Anyone working as a computer Tech?

conzy

Anyone here work as a Computer tech?

I used to work in a local PC shop, but that closed down recently (nothing to do with me ) I just did run of the mill stuff, like building pcs, windows re-installations and virus clean ups..

So I want to work on my own now as I really need the money, Im only 16, so it will be just weekends and evenings...

So, What is a fair price to charge? If anyone works as a computer tech could they tell me how they charge customers?

Thanks

conzy

Anyone?

Any general tips:)

awhir

hmm could i be your west of ireland partner

Anti

I used to work as a tech in PcWorld myself.

To be honest people like to see some qualifications before they trust you. Even though you probably know alot more then people twice your age.

If you are gonna do it on the evenings / weekends You whould be looking at 25-30 a hour. As most problems are fixed in under that. So charging 10€ a hour would make you little or no money at all.

When i worked for pc world i got alot of nixers outside, like installing software or ram, or even a graphics card, sometimes just installing a new os, For basic software and hardware upgrades i would charge about 30€ for iinstalling a few hdds, network card and networking it up to another computer i would charge 100€, installing a os i would charge 75 €


You would be amazed what people will pay when they have no idea about computers. If you were living in dublin you chould charge alot more.

awhir

person: sorry but could you please put windows viesta on my pc

sales man:hmm its quite a large job i would have to charge 200e and up because i will have to a specail chip on your motherboard

person :ok i will pay that you seem to know what you are talking about.


lol would that work lol:D

SEE im allready a salesman

conzy

Thanks for the reply Anti, and awhir stop trying to scam people:p

I was thinking of offering a call-out service too as a lot of jobs used to be printer /camera / mp3 player installations....

Any other general tips?

Thanks

awhir

ok then

L31mr0d

These threads come up every now and again and afair people usually keep their cards pretty close to their chests, not wanting any business stolen and all that. I too want to get into doing a bit of this as I enjoy fixing computers and the like, plus i'm actually a qualified computer engineer. I just don't know where you'd advertise this service? The buyandsell? If anyone is willing to share the wealth i'd love to know where to go about advertising my services in the first place?

aidan_walsh

I just don't know where you'd advertise this service?

The local media would probably be your best bet. Local newspapers, parish magazines, etc.

Ruu_Old

L31mr0d wrote:

These threads come up every now and again and afair people usually keep their cards pretty close to their chests, not wanting any business stolen and all that. I too want to get into doing a bit of this as I enjoy fixing computers and the like, plus i'm actually a qualified computer engineer. I just don't know where you'd advertise this service? The buyandsell? If anyone is willing to share the wealth i'd love to know where to go about advertising my services in the first place?

Have you put an ad on adverts.ie? I guess you could put it under Job Adverts->Services Available. Otherwise as aidan suggested.

uch

Stick a Buisness Card in your local Post office, you should get a few calls from there.

Saruman

Same goes with supermarket notice boards etc. I do it for a living but i work for a company. I was in Mayo today on day 5 of an 8 day server/network/PC install. Big job especially since its just me no one else helping me from work.

Anyway i get the odd nixer as a result. Word of mouth is a great thing too..

Anti

Yeah word of mouth is the best thing. I got alot of work from that, plus family's friends.

Your reputation will follow you, remember that. Did you blow mrs Ryans pc because you left a screw on her mobo ? and just ran ? That type of thing will come back to haunt you.

But one thing you do is, get a seperate mobile for this. As you will get alot of customers who think your their best friend. And will ring you all day and knight about every little problem like " duuuuude, is your ntl down ? you: Ummm no, im on smart " just silly little things.

Just guarantee your own work, And if you install hardware you keep the receipt and file it somewhere safe with all the customers details ( in a file system, paper not in excel ), As these peons canot and should not be trusted with this, As they will loose it 3 weeks before their motherboard blows. Plus i used to make alot of money reselling pcworld products, esp surge protectors, I could get one with discount for 14.99 and sell them for 30€. Just simple things like this made me alot of money. in 2 months i made 2700€ Which is considerably more then any sales or tech person in pcworld makes in basic without commission.

