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Thread ID: 124681	2012-05-12 11:08:00	Assistance starting PC build/supply/repair business	Tukapa (62)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1274974	2012-05-13 05:44:00	2)Home help. Call to say Thunderbird not showing inbox etc at left. I suggest clicking View- Folders - All. Second person put on phone because first doesn't understand all that. Second person doesn't listen and randomly reads menu items that are not under View. Eventually I stress the need for looking under view at which point I am told there is no view cause there is no menu. Suggest right clicking and enabling menu. Second person says there is no Folders listed under view. Ask which version it is. They say no idea. Suggest looking under Help - About. And so on....of course, I have to remain on the phone while all the researching and clicking occurs, with running commentary on how none of these items I suggest exist. But of course it's just a simple thing...... I always wonder if a brain aneurysm surgeon put them up to that to generate income for himself.	Agent_24 (57)
1274975	2012-05-13 07:49:00	and limited to my knowledge area of PC builds, upgrades and repairs. Excellent, you're off to a great start. Knowing when to say when, and knowing when to turn down a job up-front are signs of a quality worker that your customers will return to because they can rely on your honesty. Building a good name for yourself like that is excellent! I have to do this above board because of my main occupation, I can't risk the taxman or other areas of concern. I'm with pctek, I still wouldn't piss around with GST if you don't have to... what is the going hourly rate for charging? Depends on your market, what you're doing, and basically what your customers will pay you for. You don't have to stick with a rate, though customers may get confused why you charge $40 an hour to begin with and then $80 the next time, and $65 the 3rd time for example. If I'm not doing it "for a box of beers", then I don't usually bother for anything less than $80 an hour ($100 an hour if I'm feeling rather well off at that stage). Start somewhere middle of the road, maybe $40-60-ish an hour, and go from there? Provided you're not charging while it's doing an AV scan, most customers will find that quite reasonable. However if you're downloading 2GB of Windows Updates, maybe throw in a few extra bucks to cover the cost of your data charges for example. what are the must have diagnostic tools? NOD32's Online Scanner is awesome, or a trial of it. Sign up to become a reseller through Chillisoft, Steve there is excellent and it's well worth it! It really is the best AV by a long-shot and worth recommending your customers pay for. Keep Malwarebytes on a thumbdrive too, and it's worth getting yourself a USB Network Card that either works out-of-the-box with Windows XP, or has an easy installation CD / Drivers you can copy across and keep on the aforementioned thumbdrive. any good supplier suggestions (atm I just use the cheapest reputable supplier)? PBTech. I order everything from them on my account, I have a level 4 wholesale account which keeps the price pretty damn cometitive across the board, and aside from the discount its just bloody convenient having them keep track of all your invoices for you online. Less paperwork to piss around with when your mothers laptop HDD dies in 6 months time. Others recommend Ascent for similar reasons. any pointers over the accountancy side of things? Keep it simple. I'm with pctek, if you can use a spreadsheet, then do-so. The less you muck around with while you're doing it "on the side" the better, or you'll loathe the paperwork and it'll kill your passion. Xero is useful, but obviously costs. And for those of you already in business, I am located in New Plymouth so hopefully won't be trading on the toes of the regulars! Just keep in mind that New Zealand is a bloody small country. I've just started work at a new company and I know every single one of the staff there bar one already, all the way up and down the country. For the better part most "Pro" techs don't really mind somebody else starting up, there's usually plenty of work to go around for a good tech, but just make sure you don't intentionally piss them off by doing stupid things like abusing customers, or ripping off their website, and you'll be sweet ;) pine-o-cleen has excellent advice too, take that onboard. Get your customers to sign the sheet of paper which includes their windows password which you'll pretty much guaranteed need to get in to most machines. That, or you'll get real damn handy at resetting windows passwords from sysresccd. Finally, it pays to show them XYZ is fixed. Get them out of the habit of using IE where possible. Suggest (And have pre-installed) Chrome or Firefox, both of which are easy enough to have offline installers on a thumbdrive. Many infections come in through IE these days that you'll be fixing. EDIT: Oh yeah, increase your data cap, you'll be surprised how much windows can chew through updating. Maybe have that as a tick box, many people will pay a few extra bucks for you to "lock down and secure" their PC which generally involves a trial of NOD32, windows updates, and all the other basics like Adobe Reader updated and set to continue auto-updating :)	Chilling_Silence (9)
1274976	2012-05-13 09:12:00	Thatsvwhat service contracts are for. A small PC repair business is not likely to have a service contract with a client. Too much pissing around for not much gain.	pine-o-cleen (2955)
1274977	2012-05-13 09:54:00	Ah, The good old days web.archive.org	Metla (12)
1274978	2012-05-13 10:03:00	Ah, The good old days web.archive.org AMD K8 64bit Athlon 3800 939 pin $1252 !!!!! :lol:	Agent_24 (57)
