Using Your Home Office to Compete with Brick and Mortar Stores

When you’re first beginning in the computer repair business, you usually start from a home office. If your town already has a brick and mortar computer repair store, you first thought would be that you are at a competitive disadvantage. They have the big shop that everyone sees. Don’t worry though, you’ve got some key advantages.

Your Overhead is Low – Pass That Savings Onto the Client

Stores have certain fixed costs each month they can’t control. Rent and utilities are the primary ones, but also depreciation of inventory and salary costs. Their margins are lower than yours. They are stuck with that space for a typical three to five year lease.

Your overhead, when done right, is a key advantage. In the US, if you use a percent of your home as an office, that home office is tax deductible. You can expand or contract that space as your business grows. Since you’re already paying for your house, this deduction is a bonus. Other services are also deductible like portions of your Internet and mobile phone. In some situations, you can even count the small stuff like trash and water towards the business. Your home office saves you money rather than costs you.

Your pricing should reflect the market value: charge what’s appropriate for your area. Don’t be a “pizza tech” and charge a rock-bottom price. Customers won’t value your service and you’ll have trouble raising your prices later on. Your tactical advantage is that you have more room to adjust your prices. If you’d like to offer an occasional discount (maybe a social coupon like Groupon), you can do that. Whenever you give a discount, mark your “going rate” along with the discount. If you bill at $70 an hour, but bill the customer $30 an hour, show your invoice as $70 with a $40 discount.

Your Location Isn’t Set – Offer Convenience By Coming to the Them

Your pricing is more flexible since you have a home office. You can offer free on-site service or pick up and drop off. Most customers will love this. They don’t have to hook and unhook the computer. Physical shops need to charge extra for on-sites. That’s your business model, so it’s figured into your rates.

Some customers might object to handing the computer to a stranger for them to take it away. I’ll address objections later, but a physical location doesn’t offer much more security. If they insist on meeting you at a location, find a local business you can partner with and occasionally borrow a desk. Check out this article for some ideas. In my experience, that’s usually with clients who live in rural areas. Don’t have them meet you at your home. Your homeowner’s insurance might not cover injury to your customer. Serving clients at your location also might violate local zoning ordinances.

A computer repair shop at a visible location has free advertising every time someone drives by. If you’re driving around town doing on-site service, your vehicle is a powerful advertising tool. I have magnetics on the side of my car along with a portable business card holder. If business is slow, I’ll just park my car at a strategic location and turn it into a temporary billboard.

Your Hours Are Flexible – Use That To Your Advantage

Grocery stores, hospitals, and gas stations are 24-hour operations. Computer repair shops aren’t. When customers have problems, they want the computer fixed right away. Few of us have customers say they aren’t in a rush to get the computer fixed.

If a physical store offers after hours support, it’s an on-call basis and with a hefty charge. When your office is your phone, you can answer your phone whenever you like. You’ll earn business the physical stores couldn’t. I recommend against charging extra for evenings or weekends. Your overhead is low, so use this is an advantage to get the jobs the brick and mortars charge extra for. If you do charge an extra fee, make sure it’s less than your competitors. You’re looking to use your low overhead as an advantage here to get more work.

Deal With the Common Objection: “How Can I Trust You?”

Some clients won’t trust a business that isn’t in the phone book. A printed phone number gives a false pretense of legitimacy. My Mom didn’t think I was a “real” business until I had t-shirts. People are weird like that.

With a brick-and-mortar, customers get that false sense of trust. They know where it’s located and where to go when there is a problem. That’s as logical as the phone book. Every community will have a story of some local business that shut its doors and left customers without options. It might be a bridal shop that closed it’s doors putting dozens of weddings in jeopardy. A restaurant might have gone belly up leaving a long line of creditors. A physical location isn’t a guarantee.

When customers present this objection, you need to assure them that you are a professional business. The Computer Repair Business Toolkit has a list of forms you can use to show the customers that you’re in this for the long haul. When the customer signs a form and you give them a copy, they know how to reach you if there’s a problem. If you have business insurance (I highly recommend it), give them your agent’s info. They’ll know that if you lose or break the computer, you have insurance to cover their loss.

You can prevent some of these objections by making sure they can find others talking about you. Typically that’s through social media. They can read reviews of you on Facebook, Yelp and Google and learn you’re trustworthy. They might even find that people they trust like friends or family members trust you. Physical repair shops might have that, but they can’t easily create that personal connection. Customers aren’t always likely to leave a review for an impersonal shop. If a brick-and-mortar asks for a positive review, the customer might do it when they get home. The customer might also get too busy and forget. Since you’re already at their home, you’ve got the advantage.

Customers might ask about your home address. You know their home address, shouldn’t they know yours? Not really. If a plumber or a landscaper comes to your home, that question wouldn’t be appropriate. Take a question like this as another trust objection. Reassure them that the computer is in good hands. Let them know about your business stability.

Just because you aren’t a brick and mortar store doesn’t mean you can’t compete. Customers want their computers fixed. As long as they can trust you, they don’t care how you run your business. Find your competitive advantages and use them to grow your home-based business.

Written by Dave Greenbaum