Refurbished computer store

I am looking to start refurbished computer store at a stand in a mall. Where I will sell refurbished computer with windows XP operating systems at a very fair price. I will also offer computer accessories like: Digital photo key chains, web cams, mouse, key boards, cat 5 cables, some computer hardware like computer ram, and hard drives. I also will offer computer repair, from software tech support to hardware. I will be sub contracting the company that will be giving me the computers on consignment to do all my computer hardware repairs. They are honoring all warrantees on the computers. We will have the warranty as a 90 day or less they pay extra for a year warranty. My question is what does every one think of my business idea, and please give me any ideas on what you think I should add.

 

I think your idea sounds exellent, just make sure that you can reach your customers effectively from where you are located.

 

Sounds pretty good to me. I guess my thoughts would be as follows:

1) Will your location be one that will bring in impulse customers? That is, people whoa re walking by and say hey, maybe I should check this place out

2) Is there enough of a niche to fill that it will cover your overhead? ie: is there already a circuit city or Best By or CompUSA in the mall? They will be more likely to get the big business just because they are a national brand.

3) Before you sign anything, have a lawyer look it over and also make sure that you have about 6 months worth of bill money in the bank while you start up.


I had a small computer repair and education business for a couple years, but it went belly up when people realized that it was usually cheaper to buy a whole new rig than repair an out of date dinosaur and the kid down the street coupld do what I did for a couple bucks. *shrug* no nich for me, but I enjoyed it while it lasted.

As I am working on starting a new business, I have been going through a lot of the old paperwork that I had for the old one and am refreshing my brain on it. Check for your local Small Business Development Center, they are great resources for what you need to start and maintain your business.

Best of luck to you!!


~C

 

Good luck with it.
Welcome to the world of no sick pay, no holiday pay and precious little free time. Haha. (I love being my own boss - don't get me wrong)

One issue that comes up for me is that of XP licences. I have no idea how all that works, and since I'm trying my hardest to move completely away from Windows in favour of Linux I'm not likely to know any more than I do now - but you'll probably want to be sure that everything you put on the machines is legal.

All the following assumes you're involved somehow in refurbishing and installing software...

Suggestions:
Firefox, Open Office, The Gimp and other useful free/open source software - installing them might add value to the machine. They get something productive right out of the box which saves them going looking for things they'll need anyway.

Also free antivirus and firewall (maybe Avira and ZoneAlarm) would probably be good additions too.

On top of all that you could include a (software, to cut costs) "manual" of sorts... You could have sections relating to Open Office and the other software you included.

Alternative to taking the extra time to install things like OOo and GIMP you could just have a folder with the install files for the latest versions on the hard drive and an HTML file prompting the user to install them as and when they need them.


Sounds like a good business if you can get it off the ground. Good luck.

 

A lot of the Freeware programs are not meant to be sold on computers. I am not really up on my legal stuff, but Zone Alarm is to be installed by the user, not a builder. Nice program, but you might want to reconsider that aspect of it.

E

 

Good money can be made in anything to do with I.T. and P.C. work. But like anything that makes money, there's a lot of competition out there.

I am one of those people in "the world of no sick pay, no holiday pay and "precious little free time', as Bigshot said. I do well, because people know the length of support and after sales support I provide. And the good reputation in general generates more than enough work for me. Then again, I still do some Consulting Chemist work (from my original Industrial Chemist days), so I'm not relying on any one income.

Good luck, and all the best with your new venture.

 

The reason I am doing it at a stand is for traffic, and 2 for price, and 3 the only electronic store near this mall is Radio Shack and WallMart. With the stand I will have enough room for a few computers and a lot of accessories. The location is one of there best locations; and because there are no other computer stores near the mall, the mall is willing to rent the spot for Oct, and Jan for $1600. When it usually is $3000 just for December. And thanks for the good luck wishes, I really hope this business works out. All I have to do now is wait for the funds to come through.

 

You are safe from that, as long as you stay with FOSS.


After all, free software isn't truly free unless its FOSS, other free software actually translates to a free license to use the software.

My thoughts on a kiosk though...not good. A lot of people can't stand kiosks, as they tend to be in the way of where you walk, and full of annoying salespeople who stand in your way and/or interrupt your travel to a store you actually WANT to visit.

Not to say you will experience that problem, just would be a worry to me.

 

Make sure you check out the "Must Have Free Downloads" at Major Geeks at
http://www.majorgeeks.com/page.php?id=20

Lots of really excellent FREEWARE there. Pick the best of these and offer them as an installed bundle on PC's you sell. Most are as good, or better, than a lot of the $$$ Software out there. Bazza

 

Make sure you check the license agreements for those applications, too.

What Fred_G said is all too real. Some companies are serious enough to take you to court over it.