On the verge of giving up

[Andyuk2007]

Hi folks, Well after many months of sinking money into my business on advertising with no call outs I am thinking about giving it all up, I am just not getting any call outs like i did last year infact its been 2 month's since i got a call out, i dont get alot of them I get around 2 to 3 a month or atleast i used too.

I've had to stop my driving lessons because i can no longer afford them and very soon i will need to sign on benefits its so bad but i do love fixing computers though and i dont want to give that up but their are no jobs around me for my skills at the moment.

I advertise in a few business publications and around my local areas but i'm getting nothing from it, What do you think i should do, give it up or keep trying to float a sinking ship. ?

At the moment I dont know what to do I really dont i cannot exactly force people to call me out.

 

[Austin]

Sorry to hear about your situation.

Have you tried a leaflet drop? it could be cheaper than running adverts and you could deliver them yourself!

How do you get "onsite" at the moment if you cannot drive?

Why not offer you'r services to some local business or even a JV between you and a local shop that repairs TV's / Mobile Phones / Anything Electrical.
If you have any shops that buy second hand goods offer them a discount for you to repair / service any pc's or laptops they buy!

Have you tried advertising on Adsense (Google) you can get discount vouchers to start you off with some advertising credit. What about joining schemes like (PCIQ) online who do work referals.

Hope all goes well

 

[Jamie3188]

Im sorry to hear things are not going well. Frankly I think its not going well for a lot of people due to the current climate. I see your based in Leicestershire. Im based in Bedfordshire and its kinda quiet and has been for a while.

My opinion in not to give up. Things get tough. I dont know if this is your full time job?

All I can say really is dont give up. Things can only get better.

Chin up

 

[Andyuk2007]

Hiya, yes this is my only job and i really enjoy solving people's computer problems and meeting new people, I have looked at google adsense but I dunno how it will help my business since I doubt many people will search for a computer repair guy online or do they ?

I've tried a leaflet drop before but it was a complete waste of time and money so i'm not so eager to try it again to be honest. I suppose all i can do is keep up the shop windows adverts to save money. their are also no local business who repair tv's and videos or any business that buys computers.

You see i did advertise in a few magazines but i may stop that as i'm going to have to cut back a bit for the next few month's

 

[Tesla]

Can you post up a copy of your flyer?

I note you're average repair charge is £20.00. Why are you so cheap? Are you not very good?

This means to make £1000.00 you need to do 50repairs! That's 2 per working day per month.

I guess your overheads are going to eat a fair bit into that so ideally you want to be doing 3-4jobs per day.

How many per day are you doing at the moment? Sometimes it's better to break your goals down into smaller targets, they can be easier to meet.

 

[Jamie3188]

Have you tried Thomson Local?

I have had a few good responses from that. In our area (Hearts, Beds and Bucks) there are a good few of these local Phone/Contact books....

Google: Im not sure... I think its not one of the most popular ways of searching for a local IT company but i definatly think thats its one thats going to get bigger?

Are you located on a high street? You you have any special promotions or offers on at the moment?

Jamie

 

[Andyuk2007]

Can you post up a copy of your flyer?

I note you're average repair charge is £20.00. Why are you so cheap? Are you not very good?

This means to make £1000.00 you need to do 50repairs! That's 2 per working day per month.

I guess your overheads are going to eat a fair bit into that so ideally you want to be doing 3-4jobs per day.

How many per day are you doing at the moment? Sometimes it's better to break your goals down into smaller targets, they can be easier to meet.

I dont have a copy of my flyer anymore, my charge is £20 per hour I consider this to be very reasonable there is IT repair guy 10 miles from me who charges £30 per hour.

To be honest I'm not doing many call outs per day its more like 2 every 6 to 8 weeks thats how bad its become.

 

[Austin]

THE BIGGEST MISTAKE I EVER MADE: Thinking people dont look online for computer repair.

For years I didnt even have a website because I thought -"if their pc dont work how are they going to get online to search for a repairer?"

