Startup a Computer Business? 93
RapDes asks: "I've been a long time Slashdot reader and I've had years of experience working as a computer admin (secondary to my main job title) at a few different companies. I'm constantly being asked by my friends to take a look at their PC's to fix problems or to setup home networks (like I'm sure most of you fellow Slashdot readers are, as well). Anyway, I've decided that I'd like to make a little extra beer money on the side by starting up my own computer service/upgrade/repair business. I'm looking for any input from the readers who've already been down this road. How much do I charge? What should I be focusing on, hardware upgrades? Virus and spyware removal? Home networking? Any advice would be greatly appreciated."
What if you break something? (Score:3, Interesting)
Good luck!
Re:Pricing (Score:5, Interesting)
My two cents on pricing:
My partner and I initially priced our services very low...the idea was to gain a customer base and spread favorable word-of-mouth before we raised prices...but it didn't work out that way. Our customer base remained very small until we raised our rates...and then suddenly it expanded precipitiously.
It seems that customers didn't really take us seriously with the lower rates, but when we raised them, they asumed that we must know what we're doing to command such rates, and the business flooded in.
Just something to consider...
Wrong motives for this work (Score:3, Interesting)
That implies that you're at least partially doing this for fun and personal enjoyment.
Don't.
There's a vast difference between fixing a friend's machine for fun and for money. Almost without exception, the kind of people who would need to pay someone to fix their system in the first place (ruling out those who want you to fix it so they can watch and learn) are the ones that cannot be made to understand causality and coincidence:
"You removed that virus last month, but it broke my monitor. You owe me a monitor."
"I was surfing t3h intarweb just like I had been before and now my computer's slow again. You didn't fix it right."
"What do you mean, I need to buy a computer? The hard drive is the only piece that caught on fire. Besides, new computers are disposable, unlike this tank I bought brand new nine years ago."
Trust me, friend: you really, really don't want to go there unless you're perfectly comfortable losing friendships by not giving people what they think their money's worth (which is patently impossible). Tell a man that he needs a new transmission and he'll believe you. Tell the same man that 64 MB of RAM isn't enough to run Office XP and he'll think you're trying to steal his hard-earned money.
Do it quick, dont be a hero.. (Score:5, Interesting)
You should be able to diagnose whether the computer has a hardware problem or a software problem real quick. Use a bootable CD or something to do this.
Replace the harddrive, add more ram, replace mouse and keyboard, replace fans, replace the PS, if necessary. If its not clearly one of those, tell them they need a new PC.
If they have a software problem, just tell them they need a new harddrive and reinstall windows on it. That's a whole lot faster than trying to remove all the crap they've installed on it.
If they just need more ram, do that.
Keep the drives you swap out, format them at your leisure, and sell them to the next customer who has a malware problem.
Seriously, get real quick at diagnosing things, and be able to do what you need to do in an hour or two.
I've had to do this with family members. If they think you can sit there for a few hours and tune things up, they'll get you to do it, and you will waste your time and not make money. If instead they know that probably you're going to charge them $50 for an hour and replace their harddrive for $100, they will understand AND be a little less likely to hit you up the next time. And maybe they will learn to keep their system clean.