A detailed plan to start the business of repairing computers, laptops, phones and other electronics

Benefits of an electronics (computer) repair business

The electronics repair and maintenance business shows amazing survivability. Let’s see why it makes sense to enter this business?

  1. Small amount to start. You need a minimum of $ 1,000 to $ 2,000 to start. This money will mainly go to advertising and simple equipment. We will talk about this later.
  2. Pricing flexibility. In this business, the price for the provision of services is formed mainly on your behalf, skills, cost of the device. Yes, there are market prices for typical services, such as laptop dust cleaning. But most repairs are atypical and unique.
  3. The ability to hitch sales to services. If you are repairing phones, it makes sense to sell cases and chargers.
  4. Minimal risks. Even if your business fails, you can always curtail your business. You do not need to risk big loans, invest in goods for resale, buy / rent expensive real estate.
  5. Steadily growing demand for services. Every year a person acquires more and more gadgets that need to be serviced. And the good is there are service centers such as yours, in which you can repair equipment and not buy new ones.
Model of work of the owner of a business for the repair of electronics (computers)

Let you look at yourself. There are arms, legs, a head. Now let’s see what you can do. Depending on your skills, you can formulate a business development strategy.

  1. You have technical knowledge – techie. You have experience repairing computers and electronics. So you are a techie and you can start with a minimum budget. In the first stages, this will facilitate the task. You accept orders from customers, execute and give them yourself. In fact, the whole business process is you. There is no need to share earnings with anyone, to report, to control. In the future, the techie hires a manager or becomes a manager himself. If you are a techie fan, then become an engineer of exceptional skill, continuing to carry out repairs.
  2. You do not have sufficient technical skills to carry out repairs yourself. Then your role is the manager. You are looking for people who do the work for $ 10, and sell it to the client for 20. You earn money on this. In the future, the manager hires craftsmen and other managers. It’s hard for a manager to start, but he is more a businessman than a techie, since he initially solves managerial tasks – staff recruitment.
Three schemes for starting a business for the repair and maintenance of computer equipment. How much money do you need to start

I want to draw attention to the fact that, in fact, you do not need money to start. Need a desire. But money will allow you to grow faster. There are several models for starting an electronics service and maintenance business.

  1. Start development with software and block repairs. You provide services away from the client, at home or in the office. To start, you only need customers. Do not take equipment and premises, work by phone. Spare parts – look for a supplier in your city. Money is earned from the services provided, such as removing viruses, setting up the operating system, network, routers and more. If something breaks at the client, for example the power supply unit or the motherboard, you change the unit completely without repairing the broken one. Further, as experience and customers are developed, connect hardware repair. In this investment scheme, only the site and advertising (business cards, flyers, city forums), about $ 1000 to start, $ 50-100 / month content.
  2. It is possible to work with companies as a system administrator on call. How does this strategy work? You take a directory of your city, ring up all the companies in a row and present your services as repair technicians for computers, servers, networks. Take their computers for maintenance. The plus is that you are not attached to this employer. You can have 3-5-10 such companies. In this scheme, the investment is only your time and phone.
  3. You can organize an electronics repair service center. Now let’s estimate the approximate minimum money for starting a hardware repair service center.
    – Create a website or blog + SEO optimization + 50 articles + contextual advertising for two to three months = $ 1000 + content $ 20-50 / month.;
    – Hot air soldering station + tool + microscope + tin + solders + other tools and consumables = $ 500;
    – Room 300-500 $ / month.
Action plan. Where to start the business of repairing computers, phones

Many online manuals recommend starting with FOP registration and equipment purchase. But we are smart people, and we understand that the money is brought by customers, not FOP and equipment. Therefore, logic suggests that the first thing to do is search for customers. This is described in detail in the book on the opening of a service center.

