Opening my own PC Shop.

Discussion in 'General Hardware' started by shadex, Dec 30, 2020.

  1. anticupidon

    anticupidon Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    7,878
    Likes Received:
    4,126
    GPU:
    Polaris/Vega/Navi
    Couldn't help myself.
    When I started as a freelance around 2008 I offered my services as computer technician with the opening line:
    "Hello and good day Sir or Lady, do you have a solid backup solution? "
    90% the answer was No. But that No was an entry point for, wasn't No as in No, please go away.
    Sold WD external HDD and NAS boxes by the truck and set them up with free software or paid.
    Nowadays, one can only choose what manufacturer to sell and their backup solution.
    Synology NAS and their DSM offer some very useful backup solution a s you can make a living from this service alone.
    But you need to work on it and use networking as in referrals and friends to make it big and sustainable.
     
  2. shadex

    shadex Master Guru

    Messages:
    675
    Likes Received:
    38
    GPU:
    EVGA Merc 6600 XT
    Google IT Certification, they just add CompTIA A+ as a bonus. But, yes, it's a supplementary bonus to my B.S Degree in IT.
     
  3. jbmcmillan

    jbmcmillan Guest

    Messages:
    2,760
    Likes Received:
    277
    GPU:
    Gigabyte G1 GTX970
    This is just a whim post laying in bed aha I'll think I'll open a pc shop. Nothing has gone into this on his part. I can see getting into it and needing a little advice but this is silly.
     
  4. Raserian

    Raserian Master Guru

    Messages:
    479
    Likes Received:
    345
    GPU:
    1060
    I wouldn't bother with corporate certificates, much less if you want to have your own business. As a technician you are much better off with general electrical knowledge or programming knowledge, any previous technical skills will be better than yours average IT course which teaches you well...how to use and manage specific product from a specific company. It will do nothing for you once the customer brings you a laptop that cannot be turned on and all the data are on soldered SSD chips.
     
    anticupidon likes this.

  5. anticupidon

    anticupidon Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    7,878
    Likes Received:
    4,126
    GPU:
    Polaris/Vega/Navi
    This.
    Precisely, Louis Rossmann has many hours explaining basic electronics, soldering, troubleshooting a circuit, what's a buck converter, how to pinpoint faults with some measurements and how to read a schematic.(also provides the software- a Godsen tool).
    The same skills can be applied to faulty motherboards, SSD, hard drive and consoles, TVs. That the bulk of repairing.
    Yes, a computer shop fixing just computers is fine and dandy, but one needs to pay bills, employees and have money in bank. I wouldn't be picky, I would repair and ask for my price.
    More, starting to repair down to component level open up a huge amount of work, many, many places will be more than happy to outsource and pay you your price and overcharge their customer.
    I did this for years...my soldering skills under microscope were demanded and I had my share of long shifts and endless piles of brown cardboard boxes waiting to be opened and shipped. It was a not so fast, but steady money printing machine.
     
  6. anticupidon

    anticupidon Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    7,878
    Likes Received:
    4,126
    GPU:
    Polaris/Vega/Navi
    Depending on your journey end and outcome.
    The more in demand skill in IT are Cloud, Cybersecurity, DevOps, Sysadmin, Full stack developers and IoT.
    But I respect your opinion and choice. Godspeed on your certification journey!
     
  7. shadex

    shadex Master Guru

    Messages:
    675
    Likes Received:
    38
    GPU:
    EVGA Merc 6600 XT
    Do you have the URL to Lous Rossmann basic electronics, soldering and etc? I am planning to branch out to Cyber Security.
     
  8. anticupidon

    anticupidon Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    7,878
    Likes Received:
    4,126
    GPU:
    Polaris/Vega/Navi
  9. CronoGraal

    CronoGraal Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    4,194
    Likes Received:
    20
    GPU:
    XFX 6900XT Merc 319
    Oh dear.
     
  10. Freeman

    Freeman Master Guru

    Messages:
    596
    Likes Received:
    164
    GPU:
    4060 ti 8gb
    I would always go for practical versus theory and hour long youtube videos.
    Get your hands on the stuff and find ways to put your money down.

