Should I do PC repair on the side?

Hello.

My local IT repair place is always busy. On the weekends, there is always someone waiting outside with a laptop or desktop and the place is shut, and they look visibly panicked. I could probably fix it, my obstacles are;

I work fulltime, so I would have to fit clients around specific times.
I do not have a workstation, so laptop will be on the floor, desktop hooked up to a monitor I dont use etc, making a simple pc fix about an hour or two.
Cash in hand.
I can keep track of how much I make for tax purposes, but ultimately im counting that it wont come to that.
No insurance.
Some things I do not know because of lack of professional experience which I am not willing to do on a clients PC, images and backing up etc.

I am certified and able to do this. One client a week would be a very nice income boost, and one client a week is almost a 99% certainty.

Should I? Maybe it will be good softskills experience.

Kai.

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Comments

WafflesAndRootbeer

If you do do it, do desktops only. Laptops take far longer to repair, are more difficult to repair and require the ability to order spare parts from parts vendors and companies, and laptops are more likely to get damaged in the repair process when you go through the motions of repair work.

Phobia

I've done exactly that before and still do the odd pc repair. I charge much less than the high street and customers are happy with that. If i inspect and can't fix due to lack of resources etc. I just give it them back and tell them what's wrong with it so they can go to a shop and not get ripped off. Never had a problem before and customers are always happy.

Phobia

WafflesAndRootbeer wrote: »

If you do do it, do desktops only. Laptops take far longer to repair, are more difficult to repair and require the ability to order spare parts from parts vendors and companies, and laptops are more likely to get damaged in the repair process when you go through the motions of repair work.

Yep, not worth fixing hardware problems with laptops.

Iristheangel

Kai123 wrote: »

Hello.

My local IT repair place is always busy. On the weekends, there is always someone waiting outside with a laptop or desktop and the place is shut, and they look visibly panicked. I could probably fix it, my obstacles are;
I work fulltime, so I would have to fit clients around specific times.

I do not have a workstation, so laptop will be on the floor, desktop hooked up to a monitor I dont use etc, making a simple pc fix about an hour or two.

Cash in hand.

I can keep track of how much I make for tax purposes, but ultimately im counting that it wont come to that.

No insurance.

Some things I do not know because of lack of professional experience which I am not willing to do on a clients PC, images and backing up etc.

I am certified and able to do this. One client a week would be a very nice income boost, and one client a week is almost a 99% certainty.

Should I? Maybe it will be good softskills experience.

Kai.

It's hard to start up a business on your own. Have you thought about going through contracting agencies that bring the work to you? I am currently working full time while going to school at WGU and doing side jobs through Onforce. I would recommend going through those kind of agencies as they usually have insurance that they cover you under (they take like a 3% fee out of your earnings with them for it) and it's decent pay. I'm currently signed up through onforce.com, workmarket.com, and guru.com and I'm getting emailed 20 work orders a day. I usually only accept 1-2 a day due to my work schedule but it adds up to an extra 600-1000 a week.

Kai123

Iristheangel wrote: »

It's hard to start up a business on your own. Have you thought about going through contracting agencies that bring the work to you? I am currently working full time while going to school at WGU and doing side jobs through Onforce. I would recommend going through those kind of agencies as they usually have insurance that they cover you under (they take like a 3% fee out of your earnings with them for it) and it's decent pay. I'm currently signed up through onforce.com, workmarket.com, and guru.com and I'm getting emailed 20 work orders a day. I usually only accept 1-2 a day due to my work schedule but it adds up to an extra 600-1000 a week.

I live in Ireland, but im going to see if a service like Onforce exists, which I doubt it. Times like this makes me wish I was great at html, something like Onforce here would be very successful.

Kai.

Iristheangel

Kai123 wrote: »

I live in Ireland, but im going to see if a service like Onforce exists, which I doubt it. Times like this makes me wish I was great at html, something like Onforce here would be very successful.

Kai.

Opps. I didn't even look at your location. My bad.

