part time work mostly, I've built up a good repuation so far and i feel that if i raise my prices too much then people wont come to me i dont want to be seen as another pc technician who charges the earth.

if you take a look at http://www.pc2mend.co.uk/ they have an hourly rate of £15 an hour... i do understand what your saying i really do and i've took it to heart, come 2009 i will probably try raising too £20 or £25 i want to invest in more equipment aswell.

for now i'm gonna learn to drive (thanks to my dad for £500)and do call out when i get them.

2009 will be different i promise

 

[NWPhotog]

of time and certainly something I will continue to pester you about...Raise your prices!!!

Yep I'll second that, way too cheap. You are not only hurting yourself but also the industry. Also most will assume at that price you are not too skilled. It may very well lose you business.

 

[abe]

hi andy
maybe you should have a £15 first hour rate then £20-25 second hour or a £15 rate for 1st timers.

 

[bagellad]

Hi Andy, I like your new ad maybe you should stick a wizard hat on that guy or something! Only thing I would change is maybe dumb it down a bit for people, does the average person even know what the registry is? Now is that going to be a half page or a full page?

 

[Andyuk2007]

Yep I'll second that, way too cheap. You are not only hurting yourself but also the industry. Also most will assume at that price you are not too skilled. It may very well lose you business.

at the moment £15 an hour is very reasonable to most people i dont want to appear to be a big business by charging £35 to £45 per hour as alot of normal folk cannot afford that, Next year i will increase my hourly rate to maybe £20, if you check out www.pc2mend.co.uk they also charge £15 per hour so i think its an ok rate.

Hmm how much should i raise my prices by do you think ? i dont want to go too high as people wont come to me.

I've enclosed the updated advert as ellen (the designer) changed some of the wording for me

 

[Andyuk2007]

Hi Andy, I like your new ad maybe you should stick a wizard hat on that guy or something! Only thing I would change is maybe dumb it down a bit for people, does the average person even know what the registry is? Now is that going to be a half page or a full page?

the Advert is a half page, its already dumbed down enough I tried to have it done from a person who had very little computer expertise so it appeared simple and helpful.

 

[Simmy]

I could show you some places that charge £10/hour, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea or that you should lower your rates to that

The company you have linked us to (pc2mend) only started up in Jan 2008 so they probably have the same idea as you - become known as the cheap computer guy. The problem is, once you are stuck with that label it could be difficult to remove it. As you've already said, you don't want to raise your prices incase your existing customers don't come back to you. You're going to find it even more difficult a year or two down the line. I would be impressed if you could find someone on this forum that has been doing onsite PC repair for 3 years or more and still only charges £15/hour and still makes a decent living out of it (If one exists, I would be willing to bet they are a nervous wreck from all the work they have to do ). I can't see anyone in the "Hourly Rate" thread. I don't know about you, but that tells me something.

When you get a car, you'll want to be on £30/hour at least. I've already shown how travelling 10 miles takes an £8 chunk out of your first hour, not to mention any unexpected repair bills and the jobs you will lose when your car is in for repair.

Have we drilled it into you yet?

 

[Simmy]

Hmm how much should i raise my prices by do you think ? i dont want to go too high as people wont come to me.

Why do you think that?

Why do you think first time customers are willing to pay me £45/hour? They certainly don't know how good I am as they've never used me before.

Can I suggest you leave out your hourly rate? And then for just one customer, tell them your hourly rate is £25 and see what their response is (preferably a new customer, not a referral). If that goes well, then in a couple of weeks try telling someone £35. You can carry on charging £15 for all your other jobs, but it will be a good way to (hopefully ) prove to you that people are willing to pay that.

 

[Andyuk2007]

Why do you think that?

Why do you think first time customers are willing to pay me £45/hour? They certainly don't know how good I am as they've never used me before.

Can I suggest you leave out your hourly rate? And then for just one customer, tell them your hourly rate is £25 and see what their response is (preferably a new customer, not a referral). If that goes well, then in a couple of weeks try telling someone £35. You can carry on charging £15 for all your other jobs, but it will be a good way to (hopefully ) prove to you that people are willing to pay that.

I have a call out tommorow the woman on the phone didn't ask me my rates so i will try and ask for £25 and see what happens if she says its too expensive i suppose i should drop to £20. I just dont like to charge people too much money for things.

