xf1fty1ne

I am beginning to start my own little PC repair business out of my garage. I have 3 tables, internet connections, diagnostic tools, tools, all the stuff needed to complete tasks. I was just wondering if anyone has any great advice if they have done this themselves. I was going to advertise in the paper, send out flyers, and the best is word of mouth, but i was looking for advice like policies.

The main policy being, what is the best way to back up customer's data, or if i should back it up at all if they do not say. I know cloning drives works great, but lot's of people use old systems and such. Just some general advice would be greatly appreciated.

I was just going to start out by doing house calls and setting a flat rate of $50 to fix any problems. If the problem cannot be fixed at the house i would bring it back to the garage to work on it and if the problem was out of my reach, no cost at all.

Lion7718

Talk to RipperRoo...he just opened one also

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"Protect me from my friends, I can take care of my enemies"
You better not be touching my mannequin

RipperRoo

for Data backup the easyest is probobly the files and settings transfer wizard if your doing a reinstall for a customer, as it doesnt require any additional software to use and it keeps costs down - if your drive imaging you may need to use an enterprise licenced Ghost, or encourage every customer to buy thier own copy of it. the other alternative is the manual copying of thier documents, but be vigalant if you do it this way as its easy to miss a folder.

one bit of kit you may of missed and should definatly get for your workshop/tech tool kit is a usb network card, the amount of time you can save not having to search for and transfer over network drivers to a machine is well worth it, it means you can update a PC to current from a base install quickly and then find the drivers using the PC if they are not available on windows update - here's a pic of one in place



no fix no fee works well, but you have to set some limits on it our you will end up out of pocket, what will you do if the customer has forgoten/lost thier 2k/XP p***word for example? i know of one service locally that uses this as an exception (Pah - Amatures )

Flyers - dont waste your money, i gave out 2000 and got one customer from it the profit from whom didnt even cover the cost of the paper. Posters are better, the one on my front door has brought in a few customers so far and i would recomend some signage for your garage if you are in an area that gets any amount of p***ing traffic. the local paper is a good idea but keep an eye on the costs as this could become a drain.

General suggestion: dont say if is beyond me i wont charge' as your setting limits on your skills in the eyes of your customers, better to say 'if it cant be fixed there is no fee' but even on this you can be a little crafty and pull in a few extra bucks in your spare time, here is a poster for one service i offer, note the price i quote as 'from just'


from £0.00 i hear you ask is this guy nuts? yes, but nuts with a reason
if the PC cant be fixed cost effectivly, say for example the motherboard is dead and so it would require a complete core upgrade to get it working again - £200+ job including installation when you can get a new system for £250, clearly a waste of money and you would be doing your customers a disservice by recomending it.

instead you could offer to securly dispose of the system for them, recycle the parts into a new system or your spares box and gain a few bucks back towards your lost time that way.

whip out the hard drive, secure erase it in another machine (usb enclosure for hot plugability) and if your reinstalling for resale by the customer (wipe b4 sell or even wipe b4 giving it away) reinstall the OS and your away.


babble

there are lots of things you can offer your customers as a skilled PC tech that you can fix a price on with reasonable confidence, installing a wireless router for example (ask them the model number before you go - get the manual for reference) but still there will be a lot of things out there that you dont know how to do yet, as every router and every Printer has its own little quirks and it will take time to learn them all, the skill you have as a tech is not knowing everything, but its knowing how to learn what you need quickly and knowing where to look to find that information and this is the angle i sell to my customers.

one of my fav little sayings right now is 'if a PC Tech tells you they know everything about computers they are lying - there is too much out there to fit in one head'


there are a few tricks you can use to build a customer base, but above all keep your ears open and a business card handy at all times - i have lost count of the number of jobs i have picked up through overheard conversations, and dont be affraid to give away a bit of free advice, i advised one woman who works in the shop next door that she needed a defrag, and a week later was reinstalling the computer of another person who worked there - being the nice guy can get you somewhere in this job.

