Business idea?

I am thinking of starting up my own business helping people with the sort of problem I see everyday on this website.

This site answers like every question imaginable. I am quite impressed and I will be using this site as a reference for my stratup.

Anyone have a their own business helping people with the common computer problems?

Just curious. What are common charges for cleaning up a computer and making it run much more effiecient by doing some of the basic tweaks and scans?

Thanks. Keep this website going, it is GREAT!

 

Charge by the hour. And make it reasonable, but not too reasonable . Make some good marketing and get a good customer base (family and friends are a good start). Make sure you do things by the book and make sure you let the people know what you've done. Have a checklist of things to do, but don't force yourself to do them all. Make sure you're consistent.

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Make sure you either have a disclaimer form for them to sign or that you have REALLY good insurance, since if you screw something up they're going to come after you. Seriously. Unless you're certified in everything (and that's not even a guarantee), using this as a business is a sure way to lose everything you have in a lawsuit.

 

Thats a good idea for most businesses, but not so much for your basic PC repair business. Nobody is going to sue you. What would they sue you for? The replacement cost of their PC? What could that possibly be...$1500 - $2000 tops! If the cost of insurance is more than that over a couple of years time, I wouldn't waste my money. Think about it, if you mess up someones PC even worse, well...FIX IT! Don't tell them you messed it up, just tell them it's going to take an extra day or so. YOU ARE THE FIX IT GUY, RIGHT? If you mess something up that you can't fix, then you have no business charging $$$ for fixing PCs! The only time I can see the value of insurance is if your car, home or shop was burgalarized and the PC was stolen, but if that was the case, your Homeowners or Auto insurance would probably cover it.

The best advice I can give, is stress your proffessionalism and experience. There are a million fifteen year olds that claim to be pro PC techs because they hooked up a printer for Grandmom. They will try to undercut your prices by offering like $10 per hour. Thats silly! I would much rather pay a proffessional mechanic $2000 to rebuild my engine a with a three year garuantee, then pay some kid $100 whos only experience is changing his own oil. Cheaper doesn't always mean better, and people know that.

Oh yeah, and STAY OUT OF PHILLY!!! Thats MY territory!

Good luck!


-Steve

 

Thanks guys..all good points. I am working on getting A+ certifcation and MS End User certifications. I have about 3 years expierence with tech support and lots of other side stuff. I just think most people have problems with spyware, viruses, and computer slow down. These things are pretty easy to fix, it just takes some patience. I am just having trouble figuring out the prices.....anyway. I am going to wait till I pass those tests, which should take more than a month. I have some good advertisments and a large base of friends. We shall see. I need some side cash, bad.

 

all i have to say is heavily invest in portable backup system so you can backup a clients ENTIRE system in its' ENTIRETY for restoration purposes.
Trust me...

 

Kodo: YES. That is SO important. I've found best thing to cover all bases when it comes to backup is to have a laptop, data transfer paralell cable, USB drive enclosure with a 200GB or so drive in it. That way if the machine doesn't have USB (unlikley, but possible) you can use the paralell cable to transfer the data.

Also have bootable CDs (like knoppix, or a version of BartPE) and floppies (just in case the system can't boot from a CD). With BartPE you can also install things like Adaware to scan the system for spyware, as well as networking support (for backing stuff up).

 

As far as pricing goes....Keep in mind that companies like best buy are attacking this issue full force, and they make "House Calls" 24/7, and being that, I believe, they charge something like $140.00, and there is no time limit!! Granted they aren't going to stay there all day, but atleast you don't have to worry how much it is going to cost if it takes awhile, and if they can't fix it after a reasonable amount of time, they recommend you let them take it to the shop and they put the 140 dollars toward the shop cost. So if you are in an area where you would have to compete with them...then I would recommend you try to undercut them a little, without hurting yourself, or atleast throw in some kind of incentive for them to haul their crap to you instead of calling the "Geek Squad"!!!!