 

[Andyuk2007]

I could show you some places that charge £10/hour, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea or that you should lower your rates to that

The company you have linked us to (pc2mend) only started up in Jan 2008 so they probably have the same idea as you - become known as the cheap computer guy. The problem is, once you are stuck with that label it could be difficult to remove it. As you've already said, you don't want to raise your prices incase your existing customers don't come back to you. You're going to find it even more difficult a year or two down the line. I would be impressed if you could find someone on this forum that has been doing onsite PC repair for 3 years or more and still only charges £15/hour and still makes a decent living out of it (If one exists, I would be willing to bet they are a nervous wreck from all the work they have to do ). I can't see anyone in the "Hourly Rate" thread. I don't know about you, but that tells me something.

When you get a car, you'll want to be on £30/hour at least. I've already shown how travelling 10 miles takes an £8 chunk out of your first hour, not to mention any unexpected repair bills and the jobs you will lose when your car is in for repair.

Have we drilled it into you yet?

yeah you drilled it into me i'll raise my rates to £25 for new customers and see what happens i'm gonna ask ellen to make the changes to remove the hourly rate from the Advert perhaps i could offer £15 to O.A.P's

 

[jj2000]

I have a call out tommorow the woman on the phone didn't ask me my rates so i will try and ask for £25 and see what happens if she says its too expensive i suppose i should drop to £20. I just dont like to charge people too much money for things.

sorry to jump on the thread but andy for gods sake do NOT drop your price for the customer stick to your guns if its 25 quid you want then say 25 quid not 20,
I was told many years ago by a very wise man that if you quote a price and you dont get the sharp intake of breath from the customer you are not charging enough,if you take a driving lesson and the guy says £25.00 and you say thats a lot do you think he will drop the price for you,i very much doubt it.

 

[acs]

I always keep an eye on what the big boys are doing.
http://www.thetechguys.com/index.shtml
Also google the UK PC repair market for prices and you will see that most charge £30 per hour.
It is a 60 mile round trip to take a PC to the big boys and collect it again from this area so as long as my prices are slightly less then them my customers are happy especially when I collect and reconnect there PC so saving them time and hassle.
When I started 4 years ago I was charging £15 / hr. This is now up to £30 / for home customers and £70 for data back up , format ,windows reinstall and reconnection of printers, network etc.

 

[iptech]

£15 per hour is far too cheap and with a no-fix-no-fee policy it's commercial suicide IMHO. For on-site work you should consider the income from 4 hours paid rate as typical earnings for a normal working day - you'd be surprised how much time preparation, travelling, admin, marketing/sales etc. etc. eat into your day, let alone allowing yourself time to keep up-to-date with latest technology news and developments.

Whatever rate you offer I certainly wouldn't quote it on any advertising or even your website. I have three separate hourly rates that I charge depending upon the client, location and initial call-out surplus for the first hour. I would drop the no-fix-no-fee, it's a negative selling tactic and I always counter it with the argument that anything can be fixed - it's just a question of price, some things are not worth fixing. It's not your fault a customer's ten-year-old PC will cost more to repair than a shiny new one from PC Woe.

It's a nice looking flyer otherwise though. Good luck with your venture, just remember it's a commercial business and the going rate is set as much by your competitiors as it is by you.

 

[Andyuk2007]

£15 per hour is far too cheap and with a no-fix-no-fee policy it's commercial suicide IMHO. For on-site work you should consider the income from 4 hours paid rate as typical earnings for a normal working day - you'd be surprised how much time preparation, travelling, admin, marketing/sales etc. etc. eat into your day, let alone allowing yourself time to keep up-to-date with latest technology news and developments.

Whatever rate you offer I certainly wouldn't quote it on any advertising or even your website. I have three separate hourly rates that I charge depending upon the client, location and initial call-out surplus for the first hour. I would drop the no-fix-no-fee, it's a negative selling tactic and I always counter it with the argument that anything can be fixed - it's just a question of price, some things are not worth fixing. It's not your fault a customer's ten-year-old PC will cost more to repair than a shiny new one from PC Woe.

It's a nice looking flyer otherwise though. Good luck with your venture, just remember it's a commercial business and the going rate is set as much by your competitiors as it is by you.

Hi, I'm going to have the price removed off the Advert tommorow i'm not sure about removing the no fix no fee though as others on the forum has that. i've also decided to raise my rate to £25 for new customers but for current customers i will phase in the new price in a few month's time

 

[Bryce W]

Andy, check out these articles. I think they are appropriate to your situation:
http://www.technibble.com/raising-your-prices/

http://www.technibble.com/are-you-charging-enough/

 

[Andyuk2007]

thanks for those bryce, today is the day i start using my new price of £25 per hour. i'm kinda nervous of what people will think but i guess one difference is that i dont charge a call out fee. I suppose i could say "if it goes wrong again in the next 3 month's give me a call and i'll fix it for free"

as a kind of a gurantee, do you guys offer gurantees of your work ?