Nik00117

Ok, I want to open my own PC shop and well I know how low the margins are in the business so I was thinking of ways to make money.

Then I thought to myself, when I have to tell my customers "Your PC won't be avaible for a week or two" what does this mean?

Well with some customers it means they have to use another PC to get by for thee week and just live with the basics.

For another customer they may not have the luxury, however they could rent one from me. For howevr long they need.

Here would be my rules on renting
The value would be placed at 1/100 of the orgnial cost of the PC per to rent. So a 1,000 PC would cost someone 20 bucks a day to rent, well a 500 would cost 10.

The PC case would have stickers on its sides etc and if the stickers were broekn customer would be forced to pay triple since I don't want poeple in my cases, any damages done to the PC and the sticker being broken at the same time will be the customers fault.

All PCs would be immeditaly reformated after each customer rents one.

This will prevent data that isn't ones from passing to anothers. ALso it'd take care of any viruses and so forth.

BIOS would also be password protected as in no go in BIOS.

I'd have several different systems for rent as well, my biggest market would be the lower end 500 then i'd have a 1,200 and a 1,600 rig up for rent.

And if you want to rent a PC but do not have yours in for repair (like renting for a lan or something) then i'd charge you double the normal going rate.

THis owuld be come very profitable after the first 100 days of rent since everything after that is cash in my pocket, so with a 500 dollar end system within 100 days each cent I make it profit, in a year I could of rented the PC Out for triple its value easily.

mimo2005

nice idea if you rent laptops , me think .

Drew1369

Possibly work... you would need lojack in all your systems, and will need a large start-up funding for the first year to purchase all of the systems. The sticker idea is a nice touch for people like me that likes to see the guts, just make sure they are non-duplicatable and that they disintigrate if removed so they just can't replace them.

LoJack is your biggest money loss initially but will pay for itself for each laptop/desktop recovered.

You will have to do alot more tho then just renting PC's to up the overhead, and the more items you start to provide will need employee's to help because you will not be able to take care of it all yourself which of course incur their own costs unless you just parttime them to avoid health insurance.

Drew1369

Just came too me... rental is great... but look into being a retailer for PC componants as well... retail is the way to go now-a-days... that way you sell them the parts and offer... for a reduced amount or free depending on how much they spent, to install it as well.

That my friend, will get you the money you want to make.

Drew1369

Bah... and of course... make sure you get yourself a certified warrenty dealer as well for all the Dell, HP etc computers so then instead of charging the customer you charge those companies instead.

yustr

What about software and network connections?

Some people (most of your potential customers ???) use the preloaded OEM software to do just about everything and may not have disks for their other stuff (shameful practice of mfgr's not instructing purchasers how to create a disk that will reload downloaded purchases).

Then there's setting up their networks. Maybe they paid GeekSquad to configure their comp to talk with their router or spent 3 hours on the phone with Verizon tech support - they'll have to do all that again. Afterall their password was "in the system" that's now sitting on your work bench.

Unless - of course, they pay you to do it for them...

Also, your math's a little light - even granting you the typo (you meant to say 2/100's per day right ?) . For a $500 system to pay for it self you'd have to rent it 50 times just to make back your capital investment. But you've put a lot of hours into it - building, software loads, formatting each time, reloading, repairing broken bits, trouble shooting when something fails, etc...So your 100 rentals may not be that far from true. But I doubt a computer could survive 100 different owners/setups. It'd be pretty banged up after the 10th...a laptop especially. Remember there's a road in Colorado that has this warning sign: 4-Wheel Drive or Rental Car Required Beyond This Point.

One more thought - if one of my computers goes down I'd just use one of the other three I have in my house.

Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of making a loaner available for your customers. I'm just not sure you should expect them to be a profit generator for your shop. If you do it as a convenience to separate yourself from the competition then you've got a winner.

I agree with Drew the profit is in the peripherals; that surge protector you buy for $5 but sell for $25.

Nik00117

I've talked to a person who is in the hardware business he deals with large orders of mobos, cpus and so forth.

ANd he says the profit in selling PCs is very low, its in exactly waht you said.

But yes profit wouldn't exactly me my top goal. More or less to seperate me from the competiton.

Also i'd go with desktop, since it'd make it easier for me to repair if they go down.

Sticker idea would be orginial design something that no avg joe would care to reproduce, and lojack erm... I think I may only offer it to my customers at first so if they do decide to steal my PC I got everything of theres any how.

Also my shop would be located in a very small town, my customer base would be about 10,000 poeple.

I'd also have a small easy set up guide writen which would come iwth the most common problems ran into (such as networks and so forth)

Although in my experience one you got your router setup, you can just plug any PC Into it, and it works...

Also I think I would stick wtih very low end PCs... I talked to my friend about it, he bought up the issue and I agreed. He basically agrued that the chances of that PC becoming broken is very high sincew its going through many different owners therefore buying expensive parts would most likely cost me far too much money then what it is worth.

ANd I don't think laptops are too good of a idea... If someone puts a laptop on a bed well its running it can easily fry since the air vents could get plugged up.

And even if that happened to a desktop repairing it would be cheap and easy.

carsey

Why not just go around and repair peoples computers in their home. When properly qualified thats what I intend to do as a additional source of income. Dont charge stupid prices.

Nik00117

O i'm working on doing that now, but if I move back to the states i'd set up my own shop in a small town.

And I don't charge stupid prices. For a houe call I typically charge 20 euros to get there, an additonal 40 euros for the job

Finish it and go home.

But one thing about house calls is that they don't always work... Being at a shop is much nicer.

carsey

Yeh, thats when you tell them you will need to take the computer away for a period of time for more indepth analysis. Fix it and take it back to them.

gistek

Or put the stuff you need in a van then you have a mobile shop right there.

Drew1369

That is where the profit comes from... in all my dealings word of mouth is the BEST advertising I have ever seen...

Its what happened with the IT company I owned (partially with business partners) before I sold it... "Hey I know this IT company that does great work!" one business owner says to another.

did small ads to get the name out and the rest came from WoM.

But to not have profits as your top goal will set you up for failure... sorry to say, you can't have THAT much idealism when starting a business. Because it is the profits that wind up as your paycheck!

Nik00117

Well I know that, but I meant profits from THIS venture which would help my business.

The renting part would merely be a side aspect, my main aspect would be building/repairing/upgrading etc.

l_b_rex

Loaners are an awesome idea. Sticking with low end units is the best choice as high end units arent typically needed for a service period. As long as they can go online and type documents you are good. I recommend buying 2nd hand computers, real cheap. Also during the time the computer goes to the customer's home and back, there could be damaged caused just by bumps. HD failures or os corruption. Few and far between though. So by very cheap. I think worrying about networks and other stuff they paid other people to do is and should stay none of your concern. The less you do, the more you profit. As long as the cases look nice, n one will know they are used. Good luck.

Codeman0013

This is a decent idea but expect the worst. Where i work we loan them out to people as needed and they get abused from time to time but thats just normal. Be very careful and also know that most people are not going to pay you 20 bucks to rent it for one day though especially if you are working on their computer and already charging them..

Nik00117

I never said 20 bucks a day, rent would be based on the value of the PC.