    But, yeah, hopefully its the right stuff and it gets the guy going.
     

  11. anticupidon

    anticupidon Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    7,878
    Likes Received:
    4,126
    GPU:
    Polaris/Vega/Navi
    Let's not forget we all started somewhere. Even the best pentester, blue/red team was a noob once.
    It's true, practice makes one learn best, but theory also helps.
     
  12. Raserian

    Raserian Master Guru

    Messages:
    479
    Likes Received:
    345
    GPU:
    1060
    This is true, theory first, practical experience second, the problem is many of those courses/certificates are not going to teach you a theory you need. Instead they may even give you a false idea that you know something. I would say servicing computers is not so complicated and many can learn on their own or with help of online resources, component functions, troubleshooting as well as soldering and computer building and repair are widely available, forums and videos and so on are here to help. You can always look for specific problem online as someone else might have to deal with it before. I would say as long as he wants to learn something he will, if he wants to collect perks for his resume, he can do that instead. Many non-technical folks are fixing and building their PCs with no problem.
     
    anticupidon likes this.
  13. anticupidon

    anticupidon Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    7,878
    Likes Received:
    4,126
    GPU:
    Polaris/Vega/Navi
    @Raserian, we come from different direction , but we concur on the same ideas. Hands-on experience and basic of repairing is not so hard to learn and very few certification will learn one exactly how to do hardware troubleshooting, identify electrical faults, soldering and so on.
    I had fresh out of the computer institute graduates several years who needed to spend at least 3 months in a real computer shop to learn how to do their job and how to apply theory. Almost everyone of them were afraid of picking up the soldering iron or a multi meter. Also, they had a lot of theory learned, but almost all failed to apply it correctly in real life.
    I made every effort possible that those students finished their 3 month period with a solid grasp on computer troubleshooting and repairing. It was my name included on their paper, so i could't make a sloppy job out of it, it eventually come back to me if somehow they made some big error or whatever.

    If I wanted to open a computer shop (ignore the pandemic and other social/economic drawbacks) I would open it up, pick out as many repairs I can and for those hard to fix or pinpoint faults I can hire a freelancer or outsource first. In the end, customer sees the computer shop, it doesn't matter where or who the device was repaired. But all that outsourcing done by the book, with insurance, GPRD signed papers and all papers supervised by a attorney or a legal counselling bureau.
    Then when I learned all the tricks, I can repair in-house without outsourcing and make a living out of it. And vote for the Right to repair bill, to ensure I can maintain my business.
     
    Last edited: Feb 13, 2021
  14. Raserian

    Raserian Master Guru

    Messages:
    479
    Likes Received:
    345
    GPU:
    1060
    The reason why that happens is mostly because in college, computer science program is mostly software related stuff, they are more acquainted with instructions and code rather than the computers themselves. Well we have to say if they would have learned it in college, there would be no one for you to teach working responsiby:).
     
  15. Freeman

    Freeman Master Guru

    Messages:
    596
    Likes Received:
    164
    GPU:
    4060 ti 8gb
    its useless. Most valuable thing you can get there are contacts.
     

  16. PrMinisterGR

    PrMinisterGR Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    8,125
    Likes Received:
    969
    GPU:
    Inno3D RTX 3090
    I think the only question you need to answer is why yourself (as a client) would use your services instead of anything else. If you can answer that, you probably have a niche. I would start completely online initially and then see how it's going. In general I think it's a bad idea since it's impossible to compete in pricing, so you will have to compensate with services. The big money are already grabbed by large corporations, and mid-sized ones are moving to cloud services like Azure Cloud for total device+software+collaboration management, that a single person can run.
    The only future I see is with really small businesses, that will be less and less affluent as time goes by.
     
  17. The Goose

    The Goose Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    3,057
    Likes Received:
    375
    GPU:
    MSI Rtx3080 SuprimX
    I think any business start up is risky atm, unless you can give a completely trust worthy service and undercut any nearby competition its going to be a grind and you might find that turning a hobby in to a career might not be such a wise move but good luck in trying.
     

Share This Page