work is picking up

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Andyuk2007

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I'm happy this week because i'm booked up for 3 days this week, ok they are only 3 jobs but its more then I've had previously in any week.

I had a guy phone me on sunday to pop round with his computer which was dead as a doornail so he asked me to save his work data to dvd's and i charged him £40 for that because i also tested to see why his comp wouldn't post but it seemed to be a dodgy board.

I hope next week is like this, i'm hoping once i get my new website up it should improve, would i have to have any kind of seo work done on that ?

Andy
 
for me its been a real bad week nothing so far and I'm thinking of ripping my laptop apart at of sheer boredom

Yours sadly :)
Abe
 
Congrats on the upturn in work! How many clients did you have normally when times were good?

Andyuk2007 said:
...would i have to have any kind of seo work done on that ?
Click to expand...

I'd say, for the average self-employed, single-man tech support shop, hiring someone to do SEO for you is not worth the investment. Instead, do some research and implement some SEO techniques yourself. After that, if you feel you're still not getting enough hits or a high enough page rank for things like "*your local area* computer repair", consider the investment in some pro-SEO.
 
abe said:
for me its been a real bad week nothing so far and I'm thinking of ripping my laptop apart at of sheer boredom

Yours sadly :)
Abe
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear that :( I hope it picks up for you soon, for a long time my business was in the toilet as i had many bad weeks. maybe try advertising locally or changing your advert could help :)

Y.F.N.C.G. said:
Congrats on the upturn in work! How many clients did you have normally when times were good?



I'd say, for the average self-employed, single-man tech support shop, hiring someone to do SEO for you is not worth the investment. Instead, do some research and implement some SEO techniques yourself. After that, if you feel you're still not getting enough hits or a high enough page rank for things like "*your local area* computer repair", consider the investment in some pro-SEO.
Click to expand...

well times were never that good but its slowly turning around now but i wont hold my breathe, I've had busy weeks like this before but then i would probably go with no clients for up to 6 weeks :confused:

I've had 4 bids on guru.com, one of them is asking for more details on how I would like the layout to be but at the moment I dunno how I want it to look :rolleyes: This is gonna be hard as ive no idea how it should look or what should go where. I do have an idea of the type of content but colours and layout, font...no idea at all :rolleyes:
 
It's been very quiet for me the past couple of weeks, January & the first half of February were very good. The ongoing bad news stories from the finance sector are spooking just about all markets.
 
It's been very quiet for me the past couple of weeks, January & the first half of February were very good. The ongoing bad news stories from the finance sector are spooking just about all markets.
Click to expand...


i agree entirely,very quiet here at the moment,no new work planned for this week so its time for an advertising blitz and another office sort out.:eek:
 
glad someone brought this up

I'm also glad someone brought this up,and now see that I'm not the only one starving:confused:

despite plastering small adds,in public notice boards,i'm only getting calls for free advice :mad:

grass roots small techs like us hopefully can profit from the recession by joining up with others in the same boat and /or lowering prices compared to bigger dealers/shops
 
Congratulations Andy. I remember the buzz you get when things pick up for the first time. It feels awesome. As for everyone else, it seems Andy is stealing your work "GET HIM!".

Im seeing a slight dip myself but I still have enough to keep me busy. In fact its 1:22am at the moment and I'm testing a clients laptop to see if it still overheats (had fluff in its heatsink).

This recession stuff is a self fulfilling prophecy.
Average joe: "Im not going to buy that plasma just yet as the economy is slowing down. Ill wait to see what happens in case I lose my job"

Store owner: "The plasmas just arent selling and I cant stay open at these costs. Im going to have to lay off some people"

*Average joe gets laid off because stores arent selling*
*media gets wind of this and reports about how 10,000 people lost their job as the company folded*

Average Joe 2: "Im not going to buy that plasma just yet as the economy is slowing down. Ill wait to see what happens in case I lose my job"

Rinse and repeat.

There is plenty of money to be made in slow times/recession. Just be smart with your advertising. Perhaps consider going fix priced (which work out to be the same or more than the hourly rate). People who are tight on money like the cap on the price.
 