If ya have any more questions just ask

Oh yeah fpr advertising, local newspaper, local pc shops, They always have way to much work, and dont want small things when they get busy, so they can reccomend you sometimes. Just go in and show your face a few time and get known in there, Any local hardware store like woodies, b&Q , car garages. Anywhere really

L31mr0d

cheers jeez

Now I have way too much stuff to do to get out there.

One last thing, what if a job requires me to take some of their H/W home? What do you charge then if you have to work on it for a few hours at home, should you set a set charge to complete the job even if can take from 1hrs to 10hrs. My friends computer wasn't booting and I needed to take his drive home and do a backup. I thought it would take maybe an hour to burn the contents to dvd, but the whole partition table was missing and my comp wouldn't even read it without freezing so I had to use some finicky restoration s/w, all in all it took me 4-5 hrs to rewrite the partition table and back everything up. It then took me another hour or 2 back at his house running a fixboot then chkdsk, then a few virus scans and defrags. I had said I would charge 100 so I couldn't turn around and tell him I actually had spent alot more time than I wanted on it. I mean how do you know how much to charge when you can't gauge how long it is going to take? Also what if you don't fix the problem, do you still charge for all the hours you worked on it?

CiaranC

If you are doing this stuff as a nixer, make sure the punter understands that you dont provide ongoing support for the job. Ensure they are happy with the work, be thorough and go through everything with them when its done.

Bastards will think they have a lifetime support contract for even totally unrelated stuff otherwise.

If you are going to provide ongoing support, multiply the price of the job by ten. Get them to pay a monthly retainer. Because thats how much time you are going to spend answering emails and phonecalls about stuff that they most probably screwed up themselves.

petes

L31mr0d wrote:

cheers jeez

I had said I would charge 100 so I couldn't turn around and tell him I actually had spent alot more time than I wanted on it. I mean how do you know how much to charge when you can't gauge how long it is going to take?

Charge by the hour, not the job.

Sully

If your doing call-out - do you charge a call out fee?

If your collecting the PC - is it free or do you charge?

Anti

so you did about 7 hours work and got 100€. Where is the problem there ? Thats more then you would get if you were a tech in a shop..

If you have to take hardware home, dont charge by the hour. As it could be something so simple it could take one hour, And you might only get 10€. i charged by the job. you can always tell if their willing to pay, And here is how i worked it out:

If they have a 06 audi, and a 05 bmw in the driveway they are more then likely to be tight. So if you say 80€ for a winxp install and adding 512mb ram ( after they pay for the parts and software ) They will look at you strange.

If they have a 94 clio and a bike out side And 4 screaming anotty nosed kids charge them 100€.

For some reason i always found it harder to get money out of rich people, I suppose thats how they got rich and stay rich, They watch their money.

CiaranC

Personally, all costs should be reflected in the hourly rate. Onsites included.

Anti

Each to their own i suppose

CiaranC

so you did about 7 hours work and got 100€. Where is the problem there ?

€15 a hour is brutal for out of hours work, even for a schoolkid.

Anti

Hed be lucky to earn that in a real job. Your in dublin, so you can expect alot higher money then some on from kilkenny/waterford/wexford can expect

SouperComputer

so you did about 7 hours work and got 100€. Where is the problem there ?

The problem is that you now have your own costs and overheads to cover! Overheads mount very quickly too!

Conzy, what you charge depends on what people are willing to pay. I know its a vauge answer but its true. Do some research, ring around, find out what others are charging.

Some bullits:

* Flatrates are great for customers, and somtimes not so great for you. If you want long-term business they are worth considering. Remember that if you want a successfull business, its all about the customer

* Because you are young, many people may be reluctant to have you work on their computers. Be sure to ALWAYS have a clean, professional appearance. Dont take others as an example, make your own mark!