Parts, you cant compete on prices withthe big boys, so why bother trying, work it to your advantage instead by telling your customers that because prices change so rapidly in the world of PC's you only hold an absolute minimum of stock, if a customer wants an upgrade to a larger hard drive for example, you would sorce them the drive when they confirmed the order and pay you the deposit, this aviods them paying yesterdays price for todays bargin.

Other advice:

if a customer brings a PC to you for an upgrade, always insist on booting it up in front of them before they leave, tell them your getting a baseline system spec if you need to. not had it happen to me yet but a friend of mine runs a PC shop in the north of england and has had a few try it on by bringing in dead sysyems with the intention of blaming him, the first one caught him when he was asked to install a dvd drive in a machine and opened the case to find a m***ive crack in the motherboard. without trying to boot the PC in front of the customer they were able to claim he did the damage and it cost him a big premium hike in his insurance to sort it out.

and thats another thing, public liability insurance - if you havnt got it you need it.

Best of luck with your new venture, feel free to pop over and join my site if you want to see how i'm getting on and steal an idea or 2 from me, or leave me an idea of your own in return

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PcTechtalk.com Admin
A7V8X xp2600 Barton SLK 97U, GeForce FX 5700, 1GB 2700DDR Ram
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Epson R265 With CIS, HP 2500C With CIS
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xf1fty1ne

Wow, thank you Ripper, very useful information.

RipperRoo

no problem, its not as if you'll be in competition with me when your pricing in dollars, well at least not yet

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PcTechtalk.com Admin
A7V8X xp2600 Barton SLK 97U, GeForce FX 5700, 1GB 2700DDR Ram
Sony DVD -R/+R/RW, SB Live 5.1 Digital, 1 x 30gb 3 x 200GB 2x120GB 1 x 250GB 1 x 500GB HDD'S, 19" TFT
Epson R265 With CIS, HP 2500C With CIS
HP NX6125 Laptop 1gb memory

Kungfucious

Minotour... no bull ... like it

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AMD64 X2 4200+
4GB Mushkin gaming RAM
Nvidia Point Of View 8600GT 512MB DDR2
120gb + 400gb + 500gb SATA drives
Dual Monitor - 19" widescreen xerox - 32" Samsung Bordaux HDTV (Xbox360 attached)

RipperRoo

pop on over and join the fun, instant staff position for old friends

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PcTechtalk.com Admin
A7V8X xp2600 Barton SLK 97U, GeForce FX 5700, 1GB 2700DDR Ram
Sony DVD -R/+R/RW, SB Live 5.1 Digital, 1 x 30gb 3 x 200GB 2x120GB 1 x 250GB 1 x 500GB HDD'S, 19" TFT
Epson R265 With CIS, HP 2500C With CIS
HP NX6125 Laptop 1gb memory

killer_cow

I've run a PC computer "help" service for home users and organisations for 4 years now. http://www.sebatyourservice.co.uk

I don't advertise anymore, I did for the first year via a couple of posters and business cards and now I completly rely on word of mouth to advertise my services.

Get your first couple of customers via advertising, be generous with your time for them, talk to them, be as much of an approachable human being as possible. This way they'll recommend you.

Word of mouth is THE best way to get NEW customers!

Sorry if this is a bit obvious, but I just can't over emphasize how important the way you treat each of your customers is.

Best of luck!

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RipperRoo

gotta compliment you on your service thier killer, your also invited over to my place, and if you dont mind i may just copy your price list - i too balk at charging silly prices

your 100% right though, as part of setting up my pc service i'm doing a small business coarse at the local enterprise part and of all the methods word of mouth via business cards is 68% effective compaired to 1.4% for flyers.

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PcTechtalk.com Admin
A7V8X xp2600 Barton SLK 97U, GeForce FX 5700, 1GB 2700DDR Ram
Sony DVD -R/+R/RW, SB Live 5.1 Digital, 1 x 30gb 3 x 200GB 2x120GB 1 x 250GB 1 x 500GB HDD'S, 19" TFT
Epson R265 With CIS, HP 2500C With CIS
HP NX6125 Laptop 1gb memory