I increased my business by about 20% in the first year from having a website, combine this with various online advertising and SEO, I now get approx 45% of my work from online enquiries.

More households now have more than one pc, mobile phones can access the internet, people have computers in work.

Dont make the same mistake I did!

How is the guy down the road advertising? Is he busy? Go for a chat with him he might be so busy he needs a hand, or at least you can see if the area your in is quiet in general.

Personnaly I dont have much luck with Thompson Local but I do have success with a local Classifieds weekly paper. The trend seems to be different in different areas where one type of advertising works and another doesnt.

I can see from your postings tho that you seem "beaten"!!
Why not have a few days away from thinking of work, re-charge your batteries and come back with a fresh mind and crack on.

June and July used to be depressing months for me because it was so quiet and I would always consider giving up and doing other things. But now these quiet months allow me to "work the business" and catchup with all my loose ends and paper work, plan advertising and review tech tools.

 

[jj2000]

Andy DO NOT give up,just take a few days to regroup and rethink where you are going,I know this is a difficult situation I have personally gone through it in the last few weeks.
I have given up as an employer and folded my business and i am going to go back to being a one man show again.

How is the guy down the road advertising? Is he busy? Go for a chat with him he might be so busy he needs a hand, or at least you can see if the area your in is quiet in general.

Go see this guy,see if he is busy and ask if he could put some work your way,No harm in asking.
You could always look for another part time job and keep the computer repair as a sideline until things pick up.

 

[NickCat11]

THE BIGGEST MISTAKE I EVER MADE: Thinking people dont look online for computer repair.

For years I didnt even have a website because I thought -"if their pc dont work how are they going to get online to search for a repairer?"

I increased my business by about 20% in the first year from having a website, combine this with various online advertising and SEO, I now get approx 45% of my work from online enquiries.

+1.

I felt the same way until I got my website up and running. Now when I ask how they found out about me, at least half are from my website.

 

[ell]

Hiya, yes this is my only job and i really enjoy solving people's computer problems and meeting new people, I have looked at google adsense but I dunno how it will help my business since I doubt many people will search for a computer repair guy online or do they ?

I've tried a leaflet drop before but it was a complete waste of time and money so i'm not so eager to try it again to be honest. I suppose all i can do is keep up the shop windows adverts to save money. their are also no local business who repair tv's and videos or any business that buys computers.

You see i did advertise in a few magazines but i may stop that as i'm going to have to cut back a bit for the next few month's

Everything I use for advertising is free and my biz had doubled in the last year, magic word IS google. BE SURE you inlcude the words computer repair and your location in your business web page title. First make yourself a free google site- add a coupon, put your location in the center of where you want your customers, next list your site with google local business center, next spend hours submitting your url to all online search engines, local.com, msn, switchboard, yellowbook, more. The more places google bot sees you the higher your listing in google searches. Yes, most people do use online advertising, mine find me at work when their home pc's are down. Give your business card to everyone you meet or know, get on facebook, don't give up! I went the whole month of June with nothing.

 

[14049752]

I'm probably going to get flamed for this, or start a fight somehow... but that's not my intent.


Maybe you should just give up? It seems like for as long as I've been on these forums, several of your posts are about having only 1 or 2 jobs in weeks/months, or asking how to get more business. Every time I ask myself "How is this guy making ends meet?"... You certainly haven't had any shortage of suggestions for growing your business, or advertising, either.
I don't know the reason(s) why you're not getting the business...it's probably not just one thing, though.
Have you looked, and I mean seriously looked, for a job helping someone else?


...Anyway...Go ahead, yell at me for that post. I'm sure someone's going to.

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

I'm probably going to get flamed for this, or start a fight somehow... but that's not my intent.


