L
layoric
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Clearly you don't work with businesses.... full sized desktops still being purchased and supported.
Why the Computer Repair Business is Dead
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SprinterTech-WI
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So what phones are you all using that don't have HDMI? Heck Motorola had full linux /android running with full support 4 years ago... full size usb ports, network jack, hdmi etc...
since then it's gotten even better....
with Chromecast you can use your phone to browse the internet etc... lots of apps all work well with the options available.
ohio_grad_06
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I think devices like surface pro and docking may come more later. But still the standard networking issues, cleanings and what not may apply. On residential side we've been picking up quite a bit in work after a dry spell over the summer. Have probably had more work in the last 3 weeks than almost all of summer.
untoldtech
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I agree with a lot what was said on this thread but it is also not black and white. What works in one market may not work in another. Its your job, as an owner, to embrace change and your market needs. Take some limited risks, let yourself spend a little to make a little money, if it doesn't work it doesn't work and write it off.
In my market, I will say many business have a 'if it aint broke dont fix it' attitude. Trying to move these businesses to cloud storage surface pros when all Betty does is check email and answer the phones but now we need to buy her a $900+ surface and a $100+/year license to use a cloud storage solution on top of the carbonite solution they already use can be a tough sell. Oh and Betty has to learn how to use the surface pro. Now I'm not saying you can't offer the new solution but often times I hear, "I just need to get us running again". To me, a surface pro with cloud storage and all this other junk isn't going to give the customer something so compelling that they'll switch. Not when there is an option that is $300-500 that will work fine for the next 5+ years and the desktop is not being abandoned. Not everyone sees OR needs these new devices as the answer to all their prayers. I would say even my residential customers still like having their PCs and aren't too hip on converting fulltime to portable tablet devices, but that's my market.
Change is another important thing you need to be able to embrace, especially in our field. You should also be open to adapt to your clients needs which is being a salesperson that is well informed but also be able to take some risks. I used to shy away from many services/selling certain items. I used to not sell PCs/laptops, accessories and doing certain types of repair. Initially it was the cost 'nawh no one would want that and I have to sit on having a PC/laptop until someone buys it!' but I kept getting requests. I decided, ok, I'll try it and stocked a few PCs that had been donated and some open box PCs I picked up from microcenter or from elsewhere. People started coming in and buying them! Same with soldering, many PC repair places in my area tell customers that if the soldered dc jack is broken they should 'buy a new pc because the motherboards needs replacing'. I kept taking in motherboards with broken DC jacks and trying to repair it (with the customers permission) to the point that I got good at soldering and now I'm great at it
These new services and products are 25-30% of my business so embracing change and taking some limited risk is important.
You need to be the master of your market and if you are it will pay off!
In my market, I will say many business have a 'if it aint broke dont fix it' attitude. Trying to move these businesses to cloud storage surface pros when all Betty does is check email and answer the phones but now we need to buy her a $900+ surface and a $100+/year license to use a cloud storage solution on top of the carbonite solution they already use can be a tough sell. Oh and Betty has to learn how to use the surface pro. Now I'm not saying you can't offer the new solution but often times I hear, "I just need to get us running again". To me, a surface pro with cloud storage and all this other junk isn't going to give the customer something so compelling that they'll switch. Not when there is an option that is $300-500 that will work fine for the next 5+ years and the desktop is not being abandoned. Not everyone sees OR needs these new devices as the answer to all their prayers. I would say even my residential customers still like having their PCs and aren't too hip on converting fulltime to portable tablet devices, but that's my market.
Change is another important thing you need to be able to embrace, especially in our field. You should also be open to adapt to your clients needs which is being a salesperson that is well informed but also be able to take some risks. I used to shy away from many services/selling certain items. I used to not sell PCs/laptops, accessories and doing certain types of repair. Initially it was the cost 'nawh no one would want that and I have to sit on having a PC/laptop until someone buys it!' but I kept getting requests. I decided, ok, I'll try it and stocked a few PCs that had been donated and some open box PCs I picked up from microcenter or from elsewhere. People started coming in and buying them! Same with soldering, many PC repair places in my area tell customers that if the soldered dc jack is broken they should 'buy a new pc because the motherboards needs replacing'. I kept taking in motherboards with broken DC jacks and trying to repair it (with the customers permission) to the point that I got good at soldering and now I'm great at it
These new services and products are 25-30% of my business so embracing change and taking some limited risk is important. You need to be the master of your market and if you are it will pay off!
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ohio_grad_06
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Right, and like the people with the surface pro, those users for me are the ones who are traveling and on the run a good percentage of the time. So that with cloud storage but a dock for when they are in the office works for them. Now for people who do the same job each day in the same place, desktops are still very viable.
Wheelie
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PcTek9
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And what do you all think now? o0
Galdorf
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I think the op is referring to computer sales not service i get on average 5 systems a day to repair/clean my sales have been getting lower each year.
I know the guy that works at Best Buy he also says sales on computers and electronics are lower than last 2 years even HP,DELL,LENOVO all have declining personal computer sales and were thinking of dropping personal computers and stick to business/servers.
