Offering Local Computer Support As An Investment

laura122

Hi All,

I m thinking of opening a local computer support company to help with Networking and software problems as well as general advice on how to use applications

I work as a developer and dont really make enough money so this might subsidize my income. I went to university and did a computer science degree if that helps

Can anyone comment on where I should be doing my advertising to get customers?

All the people I know are pretty computer savy and would not pay for help but there must be some people who need this service?

Any ideas?

Put another way would people on this board actually use such a service if it was available:)

tinkerbell84

Are you Laura or Joey?

Guess we'll be able to tell by whether you actually press the thanks button under this username :rolleyes:

Weren't the replies to your last thread enough for you?

tinkerbell84

Plus apparently you're a higher rate tax payer - that's a decent salary, but you say you don't earn much

vyseyboy

pppwnedlolz

Blacksheep1979

make sure you have liability insurance for when you screw up.

buglawton

There was a thread running in this identical topic a while back:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=760577&highlight=computer+support

Needless to say a fair share of nay-sayers there too.

Browntoa

tinkerbell84 wrote: »

Are you Laura or Joey?

Guess we'll be able to tell by whether you actually press the thanks button under this username :rolleyes:

Weren't the replies to your last thread enough for you?

busted !!!! lol

text is identical !!!

Conor_3

laura122 wrote: »

Hi All,

I m thinking of opening a local computer support company to help with Networking and software problems as well as general advice on how to use applications

I went to university and did a computer science degree if that helps

It doesn't without the experience. Without the experience, it's a nice thing to hang on the wall. For example, you go to someones house and they can load up every single webpage except Hotmail and their online banking. Would you think to check the MTU setting of their adsl modem router? They try to connect their iPod and it asks for drivers. Would you know that you needed to copy the usbstor.* files from the Windows installation CD? It's things like that you're going to come across and you need to know how to solve and these are things you can only learn how to solve through experience. You can't rely on being able to use Google because you can't rely on there always being an internet connection.

There are dozens upon dozens of people in the local newspapers who've set up doing what you're thinking of and they do it for next to nothing because they know they're crap at it because they've got no experience. The problem is that you'd be forced to charge the going rate even if you were any good.

Far better would be to get the experience and then provide your services to SMBs who are actually willing to part with money when there's a problem with a computer.

rdpro

Pish and tish.. if they cba to rtfm, then I'll charge 'em 30 quid to do it for them.

Conor_3

rdpro wrote: »

Pish and tish.. if they cba to rtfm, then I'll charge 'em 30 quid to do it for them.

And as soon as you mention £30, they suddenly find the ability to sort it out.