Computer repair biz....

My brother owns a computer store, he offers repairs. He would love to do repairs all day because basically it's 100% profit for him (he's at the store anyway). Much better than selling hardware at only 20% markup.

I used to do freelance computer repairs when I was in college. Good money if you target an "above average" area. You have to be able to cope with people being absolutely dumb about computer stuff though. It drove me mad how "ignorant" people were.

If you have any specific questions send me an e-mail.

I had one until about 6 years ago...
but finally gave up - I hated the customers too much...

I kept a few customers (companies only, no private homes) and still run their networks, servers and workstations - still good money. But these are cherry picked customers - I ditched all the rest.

So you pick customers that you like. I guess it's not discrimination. Good luck.

sounds like a lucrative business

I ran my own store front for a couple years. Actually the biggest mistake I ever made was when I ran into a guy with a fancy tech van at my local wholesaler. He was talking about how he was going to start a company and get these vans going to peoples houses for repairs and said I could be in on it for 20k and the outfitting of a van... I thought about it for about 1 day called him and said na.. Anyone ever heard of PC On Call... DOH!!!

Anyways... how do you possibly compete today with every retail box store offer pc service? Maybe you could dig a small living if you live someplace without direct access to these places like 45 mile outside of town or something. Today, people around me know I work on computers, from time to time they have me fix their shit, I charge them 50 bucks and hour cash. But I'm not looking to ever get back into it. To many headaches dealing with home users.

My cousins husband has had a store for years. I think he struggled in the beginning but now is doing pretty good. He sells, fixes computers and sells software/hardware and he hired a guy to do web development/search marketing/social marketing. I think if you can be a one stop shop for everything like him you will do okay just might take a bit to grow a client base.

i handle everything from fixing computers, custom development in just about any language, security, administration, windows, unix, mac, nonstop, cisco, design, infrastructure, qa for big, well know companies and industries. had to hire guys to even do cabling. Anything you can think of from "how do i get my contacts on my new phone" to "get on a plane and get to hong kong, our infrastructure is under attack". Have clients on 6 continents, which i constantly travel around visiting. with the downturn in the economy, business has grown exponentially. fixing computers, theres so much competition out there (although mostly inept) that if you can set yourself apart by taking on other things, the business will always be there.

my rates are higher than most, but 90% of my work is fixing up other "techs" or "admins" fuck ups. You go with the cheaper guy, youre always going to get what you pay for. they always learn the hard way.

I would only deal with business.
Be selective with customers and think long term.
Offer consultation and setting up the network for small and medium business.

Basically be an IT guy consultant

This.. back before I got into online I used to do some side work upgrading and repairing computers. You would always get people complaining this was different now or something stopped working like 2 months after you upgraded their ram so it's obviously your fault.