A Computer Repair Shop as a Startup (with numbers)

http://pcrepairs.posterous.com/my-computer-repair-shop-numbers

by markpenn • 16 years ago

34 35 16 years ago

pcrepairs.posterous.com

pgbovine4• 16 years ago

my personal definition of a 'startup' is a business that aims to grow rapidly, acquire venture funding, and hire more employees. this seems like a (successful) small business, not a 'tech startup'. the author's hope is not to become the next 37signals, meebo, facebook, google, etc.

smanek• 16 years ago

I buy the 'grow rapidly' part - but what does venture funding and hiring part have to do with it? Take 37Signals (your own example) as an obvious counter example.

I'd argue that 'scalability' is an important component of a startup though. I don't think anyone would consider a consultancy to be a startup - although many do meet your three criteria. They don't scale since there is an upper bound to revenue per employee (while a software product/website has no such bound).

ericb• 16 years ago

I have trouble with limited definitions. To me, "startup" encompasses any newly started business, regardless of its aims. Why? Because I find most other definitions are set by someone with an agenda, or rule out companies most would agree are startups for arbitrary reasons.

"Acquire venture funding" was not a 37 Signals goal. Ask most venture capitalists and that will be in their definition, though.

"Hire more employees" is arbitrary. Why is that a goal any more than "buy office chairs?" Hiring employees is a side effect, not a goal.

Ask someone who thinks single founder companies don't work and their definition will likely exclude companies like del.icio.us.

Ask techies, and startup means "a tech company" but personally, I would call Ben & Jerry's in the 70's a startup.

In terms of goals, sometimes the process evolves--like hotornot.com and the goals aren't there at the outset. Sometimes the goal is "build a better search engine" and everything else evolves later.

For these reasons, I prefer an inclusive defintion of startups, rather than something that means "startup like mine, or startup I'm looking to invest in"

_delirium2• 16 years ago

That makes "startup" sound like a kind of disreputable thing. What's wrong with building a sustainable business that you enjoy running, and continuing to run it, instead of looking for the quickest way to sell out?

pgbovine4• 16 years ago

out of curiosity, what part of my comment made it sound like aiming to grow rapidly to scale was disreputable? i don't mean to pass value judgments on either small businesses or growth-oriented startups

markpenn5• 16 years ago

FWIW, I plan on opening another location on the other side of my city. I also plan on hiring some help for both locations.

Paying a college student $9/hr is a win-win in my opinion.

jamesbritt2• 16 years ago

"Paying a college student $9/hr is a win-win in my opinion."

If you find college students who actually know shit about computers might they not have some other means for making better than $9/hr?

I have no idea what the market is like for these things, but I'm wondering if you'd be better off somewhat overpaying and making sure you had people you could trust to sort out problems when some repair routine doesn't quite work.

dantheman• 16 years ago

that's the what i normally mean by startup, but whenever there is confusion what we are describing is accurately described by the term: "growth venture"

WalterGR• 16 years ago

> Most of my revenue has been been from virus and malware removal. I coupled the virus/malware removal with an antivirus installation service for $19 and most people gladly paid it.

Once a computer has become infected, it's fairly impossible to determine if the infection has been completely eradicated.[1] I wonder that that $19 buys you. A few executions of anti-malware software until they claim "Clean"?

[1] I realize that even in the absence of a known infection it's "impossible" to know whether you're infected.

martey• 16 years ago

I agree with you completely in the difficulty of being certain that a computer is clean once infected, but some people (a la http://xkcd.com/694/ ) are not willing to deal with "starting from scratch" because it means having to backup their data, reinstall all of their applications, and redo their application settings.

stuff4ben• 16 years ago

I'd rather trust a geek with their own business than some HS dropout at BestBuy to run the anti-malware software. Or rather, I'd trust sending my friends and family to that person rather than BB. I can usually do the same pro-bono, but I just don't have the time anymore.

barrkel• 16 years ago

What I would expect:

* fewer crappy apps running on startup

* improved startup time

* no unknown apps running after a clean boot

(Previous 3 can be monitored with e.g. SysInternals AutoRuns)

* no browser / networking stack hijacking extensions showing popups / interstitials / DOM modifications etc. at random intervals

(As evidenced by e.g. HijackThis)

* no unsigned DLLs / drivers of unknown provenance loaded in any process or the kernel

(As evidenced by e.g. Process Explorer's Verify Image Signatures option - look in loaded modules of the "System" process to see all loaded kernel drivers and modules), with a representative sample of applications running (browsers, productivity, etc.)

* no apparent rootkit-style hijacking of the process / registry / disk inspection routines, as would be shown by e.g. RootkitRevealer

And of course, a commercial virus scan, for what it's worth. I personally don't run a real-time virus scanner; I rely on monitoring what the system is doing directly.

w3matter• 16 years ago

It does not matter if he considers himself a startup or not.

Think about it. He does fairly well doing what he does. Must a dentist "scale", or is the dentist perfectly happy running her practice until she retires?

Why do people have to scale? Wouldn't you like yourself to earn that regular money every month doing something that you like without thinking of constant expansion?

pgbovine4• 16 years ago

totally agree with you. i hope you didn't interpret my comment as implying that scaling is something that everyone should aspire to.

jamesbritt2• 16 years ago

I've heard, from assorted friends an d such, that one of "the problems with capitalism" is that businesses must grow or die.