* Register your company name (costs 30e) and do it right, by doing this you show that you are serious about what you are doing.

* Talk to local business boards about free courses that may be available, start your business, accounting, marketing etc etc. They are usually glad to help.

* If you are serious about this, GET INSURANCE. Otherwise be prepared to be fleeced if things go wrong!

CiaranC

anti wrote:

Hed be lucky to earn that in a real job.

The point of doing this stuff is to earn some decent money, is it not? He could work in a supermarket or call centre with zero challenge, hassle or responsibilty if he wanted to make 10-15 quid an hour.

I would have though a technician would be harder to find in Wexford etc. hence higher, not lower prices.

SouperComputer wrote:

Register your company name (costs 30e) and do it right, by doing this you show that you are serious about what you are doing.

Wouldnt this open him up to tax liabilty?

SouperComputer

Wouldnt this open him up to tax liabilty?

If hes getting an income, he's open to tax liability anyway

Im suggesting he does the the right way in a professional manner, rather than the half-assed approach many "tech's" take. Starting this way at 16 is a great idea, if you are serious about it.

Just to clarify, you will not charge or get back VAT and you dont want to at first anyway. However you can offset legit expenses against your income tax liability. IE it can feed your gaming addiction

L31mr0d

anti wrote:

so you did about 7 hours work and got 100€.

It was more like 9 hours, I was there for about 2 hours before I had to take the stuff with me. Plus it was the hassle of having to drive home then back again, which i'm not factoring into the hours, he lives 30minutes from my house. I think i'd charge per hour in future, as like was said, most problems are usually fixed in under an hour.

I wouldn't say i'd register a business just yet. Gauge interest first before taking the serious route. Plus after about 50 nixers I might just get sick of it.

Cuddlesworth

L31mr0d wrote:

I wouldn't say i'd register a business just yet. Gauge interest first before taking the serious route. Plus after about 50 nixers I might just get sick of it.

Try doing it all day as a full time job and then see how many nixers you want to do.

Anti

Think about how long most problems take ? adding ram - 10 mins if you run memtest too.

Upgrading a component like a cpu or graphics/sound card or hard drive - another 15-20 mins

So say you had to do all that work on a pc, which you will have done in under 1 hour. ive had it down to about 20-25 mins before ( without testing ). your getting what ? how much would you charge a hour ? 25-30€ Thats still peanuts. Thats why i said Dont charge a hourly rate. just do out a price list. like 10€ per module 30€ for the cpu 30 for the graphics card. Then say another 15 for Installing drivers And say 30 for the hdd.

So instead of getting 25-30€ for that work your getting 115€ Which is a decent days wage for alot of people.

Now if you want to make more money again you can buy and sell the components. shop4memory, komplett ect ect just add on 10-15% of the value ontop of the product and you make even more.

In my oppinion Why do you think almost every company pays its employees a hours rate and not a " when you have task A dont you get 40€ and when you have task B done you get another 55€ and so on and so forth "

Anti

Oh i do know that you will have times where you could have a pc for a day or two because no matter what you do you cant fix it for whatever reason. Thats the only time horly rate goes for you. But almost all techs do a " no fix, no fee "

you can say that you wont, but think about it. If your car broke down because the head gasket blew, and you sent it to a garage to get repaired. And in two days when you go to pick it up they say " sorry mate, couldnt fix it. But thats till 400€ please " Would you pay ? I know i wouldnt.

CiaranC

I see your point anti. When I say charge per hour I generally mean decide how long the job will take, factor in any potential screwups (double it ) and price accordingly.

Anti

ahhh i got ya now

very devious, but i like it

Customer: How long will it take to install this ram ?

