Not your typical muse. PC repair

[ksup]

Hear me out, this is not a typical muse as seen here on the forums and I bet I will see more than one reply telling me to read the book again but...

My idea is to start a PC repair service. My role is to provide the company image, manage the website, find reliable techs and market the service, find those techs work, pay those techs a portion of the earnings from each job. Now this sounds like a Geek Squad type of think and I guess its along the same lines.

I think my idea will work because six months ago I set out with a repair service on my own, with minimal advertising and I was getting 3-4 customers a week. Word of mouth is amazing!

The issues I see arising are legal ones. How well do I know these techs that I am sending into customer homes? What if they do something stupid?

I figure eventually I can outsource my management duties to a VA and kick back a bit.

Your thoughts?

[kamakiri]

You are all over the place with that one. The idea might be sound, but you need to define your goals. On a broad sense it is a form of tech support, and that by it's very nature is a labor intensive job. You fixing people's PCs and you hiring qualified people to do the job is night and day.

Personally I wouldn't touch that idea as it is with a 10 foot power strip. There is still a ton of potential there though. Instead of trying to coordinate things like you mention (using a VA to coordinate freelancers is really a stretch), you could look into making a book/manual on how to teach people to get into the PC repair business. That made people millions 50 years ago selling TV repair manuals.

It also sets you up for some reselling potential. You can sell those guys another book on PC tweaking, upgrading, and many other aspects of that market.

[networkmemetics]

I agree with Kamikiri.

It is a great business and market, but will require a lot of hands on work...even if you outsource.

[DeyIrfan]

yeah making a fix-it-yourself manual also popped out in my mind too as I was reading your post. Why set up an army when you can just share your knowledge to those computer owners.

Give it a thought, it just might be your goldmine ;)

[Tom84]

This could work and there people already doing similar models.. for instance my mate started up a lawn mowing company, outsources to his reps (doesn't need to provide them equipment or anything) and takes a cut for the lead.

With regards to outsourcing the managment.. in the early days just have your number for after hours or have an email address as a point of contact. As it grows the main concern would be your techs stealing your clients.. just make them sign a non-disclosure type contract before working for you also making them liable for any damages...

If you choose really good reps then the referrals will come in you will get more margins from there own efforts! (By then you can either have a cheap 24hr voice box or hire a pay per call customer service rep) and as it grows even bigger have a VA do the complete management including taking orders, delegating tasks etc etc

I have my VA in philliphines do a complete 360 role full time 40hrs a week.. sales calls, building relationships, creating database of contacts, sending out appointments/digital info packs. I think a lot of people spend too much time in thinking and not going out there to do it! Service outsourcing isn't as saturated in the market as the cliche "How to" digital products but there is still A LOT of competition which may make it harder to market not been as niche but there is loads of potential there.

Good luck!

Tom

[FreedomFinder]

I had a friend whose bro did this type of business, except he mostly did the stuff himself. He had employees before, but the problems he ran into were that the ones that were good enough to get the job done, were too expensive for him to cut a real profit, and the ones that were cheap enough couldn't do enough, and he ended up doing everything anyways.

Nowadays though, with the way things are, you may be able to find people who can do the work at a much cheaper price, since it's better than no work at all, and it may be economical to do repairs rather than upgrade the equipment.

Overall, might work, but you might still be better off with another type of muse.