If you're going to do it, it'll be slow at first which isn't bad. It lets you learn the ropes on the business side. It's very important to go about getting service contracts that spell out your warranty and protect you legally. I know there are services online that let you pay for the drafting (for like 40-80$ USD). It's to protect you because you WILL get customers who are clingy or will call you up with every problem after you remove the malware on their computer. It's up to you how much you want to help after you've completed a job, but if you do want to give them some sort of remote technical support, use logmein.com or some other remote software. You could even give them a maintenance plan for like X amount a month that includes remote support (additional costs for in-person assessments). Something I find successful is canvassing fliers in rich neighborhoods. Wealthier people don't mind paying $250 to get malware removed from their $2000 laptop/desktop. I'm also not picky about replacing laptop hardware as long as they pay for the part and know about the wait ahead of time. Don't sell yourself short either: Charge an hourly rate + mileage if you have to go to their houses.

Oh, I know imaging and backing up aren't your thing but it would definitely be useful to learn. Non-technical people will pay to have their data saved and backed up. You could charge a $30/month fee for them to have the assurance that you're making sure their data is backed up remotely. Just food for thought. There are tons of ways to make money on the side.

Tackle

Be careful of conflict of interest. Your repair shop may not like you stealing their potential customers.

Kai123

Tackle wrote: »

Be careful of conflict of interest. Your repair shop may not like you stealing their potential customers.

They wont open weekends, and charge 50 euro for a basic malware removal and defrag.

If I do this, I will probably let them know and tell them whatever I cant fix I will refer them to the shop.

demonfurbie

you may want to talk to the local repair shop and see if they would be interested in you working there on sat/sunday

NewManSoon

Tackle wrote: »

Be careful of conflict of interest. Your repair shop may not like you stealing their potential customers.

I don't think he works there, so who cares?

Tackle

NewManSoon wrote: »

I don't think he works there, so who cares?

I must have read that wrong. "My local IT repair place is always busy." I guessed that he worked there, but if he doesn't I'd say they are fair game!

djfunz

+1 for iristheangel's suggestions. Nice.

SteveLord

First, include laptops...but announce their hardware limitations. Otherwise, you miss out on a lot of clients. Not working on them is just silly considering how many people own them.

Second, keep it on the side and lose any "because I know how to fix a computer, I can make tons of money and show big stores who's boss!" type of mentality.

halaakajan

Are there any similar freelance website for IT support in Canada ?

Kai123

Im trying to figure out how to advertise myself. You can buy a stack of 500 small business cards for very cheap which seems to be the best way. Maybe something like;

Desktop repair
Laptop repair (Software only)
Complete PC service
Flat fee of 30 euro. No fix no pay.

Like I said, one client a week would be perfect. If I got swamped with calls I would be very upset.

A few issues putting me off is having to use my personal phone. I dont have an option but to use it, but its a android smart phone. Voicemail does not work though so I might have to work on that!

Secondly, for cash-in-hand work I feel like I would be asking for to much for creating a contract for an issue, to avoid people coming back and complaining that their sons PC is infected with viruses again, but I dont want to come across that im dodgy and your gonna "get what you pay for". Reputation is everything, that I do know.

Lastly is the tax issue. Best I can do is keep track of the income and take a cut from it, and after a year see what I should do with the rest. If I got another IT related job then I would stop the side gig and just pocket the rest.

Thanks for all the comments. They are all very motivating. I tried to do this before but chickened out, but that was before the A+ and Network+.

Kai.

Kai123

halaakajan wrote: »

Are there any similar freelance website for IT support in Canada ?

For Ireland there is none. If anyone wants to setup a website for Ireland Im sure its a great business oppertunity! I would do the legwork of course

If you find one for Canada and apply for it, let me know how it goes.

Kai.

paul78

demonfurbie wrote: »

you may want to talk to the local repair shop and see if they would be interested in you working there on sat/sunday

Plus it can add a evel of legitimacy to your side business. If you do refer work to the shop, that coul be the quidproquo as well. I wouldnt necessarily avoid doing work on laptops. I suspect a lot of the work is malware removal and similar OS issues versus hardware. As a followup service, you can add remote support. I use LogMeIn for that. Thats how I support family members all over the country.
Good luck - small businesses can be fun and you never know where it can take you!

amplify

side work is great while you are still learning and gaining the confidence to walk into any situation and handle it appropriately. eventually the PITA factor will start to outweigh the money and experience. at that point, stop doing the side work and spend that time learning new skills.

Kai123

amplify wrote: »

side work is great while you are still learning and gaining the confidence to walk into any situation and handle it appropriately. eventually the PITA factor will start to outweigh the money and experience. at that point, stop doing the side work and spend that time learning new skills.

