dadof3

I started one in the country, have done may be 20 calls in a year. I didn't get a business license, mainly wanted to see if the business would be viable, and its not. I just do this strictly as a side gig. If you live in a large area you may have better luck. Most persons use best buy or some other big name retailer, they feel they can trust them more(laughable). I worked for best buys geek squad for a while, they are a complete ripoff. I quit very quickly. My advice would keep your day job and do the pc repair as a side gig, and if the business grows to support yourself great.

perryny

Sorry you had such a rough go of it Dadof3. You're far from the only one who's had this kind of experience. I'm sure everyone here knows the statistics how 7 out of 10 new businesses fold within the first 3 years.

But your difficulty in getting your business going isn't because computer support is a bad business to be in. And it's probably not because you're a bad computer consultant.

I can't speak for your experience specifically, but I can tell you that most new computer consulting businesses fail because of a lack of any kind of sales and marketing plan and becuase they're following the wrong business model.

I will agree that providing support to home users is a challenging venture to say the least, and I'd NEVER recommend it as a full-time business. But if someone wanted to do it as a supplemental income source, it can be made to work rather easily with the proper marketing efforts. I've done it myself multiple times in the past, and each time I made an effort to establish myself as the local, go-to "Computer Guy", I quickly found myself with far more requests for work than I possibly wanted to handle.

This was in the suburbs of Long Island, NY. Maybe a bit more populated than where some people live, but by no means a bustling metropolis.

People DO NOT prefer or trust Geek Squad more than you. They go to Geek Squad because they know the name... because Geek Squad spends a ton of money to make sure of that. When your neighbor from around the corner asks her next door neighbor if she knows someone who can help her with her computer, there's a good chance she's going to say, "why don't you give those guys at Geek Squad a call?" Regardless of whether she's ever used them herself or not.

Now, what if that neighbor had your business card and had met you personally at some point, knowing that you're a qualified computer consultant who lives around the corner and provides reasonable rates (and you'll most probably be cheaper than Geek Squad). Now if her neighbor asks the same question, "do you know someone who can help me with my computer?", you can be pretty sure that the reply will be, "you know, there's a nice fellow around the corner who fixes computers. I have his card here somewhere. Give me a minute and let me find it for you."

Provide good service for that nice lady and you can be sure that she'll be glad to pass your card on to all of her friends, along with a glowing recommendation.

How do you get your card into people's hands to begin with? Like I said in an earlier post, if you want to be serious about this, then get serious and let EVERYONE you know that you're in business and are THE PLACE to go in the neighborhood for computer support. If you don't know that many people, go park yourself outside your local grocery store next weekend, say hi to everyone who walks by, shake thier hand, hand them your card and say, "I'm dadof3. If you've got any computer problems, I'm qualified, experienced, affordable and I make house calls."

You'll only need a few "hits" to have the opportunity to prove yourself and start getting the referrals you'll need to keep yourself quite busy.

-Robert

Ddraig

Thanks for all the great tips guys. I'm sort of at a crossroads here with what to do or where to go with my career but these posts help quite a bit.

WiZdoM

Hey everyone this is my first post, I'm glad to have found this site, there is a lot of positive information here.

I also have a tech business in a very rural area.

The best way I have found to supplement the repair/custom build business is by doing web design/advertisement design.

One of the great things about web development is that you are not constrained by your local area. I have clients from Florida to England that I do web design for.

Check out some freelance sites like elance.com. You can find all kinds of development projects from flash to html and beyond if you have those skills.

My business would never survive in this area if I stuck to repairs/installations and the like only.

perryny

Hey Ddraig,

I might be getting a bit off-topic here, but you started this thread saying you were looking to do some computer repair as a side-gig. I didn't think you were looking to make a career out of it.

The only reason I bring this up is because I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND DOING HOME-USER COMPUTER REPAIR AS A CAREER OR PRIMARY BUSINESS. I honestly don't believe it's possible to make a sustainable, full-time business doing computer repair exclusively for home users. There's not nearly enough stability in the workload, you'll need far too many customers to sustain a full-time salary, there's too many opportunities for unprofitable work, and the systems you'll be forced to work on will not be following any standardized formats, upgrades or security procedures.

I do wholeheartedly and sincerely believe that ANYONE with the basic skill-set to be a network administrator for a small business network can easily be successful as an Independent Computer Consultant. If you have these skills and are looking to make a career change, I definitely think you should consider making a go of it. If you follow the basic model of managed support, where you charge business customers a flat-fee for proactive monitoring and remote support, and charge a supplemental fee for occasional on-site work, I believe you could make a full time salary working far fewer than full time hours.

The principals for getting your small-business clients isn't far off from what I've recommended in earlier posts for getting referrals from home users. I've personally built solid client bases and I've helped friends and colleagues build client bases as well in a short period of time through networking and obtaining referrals.

For someone who's able to maintain a small business network, I don't think a better career exists than to be an Independent Computer Consultant. If you're considering a career change, I think you should consider becoming your own boss. It's incredibly rewarding, provides a level of job security you can't get working for someone else, and the earning potential is limitless.

-Robert

Blade_Jones

5 years ago the more expensive computers were $2,000 or more. Now the more expensive computers are around a thousand. More and more consumers would rather just toss their old computer in the trash and buy a new one if they can't fix it themselves. Also the Windows OS is becoming more stable, easier to use, easier to self-fix. So today's "computer repair man" is becoming like the obsolete "tv repairman" of 35 years ago.

perryny

I don't know if I can agree with you there Blade_Jones.

