Is there any small business that is cheap to start?

[zixxer]

I like my job, but am considering doing in home pc repair @ $70/hr. I live in a fairly nice area, and am minutes away from 1mil+ homes. I'm thinking about advertising in some of the magazines that are distributed among those homes.


Good idea? Bad idea? I have a 9-5 job, so this could be a weekend/afternoon thing..

 

[Lager]

You have A+ certificate?

 

[minendo]

Make sure their is no conflict of interest between jobs.

 

[minendo]

Originally posted by: coldcut
You have A+ certificate?

Why would he need a piece of toliet paper to fix computers?

 

[conjur]

Do people really pay $70/hr to fix a PC? I mean, for 5hrs' of work, you can BUY a NEW Dell.

 

[zixxer]

Originally posted by: coldcut
You have A+ certificate?

I wouldn't degrade myself to such.

 

[zixxer]

Originally posted by: conjur
Do people really pay $70/hr to fix a PC? I mean, for 5hrs' of work, you can BUY a NEW Dell.

People pay it all the time. It doesn't take 5hrs of work to fix 90% of problems, and most of the time it's not about the pc, it's about the data.

 

[mpitts]

Unless you are going to do it full-time, don't waste your time.

People have problems with their computer at all hours and they will call you. They won't care if you have a day job. It will consume you.

 

[mpitts]

Originally posted by: conjur
Do people really pay $70/hr to fix a PC? I mean, for 5hrs' of work, you can BUY a NEW Dell.

I can't tell you how many times I have had this discussion with a customer.

 

[Quixfire]

Originally posted by: mpitts
Unless you are going to do it full-time, don't waste your time.

People have problems with their computer at all hours and they will call you. They won't care if you have a day job. It will consume you.

Mommy make the scary man go away.

 

[loup garou]

Pretzel stand.

 

[Psorak]

Originally posted by: Quixfire

Originally posted by: mpitts
Unless you are going to do it full-time, don't waste your time.

People have problems with their computer at all hours and they will call you. They won't care if you have a day job. It will consume you.

Mommy make the scary man go away.

LMAO!

It's true. Working with end users in the home = lose.

You can be on their PC one day, they'll install Kazza get umpteenth million virii a week later then call you asking what you did to their PC.

 

[mpitts]

Originally posted by: Quixfire

Originally posted by: mpitts
Unless you are going to do it full-time, don't waste your time.

People have problems with their computer at all hours and they will call you. They won't care if you have a day job. It will consume you.

Mommy make the scary man go away.

Hehehe..

I don't want to scare anyone, but this is what I do all day.

 

[Kenazo]

$70 hour sounds a bit hopeful if you are talking about a job that will take more than 1 hour. But regardless, I do that same thing to help pay my way through school right now. my wife figures we better register as a business for tax reasons, but I'm fighting it... cash deals are much easier.

 

[zixxer]

Originally posted by: Kenazo
$70 hour sounds a bit hopeful if you are talking about a job that will take more than 1 hour. But regardless, I do that same thing to help pay my way through school right now. my wife figures we better register as a business for tax reasons, but I'm fighting it... cash deals are much easier.

Eh. I know someone that does this on a very limited basis, he used to charge $45/hr, but due to issues where he had to return to fix other stuff unrelated, but it looked like it was his fault, he upped his charge to $70/hr and noone complains much.

Most things take an hour to two hours to fix anyhow; and when you factor in that I will be driving to their house I think it's worth it.

I didn't consider the issues with taxes

 

[Kenazo]

I reread your original post. If you are working in an affluent neighbourhood you can probably gt away w/ charging that kind of money. Where i live the median wage is like $30,000cdn so if I charged $70 I would be eating Mac and cheese every evening.

 

[Booster]

To be honest, all the people I seen who were running a successful business were in the field where no computers were involved, at least directly. The most they used it for was a typewriter, and those were the least successful ones. Computers suck in general, so look somewhere else - that's a friendly advice.

 

[edmicman]

run an escort service

 

[poopaskoopa]

Well, not that I would ever call for a PC tech to come fix my machines, but if I were to call for one, I don't think I'd hire one without any sort of credentials. It's not like people can smell your brilliance.

 

[Kenazo]

Originally posted by: poopaskoopa
Well, not that I would ever call for a PC tech to come fix my machines, but if I were to call for one, I don't think I'd hire one without any sort of credentials. It's not like people can smell your brilliance.

that is true, but word of mouth is worth a lot. Once you have a few clients, the word gets around, as long as you are good most people don't care if you are "Certified" it's not like medicine . I'm building 3 or 4 computers/month for sale which is enough to pay my tuition, doing no advertising at all, and with no training at all.

 

[Zombie]

I hear subway franchise is cheap, relatively speaking.

 

[Psorak]

Go to the local library or bookstore. They probably have a few hundred books on this subject.

If not to just get ideas.

The best that you can do is try a few of them, dedicate little time to each then cut the ones off that do not grow.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: edmicman
run an escort service

A male-for-male escort service... apparantly you can make good money doing that.

 

[moonshinemadness]

Originally posted by: mugsywwiii

Originally posted by: edmicman
run an escort service

A male-for-male escort service... apparantly you can make good money doing that.

Yeah, enough to buy you a viper

 

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: Zombie
I hear subway franchise is cheap, relatively speaking.

$300,000 +

Yes, that is "cheap" in terms of other franchises, but it is by no means a small amount of money. Papa Murphy's is relatively inexpensive at ~$180k to start up a store.