Thinking about starting a small computer business

[boredhokie]

A college education in business won't help you start a business, trust me on that. It takes good sense, connections and a desire to make money. I like your niche idea of just doing computer cases for people, sort of a "Pimp my PC" type of biz. You don't see that often and it might work well in a local area if you set up a little shop and have some badass cases (with spinners) to show off.

Whatever you do, DON'T build PCs or fix them. You'll be tech support for the rest of your life. Have an old man that got a virus downloading porn? That's your problem now. DON'T DO IT.

Good luck! Go to college anyways, you'll have more fun and will also have a better customer base for custom cases and neon and stuff. I knew someone who did that out of his dorm room for people and made decent money.

 

[vegetation]

Originally posted by: boredhokie
A college education in business won't help you start a business, trust me on that.

Completely disagree. If you can't even read a balance sheet or produce pro forma statements, for instance, then you have a long way to go before trying to start up a business that has a remote chance of being successful. Otherwise, you're just throwing money away, wasting your life away.

 

[RaistlinZ]

You won't be able to build PC's and sell them for much profit, not when they can buy them from Best Buy or Curcuit City for $499.99 with Windows and all their software included.

And what will you do when someone comes back and says the computer doesn't work? Will you be able to swap them out with a replacement on the spot like a retail store?

 

[fitzov]

Originally posted by: vegetation

Originally posted by: boredhokie
A college education in business won't help you start a business, trust me on that.

Completely disagree. If you can't even read a balance sheet or produce pro forma statements, for instance, then you have a long way to go before trying to start up a business that has a remote chance of being successful. Otherwise, you're just throwing money away, wasting your life away.

Please. Ka-billions of people have started their own business, some of them successful, without college educations.

 

[RichUK]

Go for it, but don?t treat or expect to build a business on it. Just do it for a bit of money here and there. You?ll find that these days as computers become ever more incorporated into our lives, users/people are getting a lot more PC literate, and delve into the DIY aspects themselves, instead of seeking help.

If you think about it, in reality its not hard to swap out PC components, nor is it hard to work out what is compatible with what, and diagnosing hardware faults is pretty simple too.

Personally I wouldn?t proactively go out and look to build a business in this field. As people have stated already the competition and QoS supplied by other companies is too high compared to what you could probably provide.

 

[blinblue]

Originally posted by: Trikat
I haven't seen a modern computer repair place that was pretty successful, because the Geek Squad and other major stores always takes over the repairs. Or the people go back to the manufacture even if it costs them a bit of money.
Tough luck.

Actually, Geek Squad gave me some business.

First, I do a little fixing of computers for friends and other people I know (they always pay me, and I make it clear that they can't come calling me every single time a little something doesn't go right). Anyway, this one family brought their computer to Geek Squad because of the usual spyware/virus/etc, they 'fixed' it by pretty much reinstalling windows (which might actually have been the best way, I hadn't seen the computer before it went there). And heres the best part, Geek Squad charged them $500 for that. Anyway, they made the mistake of installing two anti-virus software packages. So the people I know call me up a week later saying that their computer is running extremely slow and they don't know why.
I come over, fix a few little things and quickly discovered the two anti-virus programs. So I uninstall one and like that, all the problems are gone. Probably about a total of an hour of my time (and probably half an hour of work at most) and they pay me $200.

No if only I am able to make that much every hour...

 

[BoberFett]

I have a friend who runs a small computer repair business. He's not making a ton of money, but he gets by. He's been in business for several years now. He has a few home users as customers, but not many, and he doesn't make much from them. The bulk of his income is through national companies that farm out work to small local outfits. For instance he has contracts with companies that do the national tech support for a nation-wide fast food chain, and another that's a nation wide auto parts store. When one of the cash registers goes down, the national tech guys call him, give him all the info, and he goes out and repairs it. He kind of stumbled into those, and it's worked well for him. But if your plan is to put video cards in your neighbors PCs and reload windows for the lady down the street, it's going to be tough.

 

[Zugzwang152]

Originally posted by: BoberFett
I have a friend who runs a small computer repair business. He's not making a ton of money, but he gets by. He's been in business for several years now. He has a few home users as customers, but not many, and he doesn't make much from them. The bulk of his income is through national companies that farm out work to small local outfits. For instance he has contracts with companies that do the national tech support for a nation-wide fast food chain, and another that's a nation wide auto parts store. When one of the cash registers goes down, the national tech guys call him, give him all the info, and he goes out and repairs it. He kind of stumbled into those, and it's worked well for him. But if your plan is to put video cards in your neighbors PCs and reload windows for the lady down the street, it's going to be tough.

That's true. It's even better if you live near military bases. There's quite a few large ones in my state, and I always see contract work available.

 

[JoeFahey]

Originally posted by: boredhokie
I like your niche idea of just doing computer cases for people, sort of a "Pimp my PC" type of biz. You don't see that often and it might work well in a local area if you set up a little shop and have some badass cases (with spinners) to show off.

Yeah. I've never heard of such a thing. And that's why I thought it's worth a try. Also, it's VERY simple! And I wouldn't have to worry about problems with their computers after I give it back to them, that I would if I was building a computer from scratch for them.

But to avoid the risk of not selling any of them. I would show them different cases before I ordered them. Then I would just order the one they like, and assemble it. But do I need a licence for reselling cases like that? Is it legal to just show pictures of cases from an online store, and have them pick on for me to install for them?

 

[tfinch2]

Originally posted by: vegetation

Originally posted by: boredhokie
A college education in business won't help you start a business, trust me on that.

Completely disagree. If you can't even read a balance sheet or produce pro forma statements, for instance, then you have a long way to go before trying to start up a business that has a remote chance of being successful. Otherwise, you're just throwing money away, wasting your life away.

LOL Keep telling yourself that buddy.

I work at an accounting firm, and I personally know clients who started their own business from nothing with no education and are quite successful.

 

[desteffy]

do it!

I did it while in high school/ early undergrad and made good money. Basically look at geek squad and make yourself a direct competitor to them with reasonable prices. Do repairs/spyware removel at peoples houses for fixed prices and then sell ram/ upgrades (buy the parts from newegg and sell them for "list" prices). Make some very professional looking flyers and blanket your neighborhoods. Good luck!

 

[beyonddc]

Repairing computer sounds okay to me, but building a computer and selling to people doesn't sound like a good idea to me.
But again, most family probably know atleast a person or someone in their family that knows how to fix computer, so I am not sure if you can actually make money from this.

When you sell a computer to someone, they expect support from you. Everything little thing they think is a computer problem will go directly to you.