Tips on Growing Your Computer Repair Business
Tips on Growing Your 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 on my own initially and then later on through the help of online technical resources & friends.
I will also offer advice on what type of computer repair business to start, business and legal information, remote support, products and services you can sell, tools your computer repair business might need, a guide to pricing, a list of resources, and marketing advice.
When you first start out with your own computer repair business, fantasizing about what your business can and will become is part of the fun. I can recall many days of dreaming of what would become of Call That Girl and now over 7 years later, it’s nothing what I dreamed of in 2007.
My first dream was to have techs all over the Minneapolis area doing the onsite work and managing the jobs. I even bought a 6 foot map of the Twin Cities to post on my wall, and circled all the suburbs where I wanted techs. But the problem I found was this…when I first started out, I did the math (like you probably did, we all think alike!)
- I need to do 5 jobs per week to make $375 and that is enough for me to LIVE on. Barely
- I need 10 jobs to make $700 per week, GOAL! If I could make that, I would be thrilled!
Then of course, the dreams grew…. but hey, it takes a long time when you first start out to get just 5 jobs a week and when you get over 5 and dream for 10, that takes time. In that first year, I did so much marketing that it took me well into a year to get to the 5 per week. Then after my first year, I immediately jumped to 10 per week consistently. I think all that hard core marketing paid off!
Eventually I found out as the years went by, that I was not doing what I really loved. Doing the onsite was fun, but after I found remote support, I was back in love with my desk life again and didn’t prefer onsite jobs. So I got an office for people to bring computers to me so, yep, I could be in one place. Through the years, I hired techs and opened stores and managed contracts. Again, not doing what I loved, what I had passion for. As you read in my first blog, I eventually closed all my stores and went remote only.
Dreaming…
- Dream of growth, but don’t get too excited too early on. You will get there if you want a bigger store/business. You have to go through the tough times of figuring out your company first. Fix processes that need be in place. fix broken processes that don’t work. Every time you experience a failure of any type, try to figure out a success that came from that failure. You will have many and don’t worry, you are not alone here. It has been said that without failures, you cannot succeed. I firmly believe that and still have failures even after 7 years.
- Don’t consider projects too big for your britches. I learned this the very hard way. I took on a contract that I was not ready for. In 2010, I had an opportunity to support a retail location for computer refreshes. After succeeding with one store, they asked me to do 3 more stores, then after that 2 more stores…and within 5 months I was offered all 22 of their stores. In 9 months, I had techs in 4 states and 22 stores. Did I know what I was doing? Hell no! But I did get a managed system in place eventually and by the time it was working like a system, they told me that they decided to go in-house. I didn’t have a good contract in place, I didn’t have a paid lawyer review the terms of the agreement and really….it was all too much for me. After they closed the contract, I had to slowly start letting employees go and some of the CTG FT employees, as well. Now that I think back, it was an experience, but one I will never do again.
- Don’t dream of having employees until you have too much work on your plate for many months. If you get excited too early on and start hiring, then you might go through some slow times (for months) and will not have enough work to pay them.
- Before you hire employees, consider many factors
- Do you have enough money to keep them on payroll for a few weeks if you are slow?
- Do you have a good bookkeeping system?
- Do you pay your bills on time now? If not, you need to fix this fast.
- Taxes are due when they are due, or else you pay penalties.
- Do you have a training manual in place?
- Do you have the patience to train someone?
- Before you open a store, consider many factors
- How much overhead you will have
- How many unexpected expenses you might have
- How much money you need to live on
- Taxes! City, State, Federal
- Profit, you will need it to keep the store running and make you happy
- Savings for when times are slow and you can pay the bills
- Insurance needs for the store/employees
- Workers Compensation
- Location, is it in a good visible place for traffic and foot traffic to find you?
- Parking, you will need good parking
- Do you have the money now to buy all the print materials to set it up right?
- Do you have the money to get the furniture and desks and equipment to set it up right?
Click here to read the next blog How to start a remote support business
Call That Girl’s eBooks and Training Videos
Welcome to my eBooks and Videos sales page. Below you will find everything I sell and support as well as some free information at the bottom.
Lisa’s eBooks, all 5 eBooks $39
The Remote Support Guide (Best seller!)
- A step by step guide to setting up your business to have a successful remote support business
- Tips and information on how to service your clients remotely
- How to increase your daily sales with new services, prepay tickets and daily monitoring plans
- Includes templates for email booking appointments, client & project agreement forms, terms and conditions, small business proposal, pricing guidelines and scheduling appointment forms.
The Manual of Operations
- This is an old document but many still like using it for a template
- 40 page Word document
- Delivered as a Microsoft Word Template, easy for “cut and pasting” your business name into the document
- Standard operating procedures
- Employee conditions for employment
- Job descriptions
- Human Resources policies
- Much more…
The Social Media Guide
- 29 page workbook style (outdated but have valuable info!)
- Great tips and tricks that I learned the hard way
- Easy to understand steps on how to push out social media messages
- Newsletters, blogging and WordPress information
- Toolkit information you will need and other things you will need to use social media
- A social media to do list
- How to do a social media blast
The Guide to Microsoft Exchange Migrations
- 22 page PDF
- Step by step instructions on how to do a migration without tools with screenshots
- Learning how to back up current mailboxes, calendars and contacts
- Learn how to update the DNS for migration
- Importing mail/calendars and contacts into new server
- Aftercare lists
- How to sell administrative support tickets
How to Start a Computer Repair Business
- Get all the free blogs in a 48 page PDF
- Conversational Style Guide
$199
Created just for technicians! Outlook is a program that contains a lot of data, lots of moving parts and offers 100’s of features which are all guaranteed to break at some point. As well, it’s the program most used with the Office 365 Business Plans. These videos will train you how to properly prepare, repair and learn Outlook in a 360 view.
What you get with your purchase
- 7 videos
- 4 hours of intense training ~each made in short videos so you can stop & practice
- Access to Lisa’s private Facebook group
SEO/Google Ranking Services
Get found today! So many technician friends I know have great websites up, but not many have good SEO to help them get found. My services help you get found by creating content in your website using your location and your services. I have a starter set for $450 and buy as you like “next level” for $175. No contracts, no monthly fees, just buy as you want.
Click here to learn more and get found on the internet! If you can’t be found, you can’t be called right?
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Need to Hire Me? Below is a list of tech to tech services I provide. Contact me below.
- Outlook Expert
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Category: How to Start a Computer Repair Business
About the Author (Author Profile)
Lisa Hendrickson is the owner of Call That Girl. She is an Outlook Expert and Microsoft 365 Consultant.Subscribe
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