I need your sincere advice about what I may do starting next year...

[-RockMan-]

Well some of you may have read me posting about living in augusta ga.
What you don't know though I am currently unemployed at the moment the job market in georgia especially around augusta or near it is very limited not unless you do construction type work plumber any other heavy manuel type labor.

Over the thanksgiving holidays my mother, her friend, and I were talking together about the jobs here.
Basically since I can't get employed right now or maybe never while I'm trapped in augusta until I move to boston with my mother in less than a year.

Her Friend suggested with the current skills knowledge very strong customer skills with people that I encounter, that I would go into business for myself and repair small to medium sized electronics.

I have a technical associate degree in A+ and Net+, I've taught myself how to take camera's, phones laptops, montiors and certain type of portable media players and make repairs to them and get it working.
So far I help people I know with fixing their broken stuff or telling them if they want to get it fix by taking it to this specfic companys.

I mainly try to keep myself updated with hardware and mostly software reviews best and second best picks or choices.
I understand that everybody has their certan picks, flavors or favorites of technology and what they don't like.
Everytime I leave the house to take care of things or problems.
I usually examine what people have in their hand or what they are using.
Mostly it's a phone or camera that has been beat up or broken serverly.
The first things that they mentioned when I am talking to them about anything is how my son drop this from outside of a window or how my wife slammed this new blackberry against a wall and nows it nearly functioning,...
I like helping people do what they can't do: fix the item to where it's new or functioning like it did when they bought it last year.
I will admit if I can't fix it or do anything I will tell them but always know someone who can do it.
Pretty much I am going to call my college and see who do I talk to about a small business license from home or near home.
Do you all think this is the proper choice for me to do ? like I said the job market in georgia is not good at all right now and I am running out of options.
Keep in mind I don't drive right now but I am working on that at the moment, plus I stay with a crazy mother of mine who need's me and vice versa, just a little bit.

 

[S0ULphIRE]

If you're not a particularly buff/physical type then I can understand your reluctance to go into the heavy labour type jobs.

Mind you I'm pretty scrawny, and I worked as a builders labourer for a while. Pay is ok, and it gets you some exercise, so it's worth thinking about.
I also did some PC repair work on the side, didn't bother applying for a business license though lol. You're going to find it hard to reliably serve your customer base without a proper means of transportation, that's one of the main reasons why I'm not straight out advocating that you go ahead with the pc-fixit idea.

 

[Jorsoft]

I don't see the harm in it, it sounds like a good idea. The only eventuality you'll need to prepare for is if you **** up somebody's electronics or delete their data or something and they hold you responsible.

 

[myowngod]

I started working construction in HS over the summers in 9th grade... did it every year of HS and even part time for my first few years of college. I was quite scrawny when it started, but I looked at it as a way to be paid to stay in shape and get a nice tan. It is experience I would recommend anyone try to get, as It is always handy to have the knowledge you will gain, and If you do well... the company and people will remember that, and you have a back-up job you can go to.

Not sure how old you are, but when I started I weighed ~ 130lbs (5'9"), when I stopped and to this day I weigh 185lbs, now I did work out a little, but hauling around tools and lumber all day def. helped me stay thin and bulk up (not a bad thing).

I suggest you find one of those laborer jobs, give it a huge amount of effort, and try to build the PC repair business on the side.. this way you have steady income to supplement the slow start of your own business.. giving you a much nicer, fairly predictable, revenue stream.

If you decide to do this, PM me. My father is a plumber and has a TON of contacts in every facet of construction, perhaps he knows someone in the area we can hook you up with.

 

[-RockMan-]

Thanks for your replys guys.
@jorsoft: I understand the risks of fixing somebodys stuff and run the risk of damaging some interneal components or loosing data.
Happen at least once earlier this year and I was able to give the person a ATT cellphone that I don't use and reimburse them for half of the problems that I caused.
Still though people will white lie it or try to pull a trick when they bring me their destroyed stuff I just gotten to the point where I take pictures of the stuff they brought to me and after pictures of the item fulling working and have them sign a contract.

@myowngod if your serious about helping me find some type of work manuel hard labor then that would be fine.

To any others that has not seen my last avatar: I'm a black guy from miami 29 years old and weigh in about 290lbs, 6 1/2 feet tall.

 

[myowngod]

sounds like you would be fine w/ hard work - not knowing you personally I can't vouch for your work ethic, but I will contact a few contractors, whom I personally know, and see if they have any builds in your area. I'll check with my dad too as he used to work in GA when he was younger. Perhaps someone is hiring.

 

[95BlackGA]

You're going to need enough financial backing to be able to back up some sort of warranty. You can't just be prepared to back up one warranty. What happens if you mess up, and screw up every component that you fixed? You'll want insurance if you plan on making it a larger customer base. I had 8-9 computers of clients, sitting on my floor, when my house flooded... Kind of got screwed on that one.

 

[-RockMan-]

You're going to need enough financial backing to be able to back up some sort of warranty. You can't just be prepared to back up one warranty. What happens if you mess up, and screw up every component that you fixed? You'll want insurance if you plan on making it a larger customer base. I had 8-9 computers of clients, sitting on my floor, when my house flooded... Kind of got screwed on that one.

I see what your saying, if I fix up 5 phones in a week, expect a payment the next couple of days, my cockerspaniel either sits chews on it thinking it's food and I have no way of explaning to customer why a refix item got killed, yeah my *** would be grass and then some....

Still though I am going to follow through with myowngod and possibly some men at my church and see if they have some possible leads for construction here in augusta.
Also I will begin the process of gaining my licenses and doing a part side business own my time.

Te me 95blackGA, did the customers some of them understand why their stuff got water logged ? also did you manage to build a few computers that have arisen from that problem ?
If it were me I would look at the schools in your area and see if they have old lockers or small units that you could by from them, as it is right now schools need any kind of money they can get and they will be willing to part with stuff they don't need anymore.

 

[Harper]

You might want to read some of the posts in this thread....

http://www.techist.com/forums/f42/pc-repair-business-advice-220804/

Apart from that, unless you have outstanding public transport, I would suggest you learn how to drive. And even if you did have outstanding public transport, it would be some thing I would putting on a high priority.