Opening my 2nd shop in 5 years.. opinions & suggestions welcome..

[bdoggman]

Hey techies, i would like to get some feedback on my situation and business. long story short i opened a repair storefront in in gainesville Tx 5 years ago. its a small town with about 15k population. i do a little bit of everything mostly end user stuff Pc/Mac because I have never been to school for anything computer related. i do service small businesses but just the easy stuff. ive come to a point a couple of months ago that I wanted to expand. There is a town 30 mins north of me named denton that i am going to open my second location. i already have the building and permits and all that good stuff and plan on opening sometime next week. The reason i decided on denton is because its a college town with 2 big universities. Ive did a lot of research on my competition with storefronts and they all charge about twice as much as i do. this intrigued me, i couldn't believe people were paying these prices but i come to realize it all depends on location. the area im opening my shop is the fastest growing in the nation as far as people, jobs and the local economy so i guess it makes sense. Example:: i charge $80 to do a wipe and reload. They charge anywhere from $150 - $200 and that doesn't even include backing up your data. they charge about the same to clean and optimize. This was crazy to me but its true. Im going to run both shops at first, then hire some one to manage one of them. I plan to hire more techs, so if anyone knows anyone in that area that can run a shop feel free to message me because my ultimate plan is to make it a self sustained business. Thanks for any feedback good or bad

 

[callthatgirl]

Eeks, being the new guy who charges half? You will not be well liked by the competition friend. And I have opened three stores before, not that you will ever be well liked....but if you do well (as I assume you will) and charge half, you will drive them to charge less and to me...it might get ugly. I always charged what the competition charged or around that price, the you do "sales' with your lower prices or for new promotions, etc.

One of my stores (small town one) I did keep my Minneapolis pricing and the locals were not happy, but still came to us. After they saw the good service and turn around time, it went better. But the local guy I was competing with wasn't happy. I sold that store and the new tech who took it over I believe lowered the prices, but had way less overhead than I did.

 

[lan101]

If it was me, I don't think I'd be half as much as competition. I certainly don't want to be twice as busy and make the same money they do. If they regularly charge $150-200 you could easily go $120 and probably not lose any customers at all. Where else would they go? Just my thoughts. I do not have a store as I do onsite and remote. If I did do a store, I think I would be a little closer to $120 range if it was me. If not, advertise the $80 as a opening promotion.

 

[Nerm]

I agree with the others. If the going rate in the area is double your rate then you are shooting yourself in the foot by not raising your rates closer to that of the competition. Nothing wrong with being a little less expensive but when you go half or more of your local competition it can even hurt your business because people (especially business customers) can get leery of your quality of work with that price difference.

 

[PCSComputerGuy]

If you are confident in your ability to service the computers in a similar or better fashion, why not raise your prices to whats normal for the area? I don't see anything wrong with being the most expensive if you can justify it.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

I agree with lan101 if they charge 150-200 then you should charge something like 120-125 if you want to attract people with cheaper prices. I feel like theres little point in you going all the way down to 80.

Also that sounds like a pretty sweet spot but I think I would have kept the city name to myself to avoid bringing in more competition.

 

[Romaniac]

If you charge the same, why would anyone go with you vs. someone that's more established?

Competition is good.

 

[kwest]

If you charge the same, why would anyone go with you vs. someone that's more established?

Competition is good.

So you are saying price is the only factor? I am more than most in my town and have three employees a store front and work 10 hours a day.

I agree with everyone else raise your price.

 

[Romaniac]

I said why would someone go to the new guy with the same prices as the established stores?

If your response is more available hours, than that's a possible factor. I would still encourage more affordable rates, at least in the beginning.

Price is not the only factor, but it sure is a big one.

 

[gikstar]

You might consider having "Grand Opening" prices in the $120 range then you can raise them later if you choose. If you advertise that way your competitors probably wouldn't have a problem with that, though I suspect that they would prefer that you not come to town at all.

Advertise "There's a new Tech in Town" - you can only use that in Texas...