Bryce W said:
This recession stuff is a self fulfilling prophecy.
Average joe: "Im not going to buy that plasma just yet as the economy is slowing down. Ill wait to see what happens in case I lose my job"

Store owner: "The plasmas just arent selling and I cant stay open at these costs. Im going to have to lay off some people"

*Average joe gets laid off because stores arent selling*
*media gets wind of this and reports about how 10,000 people lost their job as the company folded*

Average Joe 2: "Im not going to buy that plasma just yet as the economy is slowing down. Ill wait to see what happens in case I lose my job"

Rinse and repeat.

There is plenty of money to be made in slow times/recession. Just be smart with your advertising. Perhaps consider going fix priced (which work out to be the same or more than the hourly rate). People who are tight on money like the cap on the price.
Click to expand...

It is so funny that you say that, I was just explaining the same exact thing to my g/f the other day.

I also just switched most of our services to fixed prices for that reason.
 
I'm also feeling the pinch. I usual do 3-4 callouts a day but it's down to 1-2 at the moment.

November=Good
December=Very poor
Jan=poor
Feb=average
March=shocking so far

I've been operating for 3 years now and this is definately the worst spell I've had. The fixed price thing is something I've been pondering so I may well give it a go. I'd be interested in hearing any other short term fixes for getting more work!
 
We have a big amount of mall type parking lots around so I put flyers on cars there. The flyer reads "BAILOUT PROGRAM" across the top, and has a coupon for computer cleanup @ 45.00 (reg cleaner, temp cleaner, virus/malware scan, case cleaning)....

If you can't beat em, join em haha. I will post it if anyone wants to use it. Just have to remove the company logo (flyer is in PSD)
 
Bryce W said:
Congratulations Andy. I remember the buzz you get when things pick up for the first time. It feels awesome. As for everyone else, it seems Andy is stealing your work "GET HIM!".

Im seeing a slight dip myself but I still have enough to keep me busy. In fact its 1:22am at the moment and I'm testing a clients laptop to see if it still overheats (had fluff in its heatsink).

This recession stuff is a self fulfilling prophecy.
Average joe: "Im not going to buy that plasma just yet as the economy is slowing down. Ill wait to see what happens in case I lose my job"

Store owner: "The plasmas just arent selling and I cant stay open at these costs. Im going to have to lay off some people"

*Average joe gets laid off because stores arent selling*
*media gets wind of this and reports about how 10,000 people lost their job as the company folded*

Average Joe 2: "Im not going to buy that plasma just yet as the economy is slowing down. Ill wait to see what happens in case I lose my job"

Rinse and repeat.

There is plenty of money to be made in slow times/recession. Just be smart with your advertising. Perhaps consider going fix priced (which work out to be the same or more than the hourly rate). People who are tight on money like the cap on the price.
Click to expand...

Hey Bryce, its nice that work has picked up but I'm still careful with money, however I've just been talking to people at a magazine called Groby spot light http://www.grobyspotlight.co.uk/, its a monthly village magazine that goes out to 4 villages a bit like that other booklet i used to advertise in called "Advert to offer" the diffrence with the groby spotlight is that it has content which is not just adverts but full of community information so what better way to get to the people then a community magazine :D

It was partly simmy's idea he said find more local type of newspapers so I went to the libary in the other local villages and got copies of community mags, i'll be in next month reaching around 4,000 people.

I do think though for this year us tech's should lower our prices to encourage people to come to us for help with their computers after all alot of people have not got the money to spend on what people consider a luxury service. :)
 
I think fixed pricing for domestic and soho customers is the way to go, where-ever possible. I'm not advertising it but I'm doing it and the customers are biting. I've got 7 systems on the bench and a number of onsite jobs booked for this week.
 
seedubya said:
I think fixed pricing for domestic and soho customers is the way to go, where-ever possible. I'm not advertising it but I'm doing it and the customers are biting. I've got 7 systems on the bench and a number of onsite jobs booked for this week.
Click to expand...

I have a fixed hourly rate which works quite well. :)
 
I tried fixed-price servicing three years back, it worked OK then although it did tend to draw in systems that had previously been well and truly 'fixed' by those who "know a bit about computers". I gave it up and my revenue's improved.

I'm about to give it ago again though as I think it'll be more successful under the present economic climate although I'll be much tighter on my T&Cs. You also need to make sure your 'product' is sufficiently unique to avoid starting a local price-war.

As for the wider situation I think the media have much to answer for, headlines such as "worst crisis since the 1930's", "4 million unemployed by 2010" (UK) do little to inspire confidence.
 
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