Future retailer in distress

[ikonia]

another "I want to start a shop - what do I do" thread,

How old are you ? are you another 16 year old kid who wants to fix PC's and sell bits for a living ?

Why do people around you not want to buy online ? ? are they computer beginners in which case why would they want hi end kit from you ? if they are enthusiast why don't they want to buy online ?

[m0onKniGht]

Thats what i was hoping to take advantage of, the hilarious prices around my town, in most cases pcworld charges double what scan for example charges.

[jackvdbuk]

Thats what i was hoping to take advantage of, the hilarious prices around my town

and take advantage of the fantastic prices from the likes of scan that are avalible to everyone online? its a no go.. just help friends and family...

[ikonia]

???? re-read what I typed then type a response

[Nick]

Ok, some straight advice.

Don't do it. ok?

Simple reasons are:

You will not have the buying power of an etailer.

You will not be able to offer technical support to the volume and level needed.

Breaking those two down further:

Unless you have some serious money to just blow by buying bulk, you'll not be able to carry any stock, so anyone coming to you will have to wait at least a day, maybe two, until you get the part they want. Why would they do that when they can pay a bit more and get it from PC World?

Building systems is time consuming and to do it properly you're looking AT MOST at one PC per day. With a profit margin of say £50 per PC, because you can't get trade prices you'll be no more competitive than PC World for price AND you'll be earning a max of £1000 a month, of which the tax man will want £200, leaving you £800 to run a business and live... so not much money in it, even if you sell a PC EVERY DAY.

Next, tech support:

All these PCs you hope to sell will be used by not particularly tech savvy people (or they would've maybe bought online rather than a one man PC business) and so they will need tech support.

Even if they bring the PC back to you you'll still waste a minimum of half a day for even the simplest problems... and that's half a day not building a new PC to sell... that's half a day just given away to a previous customer, unless you charge some kind of after sales support... but even then you risk running foul of the sales of goods act and could find yourself in real trouble if you rush a build or cut corners.

So, just so we're clear... unless you can invest heavily and hire staff right from the start, don't bother... go and work for someone else where you'll get a fixed wage, holiday pay and don;t have to worry about the business 24/7.

k?

[fat jez]

Oh no he's not ...

Not lovely or not lonely?

Anyway, if I were you, I wouldn't bother going seriously into business, because as Nick says, you'll need a serious amount of capital behind you to invest in stock.

What you could do is act as a broker for friends. Order the stuff they want online and sell it to them with a small percentage added on, but be prepared to accept that faulty stuff might be a real pain to deal with if the company you bought it from won't take it back.

Cheers,
Stephen

[Kumagoro]

I also think there isnt money to be made in Selling computers.

However there is in fixing them. Someone I know recently took there computer into a place and
they charge £40 to just take a look at it (this includes windows reinstalled)

You could then charge another £10 to make a recovery CD of it, some more for fully updating it (as it
does take ages to do.) more for misc extras like codecs, flash, bit torrent or what ever. You can make a
bit from reselling OEM versions of windows.

Most people dont realise how worthless there PC now is, so are willing to spend at least £100 on getting
a hardware prob sorted seeing as they spent over £1000 in the first place. So you can use ebay to get old
parts dirt cheap and get a decent mark up on them.

If you really want to have a go at selling PC's then I would have thought that budget Overclocking is the
only way.

[Andy3536]

thats a good point..

I'm in driving distance from tonbridge, can i send you a CV?
I built my own <<<<
How much do you pay?

[Saracen]

Ok, some straight advice.

Don't do it. ok?

Simple reasons are:

....

<snip>

There's a lot of truth in that, BUT ..... what m0onKniGht wants to do is still a practical business opportunity IF approached correctly, and if you are prepared to work for it, and if you have a little good luck.

There are a number of problems to be overcome. The first one is getting customers, and moreover, getting ones that are profitable ..... and being able to tell which ones are profitable. A very important point is Nick's point about doing one job takes time that means you can't be doing another job. You only have so much time, so it's essential to spend it well. And it might be that spending it marketing is a better use that doing a job that takes all day and earns you &#163;20, despite the marketing effort not earning anything directly.