I have also talked to other small computer stores most had dropped selling computers and are all service my sales are nowhere near what they use to be in the 90's .
I know the guy that works at Best Buy he also says sales on computers and electronics are lower than last 2 years even HP,DELL,LENOVO all have declining personal computer sales and were thinking of dropping personal computers and stick to business/servers.
I have also talked to other small computer stores most had dropped selling computers and are all service my sales are nowhere near what they use to be in the 90's .
NviGate Systems
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My take on this is two fold.
One, each market is different. You always have to look at the local economy because some local economies have industries that allow them to sustain the market while other's don't. For example, I watched an episode of Kitchen NightMares and it was mentioned in one town when the auto industry declined, that hurt many local businesses. That makes sense, when you have a large market player that generates a good cashflow to the local economy, thus enabling individuals to not scrimp and save.
Move to another area where there is no true "local economy" and everything is consumption based and not production based, hard times will hit even harder. So there is a difference when it comes to where you are.
Second, there are still opportunities for those who are technically inclined. Look at Luis Rossman. He fixes MacBooks all the time. That is a niche and he does well. Now yes he is in a city that has money, but if you really look at this scenario, he's the cheaper option to replacing a MacBook and he has his business down to a science. Myself, I do all sort of repairs from AIO, Laptops etc. I've learned lots over the years and am quite comfortable cracking open a laptop even if I have never opened that model before because I know what to look for. That model gives me the ability to charge decent labor rates and even make some profit on parts that are brought in. My pricing is flexible and I work with each client to get the best arrangement.
Those who are not flexible and run their business like it is 1999, yes, they will soon be out of business. For the rest of us, still enough money in the game to keep going. I also consider my employment (current) an education experience. Most of the tools I use are investments I have made. So if the business fails or I decide to move on, I take my tools, and hence, my livelihood with me.
One, each market is different. You always have to look at the local economy because some local economies have industries that allow them to sustain the market while other's don't. For example, I watched an episode of Kitchen NightMares and it was mentioned in one town when the auto industry declined, that hurt many local businesses. That makes sense, when you have a large market player that generates a good cashflow to the local economy, thus enabling individuals to not scrimp and save.
Move to another area where there is no true "local economy" and everything is consumption based and not production based, hard times will hit even harder. So there is a difference when it comes to where you are.
Second, there are still opportunities for those who are technically inclined. Look at Luis Rossman. He fixes MacBooks all the time. That is a niche and he does well. Now yes he is in a city that has money, but if you really look at this scenario, he's the cheaper option to replacing a MacBook and he has his business down to a science. Myself, I do all sort of repairs from AIO, Laptops etc. I've learned lots over the years and am quite comfortable cracking open a laptop even if I have never opened that model before because I know what to look for. That model gives me the ability to charge decent labor rates and even make some profit on parts that are brought in. My pricing is flexible and I work with each client to get the best arrangement.
Those who are not flexible and run their business like it is 1999, yes, they will soon be out of business. For the rest of us, still enough money in the game to keep going. I also consider my employment (current) an education experience. Most of the tools I use are investments I have made. So if the business fails or I decide to move on, I take my tools, and hence, my livelihood with me.
sapphirescales
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LOL. We used to be 90% service for the longest time. Now however we've focused on sales and it's been a huge improvement. We do a LOT of sales. Sales make up about 50% of our revenue now, and it's growing by the day.
Galdorf
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My business has diversified we rent out unused space, sell pop,chips, coffee,chocolate bars,subs,hot dogs, do insurance electronic/computer inspections don't have my eggs all in one basket just selling snacks and food and drink pays hydro,phone and internet bills computer service pays rent and payroll.
By the way Apple has recorded it first drop in sales across the board MAC sales are way down there is only 2 stores that sell Macs here and they say sales have been dropping quite a bit.
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MotzTech
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Do you keep stock and sell that or custom order stuff? How do you complete with the big stores selling dirt cheap systems? Are you building these yourself or reselling brand name systems?
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I too expanded my retail offerings to compensate for dwindling repairs and virus removals. I have always kept stock, but usually 6-8 used laptops, 5-6 new laptops, 2-3 new towers, 2-3 used towers. Everything was in glass cases. This Jan, I moved the glass cases to the outside walls of my showroom, and expanded my refurb offering. I tend to buy only refurb business class, I tend to turn away the consumer grade that walks in my door. Stuff is just too flimsy these days. I bought these tables from Ikea at $36 a pop and have added 3 more tables since the photo was taken. My sales profits now regularly beat my repair profits, and that is not counting the repair profits generated from migrations to the computers I sell.
I hear people worried about competing. I have several big box stores not too far away as well. The penny pinchers will keep buying big box no matter how competitive you are. It is just ingrained in their heads that a small guy will always cost more. People buy from me because they know the service they get blows away the bigbox. I help them make the right choice for them. Plus many see the value of going with a 3-5 year old business class over that flimsy celeron at the bigbox. A common sales line I use, "See this business class, (I pop off the bottom), I can change out a $10 fan in about 5 minutes, that bigbox piece of crap, I am going to charge you $100 to split it and tear it to pieces if the fan ever goes bad.
