New Startup Business

dainbramaged1988

Hi,

I am looking into starting a small mobile Computer Repair company in my area. I have relevant IT qualifications but no experience in starting or running a business. I am basically looking for some advice on how to effectively promote my services and what sort of market I should be aiming at. As I dont really want to be spending money on something that's not going to get me any business.

Also would I need any sort of insurance such as public liability etc as I would be visiting peoples businesses and homes. From what I can tell there would be very minimal overheads for this sort of business (at least for the time being). People have also asked me in the past to quote for computer parts etc but I always seemed to be quite a bit more expensive than competitors. Where could I find information about buying parts directly from manufacturers etc.

Thanks in advance for your help

InsideInsurance

Public Liability and Professional Indemnity would be the two types of insurance to get.

PL covers you for any physical damage you do, eg if someone fell over your toolbox because you left it in a daft place or if you dropped their laptop.

PI covers you for if you give advice to someone and it turns out to be wrong. Really this would probably only be worth it if you are targetting businesses and will be giving advice. Eg you tell them to buy something which turns out to be inappropriate then they could sue you for both the cost of the thing and any lost business etc


Mobile IT repair is a heavily competitive business and one I wouldnt be wanting to stick my money in to be honest. The challenge is getting a steady stream of customers without having to spend a lot of money advertising. Most would argue that this means securing business clients rather than private.

Who are your competitors? How much do they charge? Why should one of their customers switch to you? How do you overcome the increasingly disposable nature of IT kit

dainbramaged1988

InsideInsurance: I hadn't even thought about Professional Indemnity if I am honest. I see where your coming from about it being a tough business o get into but unfortunately the skills and qualifications I currently have don't allow me to do much else as there is very limited IT jobs in my area.

nirajn123

Businesses and Elderly seem to be the target market for your services. There is a famous saying from the advertisements - half of it being wasted and not knowing which - but there are number of options to be looked at for free promotion before spending on advertising.

If you are targeting businesses consider going to local business networking events/meet-ups etc, if it is the elderly - then it'll have to be mostly by word of mouth, you may even consider offering some free get online/tutorials at usual meeting places. Good luck!

motorguy

dainbramaged1988 wrote: »

Hi,

I am looking into starting a small mobile Computer Repair company in my area. I have relevant IT qualifications but no experience in starting or running a business. I am basically looking for some advice on how to effectively promote my services and what sort of market I should be aiming at. As I dont really want to be spending money on something that's not going to get me any business.

Also would I need any sort of insurance such as public liability etc as I would be visiting peoples businesses and homes. From what I can tell there would be very minimal overheads for this sort of business (at least for the time being). People have also asked me in the past to quote for computer parts etc but I always seemed to be quite a bit more expensive than competitors. Where could I find information about buying parts directly from manufacturers etc.

Thanks in advance for your help

Covered off lots before.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/701077

Firstly your quotes - you are competing with "teenager jimmy" down the road who charges a fiver an hour. And "doing the double barry" whos claiming the dole and fixes PCs on the side for a few quid. People dont care that you're trying to run an honest service at a reasonable price - they want the cheapest.

With regards to buying from manufacturers direct - thats not going to happen unless you can buy 5,000 hard disks as they wont want to know about your need for 2 cheap hard disks. Find a good, competitive online supplier and have a small stock of hard disks, RAM, keyboard and mice. Also maybe pick up the odd TFT screen when they are on offer, but dont hold too much stock as prices drop all the time.

Consider buying a couple of ex business PC's off ebay - i'm running a Dell Optimplex 745 - so you can offer a complete PC base unit replacement for say, £100 or £120 if needs be.

Also, to me the market has moved on - its all above iphone / ipad / tablet repairs these days, with PC's getting very little use.

Also, consider the upsell - "i notice your mouse sticks a lot, i have a new one here for £10 i can connect it up now?" or "you computer is low on memory, i can upgrade it to 2GB for £50, i have the RAM with me in the car", that sort of thing.

Have a read at that thread though - any more questions, post them on here.

paddyrg

Problem is if you do a good job, they don't need you again any time soon - very difficult to build any loyalty if peoples computers break sporadically. Also beware, the public are dreadful for 'you touched it last so you broke it', not the fact that it was near death and you gave it an extra 6 months. It's probably one of the most thankless jobs going.

fishybusiness

I am looking into starting a small mobile Computer Repair company in my area.

Did this for about 5 years.

It is great as a part time business, if you are reliant on the income as your full time living wage, forget it.

What does mobile really mean? Visiting clients to remove a virus, run updates so Java works correctly, diagnosing a dead power supply, is easy peasy, and you can charge 35 to 40 pounds for your first hour as it includes travelling time an expense.

What then? You need to take a machine away for further virus removal, you see it straight away and decide not to stay the hour, take it away and do it slowly and carefully. You have to make a return visit, to put the machine back and test it in its home environment. How do you charge that job?

There is a threshold to what you can charge for residential PC repairs, and I´m afraid it is low. You need to fit maybe 5 a day in 3 days a week, and put time aside for return visits, work back at base, paperwork etc.

Laptop repairs are much more common now, replace a screen do it onsite these days, labour charge is down at about 45, markup on a screen, 15% maybe, that is all you can get away with.

Do you have the confidence to half strip a laptop onsite, client maybe watching?

Many people now when they find out repair costs, compare it to a new machine. IT equipment prices have dropped through the floor, getting the repair business is getting tougher. Often you will find a request for a drive backup, and move to new machine for a client.

If you supply the new machine, and get your 10% markup, you are liable for its first year warranty, do you want that for 10%?

Don´t try to compete on price of parts, the computer world has little to no margin. Supply for repairs, eg video cards, hard drives, lcd panels, but don´t go mad on markup. Customers do check your pricing and don´t come back if they think you have overcharged.

The best way to hold on to clients is give good service, make the effort, call them back, give advice for free, make them feel valued. They wil come back, and learn to trust you.

Always be ready on Monday morning, take all your calls, it is the weekend emergencies that call first thing Monday, get the calls, get out to them and you build your client base.

Yellow pages always worked for me. Any ads you put out, make a deal of the mobile bit, fast service, and write in all the areas you cover. I found that if potential clients see their area mentioned, they tend to call.

You will also find that as work builds up, you need more space at home for storage and working area, my missus went nuts and I ended up renting a lock up. More overheads.

Business support is well paid. My opinion is that you need to be able to go in, sort it, get out. Any hassles on a sole business PC and you are in trouble. Get some experience under your belt, small business clients will call, don´t take what you can´t do, it will come back on you. Go carefully, and learn their business needs, you could do ok.

There is plenty more, that is all I can think of at the moment

Percy1983

I see many stories of PICNICS (Problem in chair, not in computer).


The problem these can go 2 ways, you get a regular and clean the PC up ever 3 months after the install all there Virus's and root kits.

The other is you fix it and they go home and commence the Virus installations and bring it back saying you didn't fix it properly.

I do a little of this on the side which is friends and familiy and a few of there friends etc, I wills ay there not too bad but they do trust me now.

In one case it was wanting more storage and a ripped the whole thing out and started again, sounds dodgy initally, but it was a pentium 3 machine which would need an IDE hard drive, so for the cost of the hard drive+ £20 I got a cheap core2 + board + 4GB ram + SATA hard drive.

The reason I mention this is in some cases it may really be the best plan to do a more but its about getting people to have faith in your judgement, in this case word of mouth was enough and they are really happy with the PC, (its still in the same beige box they seem to love) and I know they would recommend me to others (fixed 2 laptops from the back of that job).