You would be surprised how quick the word of mouth travels if you have alot of friends and family, who also know other people!! And you good at what you do!! Also I've noticed that sometimes you will give the comp back to the non computer literate owner, and they will turn around and be back to square one immediately with a virus and/or spyware...so educate them as to what they did wrong so hopefully they won't do it again!!

Just my two cents!!

Good Luck

Roger

 

This is all great stuff. All points I need to think about before going to someones home and messing with their files. I think I would need some type of disclaimer saying that they are "authorizing me to work on their computer know there may be some risk involved"

Back up is a great idea. I have thought about it. I will need to look into further.

I am thinking of a $100 fix it fee for most problems.

I was thinking of a $70.00 computer check up/tune up.
Check for Windows Updates and schedule for automatic updates.
Check for virus and firewall software and check to see if it up to date.
Scan for any viruses or spyware. (longer process)
Run Hijack This....great program.
Install Microsoft Anti-Spyware and Ad Aware with client consent.
Delete all unwanted program (weather bug and mywebsearch typical)
Defrag and install and run ccleaner.
Speed up the start up and shut down process.
Provide client with information about basic virus/spyware prevention and computer clean up and Maintenance.

Any other ideas???

 

I couldn't agree more. I've got more work then I know what to do with. I finally changed my policy of working on friends PC's for free one week when I
had FOUR brought to me in the course of a few days. That event, and the endless repeat visits to the people that just cannot keep virus and ad/spyware infections off their PC's pretty much killed the philanthropist in
me (but I do still work for fried chicken on rare occaisons . . . )

 

I'd add to the tuneup regime a few performance tweaks too. Chances are the system will run much smoother once you've applied a few registry tweaks, optimise a some system settings (Memory Management comes to mind...), and possibly do a bit of stress testing too (more risk involved, so I'd make that optional and with its own disclaimer).

Also, I'd offer some sort of a discount for previous customers. E.g. first tuneup is $70.00 but only $50.00 for every visit after that, maybe a discount on an incident callout (system crash or somthing). Keeping your customers is very important!

 

I work for a local web design company. My godmother owns it, and she refers me to clients when they have problems. I only charge 20 bucks to go on location and look at it, then I charge 10 dollars for each additional hour after the first. I'm pretty cheap mainly because I just graduated high school so I don't have any certifications. After reading this, I might have to up my rates.

 

Most definately!!!! When I work on somebody's comp, I don't charge anything (Mainly because I have nothing else to do, and this started as a hobby, and like you...I have no formal education in this area. But once I get my certifications under my belt, then I will use the advice that I gave above!!) But I tell them that if they like the work i've done and they want to throw the dog a bone, then I don't turn down donations!!!! To this day...I've never recieved less that $50, and usually it's 75 or 100!! The other day I set up a wireless network for a friend of a friend and diagnosed a hard drive problem and she gave me $125.00 for about 3 hrs worth of work!!!! So it's interesting to see what people think these kinds of services are worth!!!!

Also...I've ask several of the people that I know, or they were a friend of a friend....why did you want me to come over, instead of calling the geek squad or Comp USA, etc. ?? They told me, they were more comfortable with someone they know, or that their friend knows, and that they didn't want just any wacko jacko coming into their house, and/or looking at their stuff on their computer!! So I believe that if you are friendly, sincere, and have a nice outgoing personality, AND DON'T MAKE THEM FEEL STUPID, when they ask you a question...that will get you alot further in this kind of business!!!!

Roger

 

skills and knowledge aside, honesty, integrity and sincerity are key. many times i have been paid way over what i had quoted the customer. just because they enjoyed dealing with me.

just this past weekend i had a woman who was in a bind and needed her compter straightened out fast (home based business) quoted her $50 and had her finished in about 2 hours. (this while tending to 2 other computers at the same time) she paid me $100 and said she would never go back to *insert regional repair chain here* again. in fact she is bringing in her husbands computer tomorrow for an overhaul and her sons next week.