Starting a home computer repair business.

ok yall heres the break down.

i work at a golf course and my co-worker was complaing about his computer. having A+ and N+ under my belt and soon be doing cisco my junior year in high school i thought i would take on teh task of fixing his computer.

soo i got it home and it wasnt a computer. its was a dust ball.
he kept it next to a fridge so it got all the dust and crap the cooling unit. so i dusted it out and booted it up. basic stuff, spybot, adaware scans, gave him AVG. i took off 127 trojans and adaware removed 2249 malicious programs. 2249, crazy huh. i cleaned off the ports on his ram and reseased cards and updated drivers.

i gave it back to him and the next day he kept thanking me for the great job i did and saved him about 500 bucks on a new one. he told me i could get into a small business fixing computers out of my house.

being in high school i figured i would advertise in my school, and most of the work would be easy stuff like getting rid of virsues and what not. and even the challenging stuff like what went down with my computer wouldnt be too hard with you guys to help me .

soo what do you guys think? doing it out of my house i could pass it off as a kinda "neighiborhood lawn mowing" type business, but if not i could get a busniess lisnece. do you have any suggestions on advertising/slogans/company names. any tips or ideas on pricing. i thought somthing like comp usa, a flat upright fee for jsut looking at the computer and then an hourly rate. i thought i could card say 25 bucks for the flat rate then about 10-15 bucks each hour. but my father thinks i could get some more outta people because people really cherish there computers, ya know it has all their finnancail crap photos on it.

i'd gladly take any advice or critisims on this little endevour i plan on taking. thanks yall

go for it, money is money as far as im concerned, if there is any problems with doing something like that your probably better off checking with local council or something, my family will also be joining this type of thing, just a thought for you, are the PC's coming to your place? or are you going to travel to fix them, or both? either way if you end up taking the PC make sure you document what is in the PC and make sure the other person signs it, that way you wont get asked to fix a decent pc and the person ending up complaining cos you took something out (regardless of whether you did or didnt) it happend to me and ended up having to replace a guys graphics card that he never had in the first place. the best advice i can give is dont rush into things, think about all options before considering a new pc or a format, make sure you keep records and keep registers of PC componants, and most of all, watch your own back, dont just dive into anyold PC, think about the situation, some people may just want all the data wiping off a pc cos it doesnt belong to them, ive had to turn away many people because the computers clearly didnt belong to them and i didnt want to get involved with stolen computers.

MattyG

ill probably go to the home/business AND have them come my house.

thats a good idea to keep track of stuff inside so i dont get screwed and also check out the the computer and see if they own it. go through a series of questions and what not to see if they actually own it.

i also thought i could also provide ording for parts but make sure they sign a sort of waiver. also building of a custom pc and what not.

thanks man for the input

im thinking of doing the same sort of thing at college.

hell, advertising at school/college wont cost you more than a few photocopies, and as bob said, money is money

just be CERTAIN you know what your doing before you try it, killing someones machine isn't a good way to keep that money you make

oh yes of course, ive been fixing computers in the coporate enviroment (fixin em for the real estate office my mom works at and my dads flight school business) for about 5 years. i cant screw things up that much, except for when i lost sound in my on my board then i relised when i did driver cleaner i erased my mobo driver and the sound went with it. (cant hurt to have a brand new sound card can it?)

it could hurt your back pocket if you order a sound blaster audigy... lol


---edit---

unless you are rich like me...lol, O/J

ah if we could all be rich like you, then the world would be happy.


but anyway i was listening to leo leportes podcast on radio and he was answereing a problem about a hard drive.

he mentioned some hard drive testing software and i think to myself. if i started this business would i have to buy all sorts of software before hand or would i buy software when a computer comes with a problem and charge the software to the cutomer and teach them to run it.

oh i need some more input on this. if i get a completely unprotected comp and i do the standard spybot and adware and then teach the user to use it, i was thinking of installing a free antivirus. i was planning on giving stupid people avg cause its easier to run and smarter/people i like give them avast!. do you guys know of anyother free antivirus thats worth downloading.

and do you think ordering parts or stuff off the internet for the customer would be ok if i used their card, or do you think i should use my own card due to liability

hey, it can't hurt (but if i were you id just do a quick check on how likely it would be you'd be required to pay tax for it... i think small earning businesses can sometimes get away with it but it's always better to be safe than sorry (especially for me with our inland revenue being so up-tight).

EDIT: he's not rich at all, he's living off fumes atm

well you know what they say, what they dont (or you dont) know cant hurt, but as soon as you see an inland revenue letter panic... i pay enuf tax on my wage so they can drop off the cliff for me

lol.

and really if it's a small business (making around 5k a year for instance, and your only serving a small population [the school] then you should get away with it... but im not sure what the US system is like).

and bob, did you read the fumes comment

come the 25th ill be roling in it again!

thats money not... well... draw your own conclusions

lol, so what your saying is i should like call my local uuuuhhhh business lisence people office and ask them about starting somthing like that.

oh yeah got any ideas for waivers for service or have any templates for have computer inventory before i take it in and service it.

you can ask, and to be honest its probably the best thing to do, they usually not best pleased when they find out what your doing and you owe them something, as for waivers, they are usually up to you, if you feel you want to do someone a favor then you can, as for templates urhh yeah.. well.. they went when i left my last workplace

--edit--

it shouldnt be that hard to knock a quick template up, but im at work atm and well..lunch is over man.. sorry

Working for a small lone trader myself i'd tell you to be very careful of what your doing.

Ensure you have a large usb backup drive to save all customers data even if your doing something routine like repairing windows. If it all goes tits up then your in the doghouse.
It would be good if you knew how to save peoples emails address books and email accounts. (There's a really easy way of doing this for outlook express, if you dont know it i can tell you).

Also you will need things like:

Copies of windows xp pro/home millenium and even 98 if some peoples computers arent up to scratch and they just want a fresh install.

Also windows update is actually good for retrieving drivers if you use it a certain way.

You may want to get a copy of xp slipstreamed with sp2 to save you having to update them all.

Also software like nero, powerdvd, office may be expected if you format their drives as they probably wont have the software themselves.

It's a good idea and will work, providing you use the right attitude and have everything for every circumstance.

I do my mates computers every now and again, dont really charge them coz it's nothin serious, but they know i'm here and if it takes me a while i'll tell them to just buy me a few pints.