Starting Home Based Computer Repair Business

[Dale King]

I am starting a home based computer repair business and have put a lot of thought into it. I would like to share my ideas and hopefully get feedback, opinions and suggestions.

I am 21 years old. I have been programing, doing web design, and repairing computers since I was about 12 years old. I have my A+ Certification (computer repair) and an extreme amount of experience doing this for friends, family and for past jobs I have had. Funny because none of my past jobs have been computer oriented, but I was always asked to fix them and miscellaneous task. I also live in a town with two colleges (University of Florida, and Santa Fe Community College).

My business will be named Student Digital. The idea behind it is a small network of student techs around town who need resume experience offering services for a more affordable price to the everyday person. Atleast for the first year or so I would prefer to run this from my home office. Initially I will be the only employee, then hopefully as it becomes a more recognized name bring in other tech students.

Services being offered will be affordable computer repair for students and home owners. I would like to specifically work on this portion of the market as it is quite a large one in this town, and the larger repair companies in town are rather territorial towards the businesses.

My main questions for you guys would be...

1) What is the best way to advertise a small business like this with out a lot of money starting out? I can get flyers made and put them up down by the colleges, perhaps in apartment complexes, etc.

2) I am trying to find the best way to maintain and bill for services. Possibly doing cash or check only for home visits? If other services are offered down the line such as remote repair (we connect to user from our office) then maybe allow them to pay by credit card through paypal or something?

3) What software should I look into for this? I am going to need a way to keep track of scheduled appointments, what tech is doing them, the service provided, total cost, etc. Also I will need to provide some sort of invoice, but considering I will either be charging by the hour or half hour, the price could vary depending on how long the tech is there. Possibly have a partial invoice printed then the tech writes in the price?

4) I have created and maintained numerous websites pertaining to various things over the years and I have always used forums. For a business of this type however I am hesitant. The pros I could attract more people with tutorials, information, etc. On the other hand it could come across as unprofessional, and probably other downsides.

Those are my main questions as of right now, I am sure I will have more come up as I get closer and closer to getting started. Kind of off topic and I don't think this counts as spam, if I could get feedback on the look of my website thus far that would help immensely too. I am imagine a lot of my customers will look at my website moreso than anything else so it will have to be perfect. As of right now its just the layout.

http://www.studentdigital.com

[umayxa3]

Website looks good, i've seen a similar open source design similar to it before. Thats a good way to start as far as saving money and time in man hours. You're on a decent path to start.

As far as everything else though, you're getting a bit to far ahead of yourself. Software for billing, and software for scheduling is to much to think about right now. You need to keep your overhead as low as possible so that you can have money to pay yourself, and to re-invest in getting the business off the ground good. Write out your ownh schedule, and use MS Excel to keep up with invoices. It'll do you great until you get 100+ clients. Or, you can write something simple for access. It will do even better

Im not sure how the IT market is up there, but here in houston its definitely saturated, so you'll have to be creative. Flyers will work great, people still pay attention to those. And remember, word of moth is important too. 1 positive comment can give you a small boost, but 1 negative comment can ruin you. So as well as doing good work, make sure your customer service is up to par.

Overall, i think the idea is excellent. I once thought of doing it here, but its pretty hard to expand with the way the IT market is. It will take plenty of time and dedication, so be prepared.

Originally Posted by CrimsonGT

1) What is the best way to advertise a small business like this with out a lot of money starting out? I can get flyers made and put them up down by the colleges, perhaps in apartment complexes, etc.

The very best way to advertise a new (or existing) business is with a press release. And it's FREE! My first press release for my retail business was a huge success. I only emailed it to two local newspapers. One called within 30 minutes. The other took a few months. They both wrote huge articles with color photos. From those two, several more newspapers picked up the "story" and wrote their own (more pics). This went on for a full year! Also, I sent the same press release to prweb.com and a television producer called! My business was just a small children's retail shop. Nothing particularly newsworthy. But I wrote a great press release. I used a little paperback book that you can see here (scroll down to Marketing/Advertising):
http://smallbusinessstartup.biz/recommended/

Sounds like a great idea. Good luck!

[Dale King]

Do I need to register anything for a home based business such as this? Do I need to get a business liscense, file with IRS, etc? I know nothing about actually starting and/or owning a business. Ive spent hours reading through these forums and learned some things but not enough to get started.

I also just installed quickbooks on my the PC im going to be using for keeping all the records and so fourth so hopefully that will help. I don't have any friends or anything, so to start off would just using my cell phone be okay, or should I invest in another line to start with a answering machine and so on?

[umayxa3]

1. Choose Business type. If sole proprietor, then file dba with county clerk. For orther business types, file with secretary of state.
2. Apply for FEIN

After those two are complete, there are different routes you can take depending on what you want to do.

[ntarifi dubai]

I would suggest canvasing your local small business owners too - there is a never ending supply of bad computer repair people at this time - all you have to do is sell and service well.

[keeppers]

Originally Posted by CrimsonGT

Do I need to register anything for a home based business such as this? Do I need to get a business liscense, file with IRS, etc? I know nothing about actually starting and/or owning a business. Ive spent hours reading through these forums and learned some things but not enough to get started.

I also just installed quickbooks on my the PC im going to be using for keeping all the records and so fourth so hopefully that will help. I don't have any friends or anything, so to start off would just using my cell phone be okay, or should I invest in another line to start with a answering machine and so on?

Don't forget the issue of liability. You will need insurance.

[CHRISSIE]

3) What software should I look into for this? I am going to need a way to keep track of scheduled appointments, what tech is doing them, the service provided, total cost, etc. Also I will need to provide some sort of invoice, but considering I will either be charging by the hour or half hour, the price could vary depending on how long the tech is there. Possibly have a partial invoice printed then the tech writes in the price?

Check out MHelpdesk to answer this question. It is a web-based service management software solution that would handle tracking scheduled appointments, who is working on what, tracking total cost and labor, and keeping track of your customer's assets. It also has an Invoice feature, where invoices can be generated from work orders. It is easier to use than Quickbooks, but Quickbooks is another monster.

[genrietta]

If you need to open a DBA you file with the state of Florida. Its like $150 bucks.


You should start putting up some flyers and see what kind of calls you get. You should not sink a lot of money
into anything yet. Put ads in your local newspaper pennysaver if they are affordable.

Put postcards on cars at malls...you can get like 5000 for $150 on Ebay

[Mr. Holla]

Sorry to sound critising.. but Student digital.....

In my opinion.. that would give me as a potential client the belief that its students working on the computers.. and if im paying good money for someone to fix my computer... I would want the re-assurance that they know what they are doing.

Good luck tho.

Daniel Norris