Starting in computer repair

[Guest]

Just a few simple questions really...

(in the context of home computer repair)

• Do you require any sort of insurance?
  
• Do you have a disclaimer for possible data loss/require the user to backup data (unless this is not a possibility at the point of contact/data recovery is the required work)
  
• Are hourly rates or flat rates preferred by clients, and if you charge an hourly rate, then need to get them to pay for a component, what's the best way to communicate that with them?
  

Don't worry, I'm not totally naive to the fact that this is a relatively flooded market already but I can try :)

[Arachno 1D]

1: Public Liability Insurance

Public liability insurance

If members of the public or customers come to your premises or you go to theirs (including if you work from home), you should think about taking out public liability (PL) insurance.

What the insurance covers

PL insurance covers any awards of damages given to a member of the public because of an injury or damage to their property caused by you or your business. It also covers any related:

• legal fees
  
• costs
  
• expenses
  
• hospital treatment, including ambulance costs, that the NHS may claim from you - read about the Injury Costs Recovery Scheme on the Department of Health (DoH) website
  

http://www.businessl...&type=RESOURCES

2: Just look for a pro former disclaimer and add it to your letter of agreement they sign pre any work carried out by you : A.K.A. CYA [Cover Your Azz] i.e. http://computers-hou...pair_waiver.pdf

3: Depends on the type of customer i.e. companys may like a set fee or you may give a discount for regular work its up to you.Just dont give your services away for less than it costs ans not 24/7/365 its impossible.

In house and/or call out fee,

regular customer fee,

first use fee[i.e. leaflet drop with a cut off date]

None refundable deposits for work to be carried out away from the customer [dont end up out of pocket]

...........lots to think about

[Farstrider]

Perhaps insurance may be a good idea if clients property is standing in your workshop overnight, then again you could have a disclaimer saying that if they leave their property it's at their own risk!

You definitely tell the client that data backups are THEIR responsibility and that you cannot be held responsible for data loss.

I work with hourly rates and the only time I give a complete price is, for example, if I am setting up a stand alone mail server, firewall etc

Last but not least, only do this job if you can handle people and all the **** that you have to put up with! :laugh:

[sava700]

I have people fill out a form or waiver and I charge flat rates which is way cheaper than some shops around me that charge per hour but then again I do it out of my home on the side so there is no over head.

[Arachno 1D]

Hence you have no vat,income tax,National Insurance stamps,public liability insurance,building and service charges to add so you are undercutting them by only the fact you dont pay any of these.

[m4st3r]

Dont spend much money getting started - you will quickly learn it was wasted. PC Techs are a dime a dozen and the only way to make any money is constant jobs - and the only way that is possible is for everyone to know you and/or your work - advertise ? costs money. Dont want to rain on your parade, but $50/hr is great but not when you can only get 3 jobs a week.....

Better off getting a job somewhere that will give you a paycheck every week -

[Dan~]

I'm thinking of doing the same at some point, to make a few extra ?k a year on top of my current job.

I don't think insurance is needed, along as you correctly write things, which you can incorporate data loss. The pc will be covered under your own house insurance anyway, as you've just bought it havent you.....

Personally I'd only go for flat rates, as hourly to me would put me off "Yer it took me 10 hours instead of 1....." pfft

One of your services aswell should be a system clean, as in remove dust and should be done every 6 months or so, if you get a client who likes your service, then you'll get theres every 6 months.

You could also offer 6 month backups and give them the backup dvd or so. Just thinking of some extra returning customer services you can offer (if you've not thought about them already)

Let me know if you persue it, as like I said I'm interested just a bit too lazy to start it off.

[Guest]

I'm thinking of doing the same at some point, to make a few extra ?k a year on top of my current job.

I don't think insurance is needed, along as you correctly write things, which you can incorporate data loss. The pc will be covered under your own house insurance anyway, as you've just bought it havent you.....

Personally I'd only go for flat rates, as hourly to me would put me off "Yer it took me 10 hours instead of 1....." pfft

One of your services aswell should be a system clean, as in remove dust and should be done every 6 months or so, if you get a client who likes your service, then you'll get theres every 6 months.

You could also offer 6 month backups and give them the backup dvd or so. Just thinking of some extra returning customer services you can offer (if you've not thought about them already)

Let me know if you persue it, as like I said I'm interested just a bit too lazy to start it off.

