Where can I (relatively inexpensively) plug my little on-the-side comp repair business? (I know I know, I've indirectly done this by posting this thread rofl). I've been passing out business cards in my neighborhood (I'm 24) and passed out about 150 of them, but I'm low on funds so it could be a while before I order another 200-300 cards. I've thought about Craigslist but who knows who I'd actually get replying to me there right? I don't want to be murdered just yet, lol. I've also thought about Chronicle/Greensheet/etc but don't know if anyone actually reads those things anymore to the point of it being worth it. What other cost-effective methods are there?
Yahoo Local Create your own website on a free hosting site like Tripod. Create a Facebook page for it.
Free business cards ($5 shipping) at http://www.vistaprint.com When I did side work I found that the best advertising is word-of-mouth. Tell your customers to tell their friends, neighbors, etc. Advice: make -sure- you make it clear that you aren't a free tech support line.
It also may be cheaper to by business card paper stock and print your own cards. Put up flyers at local stores. Blast an email out to all the SPX alumni.
The best way to "advertise" if you're starting out is by "WORD OF MOUTH" advertisement. Do some work for free... then move into charging a bit... then a bit more. This is how I started charging people for my photography. Tell the people "If I did a good job, tell other people. If I didn't do a good job, tell me and you'll get the next one done right." It will begin to get you clientele that are satisfied that's what she said.
Can you fix my computer? I have every single virus known to man on here and was wondering if you could take a look at it.
Word of mouth. Good luck though with the geek squad and easytech already around and backed by a large corporation
At first glance, I read "Comb repair side-business". Didn't think that'd go too far. I know a few different people who started a pc repair side business...one guy used to be ex-geek squad and another was just a geek with no squad. Both doing well. One now owns and operates his own store, the other is part time college student. I'd say business cards are good, but def give craigslist a shot. Also make sure to do the social media bit (facebook, twitter, etc) and give your business a legitimate presence. Then build up clientele and referral discounts. Another thing I suggested to the guy who now owns his own store; reach out to small/mid-sized businesses. Often they have PC issues that they are confused with and overpay at a bestbuy/etc. Or they'll just scrap the PC/laptops and get new ones. You can capitalize on this by saving them money and stretching their dollar out further. Drive by and stop in personally to drop off your business card and let them know that you are available to handle any of their computer needs. Make sure to try and speak to the president of the company, as the secretary will usually just toss your card in a pile of others in a desk drawer.
So... what kind of jobs have you completely fixed in the last, say, 10 clients' PCs? Are you only doing hardware, software, or networking? I'm interested in finding out what you've done as far as success stories, but not the details on what you've done to fix them. Also, do you think that companies like Microsoft, McAfee antivirus, etc., will be charging you as a business for the use of their software?
Couple of different ways to do it, based on the environment your working with. It's easier to walk into businesses in industrial parks, introduce yourself and your business and see if the president/boss is available or if you can setup an appt to meet with him/her soon to discuss how you can help them. Usually with small/mid-sized businesses, this won't be that difficult to do. However be wary of the no solicitation signs. You might want to take note of the businesses with these signs and call them back to setup an appointment. Just gotta take initiative, use the free resources of google, google maps, etc and attack it with a spreadsheet and a game plan. Treat it like a business and in time it'll reward you for your detailed dedication. By the way here's another strategy; look for people looking for computer help via craigslist....it does happen.
Make a website, get a professional looking one w/ SEO. Forums.digitalpoint.com I'm sure a 1 page site with SEO would cost you all of $150-$200. Hosting will cost you nothing, nor will a domain name, get the cheapest one from Namecheap.com, domain will be like $10/year + $3-$5/month for hosting. Start using Google Adwords target them onto wherever you live. Business Cards, you can get 5,000 of them for $63: http://cgi.ebay.com/5000-BUSINESS-C...913?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4159916c51 All this will cost $215-$275 to start and however much monthly you'd be willing to spend on Adwords. Honestly this will get your business to EXPLODE from where it's at. I've done online businesses long enough to know if you don't spend money up front your uphill battle will be ENORMOUS. Word of mouth is great, but you face 2 key issues: 1) Not enough customers to start to be able to spread word of mouth anytime soon. 2) No website, most of the time someone tells me about a company the 1st thing I do is search for their Website or Yelp and a professional website alone could make people believe you are much more credible.
Don't rule out Craigslist. You can always meet with prospective clients from there at a public place like a McDonalds or Starbucks or local library or something like that. Quick question since you're in the Comp. repair biz. I have a laptop hard drive that crapped out on me a couple of months ago. Took it to a repair person who told me he couldn't retrieve any of my files/data since the hard drive wouldn't even start up. Am I S.O.L or is there anything else I can try to get the hard drive to start up and retrieve some of my data? Thanks
Awesome advice so far guys. Thanks for the tips! . Sorry, I didn't mean to pull an AnnaMegan on you with a post & run. I do a lot of computer cleaning up, virus removal/malware/spyware removal. Probably the last 10 or so PC's have been spent either removing junk in some form (via CCleaner with registry error fixing & browser cache/history cleaning) or virus/malware/spyware removal. I do do a bit of networking in terms of troubleshooting why computers aren't communicating with each other, printers aren't communicating/showing up over the network, lag issues between computers on a network. In terms of hardware, I can build a linux/windows system pretty well. No big sweat with those. As it comes with the territory, I can upgrade / swap out old parts on dated machines and give them the best new hardware available without necessarily recommending buying a new machine. Building hard-core dedicated network/server machines is a little less up my alley, but could probably learn it over time. Replacing things like laptop screens and stuff I can do too. I'm not really worried about Microsoft, McAfee, Norton, etc since right now this is a more-or-less out of my house type of side business. I try and stick to the AVG's, BitDefenders, CCleaner, Spybot S&D, MalwareBytes Anti-Malware and those sort of utilities as my main lines of defense against all the bad stuff out there.
Sure. Give me some more details on it. What sort of OS are you running? How old is the laptop? How long has this been going on? Did it just start happening recently? (is it a replacement cd/dvd-rom you're putting in?). Ok, that's about 80 questions. I'll stop there for now.. lol Do you really have every virus known to man or just bull****ting with me?