1274979	2012-05-13 10:51:00	I was pretty interested in doing this myself, since I was interested in a bit of extra cash (some may remember my topic on this subject). The neighbour had me set up her home network and install network drivers for her daughter's laptop which she removed in a format. Took a couple hours, she gave me 50 bucks for it. Was pretty chuffed. Done my sister's laptops quite a few times too, just random things but the 'can't you make it faster for free' thing popped up a bit there. Stepdad's laptop I installed a few tools, removed a bit of junk, same deal for his friends' one, since that had a minor case of spyware. It's been suggested multiple times for me to get into it. I also got the chance to do similar sort of things at highschool, just plugging in cables and rebuilding machines autmoatically, but the sys admin at rutherford is a bit of an ass. (re: the biggest ass you'll ever meet) so that, combined with the control software setup made life a little same-ish. Still, wouldn't mind a sys admin or similar sort of position at the end of my degree. If I make it to the end of it. Currently, doesn't feel like there's going to be an end to this damn thing though.	8ftmetalhaed (14526)
1274980	2012-05-13 10:52:00	Righto, Work out how many hours you can work in a week (without going mad) Then see how much your hourly rate will give you. Then take off all your projected expenses, Then add a third to your expenses and remove that. Just to cover unexpected outgoings (case in point, A system you sell dies, You have to provide instant replacement to keep your customer happy, yet the supplier wants 2 weeks to look at it and may or may not cover it) then it comes out of your pocket. Then take 35 percent off your projected income, It never pans out that way, You will do work you can't charge for, People will screw you around, and their will be quiet times. Figure out how long you can keep your head above water based on those figures, bearing in mind thats as good as it gets. oh yeah, add your wages and tax into your expenses. What I found, is that after I used up every available hour, I wasn't getting rich, and I couldn't see anyway to increase my incoming without huge investment and risk, I was that busy that I was getting less work done as their was more demands on my time, and their was no way in hell I could look at taking on an employee. There is a fine line between pricing yourself high enough to scare off the time wasters without also scaring off the customers that are worth your time. That's one thing I muffed up, I spent far too much time pleasing people that I made little money from, and tried to compete on price too much. I had managed to grow my little business to the point it was doing some decent turnover, after I took a wage and paid the rent the kitty was pretty slim. Daily cooked breakfasts and constant personal purchases/ upgrades didn't help either.	Metla (12)
1274981	2012-05-13 10:53:00	AMD K8 64bit Athlon 3800 939 pin $1252 !!!!! :lol: There was probably $50 in it for me. And someone probably had it listed on pricespy for less then my buy price with free overnight delivery....	Metla (12)
1274982	2012-05-13 11:35:00	Lots of stuff has been covered, but I'd say be clear with yourself if you're doing this "on the side for some pocket money" and intend to keep it that way, or if you actually intend to develop it into a full-fledged business in it's own right, with it becoming your priority from a work point of view. And you need to be very honest with yourself in this answer. You also need to be aware of the potential liability risks you face if you're dealing with people's equipment and data. What if you go to help a small/home business with something, you make a mistake, and it costs them (or you) more money to fix - have you considered how you'll handle this? If someone presents you with a problem that is at or beyond the limits of your skillset, how will you handle it?	inphinity (7274)
1274983	2012-05-13 11:37:00	Interesting reading :D Basically PCTek and inphinity's post above nailed it. One thing I dont agree on though is the GST part. When ever you buy anything either from a retail shop or wholesaler, you have to pay them GST. If you dont claim it back you end up losing. Its mentioned that because of the other business you need to keep it all legit etc. If you have anything to do with the IRD now, you can bet your boots they'll want something from this New outing. Some people dont care about receipts, many do -- if they claim gst that you charge them, theres a paper trail leading back to you - if you charge gst you must show it to the IRD Businesses not registered for GST can�t charge GST on their sales and income, or claim back the GST on their purchases and expenses.Read the actual Facts (www.ird.govt.nz) its a pdf from IRD. To quote Chill: PBTech. I order everything from them on my account, I have a level 4 wholesale account which keeps the price pretty damn cometitive across the board, and aside from the discount its just bloody convenient having them keep track of all your invoices for you online. Less paperwork to piss around with when your mothers laptop HDD dies in 6 months time. They asked me to get a wholesale account - they are not exactly up front with anyone. I'd rather pay a bit more form other wholesalers and know theres a full warranty on any goods. Below is a question I asked regarding the length of time warranties had - along with the reply. some retailers only put on a one year warranty on components, where in fact they come with a manufactures three year warranty - Asus motherboards for example Answer: at PB Tech all products carry a 1 year warranty. If the manufacturer has a longer warranty (3 years) we pass you details on how to make that claim In other words items that have 2,3 year warranties are only covered by 1 year, after that its tough luck and the builder/supplier ( YOU) has to deal with the manufactures. All this time may take a few weeks or months to sort out any faulty part - Is the customer going to wait while you try to sort it out, or are you going to fix it free out of your own pocket, then get a replacement part later that may or may not be used in a short time. Keep in mind the CGA as well -- Buy a part, you put on a 1 year warranty, it goes out of stock,no longer produced etc - you have to fork out to replace it. Saying its no longer available is not an excuse, the customer has the right to a working replacement as long as its within a reasonable time frame of purchase. Everything I wrote all reads as negative - its meant to ;) its a bit like a lot of shops, they sell you on all the good things BUT steer clear of anything negative.	wainuitech (129)
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