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Can my computer business be profitable?
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HomeAppraiser
Platinum Member
My father in law did it for three years until poor health caused him to close. Not very profitable to do it with only 1, 2 or 3 people. The tech support is a time killer. The successful ones around here build PCs for local businesses and SELL annual tech support contracts. The pc guy then stops into each business once a month to check on the computers and sell upgrades. One local place is set up for pc training and LAN parties.
The only way you'll make money in a home user/small office setting is with service. There is no money in hardware. Razor thin profit margins + RAPIDLY depreciating values = You lose.
You simply can not compete with a $400 "full package" from Dell.
Yes, you could make money...but it might only be enough to hit the value menu at Wendy's making & selling custom built PC's. Certainly not enough to have a viable business.
You need to concentrate on the things mentioned - virus removal, spyware removal, home networking, training/tutoring, ect. And even then you are competing against Geeksquad and their endless marketing and name factor.
You simply can not compete with a $400 "full package" from Dell.
Yes, you could make money...but it might only be enough to hit the value menu at Wendy's making & selling custom built PC's. Certainly not enough to have a viable business.
You need to concentrate on the things mentioned - virus removal, spyware removal, home networking, training/tutoring, ect. And even then you are competing against Geeksquad and their endless marketing and name factor.
Schfifty Five
Lifer
LOL. Yup, you sure are! 😀
Seriously though, just b/c you built a custom PC for yourself once or for a friend who paid you $50 to assemble it does not mean you will be successful in opening a custom PC build/repair shop.
If that's the only thing you're doing it's not gonna work.
I've opened a gaming cafe/internet cafe, Sprint Store Express/ and Computer Sales and Repairs and I'm going to open an Ebay Consignment shop. I'm able to make money because of cross-traffic and the fact that my rent is only $800 a month for a very large storefront on a super busy street. The fact is that if I haden't diversified the company we'd not have made it-none of three bythemselves would fly.
So think of something else you can do in the same area in the same building along WITH the computer business.
Good luck
Rogo
I've opened a gaming cafe/internet cafe, Sprint Store Express/ and Computer Sales and Repairs and I'm going to open an Ebay Consignment shop. I'm able to make money because of cross-traffic and the fact that my rent is only $800 a month for a very large storefront on a super busy street. The fact is that if I haden't diversified the company we'd not have made it-none of three bythemselves would fly.
So think of something else you can do in the same area in the same building along WITH the computer business.
Good luck
Rogo
sunzt
Diamond Member
A website won't hurt. However, focus on local sales and to people you know, references and people you can personally interact with since that's where your biggest advantage will be. Focus on how you can "totally customize" a PC from the bottom up to a customer's needs rather than just offering a few choices than the other shops will give them. Sell to people who don't know much (technicaly) about PCs and people who don't know how to build them.
Focus on how you can personally tailor a computer's specs (mobo specs, ram specs, whatever) down to the minute details so the customer feels that the PC you're building for them is ONLY for them. Heck you can even talk about how mobo "features" or video card specs will personally benefit the customer. The customer doesn't have to understand the technicallities, they just need to know that it's a level of customization/personalization that they can't get anywhere else like a Dell, etc.
LEARN SALES SKILLS and you should be better off.
Focus on how you can personally tailor a computer's specs (mobo specs, ram specs, whatever) down to the minute details so the customer feels that the PC you're building for them is ONLY for them. Heck you can even talk about how mobo "features" or video card specs will personally benefit the customer. The customer doesn't have to understand the technicallities, they just need to know that it's a level of customization/personalization that they can't get anywhere else like a Dell, etc.
LEARN SALES SKILLS and you should be better off.
I've done it successfully(averaged $70k profit for 3 years striaght), but it's too much work for the money, considering I put in 60 hour workweeks. Not to mention some customers are hard to deal with. They bring the computer back 6 months later demanding to know what's wrong and blaming me, even if it's their fault.
Mermaidman
Diamond Member
watdahel
Golden Member
So if I go with tech support and hardware upgrades business plan, it looks like Geek Squad will be my top competitor. Perhaps, I'll steal so much business from them that they'll buy me out for $10 billion within a year. Then I can retire and buy me an Aston Martin DBR 9. What do you think?
MisterJackson
Lifer
I started to say you'd fare better in the drug selling business but it sounds like you're already using your own product.
As someone who has worked for a couple of small computer shops, there is money to be made but it's largely based on competition and the area you live in. I live in a small rural town and I can assure you, no one has ever run a computer shop around here made anything more than enough to get by on. We're talking 30k to 50k a year for one shop in profit. That's with a business that's been around for 10 years now.
Since I am in a rural area, there is little competition, no geeksquad or anything like that and we never made more than 100 dollars per new system build, that's not where the money is, viruses, spyware and adware removal as well as system upgrades windows installs and networking businesses accounted for most of the money made. Forget the low end, you'll kill your business before you ever get started. You can't compete with Dell.
I also worked for a moderate sized pc business. 8 Shops total and that business pulled in about a million a year. So you can be successful if you're smart with it.
It can be done but it's not an easy road especially if you have a lot of competition in your area for services. Wish you the best of luck though.
Like one of the previous posters said, niche services can be a good start to get your business blossoming.
Since I am in a rural area, there is little competition, no geeksquad or anything like that and we never made more than 100 dollars per new system build, that's not where the money is, viruses, spyware and adware removal as well as system upgrades windows installs and networking businesses accounted for most of the money made. Forget the low end, you'll kill your business before you ever get started. You can't compete with Dell.
I also worked for a moderate sized pc business. 8 Shops total and that business pulled in about a million a year. So you can be successful if you're smart with it.
It can be done but it's not an easy road especially if you have a lot of competition in your area for services. Wish you the best of luck though.
Like one of the previous posters said, niche services can be a good start to get your business blossoming.
So
Lifer
Okay, here's your business plan:
1) Go to home depot and buy a steel garbage can
2) Throw all your money into it, along with some lighter fluid and a match
3) Leave trash can full of ashes at curb
4) Go back to your day job.
Advangate to this plan: You don't waste two years of your life AND you don't have to go through the stress of quitting and then finding a new job in two years.
1) Go to home depot and buy a steel garbage can
2) Throw all your money into it, along with some lighter fluid and a match
3) Leave trash can full of ashes at curb
4) Go back to your day job.
Advangate to this plan: You don't waste two years of your life AND you don't have to go through the stress of quitting and then finding a new job in two years.
Schfifty Five
Lifer
Listen to this man, it's a brilliant idea.
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