Would you open a local PC repair shop nowadays?

[Splinterdog]

I closed my shop of ten years because the absentee landlord doubled the rent and all the other expenses were climbing with inflation, which in Argentina is a whopping 50%.
Since then, I haven't looked back and I also do VHS to digital, build new gaming PCs for those who can afford them and my regular customers still come back to me, not minding the ramshackle arrangement one bit.
I also do house calls when it's Covid safe and all this in between the motorcycle courier service that I offer. Heck, I even collect their machines, repair them and take them back. All part of the service, so you have to be flexible nowadays.
It's a bit of a mess, but I like my bike near me and I know where everything is.

 

[DAWMan]

I closed my shop of ten years because the absentee landlord doubled the rent and all the other expenses were climbing with inflation, which in Argentina is a whopping 50%.
Since then, I haven't looked back and I also do VHS to digital, build new gaming PCs for those who can afford them and my regular customers still come back to me, not minding the ramshackle arrangement one bit.
I also do house calls when it's Covid safe and all this in between the motorcycle courier service that I offer. Heck, I even collect their machines, repair them and take them back. All part of the service, so you have to be flexible nowadays.
It's a bit of a mess, but I like my bike near me and I know where everything is.
View attachment 194358

Amazing how we all manage one way or another.
My synth repair guy has a repair shop that’s twice the size of your room, crap everywhere.
I was concerned first time I left my 88 note Controller there, then I picked it up a week later after he fixed a wheel assembly the manufacturer said required a whole new housing/body. He disagreed and proved them wrong.

There’s only 4 similar shops where I live. They are all booked up even during COVID-19.

Even sent a Christmas Card.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Well, for sure, a pitch fork is an essential tool for every computer tech!

 

[neatfeatguy]

One way to supplement income would be to outsource your skills when you have free time.

Last place I worked we utilized a website that allowed us to hire third party computer/electrician technicians when we needed onsite work done that was out of our area. It's been years since I worked there and I can't remember the name of the company or website.....techs would post their credentials and experience. Then we'd offer the job out to people that we've used before that we liked or others in the areas with skills that would be necessary for the job. Upon agreeing that the job was completed, payment would be transferred to the company that outsourced jobs to the techs and then the company would take a small fee off the top (something like 5-10%, like a finders fee) and the balance would go to the technician.

If you live in a decent sized city area and are at least willing to travel a bit (maybe upwards of 30-50 miles even) you would have opportunity for a lot of jobs. We had some techs that were really good that we would constantly hire out to jobs in their area. Most issues were with a network system being down or a computer not turning on and it usually involved some hands on time to find the failure on the network (could be a switch got unplugged or failed or network cable gone bad) or as simple as a computer being powered off and the store staff is just too clueless to figure out how to power it back on....one of the more complicated things and time consuming jobs we hired out was to run network cabling at a new install.

All in all, as long as you were self sufficient, had proper tools and could reliably handle the work, some techs I spoke with said they could make decent money on the side doing this work during their free time.

Wish I could remember the name of the site this was....I tried searching around on google, but to no avail. Maybe someone here might know of a site like I'm talking about.

 

[John-D]

Rather you could explore boutique/bespoke high-end gaming desktops as a business idea. Those who don't want to build complex liquid cooled rigs and can't choose their parts well; would rather buy from you. Be sure to market yourself as a "systems integrator" and not a "prebuilt vendor." There's a distinction to be made here, because you're selling the service of assembling parts, not the product itself; so you save yourself a ton of liability and regulatory costs. Make sure every customer signs an agreement at the time of purchase that makes it clear that they're only paying you to assemble parts you buy in their name, your warranty is limited to any flaws with the assembly, and that individual parts carry their own warranties and service verticals.

We found that in our area, building PCs for customers died about 10 years ago and only a few want you to build them a PC.

Most people that want a custom PC are willing to source and build their own PC.

We charged an hourly rate for the build and the customers purchased the items keeping us out of the warranty RMA loop or we could assist for a fee.

In the past when we built PCs we sourced and marked up pricing however most customers, especially gamers, are smart enough to shop your pricing so it causes more issues than just letting them buy the parts direct and bill for your time to help them for what they want. IE parts sourcing, build review, building, and then future service needs.

