Joe Brandt wrote:
> I have been repairing computers for firends and co-workers for years.
> I am seriously tinnking abouting hanging my shingle and making a go of
> doing it part time then full time when I build enough business. Can
> anyone reccommend an inexpensive advertising that works.
>
Well, not trying to necessarily burst your bubble, but have you run the
numbers on that scenario? You have to break it down to something like
"I need ## of billable hours per day to make a decent living" Then you
have to think, can I even get that many billable hours in a day?? I
was thinking about doing this also and it came down to the fact that
there is no way in reality that I can get that much work.
Now what I've discovered is that those small consulting companies that
do make enough to make a living have focused on small business instead
of home users. There is a huge market for home user computer
consulting.. the problem is you can't charge them enough to make a
living from it. However, with small businesses, you can get away with
charging enough and make a profit. It boils down to this... to make a
decent living, you'd have to charge home users more than $65/hr. which,
no home user, in their right mind, would pay that much (unless you're
targeting a wealthy demographic/market segment). My independant
research has shown me that $49/hr is about the maximum that people will
tolerate (supply/demand analysis), but I've settled on $35/hr because I
get more referrals if I'm a good value (and do good work). I only
charge $25/hr for my customers that actually send me referrals, and
that, in turn, snowballs my business.
However, $65/hr for small businesses is CHEAP! You can probably get
away with over $100-125/hr if you are doing network/server work because
that is a more highly skilled requirement. And if you're really good,
you'll score service agreements where a biz will pay you $$ per month to
be 'on call'. Service agreements are the way to go. Especially if you
can set up VNC and solve most of their problems from the comfort of your
home.
Then you have to consider insurance, taxes, fees, and a mirad of other
factors that chip away at your profits (not to mention gas prices right now)
Personally, I've found that home PC work is a great supplemental
income... it scores me about $150-200 cash per week, which is nice.
Then I have my main job programming which is my bread and butter (steady
income, insurance, tuition reimbursement, etc.)
With all that said, I agree with a previous poster's response that word
of mouth is the most effective advertising. Apart from that, maybe
postcard mailers (but then you have an issue with the legality of
advertising... do your research, you could get sued over a typo!) FL
has laws that regulate advertising... I think you can go to
www.myflorida.com to read the regs.
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