Some nice ideas there. I've seen computer "valeting" services before but I never thought of it as a possible recurring income but it's a good point!

Backup is a good idea too.

People (family/friends/friends of family/friends of friends/friends of friends of friends) have been telling me for years to do this as a sideline thing to see how it goes. I made another ?40 the other day for a mates rates job and it only took about 4 hours. I think that's OK money to be honest, for something that seemed easy, and most of the time I was watching TV while the computer did all the work :D

I'm surprised people are so unhappy about the hourly rate concept, I thought this would probably be more popular because it's simpler. No matter what the job is, the same rate will be paid, as opposed to a massive list of possible services with different prices. Then consider the potential client doesn't know what they need to be done to their computer, how will they know what the price should be?

[Guest]

On the matter of a flat rate, I mean look at my main competitor in my area

http://www.computerr...air_belper.html

(gotta love their SEO attempt in the url)

Look at all those options! If I wasn't interested in computers and technology, I'd be quite daunted by that. Wouldn't you?

Also, how important do you think certifications are to customers? I've met a few people before that had some Microsoft certifications that, at the same time didn't know some surprisingly simple stuff.

edit- not that any of you care, I just realised this isn't located where I live, they must have a LOAD of different URLS for names of places in the area which all forward to this site. This place is miles away, I've actually been in it, and it's dodgy as hell!

Still, this is very interesting, it appears that there actually aren't any computer repair places in my medium sized town at all... PROFIT!

Also, there's the matter of any sort of leaflets and cards left around.

What approach to take?

The cliche... "Is your computer crashing constantly....? is it always running slow...? then just call whoever!"

or, more of a factual statement of what services can be offered?

And one more thing....

What if you fix someone's computer and it stops working... say for example 3 days after for some totally unrelated issue? What if the client believes it MUST have been your fault? I've had family members pull this one before and it's actually blatantly been something they've done. Oh... what's this "sexyladiesscreensaver.exe" in your download folder? That wasn't there before!

[Sadelwo]

And one more thing....

What if you fix someone's computer and it stops working... say for example 3 days after for some totally unrelated issue? What if the client believes it MUST have been your fault? I've had family members pull this one before and it's actually blatantly been something they've done. Oh... what's this "sexyladiesscreensaver.exe" in your download folder? That wasn't there before!

People are ignorant of the complexities (hardware/software) of the PC. So to blow off their frustration of it not 'just working' they look for a scapegoat. Because they believe that in not knowing much they can do nothing to harm the system. It's just people man. All you can do it try to explain it as simple as possible. For example if they brought the PC to you for a virus, you fixed it and then it comes back with the printer not working, I explain it that it is like coming to a doctor for a cough, then a few days later you have a foot cramp and tell the doctor he didn't do his job.

[Guest]

Oh, I wouldn't have any problem with fixing any more problems which might occur after the fix and even doing any work for free, if it was honestly my fault in some way and that I recognised that it was definitely my own fault.

The problem comes really, in people potentially trying to get freebie fixes for something that is a separate, new issue, where they should really be paying.

I guess I need a simple client agreement with a lot of small print!

[jerzdawg]

Oh, I wouldn't have any problem with fixing any more problems which might occur after the fix and even doing any work for free, if it was honestly my fault in some way and that I recognised that it was definitely my own fault.

The problem comes really, in people potentially trying to get freebie fixes for something that is a separate, new issue, where they should really be paying.

I guess I need a simple client agreement with a lot of small print!

this shouldnt happen too often. take note of certain things while you fix X problem, if you notice the potential for future issues (ex. no virus software installed) offer up a suggestion and you could possible charge something extra to handle that as well. (sort of like account rounding).

[stereopixels]

I'm thinking of doing the same at some point, to make a few extra ?k a year on top of my current job.

I don't think insurance is needed, along as you correctly write things, which you can incorporate data loss. The pc will be covered under your own house insurance anyway, as you've just bought it havent you.....

Just to pick up on this point: for home insurance - no, home insurance does not cover this scenario, in fact if your home burns to the ground, floods or any claim arises and your insurer catches a whiff that you've been working from home/operating a business from home, whether registered or not, your insurance is void. Your customer's possessions are certainly not covered.

