Computer Repair Business
- Thread starter Kroegen
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Soldato
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Unless you have a great deal of knowledge more than others and have a large customer base already, I'd say yes.
Soldato
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Honestly, its tough and i do it but NOT fulltime, makes good money at times but i doubt i'd ever have enough business to start a real physical shop.
Hmmm, I'm thinking of starting business but I have been holding it back for a year or so.
With Vista being on horizon, which will demand excessive system requirements, maybe it isn't good idea!
By the way, how much should you charge for a call out? Just curious to know.
With Vista being on horizon, which will demand excessive system requirements, maybe it isn't good idea!
By the way, how much should you charge for a call out? Just curious to know.
barnettgs said:With Vista being on horizon, which will demand excessive system requirements, maybe it isn't good idea!
Surely it would be the opposite... new operating system requiring better hardware = demand for new components?
Soldato
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It's like TV repair shops. How many of them do you see these days? None, but in years gone by they were very popular and could save your self a fortune if your TV could be fixed.
Nowadays though, TV's a cheap as chips, and when something dies it's usually not even worth fixing it (better to get a new TV)
Now it's the same with computers, they are a commodity item, when it breaks, get a new one, Dell sell them for pennies, every boot stall has a few pcs for £20 quid, what's the point in 'repairing' them? Possibly as a sideline to a main business perhaps.
Nowadays though, TV's a cheap as chips, and when something dies it's usually not even worth fixing it (better to get a new TV)
Now it's the same with computers, they are a commodity item, when it breaks, get a new one, Dell sell them for pennies, every boot stall has a few pcs for £20 quid, what's the point in 'repairing' them? Possibly as a sideline to a main business perhaps.
Soldato
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Software errors, spyware, virus removal etc.. and setting up stuff like Wifi, Wired networks etc.. are where most of our (me and a mate) money is made, odd upgrade now and then and during summer a lot of hdds tend to fall over due to the users being ignorant of thermal conditions and their pcs, so data recovery as well. Used to make a few bucks back in the day building and selling custom pcs, but those days are few now, maybe 15 a year. Our charge is 30 an hour with first hour being compulsory, no fix no fee though.
I've been much quieter this year than last year. I think it's across the board as a lot of the other local firms have ben putting their rates right up which suggests they aren't getting as much business coming in.
Justintime said:
That's what I charged. I made a good full-time living from it for about 6 months but that was a few years ago now, I have no idea how the market has changed since.
Something I noticed at the time was that there were a lot of 'cowboys' who would undercut me at say £15/hour, come along and not have a clue how to fix the problem - the answer to everything was 'reinstall windows' or 'buy a new pc'. It was very frustrating but after a while I built up a loyal customer base who had been bitten before and stuck with me because they knew the job would be done.
Networking, server supply/configuration/admin and the like are the most lucrative areas if you know what you're doing
.
It would bore the hell out of me if it was simple reinstallation of OS, fixing stupid 'user issues'/explaining how to turn the PC on, etc.
If it involved say, consultation to companies doing back end server stuff/configuration/network design I would be interested.
If it involved say, consultation to companies doing back end server stuff/configuration/network design I would be interested.
Triad2000 said:
That's where it was heading for me. You start off helping people who uninstalled Microsoft Word by mistake then they say "hey, my brother runs a business...". Eventually I was doing IT consultancy for a large building firm, a VW dealership and an eccentric ex army captain and self made millionaire
, among others. It was very lucrative, just not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.Unless you have the patience of a saint and want to be working on the most boring stuff in the world don't bother.
On the other hand, as others have said. The business side of it, ie servers, networking is much more interesting. The likelihood of you finding this kind of work by yourself will be harder than if you were with a company.
On the other hand, as others have said. The business side of it, ie servers, networking is much more interesting. The likelihood of you finding this kind of work by yourself will be harder than if you were with a company.
Soldato
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Adz said:
Have that from clients too, everyone we serviced has come back, i had a look at my spreadsheet of all addresses and problem solved or not/ price etc. and since 2000 we've had an avg of 15 jobs a month and only about 12 we could'nt help with
Most of those were irrepairably damaged or the user bing a dillweed 