Maybe you should just give up? It seems like for as long as I've been on these forums, several of your posts are about having only 1 or 2 jobs in weeks/months, or asking how to get more business. Every time I ask myself "How is this guy making ends meet?"... You certainly haven't had any shortage of suggestions for growing your business, or advertising, either.
I don't know the reason(s) why you're not getting the business...it's probably not just one thing, though.
Have you looked, and I mean seriously looked, for a job helping someone else?


...Anyway...Go ahead, yell at me for that post. I'm sure someone's going to.

Kudos on being honest. That's a rare commodity these days on these forums because of all the sugar coating being encouraged. ((Edit by Bryce: I am all for saying it, its all about the delivery though. 14049752 did it correctly here so his post remains. Past posts were more "You suck and should quit now".))

Point is take a look inside of yourself. Have you been encouraging word of mouth with previous customers. If you have but haven't been getting referrals, then why not? Otherwise the rest is just speculation among us because we know nothing besides what you are presenting us on this thread. Noone here really knows your history, experience, work ethic, etc..I do know one thing, you mentioned something about driving lessons? Do you not have your own transportation? I'd say its probably hard being an on-site tech without transportation unless you've got really good and far reaching public transportation where you are at.

 

[Andyuk2007]

I'm probably going to get flamed for this, or start a fight somehow... but that's not my intent.


Maybe you should just give up? It seems like for as long as I've been on these forums, several of your posts are about having only 1 or 2 jobs in weeks/months, or asking how to get more business. Every time I ask myself "How is this guy making ends meet?"... You certainly haven't had any shortage of suggestions for growing your business, or advertising, either.
I don't know the reason(s) why you're not getting the business...it's probably not just one thing, though.
Have you looked, and I mean seriously looked, for a job helping someone else?


...Anyway...Go ahead, yell at me for that post. I'm sure someone's going to.

I have done all the suggestions and ideas that i got given before and sadly they have not worked out, I cannot drive so I have to manage with people bringing their pc's to me I can get to local call outs via my push bike

Sadly at the moment because of the recession things are hard for all of us but some of you seem to be doing rather well and i cannot understand how that is so.

 

[Bryce W]

Do you have a copy of the ads in the publications you could show us? Whats the distribution of the ads and to what sort of people?

It could just be a crappy or wrongly targeted ad.

 

[Andyuk2007]

Here is the magazine publication one

and here is my post card version which goes in shop windows.

I did advertise in a magazine called the groby spot light the website is http://www.grobyspotlight.co.uk/index.html

 

[Andyuk2007]

Andy, sorry to hear of your troubles. I Honestly think that despite the economy, you should raise your prices higher still. It will bring in a better class of client, and you will find that it will reap more rewards in the long run. Also, the guy who charges 30, you have no idea how his business is either, he could be worse off than you are.

Hiya, Wouldn't raising my price have the opposite affect though of keeping customers away as they might think "oh he is too expensive for me" My way of thinking was that if i keep my price reasonably low then it might bring business to me but sadly this hasn't been the case.

i'm in a bit of a pickle

 

[basic]

Hiya, Wouldn't raising my price have the opposite affect though of keeping customers away as they might think "oh he is too expensive for me" My way of thinking was that if i keep my price reasonably low then it might bring business to me but sadly this hasn't been the case.

i'm in a bit of a pickle

You would, naturally think that, but often times people will see low prices and think that you are charging low prices because you aren't as qualified as someone with a higher rate. My opinion is that raising prices a little has two effects.

1. It will give the impression that you are more qualified.

2. It will filter out the cheap, sometimes unpleasant, customers. I have found that people who shop for the lowest possible prices often try to get more than what they paid for and will cause problems if they don't.

 

[angry_geek]

Hi Andy. You should also consider joining some local networking groups or other organizations.

 

[Simmy]

You say you've tried all the suggestions so far, but the biggest one you've ignored is raising your prices! Even I've suggested it at least 4 or 5 times.

Also, I don't do any advertising anymore as google brings in all of my work. I don't appear to be able to find you under "leicester pc repair" or similar keywords though? Work on your website as that will bring you the most work in the long run.