You: Ohh * head scratch * about 7 hours sir * waffle on about latencys and timings *

Customer: Um.. okay so

You: Ka-Ching !

conzy

Thanks for all the advice lads, I dont think im ready to register a company yet, but maybe in a few weeks if it takes off

I could make loads of money selling gaming PCs too, Buy the parts from Komplett, build it and then add 25%, That way they get machines for a fraction of the price alienware charge and I make lots of money

Also, I noticed In the shop, one of the techs would spend several hours trying to recover a dodgey windows installation, when he could have done a reinstall and back up their files.....

Also, I have a automated installation Windows XP disc that I made with Nlite :P

But I will need to get 2000, and 98 discs as a lot of people stilll have old machines

I am going to ring the other Computer shop and see what they charge, then charge half of that:cool:

I know one of the shops charge €65 an hour :eek:

Anti

Gaming pc's will not be as easy to sell as you think. Because if the person is a gamer they are more then likely to know of komplett and other websites. And will more then likely know the prices. Maybe adding 10-15% would be a better idea. or 150€ per build, which ever is more. I have built lots of pc's for friends and let them pay for the parts. and i charge them 150€ for 2-3 hours work max. And they were mroe then happy.

And under cuttning shops by 50% is madness, just take 25% of their prices And you will be laughing all the way to the bank

Redisle

Reading this thread this is something id love to do too, but id say it would be hard to compete with all the repair shops springing up all over the place.(even though some people working in these places dont have a clue, no offence to anyone but you all know what i mean,someone came to me before and said he couldnt get his printer working with his laptop and he brought it to a repair shop, they reinstalled windows and did nothing about the printer!!, So he gave it to me and the driver disks were outta date so i got new drivers off the net and hey presto i got it working.There probably was another reason for reinstalling windows but not that he knew of.... also the same people installed pirated office onto the laptop... should repair shops do that???, but i got rid of that and put on his (legal) office xp...

Im 17 and im kinda the go-to guy for anything pc realted, none of my friends have a clue and if i get all techy it really annoys them.. lol.. Only annoying thing is that the computers we have in our lab at school are 7-8yr old imacs so i cant do much with them:( ..

Anyway sorry for the rant, i just got carried away

Good luck op in finding some business for yourself,
If you suceed feel free to give me some tips:D

ab

SouperComputer

could make loads of money selling gaming PCs too, Buy the parts from Komplett, build it and then add 25%, That way they get machines for a fraction of the price alienware charge and I make lots of money

I have the feeling you haven't quite experienced how much time it can take up supporting these. 25% isnt a whole lot when you think about the time spent:

1) Talking with customer about what they need
2) Ordering off komplett, possibly changing the order as customer changes needs.
3) Building PC, installing windows (Nlited or not, it takes time)
4) Possibly delivering the PC and setting it up for the customer.
5) If you supply OEM office or windows YOU are expected to provide support, so expect silly calls about emails, office and all kinds of non-gaming machine related. They spend good money and expect to do these things the same as before.
6) Possible time ar$ing around if you have to return a part from a machine to Komplett. In the meantime, are you going to supply a temporary part to keep the customer happy, or will they be happy enough being 2 weeks or more without a PC

Theres lots more to consider. Basically make money where your maximum margin and minimum outlay is: SERVICE!

conzy

Yeah, never thought of that

Im going to make a few ads, and see how it goes:)

Thanks for the help

hshortt

Get qualified and have a menu of services. Stick to the menu and agreed prices/rates. I didn't think the comment on the front page about charging different prices for different classes of people was a valid point at all. Be careful about the problems you tackle. You are young, so asking you to look at a PC with Windows 3.1 for workgroups on it (yes, yes they are still there!) would likely have you baffled.

Spyware/Malware and viruses are the biggest causes of home issues and if it happened to my pc I'd reformat, because no single application that I've found yet detects everything and therefore I don't trust individual apps, you have to have a couple of good, well known and regarded applications and learn how to use them.

Ensure you know the differences between isa, eisa, pci, pci-x, the multitudes of different memory modules and the bus speeds. You'll earn more trust if you can support the installation and you could work out a charge for doing that while there, i.e. I've finished installing your components I'd like you to be happy that everything is working and if you like I can offer a call-out support for those components for x amount of money and x per hour there-after. Again this should be part of your offering.

