PC Repair Business - Hints and tips

grey_lady

A quick warning, many, many years ago i was a technician at PC World
i was upgrading the ram on an old Apricot PC which i had done countless times before without any problems and for whatever reason, coincidence or not the motherboard went and died. Apricot then charged PC World (and we're going back about 15 years) £700 for a replacement and no, no other motherboard we could get would fit and yes we did use anti static benches, underpants etc :-) if that had been a private job i'd have been well up the creek.

My point is if something unrelated died on a customers pc whilst in your care, the customer would hold you responsible and it might be expensive to replace, e.g if a hard drive died whilst in your care you would have to retrieve the data and if you dont have the tools / expertise to do that it could be costly.

nrg13

Grey_lady:

following on from the above posts in this thread - I agree this isn't a business to get into if you just have a passing knowledge of IT/computers.

I've been working in IT for various organisations for coming on 10 years now. A lot of this time was spent in 1st/2nd/3rd line support roles which were very hands on.

I have formatted a HDD with the directors personal information on, and I've killed a MB or two. Thankfully I can count these kinds of incidents on one hand, even after all this time.

Worth bearing in mind though

nrg

LuvSpudz

I have also begun to think about starting a PC repair business on the side - well actually in total since I have unfortunately been made redundant from my last two IT jobs.

My query would be more around the software side of things - say a person wants an upgrade to XP from 2K, or Vista, or indeed a downgrade.

I understand that you can buy OEM licences to install on many machines, but this costs a lot of money obviously.

A client will not always have their original disks, in fact I would imagine most of the time they would not know where they are, so how would the more experienced IT people in here deal with this issue?

Thanks for your time.

Savvy_Sue

LuvSpudz wrote: »

A client will not always have their original disks, in fact I would imagine most of the time they would not know where they are, so how would the more experienced IT people in here deal with this issue?

Cautiously? Because if they can't produce their original disks, how do you know they ever had them and didn't just borrow them from a mate?

DH has a problem at work: BT came to install a new switchboard, and in their clearing up they removed a bag of CDs / DVDs / program disks, which has caused massive problems ever since!

fguk

In my local area I have seen a few sets of T & C`s for the local home support IT guys. They always state, no legal license and the software will NOT be installed, and you will still be charged for the callout. Well, its a little less harshly written than that, but that is the jist.

Of course you have to remember, a Windows XP disk can be used on whatever machine you like (although some are BIOS locked for only HP, or only Dell), it is the license code, usually stuck on the machine, that is the legal license, and without that installation is illegal.

But at least you can carry around the original disks, and then look at the machine for the license sticker.

ejsaunders

Technically, unless they show that piece of hologrammatic paper, you CANNOT install any Windows on the computer, that bit of tat is their actual licence. If you were being 1000% legal, you'd have to wait until they either bought a new licence or you do the cheap and 'quick' way (i.e. you install an existing copy of XP say your own, then add additional licence, but I think MS turned this off since Vista, because it was really cheap and pirates where doing this quite often), or you do the 'pirate licence', in that you install a known dodgy copy (say a volume licence version), you say its dodgy, MS gets you to buy a new copy and they send the disk for £40 isn't it these days? It's been a while, whereas if you bought it, its between £30 and 85, depending on stock.

But, would you be happy, and the customer to do that? Many times I've installed a completely legal version though, and its said "Oh no, this isn't legal" and had to either absorb the cost, or get the customer to pay for a new one, depends if you like the customer I suppose and can see they'll repay that cost in the future with futher patronage.

But as fguk says, the disk isn't locked to the computer, but there are differences in the disks, I have very early version of an upgrade for XP that doesn't take any licence code except upgrades, then I have two different full versions which won't accept the other's codes, and one that will accept any code for some reason since its fairly recent.

----

The formatting personal info, etc, - make sure the customer signs a thing saying if it dies or whatever in your care, its THEIR problem, and or, that's what the insurance is for, if they sue you it will pay for the costs.

ejsaunders

I found this, which migth be of help for newspaper ads:

http://www.isnare.com/?aid=284991&ca=Marketing

ejsaunders

Also, been thinking that so many people ignore the newspaper these days, but still go in shops, and MOST people would probably search on the 'net before even looking in the yellow pages. So, get a good website up and make sure its up there in Google.

Also, check that your local councils/town council don't have classified ads/companies listings on their websites. For example, my local town council has its own website that is used by businesses, etc and has listings for businesses, forums, etc. Consider how many people probably visit these listings on a regular basis instead of going to the YP. They're free on ours, so check yours. On ours you can add your own listing, so can write what you want, worth a try even if you have to pay a few quid since its one you can leave alone if you word it well, and there's a few computer shops around here, but only two on the online listing, even though its free!

Directory listings are good too, things like Dmoz, or various other companies listings websites, some you pay, some you don't, but it gets your name out there, which is what you really want - we remember adverts that are stupid or qwerky, and the more something is repeated or odd, we remember it, so the more you can get inside people's minds, the more likely they'll come to you first.

People assume two things: if someone recommends it, its good. If its written down in something they think is important/respected its good. There's a computer shop near me who is absolutely terrible, they're overpriced, terrible staff, bad service, etc, but they've never gone out of business. Why? Because they're the first name most people know if someone says "computer repairs" in the area.

nrg13

Well, to say the least response has been tame.

Advert I'm running at the mo has had the best response - 6 enquiries, four converted to 'sales'

FREE COMPUTER HELPLINE all your computer problems solved. Low cost on site repairs. CALL US NOW on xxxxxxxxxxxx

I've changed the ad every week so far, but have kept this one for two - I'll let you all know how it works out!

So far, have made around £90 profit - £400 billed, £200 ads, £110 HMRC mileage rates.

I'll keep plugging away, as the economies of scale will make it worthwhile I think. Mileage/parking expenses average out to about £4 a journey. Average income after expenses per job is £28.65. Average 2hrs/job, making an hourly total rate of £14.35.

Hmmmm.... It would pay the bills, but isn't stellar. Really need to increase the response rates from the ads to make them worthwhile to run, although I've covered the costs (almost) every week I've run them, and as I say I'm up £90 overall.

Long term aim (6-12mo) is to make this a 40-50hr/wk job. If I can average 5 customers a day, that's still £37k a year (if I can give up the advertising!!) Otherwise it'll be £35

Any ideas to push things further? I'm thinking ads in newsagents perhaps, but am a little wary of increasing the advertising budget!

Best,
nrg

ukbill69

Im in the pc repair business and have been for over 2 years now and in last 6 months ive seen 100's of new companies/websites coming online. Its all it workers out of jobs. Im thinking of other ideas, as these people are undercutting to make a quick buck.