Can You Make Money Fixing Computers
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I'm new to the IT business and recently decided to venture into fixing laptops and desktops for profit. Not as an official business but out of the comfort of my own home and schedule. Are there any tips or guidelines to consider going about this endeavor?
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This is how I got my start in IT. You say "not as an official business" but you will have to get a business license, I believe. However, I don't know very much about running a business, taxes, etc. Also, this may vary from state to state (I'm assuming you're in the US).
From my experience, best tips I can give:
- Get tools and go mobile. People don't like to unhook desktops (some believe it or not, sometimes don't know how to hook the cables back up).
- Get a credit card reader for your smartphone. I used Square and it was wonderful: https://squareup.com/reader
Good luck and welcome to the community!
Much depends on state. Business license, insurance, and separate corporate entity can be make-or-break type items.
R.K. Black, Inc. is an IT service provider.
Get your LLC and insurance.
EBS Computer Services is an IT service provider.
out of the comfort of my own home and schedule
That's the tricky bit.
Home users are the worst of all. You cannot simply image the desktop, have them log in, and have everything automagically configured for them like you can in a decent sized business. Things which are unimportant to us (like the exact layout of the icons on their desktops) are level-1 critical, can't-look-at-pictures-of-my-grandson-because-the-big-E-has-moved type problems.
If you're doing it for experience and a little bit of spending money, that's fine. Don't expect to earn a decent hourly rate.
You will spend a lot of time as a trainer rather than a tech.
You will get a lot of 'call backs' as people expect you to just quickly fix this little thing that's changed, and they won't pay you because it's your fault it's not exactly how it used to be.
You will see some ancient machines which will suck your time and, if you're really unlucky, your very living soul.
You will see home-made porn. It will not be the customers you wanted to see. You will turn to drink.
EBS Computer Services is an IT service provider.
If you tell us where in the world you are, somebody with local knowledge will probably be able to help with the legals :)
JoeWilliams wrote:
out of the comfort of my own home and schedule
That's the tricky bit.
Home users are the worst of all. You cannot simply image the desktop, have them log in, and have everything automagically configured for them like you can in a decent sized business. Things which are unimportant to us (like the exact layout of the icons on their desktops) are level-1 critical, can't-look-at-pictures-of-my-grandson-because-the-big-E-has-moved type problems.
If you're doing it for experience and a little bit of spending money, that's fine. Don't expect to earn a decent hourly rate.
You will spend a lot of time as a trainer rather than a tech.
You will get a lot of 'call backs' as people expect you to just quickly fix this little thing that's changed, and they won't pay you because it's your fault it's not exactly how it used to be.
You will see some ancient machines which will suck your time and, if you're really unlucky, your very living soul.
You will see home-made porn. It will not be the customers you wanted to see. You will turn to drink.
I can't spice this up nearly enough.
DON'T UNDERCHARGE. You devalue us ALL when you do.
TIME = MONEY.Self explanatory. You spent time on it, they owe you money. Every time.
100+ for needing to get your business license and insurance.
Small or not people will still blame you for stupid stuff.... including someone trying to take you to court for telling them their red bull soaked laptop is fried, and their data gone - true story.
I also agree that you will spend more time as an unpaid trainer than a paid tech, unless you are far better than I am about telling people no to 'quick questions'.
If you are of a higher moral character, and plan to fix other peoples machines as you would your own. This is not the field for you. You will spend more time on them then money you will make. This was my experience after attempting to provide "real" tech service outside of the workplace. And flat fees , forget about it..... sure you need to redo windows...back up all your stuff etc......what do you mean you dont have the CD's. ...ohh the other guy formatted the HDD and the recovery partition? Let me see what we can do.....blah blah blah
Make them sign something that says that they backed their stuff it and if everything goes south its their responsibility to restore it. Teaching people how to backup can solve quite a few problems. Also be very careful about making sure that they know if somebody else pirated some software for them.
This is something I'd like to do... It's sad how many pc repair shops will gouge you for money, when most of the time free software is used. I'd still ask for money for my time, but more along the lines of 10 bucks, not 100. Also depending on what exactly was going on. If I had to do more like, back stuff up and what not, I might charge 30... but I have no desire to over charge. If I had to buy parts... No mark up for me, I'd just charge what I had to pay for said item and shipping. Then time to fix it.
Anyway you get my drift. Good luck!
I use to do this but had an LLC. Losing someone's data can get very expensive if you don't have insurance. I don't even know if I could remove a virus from a computer anymore. Spoiled with imaging now.
Don't undercharge. Setup standards. I would do AV/Repairs for $100 flat rate, unless I encountered something "critical". Otherwise just take HDD out, scan externally, put back in, run through some maintenance, setup Ninite or other update tools.
Side business can grow quickly. Make SURE to have some clear expectations on returning. I can't tell you how many times I would just get handed a laptop of a friend of a friend and then bugged for "when is it ready and fixed". I would usually promise a 7 day turn around so I could do it on MY time.
I also recomend creating an internal WIKI for yourself with client name/contact info, and DOCUMENT all of their hardware / serial numbers / product keys etc etc etc. Can use this to generate work too. Email all of your clients with XP end of life or whatever else - can very quickly ramp up work.
If you get more serious, get a domain and setup Google Apps for yourself for $5 - $10 / month or whatever they charge these days.