There are many different ways to do this. I wrote about this in the article “107 points where the client can see your ad.” But let’s look at the most effective ones that work in my business:

  1. The website of your service center. On a paid domain and hosting. The engine can be taken for free. The main thing is that people should understand everything on it. For example, you can take my www.itprofi.in.ua;
  2. Boards of free announcements, such as OLX, avito, prom.ua, pulsen. How to write effective ads, read the article “How to write free text ads”;
  3. Business cards, flyers. After the customer is served, be sure to give two, three business cards. One to him, the rest to his friends. Flyer too;
  4. Contextual advertising google adwords and Yandex Direct;
  5. Your personal connections and contacts. CHIP! After two or three weeks, how they served the client, call him with a question: how does everything work? If everything is ok, ask him to recommend you to friends and acquaintances. So you provoke the spread of rumors about yourself.

I described in more detail about creating an incoming stream in the article “Creating an Incoming Stream of Service Center Clients. Measurement of key indicators”

Accounting, personnel and suppliers

After you have created a client flow, you should serve them. In order not to mix up where whose equipment is and what needs to be done, you need to use some kind of accounting system. For the first time, Excel or a spreadsheet in Google Docs is enough. But it is advisable to immediately conduct the economy in the accounting system for the service center. Fortunately, this software is enough now. Some of them are in the article “Service Center Program (CRM).” The system of accounting for repairs of equipment in the workshop. Overview” .

At first you will manage it yourself, but still you need to get rid of the turnover in order to engage in business development. To do this, you need staff – those people who perform part of your tasks in exchange for money. Remuneration comes from the product that the employee produces. Engineer – repairs equipment, manager – makes sure that as many customers as possible leave with repaired equipment and more. From this, you consider the percentage of the money brought by the employee.

Suppliers are those people and companies that supply you spare parts for repairing equipment or selling goods. It is important to understand that suppliers can also be engineers of a specialization, such as, for example, a data recovery wizard.

What NOT to do right away

First we earn money, then we spend, therefore:

  1. Entity you register only after you see real stable money. You do not begin to register, and after that you are already thinking what to do about it. NO! First money, then everything else. Moreover, it is ten times more difficult to close FOP than open. QUEDA, taxes and everything else will tell you more in the tax office.
  2. You only buy equipment that you really need, such as a soldering iron. But I know many engineers who work only with the software part of computers, like setting up 1C, removing viruses, setting up a network, operating systems, and more. Their rate goes hourly. From the equipment – only a screwdriver and crimp for twisted pair. But you can repair the devices in hardware, there payment is for the result. Remember, if an infrared soldering station costs $ 1,000, and you have one repair a month to solder a BGA bridge, do you really need it? How much will you beat off its value? It makes sense to find the service that will repair you at a discount.
  3. Room rental. First ask yourself: what is stopping me from doing repairs at home? If you have a two-room apartment, or have a spacious balcony, then make a workshop right there. Moreover, the first time, most likely, you will work alone. Then, as the volume of work increases, it makes sense to rent a room, hire staff. But unnecessarily it’s not worth flattery for constant expenses, because you will pay it from your pocket. For example, I live outside the city, and to conduct business, I needed a room for repair in the city center. But not all the same as me. Maybe you have a unique qualification and customers will send you equipment by new mail with home delivery?
Open a branch and autopilot

You need an autopilot for the business to work without your participation. To do this, you need to document the entire business process, starting with how the customer got into the service and before he took the equipment from the repair. That is, the number one key is documentation. The second point is the writing of instructions. Your staff will come and go. This is normal. But so that you do not sit next to each other, do not lead by the handle, give a set of instructions and say: “From now on, you carry out this work clearly following these instructions.” Give to study, check how a new person has learned it.

Scaling is necessary so that you can cover the largest possible market share, performing more and more repairs. But this is a higher level of business.

I described the main working strategy for developing a service center business. She works for me. I distribute it. You can learn more about opening a service center business from a free course (main page, right) or from the webinar entry “Electronics Repair Business from 0 to the First $ 1,000 per Month”. If you need to create a business from scratch, then sign up for coaching.

P.S. Is it helpful? Instead, thank you, like or repost in social networks

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Unstoppable inspiration
Kutsenko Eugene

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