PC Repair advice

liamcrane

liamcrane

liamcrane

Soldato
Joined
23 Mar 2007
Posts
2,553
Location
Essex
Morning all

Just wondered if it was possible to get some advice on something. Im an I.T engineer at my local airport and Im looking to do a bit of pc repair on the side of my current job but i was not to sure on the best way to go about promoting it. I'm always sorting out friends and family's pc issues so thought i might as well try and make something out of it. I was thinking of getting some buisness cards sorted out but was unsure what to state on them etc. I have never created a web page before so no not to sure how that all works, Im looking to do things like hardware software upgrades, small home networking, virus removal and little things like that just kind of locally really.

Hope someone might be able to point me in the right direction.
 
Business cards and word of mouth! Don't bother with a website. As soon as you have enough clients through cards word of mouth will take over the rest.
 
Cool thanks guys for the advice gonna try and find somewhere cheap to get some buisness cards drawn up was thinking of stating on them something like this

Desktop & Laptop Repairs

- Software & Hardware upgrades
- Virus Removal
- Data Recovery & backup
- Home Network setups

One of the main things i want to do is ensure every customer i help gets a backup image of the work i have done so if there is any issues in the future i know i have a working machine on disk
 
DJMK4 said:
Business cards and word of mouth! Don't bother with a website. As soon as you have enough clients through cards word of mouth will take over the rest.
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thats correct but considering you can register for email, and web space for so little and then create a site in a few hours from a template its worth doing... (1 and 1 have a simple web design online thingie)
 
liamcrane said:
Cool thanks guys for the advice gonna try and find somewhere cheap to get some buisness cards drawn up was thinking of stating on them something like this
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vistaprint were cheaper than several local firms my last order for 20,000 cards was about 580 - high quality colour both sides, post card sized glossy on one side...

people keep the cards because they look nice - i get people calling me 6 - 12 months after leaflet drops...
 
edscdk said:
thats correct but considering you can register for email, and web space for so little and then create a site in a few hours from a template its worth doing... (1 and 1 have a simple web design online thingie)
Click to expand...

I guess it comes down to how much work you want to pull in, I found that business cards and word of mouth was enough to give me enough work without over powering my main career as a network engineer. Saying that I did create myself a website, however I didn't put too much effort in to advertisement of it as I didn't want to pull in too much work that it would leave me with no personal time to myself.
 
asim18 said:
Delivery flyers through letterbox?
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This was and still is the source of many of my customers.

I dropped 5,000 postcards in Chelmsford 5 years ago, and another 4,000 a year later (two separate areas). I still get new customers who kept them just in case. I decided on card because 1. the look more professional than leaflet, and 2. people are more likely to keep them.

Yellow Pages (book) is still a good source and where a majority of my customers came from.
 
Admiral Huddy said:
This was and still is the source of many of my customers.

I dropped 5,000 postcards in Chelmsford 5 years ago, and another 4,000 a year later (two separate areas). I still get new customers who kept them just in case. I decided on card because 1. the look more professional than leaflet, and 2. people are more likely to keep them.
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did you post them or get them done for you?
 
I got some delivered by a drop service. I can't remember how much that was.. But all the local ones where I live were delivered between myself and my kids, which i paid them :)
 
aslong as you can return a computer back to its factory settings that seems to be enough judging from some members of this forum who claim to do the same "pc repair" work
 
Sone said:
an engineer lowering himself to user problems? whatever next
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Why not? I don't mind helping people with PC issues, as I would rather them come to me than go to PC world, however when it comes to repairing stuff for people I also don't want to spend my free evenings sorting stuff out for people, for nothing, so why not make £25 an hour doing it?
 
DJMK4 said:
Why not? I don't mind helping people with PC issues, as I would rather them come to me than go to PC world, however when it comes to repairing stuff for people I also don't want to spend my free evenings sorting stuff out for people, for nothing, so why not make £25 an hour doing it?
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I think he was picking up on that the word engineer is often overused to describe guys who fix computers.
 
Watch out for the old:

Them: "since you installed those update patches 2 weeks ago, my PC is making a lot more noise"

You: "sounds like your fan needs replacing"

Them: "well all I know is that it wasn't making that noise before you looked at it!" (implying they want a free fix)

You: *sigh*
 
J.B said:
I think he was picking up on that the word engineer is often overused to describe guys who fix computers.
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I didn't say that I was an engineer fixing computers, I was saying that I am a Network Engineer in my main career.

However yes fixing PC's is more a "techy".

You don't have to be building bridges and buildings to be an engineer.
 
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