Starting my own business

SkidMarkKing

SkidMarkKing

SkidMarkKing

Associate
Joined
25 Jul 2009
Posts
1,598
Location
England
Hi there,

im currently 24 and have worked in computer repairs for 3 years now + 3 years at college.

I currently work in a small shop and would like to go self employed. Focusing on domestic call outs and repairs as well as remote support for domestic users. I would consider business customers in the future but there are a few companies who deal with only business users locally in my area. Currently I am pretty much in charge of the shop and the money is terrible. I deal with all the domestic customer inquiries/repairs anyway.

I was just inquiring about any things I may need to consider?

Thanks
 
Consider the possibility of putting yourself into a worse financial situation! As it could happen. Would be a good idea to have some form of savings to ensure if SHTF you have enough to survive on whilst trying to find a new job in the current economic situation.

Make sure you would be able to get the work ect and have a good organised system for it all. Also leave your job on good terms and don't burn your bridges as I see many young people like ourselves do!

Other than this i really have no idea what else there is to consider!! Best of luck to you wish I had the guts to be self employed! Also I have no idea about the legal side of running a company :D
 
harry5522 said:
Consider the possibility of putting yourself into a worse financial situation! As it could happen. Would be a good idea to have some form of savings to ensure if SHTF you have enough to survive on whilst trying to find a new job in the current economic situation.

Make sure you would be able to get the work ect and have a good organised system for it all. Also leave your job on good terms and don't burn your bridges as I see many young people like ourselves do!

Other than this i really have no idea what else there is to consider!! Best of luck to you wish I had the guts to be self employed! Also I have no idea about the legal side of running a company :D
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I know if I hurry up and do it before im 25 I can get help from the princes trust.

My mum knows a fair few people who will put work my way. Mostly elderly people but then tend to be the ones who need the help.

Im currently on £7.50 an hour and I see the sort of money we earn. Ide need 4 call outs a week to earn my current weekly wage Also any remote support sessions would be a benefit.

If my boss found out I was going self employed he would throw a wobbly big time.
 
This is a terrible idea. Domestic customers and small businesses will take up all of your days and argue costs until the end of time.

Only do it if you are in an area where you can cater to high-value work (e.g. rich people who want the best and will pay for it). You do not need to go and help a pensioner get their iPad connected to their home Wi-Fi and then have their family calling you up whenever there's a problem with their Hotmail on the iPad because of "what you did when you were here (six months ago)".
 
Caged said:
This is a terrible idea. Domestic customers and small businesses will take up all of your days and argue costs until the end of time.

Only do it if you are in an area where you can cater to high-value work (e.g. rich people who want the best and will pay for it).
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I earn £200 a week lol.

One call out for one hour is £50-£60 in my area. Possibly even more if I was to pick up and drop off the machines.

I currently do the domestic customers anyway and they don't seem to bad?

Where I currently work if they had problems 6 months down the line its obviously not as a result of what we did so we would still charge then. To be honest me being to kind ide probably knock half off lol. The whole pensioner/ipad thing is a fast easy money callout? :/
 
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You need to have a clear game plan set out to move out of residential work as soon as possible. So start moving to home business types if you can ASAP.

Also don't forget to get recurring revenue - presumably there will be customers that need Internet connections, business email, antivirus? Get yourself in a position to partner with these suppliers and resell with TalkTalk Business, Google Apps, Sophos etc. There's no reason why you should ever tell people "buy this" and then point them to a place where they can buy it. You should be the supplier for it all.
 
Caged said:
Also don't forget to get recurring revenue - presumably there will be customers that need Internet connections, business email, antivirus? Get yourself in a position to partner with these suppliers and resell with TalkTalk Business, Google Apps, Sophos etc. There's no reason why you should ever tell people "buy this" and then point them to a place where they can buy it. You should be the supplier for it all.
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Yeh, thats it. We currently sell AVG/Office 365 (partners) etc :) Im sure it wouldn't be to hard for me to become a partner if I was to start up?

So frustrating because ive been looking for a job which is a next step up from what im currently doing and its so hard.Given the people my family know etc it makes sense. Word of mouth is the best :)
 
SkidMarkKing said:
Im currently on £7.50 an hour and I see the sort of money we earn..

If my boss found out I was going self employed he would throw a wobbly big time.
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You may see the sort of income to the company but do you have any idea how much money the owner actually pays out? A place I customised the office software/hardware setup for and had worked there for several years almost everyone had some notion of how much "money we made" they would come out with "oh the products we sold last month amounted to £180,000 he has loads of money to spare" yet they didn't realise that for instance the monthly electricity cost was well over £100,000 wages were over £10,000 a week rent was through the roof, delivery costs, insurance, materials, customer service and the list is endless. There are hundreds of things to consider :)

That said in your current situation of wanting to try going solo and your under the impression that your boss will have a wobbly about it then it may be a idea to have a meeting with him and explain your situation and that you are considering going self employed "due to financial strains on your personal life" and you may find that he will actually not want you to leave that
Much he will be willing to give you a pay rise. OR he might just tell you to **** off. But by the impression of what you think he will do anyway it may be worth considering.
 
