Is computer repair a viable profession right now?

[Ascendant]

Wasn't sure of the best place to post this, so here goes... I'm 34, and looking to change professions. Long story as to why, but the health and fitness industry I have worked with over the past 15 years is completely dead due to the economy. It is only a small part of why I'm changing professions, but nonetheless, has been a contributing factor.

So anyway, I'm headed back to school, and trying to figure out something I can do part-time which will be flexible hours that I can revolve around a primary focus on college.

Since I have worked with computers since the Commodore 64 existed, I thought I might create a computer repair website and try to do that locally. However, I'm not really sure how competitive the industry is and whether or not it would be worth my time.

Since I moved recently, I had to start from scratch again in my industry. I spent countless hours putting together a website for freelance personal training, and after about 6 weeks, I've managed to get it to the first page of local searches. However, it has still not pulled me in anything because of how bad the economy impacted us (and how competitive the industry is now because of it). I just don't want to waste any more time on it.

But anyway, I was wondering for those who opened a personal business in their areas, how competitive is it? How hard was it to get yourself to the top of the local searches? Is it something where you can develop a good website and draw people in, or is it like personal training, where you have to constantly aggressively market and sell to pull in any business? Any info you guys could give me would be greatly appreciated, because I really don't want to develop another web page and spend weeks upon weeks all for no return again.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Competitive changes from area to area. Here there are 4 shops, and dozens of little kiddies that attempt repairs. Typical shops charge anywhere from $50-$100 an hour for malware/virus removal, some shops charge 30-60 on generic labor. You basically have to price just a bit lower than these shops, and be able to go months with no income trying to attract customers that are loyal to them other shops. The majority of the work I get, is because another mom n pop shop screwed that person, and they had little money left.

It basically comes down to you needing a professional look business, with fair prices, and being honest with customers. You also need to advertise often, one month a person a few miles down the road may not need a computer repair so they ignore your advertisement and don't remember it, then all of a sudden when you don't have an advertisement in the paper or on the tv they only remember what looks best as they haven't seen your advert lately, or they drive along the main road that week and notice a different store while yours is sitting off on a side-road and they only pay attention to that store on the main road.

 

[Lexluethar]

It is viable but difficult. Competition is very stiff, at least in larger markets. Realize you aren't the first person to have an epiphany that they want to get into IT and get into fixing PC's.

First do a quick google search to see how many competitors you have in your market.

I agree with corrosive, the key is getting a customer base. It sucks but there a a lot of wannabee PC shops out there charging 30 dollars an hour. The reason they do that is because they A)don't have a family to feed B)aren't really an organized business C)it's not their only means of income. Realize you can't make a living based of charging people 30 dollars an hour considering if you do this full time there are expenses, time, insurance, health care and overhead costs involved.

A more realistic price is 50 to 125. I charge 75 an hour on average depending on the service.

 

[lasvegascomputer]

Let me first start off by saying computer repair in itself is a viable business if you don't mind running around all day fixing peoples issues. You see from my experience the "Breal/Fix" business model is what your talking about getting into. This is good for side money but as for a long term business you will run into two issues. First issue is it's all on you. If your sick, you don't make money. If your not working, your business won't make money. Second, you only make money when your actually working. To me that's a job, not necessarily a business.

So whats the solution?

Well I look at my company in two ways.. I am a lead generation business and customer service business. I myself on a daily basis generate leads for my company and pass them out to my techs. My techs make a flat fee per job, and I charge my clients $95.00/hour. I structured it this way because I will never lose money with staff because they get paid when the company gets paid. This business model is a step up from the "Break/Fix" model however the real money as we all know is in managed services (You charge a flat rate per device on a monthly basis). Managed Services is the ONLY WAY in my professional opinion to really get monthly receivables high without always running around fixing things. Not only does it allow you to make money on a monthly basis (at times without doing much physically) but it really helps your clients by preventing issues before occurring.

If you want to know more let me know I can break it down anyway you want.

P.S. - A website is nice, but it really comes down to referrals and word of mouth. I just started getting into the online marketing, but NOTHING will beat you doing a great job with a customer and them telling their friends. It's who you know!

 

[Lexluethar]

Great point lasvegascomputer. Seriously good business model too. I think that's where people fall flat - they under sell themselves and under charge customers too little. They think charging 30 bucks for two hours work will help them retain customers. When they should be charging triple that to make any type of money for a business.

I agree with the managed services too - getting companies / users on a monthly / yearly billing rate is where the money is at.