I also would backup (image level with Macrium Reflect) all laptops / computers I worked on to a few TB locally and cloud offsite cloud replication so when they have issues down the line I would be able to pull some data for them.
It's crazy how a few clients can ramp into 10, 20, 50+ clients. Can make some good side cash.
Again - DON'T UNDERSELL YOURSELF. I'd charge at LEAST $50/hour for home users, and if you are supporting businesses double or more than that (if you are good what you do ;-) )
It can't be said enough what JoeWilliams said;
"You will get a lot of 'call backs' as people expect you to just quickly fix this little thing that's changed, and they won't pay you because it's your fault it's not exactly how it used to be."
That is key if you are only doing this on the side. If you have a full time Job that will keep you from assisting them during normal working hours you better make sure you tell them when you can and cannot help them.
As others have mentioned, check with your local government agency to see if you need a business license. And you will definitely want some type of insurance to cover you from frivolous lawsuits.
Almost seems like you want to do this as more of a make a little money on the side deal, NO business license etc. Go independent contractor route and throw up a simple website, don't expect to make this a career and have fun!
RojoLoco wrote:
DON'T UNDERCHARGE. You devalue us ALL when you do.
TIME = MONEY.Self explanatory. You spent time on it, they owe you money. Every time.
This 1,000 times this!
Unfortunately, I have never mastered this.I write down WAY too much, this was especially true when I worked on personal equipment. I knew they really couldn't afford me, so I would do it on the cheap.Then there is all the family that I end up doing it for free....
Get some business cards. Read and think about what everyone else has said.
Be up front and honest with people. You need to be able to deliver the bad news as well as the good. Keep in mind the cost of a new budget laptop. I don't have a problem spending an hour on two on a messed up laptop, but if it is not able to be fixed in that time, I just offer to recover data from the hard drive and load it onto a disk. Otherwise they could spend more on a piece of junk that is never going to work right than a new laptop would cost.
I dont want to be a debbie downer here, but you're gonna be working for cheeeeap. no one wants to pay what you're worth. parts are cheap so people believe that the work is as well.
computers are relatively cheap that usually people will just buy a new one, you'll end up transferring personal info and figuring out how to tell them that all the illegal software they had on their old computer you can't do anything about - if they want to continue that way they need to do that on their own - dont do the illegal software stuff.
good luck.
If I worked 40 hours a week at that rate I would be somewhere around the poverty level (family of four = $24,250). Please see RojoLoco's post above.Soph wrote:
This is something I'd like to do... It's sad how many pc repair shops will gouge you for money, when most of the time free software is used. I'd still ask for money for my time, but more along the lines of 10 bucks, not 100. Also depending on what exactly was going on. If I had to do more like, back stuff up and what not, I might charge 30... but I have no desire to over charge. If I had to buy parts... No mark up for me, I'd just charge what I had to pay for said item and shipping. Then time to fix it.
Anyway you get my drift. Good luck!
IT pros have a particular set of skills that took a big investment in time and treasure and should be compensated as such.
You only value yourself at $10?????Soph wrote:
This is something I'd like to do... It's sad how many pc repair shops will gouge you for money, when most of the time free software is used. I'd still ask for money for my time, but more along the lines of 10 bucks, not 100. Also depending on what exactly was going on. If I had to do more like, back stuff up and what not, I might charge 30... but I have no desire to over charge. If I had to buy parts... No mark up for me, I'd just charge what I had to pay for said item and shipping. Then time to fix it.
Anyway you get my drift. Good luck!
Merryworks is an IT service provider.
Like all that have said before, do not undercharge. Even though you may end up working 20 extra hours a week on your side business, not all of those 20 hours are going to be billable. The time you work is going to include billing, tracking your work, getting your tools updated, and so on. I have heard that if you are doing this full time and end up with 30 billable hours in a week, you are doing good. Now figure out how much you want to make based on your predicted billable hours and you can see why $100 per hour is not unreasonable. If you are doing a professional job, charge a professional rate. The people who only want to pay you $25 to remove a malware infection are not the customer you want as they will add on to the scope of work to with the extras they add on.
Residential customers tend to be an impatient lot (not to say business customers are not). The same people who thought they would be able to strike it rich by following some emailed link and got Cryptolocker are also the ones who do not understand what realistic repair times are. If this is something you will only be doing in the evenings, you could find yourself facing some customers who are upset that things are taking so long. Granted, most of the time, it is something the customer did, but don't try telling them that. If they cannot get to their porn or torrent files, they are going to focus on you as the excuse...never themselves.
So do not be afraid to turn down customers if you are going to be holding a day job doing something else. Know what you can do and how long it will take and turn away everything else. A successful business is not one that is always swamped with work. It is one that can balance all aspects of work. If your turn around time starts increasing, you will alienate customers. Keeping a steady but flexible work load based on your abilities/target problems will allow you to accomplish your goals without sacrificing your health, your sanity, and future referrals from your customers.
Also, if the problem is too difficult to accomplish and time consuming...then just say no. The same impatient lot of people who do not know how long it takes to fix something also underestimate the value of the service you are providing and will balk at the cost. Again, you are the focal point of their anger, not what they did to their computer. The solution needed will take a set amount of time, but they just won't comprehend it and think you are gouging them. Unless you are short on work, turn away the frustrating and time consuming items, unless you have a working relationship with the customer so they know that it takes what time it will take and it will cost based on that time.
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Can You Make Money Fixing Computers
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