I never quite got that. I mean, I understand that a business may be driven by shareholders to just keep going after that one extra dollar, but it's also quite feasible to have a sustainable business that earns its owners a good income, isn't always trying to grow, and leaves everyone happy.

swies2• 16 years ago

PC shops like this one are the market for our premium product and it is extremely interesting to see these numbers. It wasn't obvious to me before (I'm sort of slow with these things) but if you're selling a B2B product, checking out a customer's books is really enlightening.

markpenn5• 16 years ago

What's your premium product?

swies2• 16 years ago

My co-founder and I make Ninite (YC W08) http://ninite.com

It automatically installs apps for windows fast. It's free for home use, but we charge businesses. Many of our subscribers are PC shops like yours.

It's fascinating to see the next step up the value chain in such detail. Thanks for writing that post.

3dFlatLander• 16 years ago

I've toyed with this idea for years. Maybe that's the case with others as well. I've got a load of tech savvy friends, rent is very affordable for storefront commercial buildings. I could even scrounge up some initial investment money. But it can't be that easy... can it?

I was sad to see this was the only post on the blog. I'd be very interested in knowing what steps went into setting up shop.

markpenn5• 16 years ago

I plan on posting more in the coming days.

cakeface• 16 years ago

I can't get by this guy's prose. Something just seems off about it. Maybe I shouldn't be cruising HN this... late.

It always seems like anyone qualified enough to fix a computer could make way more per hour doing programming or IT work. Computer repair seems like a great idea but I don't think it's efficient right now.

markpenn5• 16 years ago

It's late for me too :)

pgbovine4• 16 years ago

perhaps he could make more money, but maybe he enjoys the freedom and control of running this business more than programming/IT

HeyLaughingBoy2• 16 years ago

Possibly, but someone qualified enough to be a good programmer could probably also make way more in a financial or medical field. Having the ability doesn't necessarily correlate to having an interest. Many smart people may choose to repair computers because of the interaction with a variety of people daily rather than stuck in a cubicle somewhere.

Hell, I could make more money as a dentist, but I don't find the idea of poking around in people's mouths every day to be very appealing.

detst2• 16 years ago

What do you guys think about doing this part time and on-site at people's homes? I'm looking for something to cover my basic expenses while working on another project. Yeah, I could get a full-time job. But I would rather have the time considering my expenses are very low right now.

One big benefit for me is that it would get me outside and dealing with people to counter my extended hacking sessions. Any ideas on a good rate and marketing strategy?

acgourley• 16 years ago

I did this through college, really was stressful compared to almost any other part time job. Paid better though.

It's very hard to be empathetic and be in the business, you end up undercharging but still going too far above and beyond to meet their schedules/needs, and ultimately feeling bad you didn't do a 100% perfect job after you give them the bill (because in hindsight, you could do any job in half the time)

Oh and you'll get calls 2 years after you close up shop.

detst2• 16 years ago

Thanks. I think being empathetic might be a bit of a problem for me but the great thing is that I can always just stop doing it whenever I want. Is this where the stress came?

Any ideas on a good rate to charge? Do people look at on-site work as a premium service or do they look at you as the small guy and expect a really good rate?

How did you market your service?

I'd really like to hear more about your experience as the getting out the door aspect is really appealing to me right now.

reedlaw• 16 years ago

What do you do with customers who don't have or can't find product keys for Windows, Office, etc.? I find the majority of people who ask me for help fall into this category. Unless they have a laptop with the product key stuck underneath, they rarely can find their original product keys. I'm then faced with telling them they need to shell out hundreds of dollars or switch to Linux. Some of the them switched, but unless they're willing to learn Linux, that's a whole new set of problems (e.g. they call you saying "I downloaded MSN but I can't install for some reason").

kellishaver2• 16 years ago

For Windows, you tell them they need to order recovery CD/DVDs from the manufacturer, and then we order them for them. It's usally between $15-25. If we happen to have restore disks from their manufacturer that will work with their model, we use them, so long as the computer had a valid copy of windows on it to begin with.

If it's a computer they've built rather than bought from a big box and have lost their key, well, they're out of luck, but most people who build their own computers don't bring them to a computer repair shop.

timr• 16 years ago

My first "computer job" (early in high school) started as gopher duty at a local PC shop in my hometown. I unpacked boxes of hard drives, swept the floors, and occasionally cleaned the bathroom (aside: every high school kid's first job should involve cleaning a toilet!). Eventually, I moved up to doing diagnostic and assembly work, and the owner realized that he could hire high school kids to do most of the tech jobs. The guy is still in business nearly twenty years later, and as far as I can tell, he's done quite well for himself.

The only problem is, it's not the most intellectually stimulating work in the world, and it's certainly not for the high-aspiration type of person. But when you can hire smart high school kids to do most of the labor, set up some basic process automation and establish a reliable network of customer recommendations, it takes very little effort or time to maintain the business. I'm sure I work longer hours in the bit-mines than he ever did.

kellishaver2• 16 years ago

I, too, own a computer repair shop. We've been open for a few years now, and while I don't have any numbers on me at the moment, this seems very similar to our early days. We're in a very small town, so our numbers probably started off a bit lower.

We do a lot of: virus/spyware removal, replacing broken power jacks on laptops, hard drive replacement (with and without data recovery), in the spring/summer we replace a lot of power supplies thanks to all of the thunderstorms), format and reinstall (usually at their request, we rarely have to do it due to viruses, etc.), RAM upgrades, laptop screen replacements.

By far, the majority of the hardware problems we see are hard drives and laptop power jacks, which makes sense, since they tend to take the most abuse.

fraXis• 16 years ago

What are your rates? Hourly or per Job? How much do you pay for overhead (rent, etc).

You state that they bring their systems to you so I assume you have a storefront.

Those numbers are impressive for just starting out, but it would be nice to know the full story such as your expenses regarding the running and the upkeep of the business.

A Computer Repair Shop as a Startup (with numbers)

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