MOST non-business customers will just want rock-bottom prices. That, I'd suggest, is a market worth avoiding, since the opportunity to make money will be negligible, and having sold them something, they'll expect free Rolls Royce 24/7 support for the rest of their lives. So if dealing with that market, you need to make it clear, in writing, in advance, that while you'll fix problems arising from defective parts, sorting out virus issues, for example, is chargeable.

this_is_gav nailed it spot on ....

Given the prices most charge, there is business to be had. You just don't want to get cocky with your rates until you pick up a decent client base. Generally you'll need to take a hit before you start to make money if you're to last for any length of time. Hook in to small, new local businesses if at all possible.

The red is mine.

If you can find some small, local businesses that are prepared to pay reasonable rates for work done, then you can offer support, perhaps networking installations, consultancy and so on. You still have to be competitive, but if the service you offer is good enough, you'll get lots of repeat business. The ideal client is people like a small accountancy or legal practice, where system problems cost them money, and a good and fast local person offers them the best of in-house support without the ongoing cost.


Personally, I think targeting Joe Public is a waste of time. Too many people know someone that'll do basic stuff for free or nominal charge, and they'll resent paying you a working hourly rate because they won't see the overheads that have to be paid for, the downtime, the equipment purchases, and so on. They'll just see &#163;30/hour (or whatever) and regard it as a rip-off. But if you can get some decent local business customers, and are prepared to drop everything and jump when they call with a problem, then just maybe it's a viable business. Competing directly with PC World is a waste of time, too, since a good percentage of their customers know full well that they can get things cheaper than there, but go there because they're local, convenient and don't involve mucking about with waiting for couriers, or some tradesman to show up. PC World is as much about convenience, and about stock range and being able to see what you buy then just buy it, as it is about prices.

m0onKniGht 's idea is viable, IMHO, but it WILL take some business nous, hard work, time and probably some risk, and a healthy dollop of good luck to get it to a viable point.

[m0onKniGht]

Well thank you for ur helpful replies, i do have 1 or 2 ppl that would go into the business with me, my biggest fear is the customers, i know i can make it definately i am ready to work as hard as i can but even if i try my hardest i wont make ppl want to buy from me or use my services. Altho i was thinking about just starting as a home business of pc repairing and stuff like that since one of the ppl that would go into the business with me lives in the same house as me, but then again i dont know :/ i have a brother that has access to a high quality industrial printer at work so i could make some decent flyers.

[fat jez]

Hi m0onKniGht,

Mind if I ask how old you are?

I think if I were you, I would go down the route of doing repairs and upgrades for people who don't have the knowledge to do it for themselves, but do it almost as a sideline or a hobby. See how that goes for a while. Once you have become established in that way and people know and trust you, you can then look at whether you want to go further and start a shop.

The advantage of doing repairs and upgrades though, is you only need to keep a small amount of spares, couple of hard drives, optical drives, some spare RAM, maybe a spare processor or two, so your overheads are small as you don't need premises to operate from and you don't have a lot of money tied up in stock, which also carries risks. Scan are losing £130 a processor on the Quad core Intel chips now the prices have dropped until they sold their existing stock and are onto the new inventory - could you afford to do that?

Please be patient we do have the stock but are under pressure from Intel we are losing £130 on each chip we sell. All will be explained tomorrow so hang fire guys apologies for the confusion.

Also, is there enough work to support you and others? I doubt it to begin with.

Something to think about?

[0iD]

Tech support for local business is definately the way to go imo. Setting up networks, servers etc & offering support. I know people who have made a living from it, but you have to know what you're doing. This is not personal computing, this is corporate stuff, a completely different ballgame.

[99Flake]

Don't do it! I live in Tunbridge Wells and the number of shops that have opened up to sell components and then shut down 6 months later is rediculous. It is not a good town for that kind of business, too much money and people who think PC World is fine so don't care/know they are being ripped off. Those who do know order from people like Scan.

Not only that but where would you put your store. Camden Road is the only place with reasonable rent on shops but it is where shops die, you would need to be in the precinct or on Mount Pleasant, how could you afford that?

[Howard]

Ridiculous*

Sorry.

Edit: I thought it was spelt like that more than once in the thread... I'm going mad.


Just to add some useful contribution, I too have seen numerous little PC shops come and go in my area, it's just not worth it when there's online retailers for the savvy, and PC World for the idiots who just want a PC

[Steve B]

also note that the average business doesn't make any money for what, 3-5 years?

[ikonia]

forget it - this is a kid playing at shop.