Thinking of starting my own business

Hi,

I am 19 years old, working full time at the moment taking home between £240 - £320 net (after tax).

I've been toying with the idea of going part time with that and setting up my own mobile computer repair business. All the work would be done in their homes (no overheads), the fee will be agreed prior, and I could even offer continual support packages. Everyone knows the likes of PC world are COMPLETE rip offs (£70 to even LOOK at the computer not fix) and you have to take the computer to them.

I've had a computer since I was born, and I've taught myself how to repair some of the most advanced problems with computers (BIOS, Registry errors, clientside network etc) and naturally the mundane too.

I can also build computers, and I could ask prospective customers what spec they want, give them a quote for the parts and add my own fee on top. It would cost less than if they bought it from a shop, they'd get a lot more bang for their buck and a highly personalised service.

This market is however, very saturated and I don't see how anyone can really stand out especially on such a small scale. The advertising would be in local newspapers, flyers, free branded pens etc.

What are peoples thoughts? Is the business model sensibile. Please feel free to poke holes

Cheers

Hi,

I am 19 years old, working full time at the moment taking home between £240 - £320 net (after tax).

I've been toying with the idea of going part time with that and setting up my own mobile computer repair business. All the work would be done in their homes (no overheads), the fee will be agreed prior, and I could even offer continual support packages. Everyone knows the likes of PC world are COMPLETE rip offs (£70 to even LOOK at the computer not fix) and you have to take the computer to them.

I've had a computer since I was born, and I've taught myself how to repair some of the most advanced problems with computers (BIOS, Registry errors, clientside network etc) and naturally the mundane too.

I can also build computers, and I could ask prospective customers what spec they want, give them a quote for the parts and add my own fee on top. It would cost less than if they bought it from a shop, they'd get a lot more bang for their buck and a highly personalised service.

This market is however, very saturated and I don't see how anyone can really stand out especially on such a small scale. The advertising would be in local newspapers, flyers, free branded pens etc. Insurance would be Public liability insurance which is a modest £25 a month.

What are peoples thoughts? Is the business model sensibile. Please feel free to poke holes

Cheers

You may find that prices are very keen. I recently paid a small shop in Edinburgh to copy all data from a windows pc to a mac, including converting e mails to the correct format. The charge was only £35.

The difference to your business model was I had to take the machines to his shop, he would have running 7-8 customer machines at one time.

With your business model you have virtually no overheads, however you can only really work on one client issue at a time. Given some scans/ procedures take a long time, will the market bear your cost sitting watching a machine for say three hours, or will your hourly rate drop really low to match market rates for similar services?

Maybe uplifting and working from home would work better, however that does raise the trust issue with someone handing over to you their precious machine but you have no recognized place of business.