Tips for fixing PC's to earn extra $$$ on the side

[Carlos82]

Hey Guys,
I am currently working in the IT field, 6 months now. Mostly support stuff and some programming when the guys need help. Im also have been going to school for the last 2 years now(AS in IT). Since ive been working a lot of the people in the company have asked me to go over to take a lot at their home PC's and fix them. Ive also been doing a lot of friends and relatives. Well recently I thought of doing house calls for a charge, not to start a bussines but earn a few bucks on the side. Any tips or past experiences to share? Also are there any diagnostic tools or software that could help me get started. Thanks in advance.

 

[Opieo]

I must say that with so many people asking you to look at their machines, charge them.
You have a life too and if everyone wants your time, well, your time is worth something.
So charge them.
How much to charge as either a, "will fix it for 50$" or "20$ an hour" method to rates will be up to you and what you think your clients there will be willing to pay.

Good programs I like, but are of course not your only choices:
[blue]AVG[/blue] for anti virus (free and works well, doesn't cripple system like Norton or McAffee does, but thats personal opinion, not an end all be all)
[blue]Adaware[/blue] & [blue]Spybot[/blue] for adware removal ([blue]Xoftspy[/blue] is a good one but you are technically supposed to pay for it, and they also are no longer updating it from what I heard, have not researched that yet)
A good one to put on peoples machines to protect them while surfing: [blue]SpywareBlaster[/blue].
It is a resident program that prevents certain scripts and such from running when users end up at sites that aren't kosher.
Another one that just helps clean up junk in junk folders (like temp files and such): [blue]CCleaner[/blue]

~
Give a man some fire, he will be warm for a day, Set a man on fire, he will be warm for the rest of his life.

 

[dgillz]

recently I thought of doing house calls for a charge, not to start a bussines but earn a few bucks on the side

You should absolutely approach this as a business. It may not be full time, or what you plan on making a career out of, but approach it professionally. Create professional looking invoices. Buy business cards. Get references of satisfied customers. Do a little word of mouth advertising.

And put this on your resume. An employee who has been on the owner side of the business fence as well, has a lot to offer.

And who knows where you might take this? The things I do for a living today did not even exist when I was in school.

Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Macola, eSynergy, and Crystal Reports

http://www.gainfocus.biz

"If you have a big enough dictionary, just about everything is a word"
--Dave Barry

 

[Carlos82]

Thanks for the input guys.
dgillz thanks for the resume idea, didnt think about that.

 

[yehong]

I have also worked in this area. You can also earn a good business if you can open a small pc repair shop in a visible area. That way not only you can repair pcs, but you may also sell computers and accessories.
good luck.

 

[kmcferrin]

Learn the rates of your competition. If you have a business like Geek Squad in your area, find out what they're offering and for how much. You'd be shocked at just how much these shiny corporate "PC house call" businesses charge, and people will pay it because they don't know any better.

Note: I'm not saying that you should take people to the cleaners, merely that since most of these businesses overcharge (in my opinion), there is definitely a market for a quality service at a lower price.

One other thing to keep in mind is to make sure that you do a very thorough job on every PC you touch. It doesn't matter if you broke something or not, if you were the last person to touch it and it isn't working correctly then they'll blame it on you.

 

[sleipnir214]

Carlos82:
I would advise you to take steps to protect yourself financially. The most common way is by creating a formally incorporated company to do your repair work.

A friend of mine did what you're intending to do, and after about a year of making small but not insignificant money, he made a mistake while repairing a lawyer's home office computer, losing a bunch of files. The lawyer sued. My friend, because he had not kept a strict demarcation between his business finances and his personal finances (he had not incorporated his business, he ran business checks through his personal checking account, etc.), found when it came time to decide settlements that his personal assets could be included in those discussions. It got really ugly really fast.

Check wherever you are about incorporating your business. In a lot of places it's pretty cheap. With hope, you will never need this financial protection -- but it'll mean the difference between a settlement debt you can pay off in months and a settlement debt you won't pay off for years.



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