PC Repair Business - Hints and tips

pcfixmanchester

Hiya Chris,
Its me again !! We following each other around the forums.

Well what to charge is all down to what you need/want to earn balanced against what people are prepared to pay.

I personally have settled on £25/hour which seems to be the sweet spot between being too cheap that I make no money, and too expensive that people are put off ringing.

As you are working from home then you dont have many overheads. If you had an office or worse a shop then you would have very high overheads and also have to have stock etc. In the IT world prices are always comeing down, and newer things are always coming out and its impossible to compete on price with Ebuyer etc and still make a living and provide a good service. So if a client wants hardware then I will as part of my service help them choose what hardware/software/peripheral suits there NEEDS best (not thier budget, just because a cleint has a budget of £1000 doesnt mean they cant do everything they need with a machine that costs £500) and I will then find the best price from a REPUTABLE site on the net or if needed accompany them to a bricks and mortar store and help them choose the right machine and not get ripped of with the super expensive warranties/ £30 cables / etc that high street stores try and push.

Its all about finding a price the customer is happy with, also if you choose a lower price the client may decide to use you for other things or book you for more time, if you charging a high price the customer will be watching the clock from the second you enter the door and as it gets closer to the hour they will be desperate to have you finished and out the way.

The other option is to charge by the Job, but this is very tricky as how do you describe a job !! Yesterday I was at a cleints for 4 hours on what should have been a simple job (thanks Vista, I hate you, but you do keep bring me lots of business !!!) but there were actually 5 different things that needed sorting to restore Internet Connection and hence get Outlook to work again. As far as the client was concerned there was one problem, she couldnt send email from outlook, so she would only have agreed to pay for one job, the fact I had to totally rebuild the anti-virus, the firewall, the wireless networking, the Outlook pst file and undo many problems that had been created by her husband trying to fix things. Home users needs simple explanation and pricing structures, if they can see you working away and making progress then they dont mind if it takes a while so long as it works at the end. But if you have an Advert that says £19.99 per job and then turn round and say that to fix Outlook you had 4 other jobs to do they will be suspicious of you charging for extra work.

Hope that helps

Andy

chrisb1357

Another good post Andy. I see what you are saying about charging for the type of Job. I know when i worked in IT in a Plastics Manufacture that we use to get some outside IT guys in once in a while and they always charge per hour, half day or full day, For home users i think per hour and then per half hour after that will be best for me i think

PS: Did u get my email. if so what do you think to my flyer as i need to get them sent to the printers this weekend

Chris

nrg13

More figures!

Turnover
Hourly Rate 745.00
Hourly Rate (half hour) 410.00
Sale of goods 634.20
Upgrade Installation 20.00
Virus Removal (Single/Multiple) 120.00
Windows XP Reinstallation 240.00
£2,169.20

Less Cost of Sales:
Bank Charge £8.14
Materials Purchased £915.63
£923.77

Gross Profit: £1,245.43

Less Expenses:
Advertising £654.66
Bank Charges £19.37
Insurance £114.75
Professional Fees £268.72
Telephone £133.44
£1,190.94


Net Profit: £54.49

It gets better I have about 10k leaflets downstairs in boxes waiting for distribution, but am still not taking an hourly wage from this.

I must have invested 2-300hrs so far, and not too much cash. So, an hourly rate of about £0.18

I'm still plugging away, waiting for the 'break point' and advertising in different ways (i.e. emails to existing clients, considering newsletters also)

Anyone know any good leaflet distributors in London?

nrg

ukbill69

After 3 years doing a mobile repair business and now recession has come, im out of business, not because no custom, because it pros are loosing jobs and undercutting me, I cant work for £20 per hour and drive 1 hour. Ive now done other things, just keep it company as a side line. Anyone thinking of it, then dont waste your time and money. Dont stop you from doing it, just dont think your going to make loads out of it.

nrg13

The key is in the collect and return.

I tend to spend 10-15m on a fix. If this does not work, remove PC and charge higher rate. Return PC repaired.

Rarely do I spend 4hrs at a customer's premises (although I did on Saturday for a friend of a friend)

The model is scaleable, as you don't need to be that technical for the first 15m, allowing you to hire lesser technicians for a repair at base.

A core of skilled technicians make the repair at base, for return by the lesser tech.

At the mo of course, its me doing all the repairs

Worst problem is Royal Mail - bloody strike!

DCFC79

A couple of my mates(unqualified of course) have distributed some flyers around about IT work eg repairs, are they wasting they're time as there are better qualified people out there with qualifications who would be more likely to have people call them

motorguy

DCFC79 wrote: »

A couple of my mates(unqualified of course) have distributed some flyers around about IT work eg repairs, are they wasting they're time as there are better qualified people out there with qualifications who would be more likely to have people call them

How would people know that from the flyer?

custardy

might be worth using gumtree for local ads
might even be worth doing a few pre built PC's to get word of mouth around through the sales
i often look on gumtree to whats for sale and ive seen a few 'builders' selling ready made PC's but also mentioning they do repairs,installs etc

SplanK

interesting thread...
for those that do it as a part time job... how do you get around taking calls during your full time working hours... i would be shot if i did that and its the only thing i cant get my head around at the moment!

Mr23

SplanK wrote: »

interesting thread...
for those that do it as a part time job... how do you get around taking calls during your full time working hours... i would be shot if i did that and its the only thing i cant get my head around at the moment!

I guess you can cut down your full-time job to say 4 days a week and have a dedicated call out day. Most home users would prefer after hours & weekend visits anyway, so not much to worry about.