Can you do it on the side first to get a feel for how money/work you can get? Might be worth building up a reputation and saving a little nest egg before diving in feet first!
 
You have a lot to consider before going on your own. Be sure you have it right because if you don't you could end up in a lot of debt and end up working for someone else again.

SkidMarkKing said:
If my boss found out I was going self employed he would throw a wobbly big time.
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Thats business for you. It's a tough world you have to have the guts to stand up for yourself otherwise you will get eaten alive.
 
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mrbell1984 said:
You have a lot to consider before going on your own. Be sure you have it right because if you don't you could end up in a lot of debt and end up working for someone else again.

Thats business for you. It's a tough world you have to have the guts to stand up for yourself otherwise you will get eaten alive.
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Yeh, I have no contact and have asked a few times.

First year I was there I didn't get holiday pay and I had the nag the second year.

I know he has a lot of bills etc going out hence why I would want to work from home/remotely to start with to cut out huge rent bills (house insurance etc may go up im aware).

We must be earning enough because he has a car which he pays £400 a month for and a house which is £600/£700 a month.

Im not expecting that kind of money and I know a business has be worked on.

My boss actually isn't much older than me so if he can do it why can't I?

At the end of the day I don't want to be stuck working for someone who is racking in the money and im doing most of the work when it comes to domestic stuff. Im 24 now and I know a lot of people get to 40/50 go self employed and think "why didn't I do this sooner?"
 
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The biggest thing people don't seem to realise in going out on your own is it's like throwing a stick into the ocean, unless you know where it is, nobody will know you are there, let alone find you..

Build your customer base, do stuff on the side, get a NAME for yourself outside of work first otherwise it will be the biggest car crash you encountered.

This is pretty much what I am having to do right now (but with cars not computers) People might know you through your work but once that's gone, that's it, unless you have managed to procure them onto your own little sideline first, 99% of your potential customer base will vanish.
 
Fuzz said:
The biggest thing people don't seem to realise in going out on your own is it's like throwing a stick into the ocean, unless you know where it is, nobody will know you are there, let alone find you..

Build your customer base, do stuff on the side, get a NAME for yourself outside of work first otherwise it will be the biggest car crash you encountered.

This is pretty much what I am having to do right now (but with cars not computers) People might know you through your work but once that's gone, that's it, unless you have managed to procure them onto your own little sideline first, 99% of your potential customer base will vanish.
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Yeh, my family have lived in the area and surrounding towns all there life's (Grandparents/parents).

I know when my boss started he was lucky to get 2-3 clients a week but he come straight out of education to do it . My mum works locally and is already giving my number out, lol
 
First step in my book is to make yourself look more "official" get a proper domain name, website, email address and phone number. Then work on your google searches skills..
People that don't know you, need to find you and your number before you can even begin to take calls..
It's not going to happen overnight either. Stick with it, keep the blinkers on to keep you heading in the right direction and eventually you'll get there.
 
Just do it. Get yourself on Fiverr and get some nice branding done with business cards, invoices and flyers. Make sure people know what they are paying up front. You can get a nice responsive website set up for £100 with ThemeForest. Register a domain so you have a professional email address.

Go as a visitor to your local networking groups such as www.bni.co.uk

You don't really have much to lose at your age.
 
Thanks for the advice guys. Ile contact princes trust after Christmas. Just don't want to wait till I'm older because I'm wasting time I could be growing. My mum has just started a business and regrets waiting so long.
 
Domestic side of IT business is dead. The idea of someone calling £50 an hour diagnostic for a £350 laptop is short lived. In couple of years it will be like calling repairman for kettle or microwave. Most people don't even repair their washing mashines anymore due to call out fees and computers are going that way. At the moment there are enough old people who are used to the idea of repairs to maintain thin line but one more price point shift and one generation change and it will either decimate your customer base or make you work for no money worth purchasing tools and software for.

You will be basing your business on courtesy of your mums friends, which will wear very quickly once you stop being "Lucy's youngest" and start being the guy who needs to take away large chunk off their pension to survive. Corporate it's different. Data retrieval pays. Licensing pays. IT services pay.
 
I'm sort of a bit worried that you say you can't get any other work locally - so what is the market for your services going to be?

You've got your mind made up so best of luck to you, but you need to be something a bit more bespoke than an IT repair man. Maybe you find a few small businesses who need IT strategy and work a day a week/fortnight/month for them to assist in an IT manager role without them having to employ someone full time for the position, leave yourself a day a week free to develop your own strategy and you should be in a decent position.
 
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