so im in high school and next summer im planning on starting a small computer repair business for extra money on the side, no storefront, not too much advertising, nothing big at all. ive done my research in running a business and im fairly sure ill be able to take on most jobs that involve common issues, but i would like to know from people who have experience- is there anything i need to watch out for? /is there anything you think i need to be aware of? and please feel free to tell experiences, anything helps.
starting computer repair business
- Thread starter dbryan
- Start date
Ethan3.14159
Active Member
When I ran my own consultancy I quickly realized how many one-man bands there were like myself. If you're going to succeed then you need to be more qualified than the next guy, and do better work for less. The chances of anyone hiring a high schooler over a seasoned professional is slim to none.
You'd be better off shadowing someone experienced, or getting an internship for a while to build experience. Then you can better make the leap into freelance work.
Also, there is slim to no money is just doing repair, even with little overhead. All of the money is in maintenance and renewal. You'll be better off making repair only a part of a bigger repertoire.
If you do go through with it, never do any repairs on-site. Nothing freaks a client out more than to see someone they just met rip open their computer.
You'd be better off shadowing someone experienced, or getting an internship for a while to build experience. Then you can better make the leap into freelance work.
Also, there is slim to no money is just doing repair, even with little overhead. All of the money is in maintenance and renewal. You'll be better off making repair only a part of a bigger repertoire.
If you do go through with it, never do any repairs on-site. Nothing freaks a client out more than to see someone they just met rip open their computer.
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see thats the thing, i live in a somewhat small town, the computer repair places we have around here are storefront and charge crazy money. the only "one-man bands" around here that i know of are becoming....outdated i guess you could say? and there's only a few of them. and im not really in it for the money as much, i'll probably have a job on the side, i'm doing this mainly for the experience. i want to experience this stuff for myself rather than working for someone. (plus i dont think you can get an IT job easily without any kind of college degree right?) And yes i was planning on going on-site but just doing a basic diagnosis and then taking it back for the actual work. even if it didnt freak people out i'd still take it back because i dont like people asking me about everything that im doing while im trying to quickly finish the job. and thanks for your input!
linkin
VIP Member
My advice? Charge less, but warn them that you do this as a hobby and for experience. If they want a professional service, they can pay professional prices.
Have a thumb drive with standard diagnostic, info, and cleaning tools for common things. Here's what I had on mine:
CPU-Z
HWMonitor
GPU-Z
CCleaner
Auslogics Disk Defrag
MalwareBytes
HiJackThis
Among others that I can't remember right now.
Okedokey
Well-Known Member
My advice - don't. Unless you live in a very strong economic town, your whole business model is based on discretionary spend. Add this to the fact that there is NO margin on computer hardware nor services (thus the existence of this forum).
If you do go ahead, my advice is pretty simple, - buy professional indemnity insurance and make sure you backup everything before messing with it.
Also, confirm every decision via email (thats a legal document) with the customer prior to doing it.
Pay tax.
That's about it.
If you do go ahead, my advice is pretty simple, - buy professional indemnity insurance and make sure you backup everything before messing with it.
Also, confirm every decision via email (thats a legal document) with the customer prior to doing it.
Pay tax.
That's about it.
S.T.A.R.S.
banned
If you want to earn money on this,you must know a lot because you never know what problem you can expect.
It can be something so simple like installing Skype or it can be something so damn complicated like fixing/replacing the hardware (processor for example) or even fixing hardware together with the entire OS.
Also take note that fixing/repairing the hardware in laptops/netbooks is a lot harder than it is in big desktop computers.
Things can get even harder.For example the client can ask you to make him/her a small and simple software which does something they want,BUT they have a very weak RAM and processor and would not like to buy new hardware,BUT WOULD LIKE for the software you make them to work.That is even harder.Programming a program which does something more complicated on very weak and old systems is one hell of a task.
