Focusing Exclusively on Residential Computer Repair Clients

While many technicians start with residential clients and have aspirations to graduate from them, there are some distinct advantages to staying within that business model. Moving from residential break-fix into corporate managed services isn’t your only career path.

Ric wrote a few weeks ago about why he fired his residential computer repair clients. While everything with what he said is true, there’s a whole other side of this work. Here are the reasons I focus on residential clients.

Scheduling

Business clients need you right then. If computers aren’t running, they often can’t run their business. They want immediate response times and the problems can be huge. A failed server can be an all day affair. You also face the dilemma of work the client wants done during business hours and other work the client wants done while the business is closed. The choice isn’t always yours when the work can be done. While you might think it’s best to do the work during the business hours, the client may want it done on the evenings and weekends.

With residential computer repair clients, the problems may seem catastrophic to them, but for the most part they aren’t. Even if you have a residential client with a home office, the impact of their problem is smaller and more manageable compared the scope of an entire business. You have a much smaller problem set with a few workstations. These clients can also be more flexible with your schedule as some will prefer evening and weekend hours since they work outside of the home during the day.

While I respect that many people want to keep evenings and weekends free, the practicalities of being a small business owner mean that you sometimes have to take care of personal and professional appointments during business hours. The plumbing goes out at your home, your car needs service or your daughter has a doctor’s appointment. If I were working strictly 9-5 M-F, I’d be reducing my inventory of service by dealing with “life.” I can choose occasionally to take care of personal business in the morning and then extend my day to take a few evening calls or a few weekend calls.

Money and Risk

There’s no question business computer repair clients provide a steady income and you can often charge them more because they need their computers to run their business. However, the larger the client and the more you bill them, the more risk you take on if they fire you. I was in that boat. I had one client that was 30% of my billable hours. One day they hired an in-house IT person and a third of my income was gone. I didn’t do anything wrong and they were using our services more. That’s the problem. They used our services so much that someone decided it was better for them to go in-house. Similarly, if you want to fire them, those golden handcuffs keep you from taking action. If the client represents a large part of your income, you’ll tolerate more from them because you need the money. I don’t like that type of scenario.

Business clients often want invoices from you instead of paying at time of service. This is either due to cash flow or because they have an accounting department. Sometimes the client will pay the bill in Net 10, sometimes Net 30. The larger that invoice becomes, the more risk you take on and the more cash flow problems you have. Large invoices also mean that the client has leverage over you. You are more likely to tolerate problems if you are awaiting payment and the business knows it. When faced with two different clients having needs at the same time, you want to please the one that owes you money. The bias is subconscious, but it’s there. That’s why some business clients don’t like to pay immediately. I’ve also found over the years that the businesses that are slow to pay are having financial difficulties. If they declare bankruptcy, it could be quite a long time before you get paid, if ever.

On the other hand, with residential computer repair clients, your risk of losing one client isn’t as high. My goal is to make sure that no one client is more than 2% of my annual income. If they reach that level, I recommend them to an MSP. This flexibility in my client base allows me to easily dismiss a client who is difficult. That loss of income is easily replaced. This means you need a wide and diverse base of clients. Encourage them to tell friends and family about your quality service.

With residential clients, your cash flow is better. If you set expectations properly, payment is required at time of service. They may give you a check, cash or a credit card, but when you receive a delivery in your home, you pay for the item. Can I be billed for a pizza that’s delivered? Can I walk out of an electronics store with an item and be billed? Generally not without a prior agreement, such as in-store financing. Tell residential clients the same phrase you see at the doctor’s office “Payment is expected at time of service.” Plain and simple. If they are withholding payment, there’s usually a reason. They either want leverage or can’t pay. When we confirm an appointment with the client, we state our rate, the time of the appointment and finally “Just to let you know, payment is expected at time of service.” If there is any doubt by the scheduler they either didn’t hear that or they might be unable or unwilling to pay, we ask them over the phone which method of payment they’ll be using.

Besides the risk of not getting paid, the other risk you take on with a business is legal action. Sure, you can have terms of service and insurance, but a business most likely has deeper pockets than you and can outspend you in court. Even if you’re in the right, the time you take fighting a large lawsuit detracts from your business.

Although a residential client may complain about the inability to use their computer, your risk is much less and you are on equal footing with them in court. They won’t have in-house counsel to go after you and they have to waste just as much time suing you as you to have responded.

Repetitive Work & Job Satisfaction

While I again appreciate what Ric had to say in this article, I always felt that the corporate work was boring and repetitive. I didn’t enjoy sitting in some server room for hours at a time fixing the same small set of problems. With remote work, I could go days between seeing individuals. I’d be staring at a computer screen for hours on end fixing problems and having brief conversations with end users. I missed the human interactions.

With residential work, I get to meet new people all the time. I’m not sitting at a desk all day. I move from client to client and I never have the same work environment. On really hot or cold days, I slightly regret that fact. Even then, I’d still rather have variety then be stuck in one place most of the time. The problems I see in the field with residential work tend to be of a greater variety. Yes, I still have clients on dial-up or ancient versions of Windows. I enjoy the diversity of the work and the fun of still remembering how to do some of these things.

Most of all, I find residential clients truly appreciate your work. Business clients see you as simply another service provider just like the janitor or coffee supplier. You may have one point of contact, but multiple end users. You don’t really get to know the end users and may never see them. You are a faceless entity that they call on when they can’t do their job. It’s easier for them to complain to your point of contact about you if they never actually see you. With the residential clients, the relationship is one-on-one. You meet and interact with each of the customers and they get to know you. Problems are easier to deal with because your residential client is your point of contact, your end user, and the accounting department.

Final Decision

Ultimately, you need to examine the pros and cons of business vs computer repair residential clients. If you choose to go with residential computer repair and focus on break-fix, you can be successful as long as you go in with the right plan and considerations.

Written by Dave Greenbaum