PITA?

I will see if they will take me on for weekends. I dont know the guys who run my local one but we know eachother by name, and we are both friends with someone else. I dont have the balls to go in and ask them, I will probably jump the manager next time hes in my workplace (in retail).

Kai.

BradleyHU

Kai123 wrote: »

A few issues putting me off is having to use my personal phone. I dont have an option but to use it, but its a android smart phone. Voicemail does not work though so I might have to work on that!

Use GoogleVoice

Iristheangel

Kai123 wrote: »

Im trying to figure out how to advertise myself. You can buy a stack of 500 small business cards for very cheap which seems to be the best way. Maybe something like;
Desktop repair

Laptop repair (Software only)

Complete PC service

Flat fee of 30 euro. No fix no pay.

Like I said, one client a week would be perfect. If I got swamped with calls I would be very upset.

A few issues putting me off is having to use my personal phone. I dont have an option but to use it, but its a android smart phone. Voicemail does not work though so I might have to work on that!

Secondly, for cash-in-hand work I feel like I would be asking for to much for creating a contract for an issue, to avoid people coming back and complaining that their sons PC is infected with viruses again, but I dont want to come across that im dodgy and your gonna "get what you pay for". Reputation is everything, that I do know.

Lastly is the tax issue. Best I can do is keep track of the income and take a cut from it, and after a year see what I should do with the rest. If I got another IT related job then I would stop the side gig and just pocket the rest.

Thanks for all the comments. They are all very motivating. I tried to do this before but chickened out, but that was before the A+ and Network+.

Kai.

A client a week sounds nice at first but expect to have people calling you back after a job is done. For example, lets say you have to reformat a computer and after returning it, a non-computer literate person calls up asking why their .pdf files won't open. It's a quick fix but assume that for every 10 jobs you do, you get 2 callbacks a week about erroneous things such as that.

30 euros flat sounds nice but in a few months, start to raise your prices. People will pay for good customer service and great work after your reputation has been built. I would even create a Yelp page and ask your happy customers to write reviews on it so you can start establishing an online presence without having to maintain a website at first. Also, you can set up a domain email account for free using Google Apps for business (the free version). You just pay $10 for the domain registration and Google does the rest for you so instead of offering your clients an email that looks like unprofessional@gmail.com, you can offer something like kai@kaicomputerrepair.com. It's a small price to pay for a little added professionalism

As far as using a phone number, get a skype number for only a few dollars a month or if you can set up a google voice number (free), you can have either one forwarded to your cell phone without having to compromise your cell phone number to clients.

Get a contract. Get a contract. Get a contract. If you don't get a contract, you'll have people coming back to you in 6 months after removing malware who claim you didn't remove everything or claiming that broken CD-ROM drive was because you removed a virus on their PC and if you don't have a contract, it will be VERY hard to fight it in court. You want EVERYTHING spelled out on paper as far as what you are doing for the customer, the warranty, and when you return the computer, you want the customer to test it and sign something saying that it was working when you left without any cosmetic defects. This is to protect you but secondly, your customers will take you more seriously and view you as more of a professional if you give the appearance that you are running a business, not playing the part of pizza technician.

Tax is different depending on country and state, but your biggest advantage for tax waivers are 1) mileage (IT 51 - Employees' Motoring/Bicycle Expenses) , 2)any classes/certifications/etc that you pay for to further your education for this business, 3)any IT-ish expenses that you make during the year. Keep all receipts and at the end of the year, you will be surprised at how much you can write off. Here's my experience: I made over 2K last month in contracting gigs but I get 55.5 cents per mile which added up to about $1,100 in writeoff's, paid for my CISSP bootcamp which added up to another $2200 in writeoffs, and paid for a new netbook which was $248 in writeoffs. In the end, I don't have to pay for any taxes for that month of earnings because I had more writeoffs than income for contracting for that month.

Iristheangel

Oh, I would also recommend offering PC optimization services at about 20 euros a month and then remote in to do the work. You could build a good client list for people who want to just simply maintain their computers and keep them running fast.

whatthehell

Iristheangel wrote: »

Opps. I didn't even look at your location. My bad.