Also, you should only provide a 30-day warranty for your labor. If they have a part that fails you can help them diag it for a fee after 30-days (or not, your call) but most of the time you'll never have any problems if you're a competent builder. Most of the problems we saw were from people that tired to build their own PC and brought it to us to figure out. Usually they did something stupid like screwing the motherboard to the case without standoffs/etc.

 

[RandallFlagg]

Hi all,
as the title says, I'd like to know your opinion about opening a pc repair shop as an investment in future years.
My principal thought is decline of pcs as they are, in fact, personal in favour of cloud. Fixing smartphones would help income too (or even become the bigger part of it) , but I refer specifically to computer repair. A little money could come from dealing hardware parts, even though competing with online stores will be hard.
Across the years, several shops sadly shut down in my town, and some popped out.
what do you think guys?

No. Back when computers cost $3000 or more and had little to no warranty this was a viable thing to do. Today for the most part, fixing PCs is about as viable as fixing TV sets or stereos - you would only make money at it if you're subcontracted by a big company, say Dell or Lenovo, for in home repair of in-warranty items. Now fixing home appliances, that's still a thing.

There are some ancillary fields that make money. Small to medium size companies often outsource setting up their office PCs, network, servers, backups, firewalls, website and ongoing maintenance to local support companies. This is a lot more technical than just fixing DIY PCs and the people that do that have to wear many hats i.e. DBA / backup admin / system admin / network admin / application support / PC support and so on, and the company often has to provide some degree of application development and support as well. IOW end to end support for companies that don't find it viable to hire someone to do that.

 

[BlackSun59]

There were three different PC repair shops in my town and they each closed within a year of opening.
There is one that has managed to stay open since 2003(!). They do both home and business work.
I have no affiliation or financial links to this shop at all.

https://www.westfieldcomputers.com/

 

[Atomic77]

Well here where I live PC repair is hard to find. we have Milwaukee Pc. and Collet Systems both have been around for a while but I think one of them is not doing as well.

 

[JeffF]

My business is doing just fine. Store front isn't always the answer to a successful business. I built my business over 10 years ago from social media and out of home. A large number of my clients will travel an hour or more to bring me their devices due to trust with their personal data and etc. Word of mouth recommendations is a huge plus as well. Take that moment to talk to your clients and let them get to know you a bit more is money to them. Especially this day and age where we have been locked down and a business killing pandemic going around. Although I don't build customs. I am pleased with the way things have been going for me this far.

 

[Ahhzz]

My business is doing just fine. Store front isn't always the answer to a successful business. I built my business over 10 years ago from social media and out of home. A large number of my clients will travel an hour or more to bring me their devices due to trust with their personal data and etc. Word of mouth recommendations is a huge plus as well. Take that moment to talk to your clients and let them get to know you a bit more is money to them. Especially this day and age where we have been locked down and a business killing pandemic going around. Although I don't build customs. I am pleased with the way things have been going for me this far.

I've worked hard with my clients to establish a level of trust with them, so that when I tell them "What would be best here is to purchase this equipment/replace that computer/redo this network layout", they know I'm not trying to gouge them in bills. I am very prone to telling them "I'd love to sell you more hardware, but I think we'll be ok here for another year. Check back again next year. There's no need to replace something that's working well for now".
Our business is not overwhelmed, but we've been able to stay busy during the pandemic, possibly because we're in an area of low-acceptance of science, and while I've been able to stay virus-free, despite so many of our clients failing that, they've stayed open as much as they could.

 

[Splinterdog]

Well, for sure, a pitch fork is an essential tool for every computer tech!

The fork is for troublesome customers

 

[Atomic77]

hmm... maybe a forklift in that situation.

 

[techupgrade]

Well, I decided to close my shop and do it in house Local PC Repair in Birmingham, Would I recommend yes.

 

[John-D]

Fast forward from back in March when I first posted here. Closing the residential depot store and going all commercial was the best move. We were able to concentrate on high-profit items & eliminated nearly all of the headaches. We even changed the phone numbers so that the old phone numbers drop into a voicemail box for any commercial customers that might still call into the old number. Now we can concentrate and focus on billable tasks without the "quick question call" that just wastes time.

