Computer Repair Business?

Ok my TIP

YOu need the following
precisou tool kit *small screw drivers*
Disgoistic software, I suggest you get Prime 95, and Memtest86 for now untily ou can afford more $$$
KVM switch is great hook up 4 PCs at once and you can have them install XP all at the the same time.

Partnering up is your choice. However I do suggest you get a internship, seriously I thought I knew enough to do a business, untiil I took this internship so now I intend on sticking with this guy for a few more months building PCs for him. Get a internship first, and learn the trade don't jump in blind. Its just not building.

Hiring poeple is a bad idea, you can't promise them a steady paycheck.
 
you could also use some public liability insurance... which basically covers you harming anyone else with your work...

if you're teaching someone how to setup networks then you are going to need professional looking (and professional written looking) documentation.
scribbling a few addresses or protocol/service names on the back of a napkin isn't going to cut it...

you also need to really *really* know your stuff...

when someone comes to you saying that they have trouble connecting their windows 98 machine to the windows XP machine and sharing files/printers, but their windows XP machine reads fine from the windows 98 machine (a very common problem) you need to know *exactly* what to do... without going to google.

if you're fixing PC's you also need to be aware of the context of what you are fixing and the legal implications.
like if they have child porn you need to report it.
if they have confidential files, then you need to respect that confidentiality.

you also need to be aware of the costs involved in recovering data and exactly when to stop when things start to go wrong before they are irrecoverable!
(for example I recently had a drive problem and lost my entier music collection and all of my course work from Uni, as well as a lot of the installation files and activations codes/licenses for software...).
I estimate the cost of this would be, a few hundred ££ for the software.
in time alone copying all my CD's back to the computer it's cost another few hundred.
and the nature of the university notes and course work mean that they could never be recovered, but they cost ~£10,000 to acrew... basially if you were fixing my computer and accidentally deleted a partition whilst trying to diagnose a problem or the computer crashed whilst resizing a partition (as it did in my case), you would be entierly shafted...
the size of the claim that I would make against you would (most likely) far outweigh your liability insurance, you're a minor and your financial guardians are your parents...

assuming you broke my PC could you folks really afford a £11,000 bill for data + £1,000 for data recovery + however much in court costs...

I know that I don't have a spare £20,000 ($37,600) just lying around. and whilst I know absolutly nothing about you. I'll hazard a guess that neither you nor your parents do either...

(the end of the story is that I have all my data back. but have had to buy forensic data recovery software to actually get it back!).

also as joxley said...
if a 15 year old turned up at my door I'd probably send him away else my neibours would think I lure kids to my house!

im just gonna do neighboorhood stuff, jeez guys
probably should have read that before I wrote all that stuff above...

just doing it for neibours is a great idea...
but like a I say bear in mind if you mess up you could cost yourself (or your parents) a friendship, (and still possibly money)...
 
thats why you buy a nice huge external hardrive and make a backup of the PC before you work on it :)

me and my friends are looking at starting a small buissness as well. but i am suggesting to my friends that we get Comp TIA A+ certifications first, maybe microsoft 2.
 
You could try sellin on ebay as custom builds (you build them after payment is received so no initial investment.
 
Well you my stores plociey is we do not EVEN MENTION THE WORD REFORMAT OR REDO. We get a PC we try diagonise software etc to get it working. If that fails we call the customer, ask the customer if their are particular files they would like to save when we need to reformat.

As for the porin and illegal file issue, just heh don't go explorering into poeples information. In fact my boss says, see as little as the PC as possible. If you need to install drivers, install them etc.

And your 15, I suggest maybe building a PC then reselling it, do that a few times to get a good name its what I intend on doing.

Also you have to have good communication skills and translation. Example I had a lady come in and go "I got 30 gig of ram, and I want 120" So I figured she meant HD which BTW I was right. YOu also have to be able to talk to them, figure them out quickly try not to talk down to a customer tell them if they have any questions to feel free to ask and be a good sales man. Example lets say your selling a Geforce 6800 plus a system. Customer goes so how good is this card you go "Well sir, I owned it and I could play all my video games at really high settings, and judging at how fast the game industry is growing i'd say this card has a very health lifespan" try to stay away from mentioning other products, keep the decision simple. Like if you were to say "well sir its a very good graphics card, however the 1950xtx came out and its EVEN BETTER!" so now the customer is thinking erm, should I go with that, or this its a decision keep it simple.

Final advice, do a internship, get experience there is so many problems out there. Like my boss says "Fixing the problem is the easy part, figuring out how to fix it is the hard part"
 
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