If you're going to do it, it'll be slow at first which isn't bad. It lets you learn the ropes on the business side. It's very important to go about getting service contracts that spell out your warranty and protect you legally. I know there are services online that let you pay for the drafting (for like 40-80$ USD). It's to protect you because you WILL get customers who are clingy or will call you up with every problem after you remove the malware on their computer. It's up to you how much you want to help after you've completed a job, but if you do want to give them some sort of remote technical support, use logmein.com or some other remote software. You could even give them a maintenance plan for like X amount a month that includes remote support (additional costs for in-person assessments). Something I find successful is canvassing fliers in rich neighborhoods. Wealthier people don't mind paying $250 to get malware removed from their $2000 laptop/desktop. I'm also not picky about replacing laptop hardware as long as they pay for the part and know about the wait ahead of time. Don't sell yourself short either: Charge an hourly rate + mileage if you have to go to their houses.

Oh, I know imaging and backing up aren't your thing but it would definitely be useful to learn. Non-technical people will pay to have their data saved and backed up. You could charge a $30/month fee for them to have the assurance that you're making sure their data is backed up remotely. Just food for thought. There are tons of ways to make money on the side.

+1
Been there and done that

ROFL cuz of "clingy" customers --- those are the the biggest pain in my arse!

logisticalstyles

I've found laptop repairs to be pretty easy. Keyboards, harddrives, memory, fans and network cards are not that difficult to replace. I have yet to come across a machine that I couldn't find a complete break down of on-line. I may be a bit biased since I have experience doing this stuff at work, but believe me it's not that hard, especially if it's a business class laptop like a Dell Latitude or IBM Thinkpad. Sure the parts may take some time to get if you have to order them, but other than that they are a breeze to fix. I would definitely not overlook laptop repairs, they can be a good source of income considering how many people use them.

Iristheangel

logisticalstyles wrote: »

I've found laptop repairs to be pretty easy. Keyboards, harddrives, memory, fans and network cards are not that difficult to replace. I have yet to come across a machine that I couldn't find a complete break down of on-line. I may be a bit biased since I have experience doing this stuff at work, but believe me it's not that hard, especially if it's a business class laptop like a Dell Latitude or IBM Thinkpad. Sure the parts may take some time to get if you have to order them, but other than that they are a breeze to fix. I would definitely not overlook laptop repairs, they can be a good source of income considering how many people use them.

+1 Completely agree. The only things that I don't like to replace on laptops are LCD displays and motherboards. They can be huge pains but everything else is cake.

epicdean

This is a great thread I have also thought of this off an on for a few years now, what are some of you basic hardware requirements do you use mostly a laptop and build a server to hold back ups etc. And software do you us Norton ghost for backup and a good anti virus, log me in etc.

jmritenour

amplify wrote: »

side work is great while you are still learning and gaining the confidence to walk into any situation and handle it appropriately. eventually the PITA factor will start to outweigh the money and experience. at that point, stop doing the side work and spend that time learning new skills.

Roger that. My own mother and my in-laws are the only people I do side work for anymore. Everyone else who asks, I tell them some insane price like $500 an hour, and they leave me alone. At this stage of the game free time or study time is worth way more than a few spare bucks here and there.

Iristheangel

epicdean wrote: »

This is a great thread I have also thought of this off an on for a few years now, what are some of you basic hardware requirements do you use mostly a laptop and build a server to hold back ups etc. And software do you us Norton ghost for backup and a good anti virus, log me in etc.

I save backups to cloud services in most cases. It ends up being cheaper for a small customer base than to maintaining servers, constantly backing up, etc

SteveLord

jmritenour wrote: »

Roger that. My own mother and my in-laws are the only people I do side work for anymore. Everyone else who asks, I tell them some insane price like $500 an hour, and they leave me alone. At this stage of the game free time or study time is worth way more than a few spare bucks here and there.

This is really all I do it for. Beer/dinner money.

tpatt100

I did it back in my early years for the experience, the pay was crap but it got to the point where people I knew would just pay me in Barnes and Nobles gift cards because it went straight to a Microsoft Press book or some other book I needed for cert studying.

If I had the time I would like to do it casually to help double up payments on my student loans and keep me current on hardware which honestly I am pretty obsolete now a days working on desktops. If I could do it, I would probably setup a small bench in the basement for a KVM, CD/DVD cases, tools etc, etc and sign up for a cloud storage or maybe a local server for image files of clients machines.

But when I think about the constant call backs, I honestly would rather sell plasma.....