Slashdot Mirror
Suggestions for a PC Home Tech Support Business?
RPGonAS400 asks: "I want to start my own small business in the evening and on weekends (after my day job) going into peoples homes for PC tech support. There has to be a need for this — I help enough friends out with their PC problems. I live in an area that has roughly 50,000+ people within 15 minutes of my home. The best business oriented tech support in our area charges $95/hour for hardware repair and $135/hour for software support. Options for home based PCs are quite limited here. Geek Squad (yuk!) charges outrageous prices. I am not sure what I will charge but I plan on having a minimum charge and then only charge for actual work done. If I have to learn how to fix something I either won't take the job or else not charge for my learning time. I am looking for suggestions for lots of things. Namely, rates, liability, insurance, equipment needed, waiver forms, tax issues, incorporation, local paper advertising, web site, etc. As you probably guessed, I have always been an employee and this is my first venture into small business. Thanks."
Arrange a meeting will a small business advisor at a bank?
Be prepared for lots of payment issues. You'll need to be able to accept credit card payments, check out the quicken site, they have an online store that will link in with your quickbooks install and they'll handle all the fraud issues for you. If you do market to the low end, parent is right, you'll have people slow pay/no pay, accuse you of 'hacking' them when they don't pay (that was a treat, guy basically wanted more free service under the threat of legal action), etc. Humanity is a cess pool, you'll be at the bottom when you're performing services in people's homes.
This article has recently been linked from Slashdot. Please keep an eye on the page history for errors or vandalism.
When I was young and naive enough to do this sort of thing, I started out charging far less than the other companies thinking that customers would seek me out. While I did have a couple calls, it wasn't until I raised my prices to be a little closer to the level of the competitors that I started to get more calls.
If you charge too little you run the risk of a couple of things. First, you're going to put your competitors on the defensive, something you don't want to do until you are established with a solid reputation and customer base. Secondly, prospective customers may look at the gap between your prices and those of your competitors and conclude that there must be a reason you're charging so litte, perhaps you're not as qualified or don't have as much experience.
tinfoilmedia
Use UltraVNC-SC. It creates a stand-alone VNC server executable that is configured to connect back to YOUR static IP address (a reverse VNC connection basically). I have mine hosted at help.mydomain.com.au. I just tell anyone who I need to assist this name which they type in and run and voila, i'm controlling their desktop. No firewalls to configure (except yours) and no hassles on their end. Best of all it's free.
http://sc.uvnc.com/index.php?section=12
They will stand behind you watching your every move
Out of hundreds of in-home repairs I did, very few people will actually stand and watch. Do you sit and watch the plumber while he unclogs your toilet?
their mouse will be gunked up with toxic fluid, their screen will be covered in grease
This does happen, though not that often. Most people willing to pay for PC repair are also intelligent enough to have a clean space to work in.
they will at no time have any os,boot or driver cds to hand
Most people do have this stuff, although some don't. But you will carry an OEM copy of XP Home and Pro (never to be installed unless they have their own license sticker), so what's the problem? If their discs are missing sell them a new copy of Windows.
it will be so clogged up with viruses and trojans that just getting the damned thing to boot into safe mode will take you an hour
It won't take that long, and clogged up with viruses is GOOD, it gives them a reason to pay you to be there.
you will then need to get out of safe mode to connect to the net to get a new driver version
You can run safe mode with networking.
It was rare that I needed more than some tools on a USB key and a screwdriver in my pocket to do most repairs. Keep a video card, sound card, extra hard drive and extra optical drive in the car, keyboard and mouse, and you're 95% covered. Carry some routers, a couple of cat5 and usb cables as well.