No Calls in a while

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dweebsonduty

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Hello all,

I have had no calls coming in for a long time. I have an ad in the Phone book, which gave me results for a month or so but I haven't had any calls from it since.

What are some best practices and best ways to advertise?
 
We've been in business for 25 years and have a good base of regular University and business clients that bring us repairs. That keeps me pretty busy all the time. About once a week it seems like things are going to slow to a crawl and I get all of my projects finished up. It can last anywhere from a half hour to a half of a day and then machines start coming in 2 at a time. Its not enough to have another full-time in house tech even though I get pretty busy some times. But as needed one of our on-site techs will spend a day or a day and a half a week in-house to help me get caught up when needed.
 
AdvancedComputerGroupInc said:
It's pizza tech city out there,

Heck, even our niche market is becoming saturated, slowly but surely. I can honestly say that maybe 1 of 10 guys that flooded our niche market really knows what they are doing with it in business senses. The others are clueless, I Know for a fact, but here I sit, and there they are running around like a bunch of old western cowboys shooting anything that moved.
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I definitely empathize with you on that. We have a shop that opened a store front no bigger than a 1 bedroom apartment right in the middle of campus. They were doing an LCD screen replacement on a students macbook and then had the nerve to send her to us to buy a new top case for her computer and bring it back to him to install. We didn't sell her the part because for the main reason it is an Apple part and we would have to install it. We decided to call the shop acting like a potential client to find out what they charge for an LCD replacement. He said something like $169.00 parts and labor which is barely any overhead in the part and nothing there to cover labor. We inquired about how long it would take and he said he was swamped which anyone would be charging those prices. I'm just hoping he undercuts enough that he puts himself out of business. I can't see him covering his operating costs when he is barely making taking in $10.00 an hour profit on labor and letting parts go nearly at cost.
 
Well I must say I appreciate the person who started this thread. I was looking into starting a PC Repair and sales store and also getting a contract with some of the wireless companies to become a authorized cell phone dealer. I am sitll looking into that way I can have 3 streams of revenue ( PC Repiar, PC sales, & Cell phone sales). It just seems like the economy and the market right now is really taking a toll on alot of businesses. People are trying not to spend money or they want to negotiate prices. I may just keep my day job and continue to do repiars on the side and save up. What do you guys think I am new to the business side of PC Repiar however I am a very business oriented individual.

By the way does anyone or has anyone rather used that paid support.com for there business. If so can you weigh in on that as well
 
Yea you are right about that brother. I work full time now for Hyatt Hotels in there Data Center. I wanted to start that busines more as a side business. I just do commercial side jobs only now anyway. I know these days customers are negotiating busineses like crazy on prices which sucks. It is hard these days to do anything like you said about owning a business or working for someone else. I guess at this point I am just going to continue to work alot of hours and save my OT checks. When I feel the right time has come I will make my move.
 
G-Money said:
Well I must say I appreciate the person who started this thread. I was looking into starting a PC Repair and sales store and also getting a contract with some of the wireless companies to become a authorized cell phone dealer. I am sitll looking into that way I can have 3 streams of revenue ( PC Repiar, PC sales, & Cell phone sales). It just seems like the economy and the market right now is really taking a toll on alot of businesses. People are trying not to spend money or they want to negotiate prices. I may just keep my day job and continue to do repiars on the side and save up. What do you guys think I am new to the business side of PC Repiar however I am a very business oriented individual.

By the way does anyone or has anyone rather used that paid support.com for there business. If so can you weigh in on that as well
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I keep pretty busy and I can't say how thankful I am. But there is more haggling with customers and price shoppers who want to compare what I charge to Joe pizza techs rates.

If you are serious about going into business in this current climate, I suggest if you have the opportunity to go to work for a well established small shop in your area. Even if it is for 15-20 hrs a week. Do it for a while. The experience you will earn is invaluable. And for heavens sake DO NOT take any side business while working there. That could be clients you are taking from your employer and thats just unethical and typical of my worst visualization of a pizza tech. Maybe close friends and family aside. Everyone else they can come through the front door where you work.
 
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I guess, that I can be glad that this is a side company. I am really only trying to get enough business to pay off some debt that the company incurred, which is not alot, 7 calls should pay for it. And then I will figure out if it is worth pursuing or not.

I thought it would be easy to get this started as I rolled out a very large computer support company in my area, they got huge and I thought that I could start a company when I left them and it would be easy.

I left them and started doing Networking at a University in the area and decided to start the company. It is not as easy as I thought to get customers, I figured that I would have lower prices than the big guys and the customers would flock, that just isn't the case.

Then you post on craigslist with people who will fix the computers for $30, and now my ad gets overlooked allot of times because people are starting to expect that price range.

At least I like my main job....
 
Its been a bit slow for me too I had a call out yesterday but that was only an hour's work, my advertising is fine its just the economy as others have said. Hopefully june will be a bit busier for me.
 
It's really frustrating for me because late last year I spent a couple of thousand dollars buying all kinds of tools, gadgets, software, etc.. to really build up my repair station and then it started to slow down. It's always like that for me, put in alot of extra effort or spend alot of money and then it doesnt pay off for a long time. :mad:
 
From what I read in the paper the other day apparently the US is at the bottom of the recession, and it's supposed to go up from here. Take what you will from a US newspaper.
 
NYJImbo said:
It's really frustrating for me because late last year I spent a couple of thousand dollars buying all kinds of tools, gadgets, software, etc.. to really build up my repair station and then it started to slow down. It's always like that for me, put in alot of extra effort or spend alot of money and then it doesnt pay off for a long time. :mad:
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Haha you and me both brother! I invested almost 1k in xbox360 repairs and now noone ever calls me! Same thing w/ my computer repair toolkit... if I don't start getting some calls soon I may just have to go back to pimpin':eek:
 
Not knowing the legality in the states but have any of you looking into tutoring for added income?

Yes, it can be belittling at times (you feel you are better than this) but if the income is needed to feed the family then it maybe worth looking into.
 
MM PC Solutions said:
Not knowing the legality in the states but have any of you looking into tutoring for added income?

Yes, it can be belittling at times (you feel you are better than this) but if the income is needed to feed the family then it maybe worth looking into.
Click to expand...

I did tutoring in the late 90's and it tired me out. Its basically talking for an hour at a time to someone who just isnt getting it. I started tutoring in 1978 when I was a teachers assistant at BOCES night school teaching COBOL programming. I cannot do it anymore, it just seems everyone who wants to be tutored on how to use a PC is one of those people who cannot absorb information.

I would say that 99% of the people who learn how to use a PC do it on their own, the other 1% who need real sit-down teaching will drive you nuts. :p
 
I have just started up my own Computer repair, support, web dev, everything to do with computers.
After being an IT Manager for a Publishing company, which is struggling put me down to 3 days a week.
So I use those other 2 days to build myself up, and hopefully one day leave my permanent role all together.

But i'll only do that once i have a solid client base and making money.
 
ProTech Support said:
"Where did you say the mouse was again???"
Click to expand...

Go ask your cat. ;)

But in all seriousness I hope you all start doing better soon. I've slowed down a bit but not horrendously. A slow week for me is 5 calls right now. And man, I've gotta tell you about my Pizza Tech cleanup job last night. LOL! I'll get to it probably tomorrow.
 
TimeCode said:
Go ask your cat. ;)

But in all seriousness I hope you all start doing better soon. I've slowed down a bit but not horrendously. A slow week for me is 5 calls right now. And man, I've gotta tell you about my Pizza Tech cleanup job last night. LOL! I'll get to it probably tomorrow.
Click to expand...

cant wait to hear the story
 
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