[alphamale]

i have done this for personal computers when there was a lull. adverstising in a big way to catch their eye is important. they will phone you and **** around usually trying to extract whether "they" can fix it themselfs. bring it to you and never pick it up because they were unsure of the cost benefit of a trip to walmart for a cheapie. they will withhold important information. i always wondered why they did that. i learned to use my gut feeling to just say no to a lot. no its to old. no go buy a new one. no one here to answer your questions their out working. would you like to make an appointment to make your problem go away. before repair ask will you be paying cash today or use a visa matercard (as the case my be).

volume is the key to making any money because everyone that is a forum reader is an expert to someone who is not and those people can be a real pain and non shooter with an automatic weapon.

i always looked at it like crowd control party of one. good luck

[+Byt Subscriber¹]

Its all about who you know and getting your name out there. Go to some local businesses and offer a free health check / survey of the PC's, giving them recommendations, it gets your foot in the door.

Be available. It helps if you are available 24 / 7 to help.

It will benefit you to get liability insurance and if i ever fix a PC of someone who is a complainer, and will blame anything on me, create an image of their hdd before i do any work, then if they complain, i re-image their PC back to how it was, and tell them to go somewhere else.

Remember where there is chaos, there is money to be made :)

[sc302 Veteran]

You couldn't pay me to attempt home user computer repair again. I will leave that to the bottom feeders. That is one area that I feel like I am in a hamster wheel never going anywhere. And everyone's neighbors sons daughters boyfriends kid twice removed knows how to fix computers or works in IT. They can do it cheaper faster and better. It is to the point that I will not charge IF I decide to touch it.

[Guest]

And everyone's neighbors sons daughters boyfriends kid twice removed knows how to fix computers or works in IT. They can do it cheaper faster and better. It is to the point that I will not charge IF I decide to touch it.

So ultimately, you saying that any old random person can fix a PC cheaper, faster and better than you? :huh:

Sorry, but with that attitude, I don't imagine anyone would do anything. I'm not exactly expecting to be flying the high life by doing this, but maybe there are more computer illiterate people in the UK? I know that sounds stupid but I know quite a lot of people and I'm always the single guy that everyone turns to for IT problems. Even when their PC came with a restore partition, they still bring it to me!

Now, statistically, I must know some stupid people. But also, some quite smart people who never spent the time to learn how to fix a PC but still want to be able to use them!

I think there's a large demographic of people out there like this. I get an odd satisfaction from helping people fix their computers too. I'm sure that will wane or not even be quite so pronounced when I don't know the people personally (or even via another friend) but for what feels like little effort, it's an easy way to make some money.

[Arachno 1D]

A timely reminder of what you might encounter

http://www.techrepublic.com/photos/dirty-computers-revenge-of-the-dust-bunnies/6064?tag=nl.e098
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[sc302 Veteran]

So ultimately, you saying that any old random person can fix a PC cheaper, faster and better than you? :huh:

Sorry, but with that attitude, I don't imagine anyone would do anything. I'm not exactly expecting to be flying the high life by doing this, but maybe there are more computer illiterate people in the UK? I know that sounds stupid but I know quite a lot of people and I'm always the single guy that everyone turns to for IT problems. Even when their PC came with a restore partition, they still bring it to me!

Now, statistically, I must know some stupid people. But also, some quite smart people who never spent the time to learn how to fix a PC but still want to be able to use them!

I think there's a large demographic of people out there like this. I get an odd satisfaction from helping people fix their computers too. I'm sure that will wane or not even be quite so pronounced when I don't know the people personally (or even via another friend) but for what feels like little effort, it's an easy way to make some money.

What I am saying is everyone thinks they know someone who is capable of performing the job even though they came to you. It isn't worth the badgering and bs that home users give, at least to me. Remember you said yourself that the market is flooded.

Btw my average turn around was 3 hours on bench, 6 in the customers hand if they dropped off. 99% were complete 1st time and the rest were recalls. A solid year of doing this made me decide to stay in the corporate world.

To each their own, is how I look at it, and if it isn't your primary form of income you will do fine. I wish you luck and hope end users do not belittle you to the point of lighting all of them on fire.

[IMPSBL]

Be available. It helps if you are available 24 / 7 to help.

Just like you were available in your own topic where you requested a logo and then disappeared for months?

Have common decency and let us designers know what's going on, many working hours were wasted for nothing in that topic.

[Arachno 1D]

It helps if you are available 24 / 7 to help.

As I already stated its an entirely unrealistic proposition for a one man company to even consider such a service