Don't go to low on your labor prices, that's where you're going to make all of your money, trust me - I know. If £60PH is the going rate in your area, then don't be afraid to charge that. Great customer service is what people want and that's what will bring them back to your shop. Be nice to everyone and take the time to listen to your customers. If you plan to hire any employees, hire people that you know you can trust.
Dan, Make sure you have enough cash set aside to run the business and live on for at least 18 months. Most startup companies don't start to turn a profit for at least the first year. I have three companies right now and only one made a small profit ($15,000US) in it's first year. However it also had a very low startup cost as I didn't have to borrow any money to get it up and running. I know this is the boring side of it and not exactly what you asked for in your post, but money management is the most important part of it. Plow everything you earn back in to the business and plan on living off savings and rice and beans for supper for a while. Goodluck. There's nothing better than being your own boss.
50p cups of tea are always a bonus, as are cans cheaper than everywhere else, can still turn a tidy profit on those.
It would be good to get good quality point of sale stuff from the major vendors - but none of them seem to make this easy to get hold of. I don't understand why it's so hard to get advertising display material from the likes of ATi, AMD Intel, Nvidea etc etc.
repairs,repairs and more repairs. there is a catch. not all repairs are worthy of your time. avoid like plague repairing cheap ass tablets/phones ,there are no replacement parts and no schematics/guides.waste of time and money Don`t be afraid to say no,say it wisely,turn the tables in your advantage,most clients are very concerned about spending money in a repair who will last little time and will listen to your offer for a new device. I work in a computer shop and sometimes i wish i could say the truth to the customer,but i have a stupid ,greedy boss. More,there a a lot of good on line services for doing reinstalls,wich are your bread and butter.We have one service wich with a merely PXE boot are completely reinstalling the OS with all bells and whistles/activations and whatnot for merely a tenner and in less than 30 minutes.It is a life saver and prevents you in spending more time or hiring another person. Laptops are what i repair most,so get some really good replacement part partner/provider and don't be afraid of charging street price.DO NOT go cheap in repairs,you are cutting your big income. Well,this is what i can say for now.More ,for sure there are here people who are owners of computers shops,like Phsyclone.Ask for his advice,guy is top notch in this branch
Thanks, yeah I'm doing repairs already for someone else in the town. They charge £60ph. I'll under cut that a bit and be FAR better at the customer service... I'll look out for Phsyclone...
Also, it wouldnt be good to start a price war. Compete on quality of service and general shop atmosphere.
Not yet - as the shop isn't open. When the lease is finalised and I'm in there decorating it then I will move on to marketing.
Good luck and my best wishes. Just believe in yourself, work hard, trust no one and leave rest to the almighty. Thats the matra of success.
System builds can make you money but the profit margin on hardware sales is next to nothing - etailers are hard to compete with in that regard. Fwiw my company charges $110/hr.
Thanks, yeah - labour is going to be my bread and butter but then hardware sales are nice on top. Ink cartridges have a good margin too on the compatibles/3rd party. At the end of the day I know I can't compete with the online sales, but there are plenty of people, especially in this rural area that don't use the internet for buying things. Bizarre I know. I wouldn't try and start a computer shop in a more "metropolitan" area as I think people would be a lot happier to buy online. That being said - you can't get your computer repaired online :nerd:
Usually I don't buy hardware online unless I'm looking at second hand stuff. RMA is a lot easier when you can just drive down to the store and get something replaced on the spot.
The last shop I worked at kept a fixed £30 charge for what we called an M.O.T, basically save all users files > wipe > reinstall > update > copy back users data Or if the machine was not infected to the hills with limewire viruses, we would just give it a really thorough clean and install Avast instead of the 3 not working things they thought were protecting them Word that our £30 fee never changed brought a lot of custom, and amusingly a lot of custom from unhappy customers coming from the shop a mile or so away who had installed pirate versions of windows and barely done anything to their machines
LOL omg that brings back memories...I know exactly what u mean. A few years ago I worked as a mobile tech and 9/10 times if a customer called about malware infections you could guarantee they were using Limewire...lol What a headache that software was.
pretty much what they've all said. A guy I know had his own business doing all of the sort of stuff you mentioned. I did some work for him now and again, off site stuff, and given he was a 1 man band, it never ceased to amaze me how many of his customers were delighted to see me show up as his customer service skills were absolutely non-existent. The single best advertising you can get in a local business like that is word of mouth from satisfied customers, it's worth more than any flyer or local paper ad will ever be. The best advice I could give (as looks like you're already well aware of the customer service side) is be aware of your deadlines. If you say to a customer you'll have it back in 3 days, have it back when promised. nowt irritates folk more than broken service promises like that. Related to that, make sure your quoted timescales are as realistic and accurate as possible, don't be afraid to turn away a job if it's going to have a knock on effect of delaying other stuff.