Computers may be a bit cheaper than they once were, but if a home user wants to do more than just email and web surfing, they're still going to need a machine with a decent processor and enough RAM. I price out machines every week for my business clients and the prices aren't that far off from what they were 5 years ago. Monitors have gotten cheaper by far, but the machines themselves stay pretty static.

And as far as the need for support goes... the need for quality, qualified support is as strong as ever. Even if the OS is more reliable (which I'm not sure I agree with there either), there's the need for managing and implementing stronger security, implementing and configuring wireless, syncronizing with new handhelds, implementing remote access, managing updates, combating spyware, malware, viruses, etc., optimizing system performance, managing and monitoring backups, etc., etc.

This thread is kinda moving in two different directions now. Computer repair for the home-user and doing computer support for businesses.

For the home user, there is still a strong need for support. As new technology is developed, there's still a need for someone who knows how to implement and support it.

For the business user, the only thing that's going away is the old model of hourly support. That's being replaced by flat-rate, proactive maintenance and remote support. And fortunately, this model is the BEST and most profitable model for an Independent Computer Consultant to operate under.

I think the Independent Consultant will be able to beat out large MSP's for small business clients as the landscape evolves. He's (or she's) able to provide the same (or better, more personalized) level of support, while charging very competitve rates (less overhead).

Ddraig

You're exactly right, this would only be a side gig basically. The issue I'm having career wise is do I stay where I am at now, which would make it necessary to start a side repair business, or find something in the area that pays a bit more. Thus allowing me to not worry about setting up a side business.

At the moment I'm leaning towards the former, I enjoy where I'm working now have a good relationship with my coworkers. So a side gig is something I'm definitely interested in trying out.

Getting together my ideas so I can kind of sort them out into a business plan. Still haven't quiet figured out exactly how much I would charge for my service etc. but I can figure that bit out later.

perryny

I understand you now. If you're evaluating your options and working on a plan for a possible future job change, here's a scenario I think you should think about. Imagine this...

You join a local business networking group and once or twice a week you get up bright and early and go to a networking meeting that takes place before your day-job begins. At these meetings you meet other business owners and professionals who are all there looking to create new relationships with people who offer services that they can refer to their customers.

At these meetings, you'll meet real estate agents, architechts, lawers, accountants, copier serivice agents, office supply distributors, promotional specialists, etc., etc., all who will have their own networks of small business customers who might very likely need affordable computer support.

You introduce yourself as an Independent Computer Consultant who specializes in supporting small business computer networks. You maintain a small client base so that you can ensure outstanding personalized service to each and every one of your loyal customers.

You'll hand out your business cards, you'll set some follow-up one-on-one meetings with some of the group members and you'll discuss your services further. You tell your new business contacts that you offer the following...

You offer a 30-day, no-risk trial of your monitoring services. You put your monitoring software on the customer's server and you can give them an instant report of anything negative that might be occuring - low disk space, failed backups, failed virus updates, hack attempts, processor or memory bottlenecks, etc. You're not fixing these issues (unless they request you to), you're just helping the potential customer see if their network is as healthy as they think it is. Your service also includes instant remote support for any end-user issues (you can decide whether or not to include this with the 30-day trial. I do because although it can be quite time consuming initially, it's a very powerful way to convert the customer.)

Through your business networking group contacts, you should be able to obtain at least a couple of referrals to local businesses rather quickly (you'll need to be dilligent with follow-ups and you'll need to develop some sales techniques, but you're running a business and nothing is automatic. The harder you work, the faster the results.)

Do a solid job of reporting and communicating with your 30-day trial customers and they will convert to your paid service, which should be a flat monthly fee for network monitoring and remote support of the end users. If they need you on-site, you charge an additional hourly rate for that service.

For a business with one healthy server and 10 workstations, you should expect to spend an average of about 15 min. per day doing remote work and another 1.5 hours a week on-site.

I can't tell you what the competitive rates are in your area, but here in NY, a flat-fee of $99 per server and $49 per workstation per month is fair, plus $125/hr for on-site work. So for a single server, 10 workstation client, you're looking at about $1339/mo., while dedicating less than 3 hours a week.

Get yourself 4 clients, and you're looking at a salary of over $65K working around 10 hours a week.

This is the business model I follow, and I highly recommend to anyone I know that has network admin skills.

While you're evaluating your future options, I think you should put this on your list of career possibilities.

-Robert

Ddraig

Wow Robert that's a great one... is that what you currently do at the moment?

I'm sure that I could incorporate something like that. I managed to pick up some consulting work this past week which has given me the boost to really consider starting off a side consulting business. I don't know if I would do it full time or not but I'm just starting and I like to start small and build from there.

Thank you so much for your help and ideas.

perryny

I used to... until I grew my business to the point where I now outsource my client work to independent consultants.

It really is a perfect model to operate and can be very easy to get off the ground. You just need to be motivated to go out and get those first few clients. It's no more challenging (actually less challenging) than going out looking for a new job.

And so much more rewarding.

u4d

WoW Loads of post!

Here's what Id do.....

See how many people are searching the internet for the service you offer.

Use this keyword tool from Google to see how many people are searching for your service in the area you wish to cover.

This will highlight if your venture would benefit from loads of potential custom!

Many thanks and good luck with your new venture.

[[Moderator's Note: Removed advertising link —dm01]]

perryny

If you want to know if providing computer support to small businesses is a viable business to build, I don't think a google keyword search is really very necessary.

Show me the small business that relies heavily on their systems that DOESN'T need qualified computer support.