Do You Need Certifications to Start a Computer Repair Business

Lisa Hendrickson | August 12, 2017

Do You Need Certifications to Start a Computer Repair Business

Welcome to Call That Girl’s Guide to starting a computer repair and support business blog series. If you found a blog out of order, you can start with the first blog by clicking here How to start a computer repair business. Each blog will lead you to the next one until you reach the final blog.

In this series I will give tips, examples and information about how to start a computer repair business that I learned my way. I will also offer help on what type of computer repair business to start, business and legal information, products and services you can sell, tools your computer repair business might need, a guide to pricing, a list of resources, and marketing advice.

In this blog, I will talk about certifications and starting your own computer repair business.

In our industry, as far as I know…we are not regulated by the government (at least in the USA). We do not have to have a computer repair certificate or be A+ certified, or even have any type of background in computer support & repair to open a business. Heck, you don’t even have to know anything about business. So basically, if your neighbor who is handy at building computers decides to open “John’s Computer Builds” and runs it out of his house, he can do that. Now it’s up to him to follow the laws of his city, state and the federal government in terms of taxes, etc. If your area requires a license, be sure to have it. If you’re not sure, call your local city office to find out. I personally have no certifications and my business has not suffered from it. So please read my info below, and use it as a guide. As I’m not sure what type of computer repair business you want to start, this is just a guide. You might need to ask other techs, or get counsel from a local tech company.

Below are some questions you may have and my answers to the best of my knowledge.

Do certifications help you be a better business owner? Not in my opinion. Running and operating a computer repair business does not require certifications. It requires passion and the ability to service clients in terms of technical and customer service skills.
Do certifications make you a better tech? Only you can make yourself become a better tech. Some of the best techs I know do not have any certs.
Do certifications help you get more clients? Maybe. Some care and want certs, some just want the job done right and to be treated well.
Do your clients care if you have certifications? Maybe, not many ask me if I have any. Those that do, I tell them “I got my certs from the streets, I have 18 years of experience and certs don’t always help in real life scenarios.” It’s true, though. I can’t find a cert that fits my skill set anyway!
Should you get certifications for what you want to service and sell? Sometimes you need to be certified for some software and some hardware. As far as I know, most basic software tools we use as an industry do not require certs (antivirus, etc.).
What if I’m supporting a certain manufacturer, such as HP or Dell? If you want to become a local tech contracted by some of the bigger firms such as Field Nation, Work Market, etc… then they might ask you to be certified for some manufacturers, or you might be able to get more jobs.
Should you be A+ certified? I am a software tech, so A+ cert would not be helpful to me at all. I did take the test though and failed. I also had 11 extra screws in the PC build I did during the A+ class. Good sign I was not going to build computers. But…. Professor Messer is the guy you want to follow to know more! http://www.professormesser.com/ He offers great daily quizzes and has a YouTube channel, training courses, study groups, etc.
What if I want to start a MSB business, do I need Cisco network certs? CCNA? I would think yes (but then again, I don’t know…check with other techs on this), networking and servers are very technical and unless you are leaving a job where you have a lot of hands-on experience, the cert is probably a must have, not only because of the knowledge you need, but the training behind it is not “normal” tech work.