Don't screw people, they find out and they then tell others and bad news travels twice as fast as good.

Be enthuastic about what you do and be happy to explain the simple questions you'll be asked a hundred times by different people. Don't talk jargon, explain it, use something they'll understand. e.g. when I explain hard disk fragmentation I'll talk about a vinyl record player. (it's easy to understand then)

Have a good gauge to how long certain processes take, virus scan can take hours, likewise check disk and defrag, don't get stuck doing these at 7 in the evening cause you wont be home till late!

Have fun and learn.

Cheerio
Howard

conzy

Thanks again

I know modern PCs inside out imo, but i think I would be a bit uncomfortable with pre 98 machines and definietely uncomfortable with pre 95 machines

I would be the same with PCs that are riddled with viruses, I would explain to the customer that its better and cheaper for them if I do a clean install

But sometimes you get the customer that has a 7 year old Windows 98 installation, with every single version of every IM program ever released and every free "virus scanner" on the net installed, and they want the viruses removed and the pc left just the way it was :P

Thanks again for the help, and keep the suggestions coming..

Anti

www.icslearn.co.uk offer some great courses, They are not free though

SouperComputer

I know modern PCs inside out imo, but i think I would be a bit uncomfortable with pre 98 machines and definietely uncomfortable with pre 95 machines

Luckily its dead cheap to get a hold of such machines and learn about them.

If you want to be around long term, best learn a bit of DOS and 3.1 as HShortt said. Why? Because a lot of companies have software that generally will only run happily on such OS and are not willing to move for the risk of breaking it.

PogMoThoin

This is a little off topic, but i didn't want to start a new thread. I'm trying to set-up offering a similar service (virus removal, upgrade & repair etc) in my area. Lookin for idea's for a catchy name as i'm goin advertising on local radio. A few things to thro in the ring, my name is Colm, missis' name is Olivia & my kids initials are A & D (I've got CODA-FIX in my head). Any original ideas?

Edit: I'm also goin to be offering a "spec & build to suit" service,

Anti

h4x-j00 Kinda catchy isnt it

What ever you do please dont go with the atypical A1 computer repairs.

Something simple i would find generally the best. Im not good with creative name, so i cant even hazzard a guess. Sorry

L31mr0d

"topless virus removal" then show up with no shirt on. It will be a great gimick, but only if your fat

Ruu_Old

As long as its not 'Computer Docs-When your computers ill, we have the pill':rolleyes:

DonkeyStyle \o/

How about... Hypercompuglobalmeganet?

layke

I used to charge €100 for an OS build.

Not that it's hard, just time consuming (and a pain in the hole tbh) to babysit Windows and then thrawl the web for drivers that work with the new OS.

Joeface

Hypercompuglobalmeganet : isnt that patented by homer J simpson.

how about "FIX_IT"

Cuddlesworth

"JamesQ Pc repairs"

damo605

Don't forget the safety aspect of this - you're 16 and are planning on heading into strangers houses on your own?
There are a lot of wierdos out there so be very careful.
I know one of our service techs here is afraid to go to certain premises and he's almost 30 and businesses are generally gonna be a lot safer than private houses!

conzy

PogMoThoin wrote:

This is a little off topic, but i didn't want to start a new thread. I'm trying to set-up offering a similar service (virus removal, upgrade & repair etc) in my area. Lookin for idea's for a catchy name as i'm goin advertising on local radio. A few things to thro in the ring, my name is Colm, missis' name is Olivia & my kids initials are A & D (I've got CODA-FIX in my head). Any original ideas?

Edit: I'm also goin to be offering a "spec & build to suit" service,

You better not be in my area:mad:

I also have to think of a name...

PogMoThoin

No chance of that, your not allowed cross the shannon tho......i'm warning ya