 

[Splinterdog]

Well, I decided to close my shop and do it in house Local PC Repair in Birmingham, Would I recommend yes.

That's exactly what I did a couple of years ago because my revenue came nowhere near covering the overheads. It just became a luxury I couldn't afford and now, working from my garage I have zero overheads, or at least what we normally pay at home anyway.
My customers weren't in the slightest bit fazed, but then this is Argentina 2021 with 50% inflation and all the rest of the bother...

 

[John-D]

That's exactly what I did a couple of years ago because my revenue came nowhere near covering the overheads. It just became a luxury I couldn't afford and now, working from my garage I have zero overheads, or at least what we normally pay at home anyway.
My customers weren't in the slightest bit fazed, but then this is Argentina 2021 with 50% inflation and all the rest of the bother...

If you're good, you should come to America and work for me.

 

[jboydgolfer]

PC repair is tough, its a model not suited to modern 'just buy a new one' culture.
if you have barebone overhead & costs, you might be able to stay afloat if you do enough business, but its tough.
some people offer things like ink cartridge filling , or phone repair to negate the weakness of the field by adding multiple services.

 

[jallenlabs]

Ive run a mobile IT business in my county in WI, USA for almost ten years. The key, be mobile as a store front is the budget killer. People would rather have you come to them anyway.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

If you're good, you should come to America and work for me.

He is his own boss.... Why would he fly across the pond just to be someone elses slave again?

Unless youre offering him silly amounts of money to work for you (which youre probably not) then being able to be your own boss outweighs being someone elses b**ch

My guy has had his taste of freedom and he's operating out of his garage. Its not perfect but at least he can do what the hell he wants without people walking all over him like hes trash.

If i was set up the way he was, I wouldnt go back unless more money was being offered or business completely cliff dived and i wasnt making any money at all.

 

[Cheese_On_tsaot]

I would have my main job and this as a side earner.

 

[maxfly]

I would have my main job and this as a side earner.

Thats usually how it starts. Until the profit outweighs your primary job.
It can help a great deal when your getting started if your spouse has a good job. Those rocky first few years can be stressful without something to fall back on occasionally.

 

[John-D]

He is his own boss.... Why would he fly across the pond just to be someone elses slave again?

Unless youre offering him silly amounts of money to work for you (which youre probably not) then being able to be your own boss outweighs being someone elses b**ch

My guy has had his taste of freedom and he's operating out of his garage. Its not perfect but at least he can do what the hell he wants without people walking all over him like hes trash.

If i was set up the way he was, I wouldnt go back unless more money was being offered or business completely cliff dived and i wasnt making any money at all.

What do you consider a silly amount of money? For our area, basic commercial techs starting is 50k plus bonus so you can easily make 70k/year on a standard 40hr work week. To me that sounded better than "Argentina 2021 with 50% inflation and all the rest of the bother". If he has any kind of network skills then the income keeps going up.

What do you make as a residential computer tech busting your butt and taking all those non-profit calls?

 

[FreedomEclipse]

What do you consider a silly amount of money? For our area, basic commercial techs starting is 50k plus bonus so you can easily make 70k/year on a standard 40hr work week. To me that sounded better than "Argentina 2021 with 50% inflation and all the rest of the bother". If he has any kind of network skills then the income keeps going up.

Is this a one time offer or is it open to anyone? Cuz i might have to find myself a plane ticket to the USA

 

[WhitetailAni]

Not in my area, but if I lived near where I go to high school (about 30 minutes away) I would make a school-based business.

 

[Splinterdog]

What do you consider a silly amount of money? For our area, basic commercial techs starting is 50k plus bonus so you can easily make 70k/year on a standard 40hr work week. To me that sounded better than "Argentina 2021 with 50% inflation and all the rest of the bother". If he has any kind of network skills then the income keeps going up.

What do you make as a residential computer tech busting your butt and taking all those non-profit calls?

Thanks for your kind suggestion and yes, that is considerably better than what I earn now. The name of the game down here is survival, whether we like it or not and I've had to supplement my income by offering door to door collection and delivery on top of my motorcycle courier work, VHS to digital conversions and whatever else springs to mind - within reason.
If we were ever to uproot ourselves and bearing in mind that I'm over 60, it would have to be back in my homeland, the UK. I'm no spring chicken any more!