If you try to run your business with your bigbox competitors playbook, you will lose everytime. You provide the best value, not the best price.
I hear people worried about competing. I have several big box stores not too far away as well. The penny pinchers will keep buying big box no matter how competitive you are. It is just ingrained in their heads that a small guy will always cost more. People buy from me because they know the service they get blows away the bigbox. I help them make the right choice for them. Plus many see the value of going with a 3-5 year old business class over that flimsy celeron at the bigbox. A common sales line I use, "See this business class, (I pop off the bottom), I can change out a $10 fan in about 5 minutes, that bigbox piece of crap, I am going to charge you $100 to split it and tear it to pieces if the fan ever goes bad.
If you try to run your business with your bigbox competitors playbook, you will lose everytime. You provide the best value, not the best price.
sapphirescales
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I stock mostly refurbished systems. At any given time I have at least 30 laptops and 20 desktops on hand. I also have at least 6 custom builds. I also cater to people in the custom build market. I'm like a mini Microcenter. The prices are about 25% higher than Amazon, but nobody really complains. Most people come to me because of the convenience and the advice. I'd say 80% of the people that come in to buy parts to build a computer themselves end up paying us to do it.
I also sell extended warranties on parts. It's easy profit because I only buy high quality components. Or if we do the build, we offer a 3 year warranty for $99. That's basically a free $100 for everyone that wants a build done. I've only had to honor a warranty a few times, but I've sold hundreds of not thousands of custom builds (we average a few a week from walk-ins). However most of my custom builds are sold to businesses that never come in to the shop and that don't care about what they look like or the price.
There's good money in selling computers if you can do it correctly and you have a good sales team. But do NOT cut corners and do NOT put in junk, or it will come back to bite you. If someone wants the cheapest piece of crap they can find, then don't sell to them. We have a few sub $200 laptops, but 9/10 times we're able to convince people not to go with those. Our average sale for a refurbished laptop is about $400.
We put SSD's in pretty much every system we sell that's $400 or more. Once someone that's looking at a $200 system sees the performance difference between that and one of our $400 systems with an SSD, they're usually sold. Nobody wants to wait around for BS, and if they can avoid it by paying $400 (rather than $600+ at Best Buy) it's not a hard sell.
jfm
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It's not dead, it's only transforming as it ever has, since the beginning, and always will.
The guy needs click bait title to make a living anways.
The guy needs click bait title to make a living anways.
NviGate Systems
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The industry changes much like any other market. Real Estate, Investment, Etc., they all have changed.
You have to be able to go with the times and figure out what works for your market. At my workplace I have another co-worker that still lives in the past. He's pretty much given up in his job, always saying "I don't care" and doesn't like the fact that I do all these advanced repairs. Because, his reasoning was that I was hired to do all the stuff he doesn't want to do...(data backup, hardware installs etc) and I'm only part time. Well, the times move on and if you only want to do windows install and virus cleanup and it takes you a whole week to do a virus cleanup, something is wrong.
So times change and you have to move ahead or you will fade away.
You have to be able to go with the times and figure out what works for your market. At my workplace I have another co-worker that still lives in the past. He's pretty much given up in his job, always saying "I don't care" and doesn't like the fact that I do all these advanced repairs. Because, his reasoning was that I was hired to do all the stuff he doesn't want to do...(data backup, hardware installs etc) and I'm only part time. Well, the times move on and if you only want to do windows install and virus cleanup and it takes you a whole week to do a virus cleanup, something is wrong.
So times change and you have to move ahead or you will fade away.
meynardhill10
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All the information today are widely available that is why probably computer repair business is dead. There might be other reasons also like the money you will be spending for simple repair when you yourself can teach it by just watching youtube.
I've noticed a big shift in domestic work over the past few years - desktop system work started to decline, and laptop work picked up - then I found that both sides dried up further around 2-3 years ago as tablets became the device of choice for those that just browse the net and little else.
Luckily, I'm still busy because I live 2 miles away from a university - so I get a lot of student work. This is always steady because there are always students - and they always need a laptop at least. the other advantage is that whereas I used to drive to residentials all over the city, most of my work is now on the doorstep - the uni.
Despite themy bring students, they're actually really good payers too. They don't query prices and they don't ask for discounts - and I suspect that's because they need their laptops for studying, and are happy to just get them back quickly and working rather than faffing about over pay.
I find the tightest customers are those with money - and the best payers are those on limited income. I'm happy with my student customers.
Luckily, I'm still busy because I live 2 miles away from a university - so I get a lot of student work. This is always steady because there are always students - and they always need a laptop at least. the other advantage is that whereas I used to drive to residentials all over the city, most of my work is now on the doorstep - the uni.
Despite themy bring students, they're actually really good payers too. They don't query prices and they don't ask for discounts - and I suspect that's because they need their laptops for studying, and are happy to just get them back quickly and working rather than faffing about over pay.
I find the tightest customers are those with money - and the best payers are those on limited income. I'm happy with my student customers.
cypress
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Sad, but true.
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Thanks for the tag. I'm looking into this.
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