Computer repair business

crewe

Hi

I have been building and repairing pc's, laptops etc for friends for the last 5-6 years. I am studying Btec computer engineering also. My question is, could I turn my hobbie into a full time business?
Anyone run a pc repair business?
I have a good job that earns approx £18-20k a year. Could I make this sort of money building, repairing PC's.

Any advice please

MercilessKiller

Dream job for a computing student as there are many rip off "computer home support" people around!

However its a lot harder than you think. Firstly its VERY easy to end up in court. If something happens to a computer while your fixing it, your fault or not, your going to be liable!!! Now if someone has just bought a very expensive machine and cant get the net working, so while u install some drivers a power surge magically happens, then the whole thing can end up on your back without insurance!

Friends and family are fine, but when its more professional you msut be careful and consider all the legal imiplications!

If I were you, I'd stick to the student course and your full time job! Your support will be best used within a proper business environment

P.S: This post isn't intented to insult anyones skills by the way Seirously, you could be the best support person in the world, but without all the right legal knowledge, you could end up in court. People may post on here saying its rare, and they do it all the time bla bla, but just remember the words "what if".

Kilty_2

Yeah, if you do decide to go down that route, Public Liability Insurance (at least I think that's what it's called) is essential

yummymummy79

Funny I should stumble across this thread as my OH has been running his own repair business since Oct and has got so busy we are looking into expanding into a shop. He started off in the same way, got some qualifications and we just decided to go for it, has worked out well so far.

From our experience, you can get just as much work by sub contracting for other companies as you can from your own work, although you don't get paid quite as much and you will still be classed as self employed and have to sort out tax/NI etc, but can take some of the pressure off as haven't actually got your own business as such. As mentioned before insurance is important, we have got personal and products liability and professional indemnity so would hopefully be OK if a situation arose.

We also found that there are a lot of iffy repairers out there who don't know what they are doing. Have lost count the number of people who said they took it to so and so (inc large national companies, you know who i mean!) and didn't fix it but charged a fortune and then needed someone else to put it right.

If you can do a good job at a good price and throw in good customer service then you will probably be fine and word usually spreads.

As far as money goes, my OH was on the same wages as you before he left. Not sure we are making exactly as much now (but there is the potential to, and more), but the hours are more flexible which suits us quite well.

By the way, we are looking to take on another engineeer so where do you live?!

steve_r123

I was just coming on here to ask about this kind of insurance, and luckily I fond this thread. I have just started my own computer repair business, and need to know what kind of insurance I need.

I take it from the answers above I probably need public liability and professional indemnity? Does anyone have any insurance companies to recommend? Ive had a quick trawl through the web and couldnt seem to find anything that fitted the bill.....

Cheers

Browntoa

my nephew had a clients laptop on the back of his scooter...hit a bump and off it went !!!

he used to take the time to ask if there was anything on the PC that needed saving (photo's docmuments etc) and had they backed them up...he would do it for them if need be, then he had something for them to sign to say that he had asked the above and that he had explained that it is always possible that data may get lost.

yummymummy79

We got ours through XBridge or Simply Business they are also called I think. We are currently working from home so don't need the full shop/premises insurance but you can get them all together. If you are likely to be making up systems and selling them then products liability could be an idea, in case it blows up and hurts someone!!

We always do disclaimers for data and backup etc, get customer to sign it before we start and sign again at the end to confirm all work done OK and as listed.

Always a good idea to know at least the basics of customer's legal rights (Supply of Goods and Services Act for goods and services, Consumer Protection Act for product safety and pricing). Helps that I work in this field anyway so know all about it!!

Kilty_2

Lloyds TSB provide this kind of insurance and are supposedly very competitively priced.