Jolly Green Monster 2

I have been toying with the idea of starting a PC repair, maintenence and upgrade company.
Due to the large companies having a large sector of the market and doing things very cheaply I have been hesitating as I will have to under price them to get the work I suspect.

Therefore I will have to run things along side my full time job to start with.

Anyway get to the point of the post..

Just a bit of research really.. would you be willing to have your PC repaired or upgraded by a one man band rather than in the usual way if it was cheap? I guess most of you upgrade your own machines? I would be thinking of anything from memory upgrades to new harddrives through to complete machines, advice and anything that goes with it.

My next step I guess is to start contacting manufacturers to see if I can get supplies of parts which may be a problem as I obviously would only want one or two items at a time to start with, so maybe a wholesalers would be better? any advise anyone?

Cheers

JGM

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

Friend of mine tried this. He had the business bank account setup and everything ready to go, but only sold 2 complete systems, did a few upgrades and fixes, before he knocked it on the head. He said that it has to be treated as a hobby rather than a business, as you just cant make any decent profit out of it. I think he made on average a profit of about £20-50 on full systems. He had trade accounts with some suppliers. Unless you go for it big style with an office and staff I dont think you will make much from it.

David_Wallis

wouldnt bother... dont think the money is there.

David

Jolly Green Monster 2

I suspect you are probably right.

I have my own company that I contract through already would just need to change the company business activities..

Where I live there seems to be a lot of people wanting to get onto the net but feel they are too old to learn a new thing and have no idea where to start. It is just a wee bit difficult to work out how to charge someone for visiting them and explaining how things work and advicing on a system spec etc..

I think it is just going to be a pipe dream.... but then I wonder how many people have managed to make a go of something because they didn't hesitate..

Cheers for the pointers

JGM

ChrisB

Get a copy of the local rag and find the classified section.

How many small companies offering whiz-bang PCs for £450 all in? Even using the cheapest parts available, I can't see them making more than £40 net profit. One warranty call and it's all gone...

MarkO

The only way you'll make any money, is if you can buy the parts for cheaper than anyone else, and put them together for less too. So unless your name is Michael Dell, I suspect you're onto a loser with that one.

Jolly Green Monster 2

Thanks for the replies...

Oh well, back to the drawing board..

Need a career change though.... bored and fed up with living away from home..

JGM

Chrisgr31

Personally I'd like someone to be able to come in look at the PC and sort it out. Basically make sure its running quickly, all the rubbish is cleared off, all the software updates done etc.

Basically just someone to springclean it really!

NotoriousREV

Chrisgr, how much would you be willing to pay?

Jolly Green Monster 2

Just what I was thinking..

JGM

Dr Hu

I agree - the profit margin on new kit is tiny - even people like Jungle etc are working on 2% profit - thats a LOT of kit you have sell to make any appreciable profit.

I would have thought the money is in PC Training & software repairs - rather than building & selling systems.

This is something I too have thought of doing, but I've seen a lot of companys local to me trade for six months and go under.

The profit just is'nt there anymore.

(however my boss who used to work in IT 20 years ago still seems to think everyone works on 35% profit margins & expects me to purchase kit for peanuts, even when the reseller admits he's only making £2 on a printer!! and I want £20 off! - out of touch bosses huh)

bros2

JGM

YHM

bros

Alpine

I think in common with most people I have 'niggles' with my computer which I really would like to resolve.. Sometimes I sit and sort things myself.. But sometimes I would love to just pass it to someone to sort.. Problem is I'm not really prepared to pay as I can slog on with it as it is..

Especially when it comes to paying a going rate which would generate a decent living for someone..

Jolly Green Monster 2

True...

I am also aware that when undertaking a simple job like fitting a network card the other weekend at home... 8hours later it was working..
yet I had done nothing different than when I first installed it just windows querks!
So fixing your niggles might take a few hours and so charging you my time would be ridiculas and you wouldn't want it done.
So charging a fixed price has lots of risk to me as it might take me all day.

Bros2 thank you for your email I shall reply when I get a chance.

I am think I shall shelf the idea.

bummer

JGM

[Edited by Jolly Green Monster 2 - 8/14/2002 1:57:54 PM]

Alpine

JGM, you can make a few quid on the side though.. Did an upgrade for my sister (foc of course) then a load of her mates wanted one doing as well.. Charged them a percentage of the money they spent on the hardware to fit and get it working... Earned a few quid in the end BUT if I was to work out an hourly rate I probably would have been better off stuffing envelopes...

Jolly Green Monster 2

Conclusion I have come too... cheers Alpine.

I was asked by my step Dad to fix a non working program and it took me about an hour to come to the conclusion that the PC was not up to running it... .dll's missing and downloaded them and then Java engines missing etc.. could get it working eventually probably but ran out of time.. anyway it was fine because I could explain it to him. Had that been a customer they would have been given the impression I knews nothing I suspect and I would have probably not charged them anything as I achieved nothing yet spent an hour doing it..

Cheers for all you replies.

I am currently trying to get another contract job to run along side my current full time one as I am not restricted to one..
a fixed price documents comparison type thing but I doubt it will happen.

JGM

Scooby Snax

JGM2 i think you could make it work but it would be from word of mouth. So be nice

[Edited by Scooby Snax - 8/16/2002 10:04:13 AM]

Neil Smalley

JGM

I would'nt do it. Most of the big companies are losing money hand over fist regarding PC support and they have the resources to build a suitable stockpile of spares.

Charging people 40 quid a pop to healthcheck their PC is ok, but don't expect to make a living from it.

Sorry to be so grim, but anything to do with Hardware and support is in a big doldrum at the moment.

Jolly Green Monster 2

I have to do that with my current contract contacts..

How ever annoying someone is and I want to tell them to f off at work I hold my tongue and I am nice to them.

It is a small world and in 6months time they might move to another office and the CV's are very often circulated to see if anyone knows them for good or bad feed back on the person etc..

Not worth risking the dream contract by telling someone that they are a complete anchor...



But it is difficult sometimes

JGM

David Lock

Now I am the sort of guy that could be your target customer. I work at home and my PC is essential for business but my skills are fairly limited. I would be delighted to find someone that I could TRUST not to rip me off to come and clean up the PC and attend to numerous other hiccups. I wouldn't want to pay much more than £40 per hour and would pay a minimum charge. Last chap who came in fixed a few things and then said he had better do a defrag which took for ever and I could have done after he left of course. So I was paying £40 plus per hour for him to have a coffee and watch the equivalent of paint drying for nearly an hour! I would have thought it worth a go and simply get spares or whatever from one of the specialists to start with while you test the market. What have you got to lose? David