Starting a business

[Masamune]

Since I've been fruitlessly looking for a job for months, I've decided it's time to try and start my own business building, repairing, and upgrading computers for people. I've been doing shit for free for my friends for ages, and I don't really want to charge them for shit that takes minimal effort from me. But I'd really like to get my name out to other people local to my area who're about to spend X amount of dollars on a piece of shit from Best Buy or get something serviced, when they can just come to me and get the same shit for (X-$100) or so. Does anyone have any experience doing something like this? Because I could really use some pointers.

[Dark Nation]

Signed agreements up front. Clearly state what you will be doing to the machine and what responsibility you have if something goes wrong (short out a motherboard accidentally because you weren't grounded) or missing (only copy of someone't wedding photos vanish after you touched the machine).

Here are some examples:
http://www.geeksquad.com/detail.aspx?id=209
http://www.apple.com/legal/terms/rep...inerepair.html
http://www.computergeeksonline.net/terms/index.asp
http://www.engineering.sdsu.edu/main...0Agreement.pdf
http://forms.ou.edu/Cases.pdf

Charge a diagnostics/consultant fee before any work is done. If a customer brings in a machine and says, "I don't work", then you charge $25 (or whatever you feel is acceptable for your area) up front to find out what is wrong with it. If they decide they want you to fix it, the $25 is applied to the repair charge. If not, the $25 is yours to keep. If a customer wants memory or hard drive upgraded, have them pay a certain amount for you to look at the system and determine exactly what is needed/compatible. Again, get them to sign something up front regarding liability before you put your hands on the system. It's possible they may want you to "upgrade" their hard drive when it's actually dead and if you open the case to examine it, they might claim that you killed it and have to replace it out of pocket.

Also, check other places in the area for their pricing structure to see what your area can support. Pricing can be very different between New York City and Backwoods Village.

[Brasel]

I was thinking of doing the same thing, but unfortunately, the competition in the St. Louis area would be a bit much. There are all kinds of accredited people already doing this and have been doing it for years. I don't know if it would be successful or not, but it wouldn't hurt to try. Keep me posted on how yours is going if you decide to do it or not Masa, I'm interested.

[Beldaran]

You were in the army. You could kill them and then take over their business.

[Brasel]

You were in the army. You could kill them and then take over their business.

Have I ever told you that you're my hero?

[Masamune]

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll keep you updated if anything progresses.

[Pryme8]

Send me a PM with all your information on what you want to do, and Ill give you tons of examples of things that will help you out.

I currently do something similar, so It would not be tough to help you get an idea of where to start!

[Manwich]

i think its great that you want to get into business. but if you want to be successful, i recommend you stay away from fiddling with computers and do something very difficult with your hands. like my poppa always said, you aren't working if you don't have dirt under your nails. when i got out of high school, i started my own lawn mowing business. now i'm supervising the maintenence of 7 highways and 30 roads and i still work harder than my men even though i'm a supervisor.

[Brasel]

i still work harder than my men even though i'm a supervisor.

That makes you a poor leader. You should still work, but you need to motivate them to work harder than you. What is their incentive to work hard and do good if their supervisor is just going to do it for you. I doubt you supervise anything to be honest.

[Pryme8]

That makes you a poor leader.

you are wrong about that one... that makes him a great leader!

he leads by example, just because his crew does not keep up does not make him a bad supervisor. Only thing it does make him bad at is firing people.