In that case you need to pay attention on:
-client's hardware
-client's Windows operating system and other programs installed
-programming code in the program you are making for your client and especially on memory handling in order to make it work great on old systems
-compatibility of your program with client's Windows operating system
Also you should know how to recover deleted data.This can be very handy for some clients who accidentaly delete their VERY IMPORTANT BUSINESS data and would do anything to get it back.
Also learn how to delete all viruses from the HDD.
Learn how hardware works and which hardware is for what.
Also learn about the data security.This is very important to many people especially for the bussines people.They always want to protect their data from intruders and in most cases have automated copy of their data which is benig done automatically in case if their primary HDD dies or something else causes the data deletion.Again here you can make them a small software which is SIMPLE and just WORKS and does this job right.
So here is what I suggest you to learn/know:
-hardware
-software
-Windows operating systems
-virus security
-data security
-data recovery
-programming (choose any language you prefer such as VB,C++,C#)...
Cheers!
It can be something so simple like installing Skype or it can be something so damn complicated like fixing/replacing the hardware (processor for example) or even fixing hardware together with the entire OS.
Also take note that fixing/repairing the hardware in laptops/netbooks is a lot harder than it is in big desktop computers.
Things can get even harder.For example the client can ask you to make him/her a small and simple software which does something they want,BUT they have a very weak RAM and processor and would not like to buy new hardware,BUT WOULD LIKE for the software you make them to work.That is even harder.Programming a program which does something more complicated on very weak and old systems is one hell of a task.
In that case you need to pay attention on:
-client's hardware
-client's Windows operating system and other programs installed
-programming code in the program you are making for your client and especially on memory handling in order to make it work great on old systems
-compatibility of your program with client's Windows operating system
Also you should know how to recover deleted data.This can be very handy for some clients who accidentaly delete their VERY IMPORTANT BUSINESS data and would do anything to get it back.
Also learn how to delete all viruses from the HDD.
Learn how hardware works and which hardware is for what.
Also learn about the data security.This is very important to many people especially for the bussines people.They always want to protect their data from intruders and in most cases have automated copy of their data which is benig done automatically in case if their primary HDD dies or something else causes the data deletion.Again here you can make them a small software which is SIMPLE and just WORKS and does this job right.
So here is what I suggest you to learn/know:
-hardware
-software
-Windows operating systems
-virus security
-data security
-data recovery
-programming (choose any language you prefer such as VB,C++,C#)...
Cheers!
extremely helpful, i know enough about the hardware to where ive already kinda eliminated that from the list of things i need to learn; and i have wokred on laptops before, definitly more difficult but in principle it is the same, it just takes ALOT more time cracking those damn things open. but im curious, how much is the programming actually used?? i have a basic java code training and im sure that wont help AT ALL in situations like that, but how much does that kind of scenario come up? i wouldnt think very often right?
strollin
Well-Known Member
The ability to create custom software for a client is a great skill to have and can set you apart from from the other "repair only" techs but, strictly speaking, it isn't necessary to have. There are many shops that do only repairs/upgrades and other shops that do only software.
If you can develop that skill, you will have a better chance at being successful in your business since you can offer services that your competition may not.
If you can develop that skill, you will have a better chance at being successful in your business since you can offer services that your competition may not.
S.T.A.R.S.
banned
Like I said.Ability to create a software for client(s) is a great skill and can enable you to earn a lot more money.And as time goes on more people will see how great software you can make and will be buying that from you more and more.Of course that depends how good and useful the software is.
(Can't wait to finish mine
)...yay!
But of course you will need to lose a lot of time to learn programming good.Just pick the language you like the most and learn it well.It can be VB,C#,C++,J# or whichever you like the most...
Cheers!
(Can't wait to finish mine
)...yay!But of course you will need to lose a lot of time to learn programming good.Just pick the language you like the most and learn it well.It can be VB,C#,C++,J# or whichever you like the most...
Cheers!
i will definitly look into doing that in the future, im actually part of the F.I.R.S.T. robotics team here and im going to be doing the programming fro the team next year, so it'll probably be a good idea to learn 2 codes anyway so i can get a full perspective on the whole idea of programming anyway. thx for the advice bro!