Getting started in a small town

[bsd13]

After almost 2 years out of the game and working for someone else I am considering opening a new computer service business where I now live. I've owned and operated 2 computer repair businesses in the past. One in a city of 100k and the other in a city of 500k. Where I live now the population is around 5k.

In those other places I more often than not ran out of time in the day before I ran out of people needing help. Where I am now however I'm concerned that there simply won't be enough work. I have someone doing a feasibility/projection study for me before I start sinking a bunch of money and time into the project. People I've spoken to informally have said they really want someone who does onsite. Of the three shops in town two are in-store exclusively and one will do mobile work "if there is no alternative". The nearest large population center is 80 miles from here, but I often see the Geek Squad car driving around town so I know people are calling them out here.

Hoping to get some feedback and guidance from those of you who have manged to get up and running in a small town. Things to do, things to avoid, etc, etc, etc

Thank you!

 

[maclaptech]

Hoping to get some feedback and guidance from those of you who have manged to get up and running in a small town. Things to do, things to avoid, etc, etc, etc

Thank you!

I would do mobile on-site repair in town that size and work really hard on web site with effective SEO for your town...

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Small town.....old fashioned, you gotta get out and meet people, get your name in their face.

Get small ads in the local newspaper.
Visit some local business chamber events.
Do direct post card mailing in the town.

 

['putertutor]

I am in a town of about 2K and I can tell you that mobile/onsite is the only way that works here. Many people here just don't travel into town and the expectation is that you will come to them. Work does not have to be done on site, often I just grab the machine and go. After a few of those, some will offer to just bring it in to me, but I never take them up on it. I have two competitors, one services almost strictly, businesses. The other does both, but actually makes a fair % of its income as an internet cafe. Neither will willingly go onsite, or at least not without moaning about it a little.

Small towns also tend to be an older demographic, and service is king in that demographic. Do that well and you may well find that it is also a loyal, referral generating demographic. It is for me.

 

[AlaDes]

Small town.....old fashioned, you gotta get out and meet people, get your name in their face.

Get small ads in the local newspaper.
Visit some local business chamber events.
Do direct post card mailing in the town.

I'd have to agree with this because I live in a town of around 2500 residents myself.

Although I have no competition here (nearest is about 10 miles away and always too busy), I still struggle because of how people are set in their ways. Although most people enjoy the personal attention they get from us, there are allot who would rather go to Wal Mart and buy a $300 computer before paying somebody $60 to clean a virus off their existing one. Also, many of the local businesses here don't use commercial products but opt for a standard residential solution because it's cheaper. So, making a personal appearance and introducing yourself in these small towns can really help allot.

 

[Carl]

They Call Geek-squad Because They Don't Know Any better/ anybody who fixes Computers.

A town that small, go to ALL the "Churches" and put an ad in their Sunday Bulletins.
Go to the local HS and have them put up a banner for you on the ball-field.
"TOWN-NAME Computer Repair - Keep I.T. Local"
"(555) 555-5555"

Geeze - 5,000(!?)
Get a list of every household in town (Town Hall would have it).
Print some Fliers/Door Hangers/tri-fold Fliers
(Full Color 2 Sided - Decent Card stock)
Do Direct Mailing (Drop everybody's name in to a database and print out personalized letters).

Go Door to Door introduce yourself, hand them a pamphlet, 2 business cards and flier. Take a clipboard with you and check off their name if they have or don't have a computer. - There's your "Farming List" - Mail everybody on that list a news letter once a month/quarter.
ALT - Hire the local Football team/cheerleaders to do it for you.

- if they don't have one they still get you package in case they get one. Take extras with you for folks who know somebody who might need your service.

Follow up - make sure they are happy with you. (You can't please everybody, but you can show that your trying).

UPSIDE:
You have a captured audience.
You know what Geek Squad is charging...
Not that hard to keep your name in front of them.

Its about community and you might be the new guy in town, but You Chose their Town to live in (out of all the other places you could have picked - you picked there).

 

[frodo7200]

i have the same problem in the UK.
small town about 7k with couple of other nearby towns about the same. couple of other businesses without a shop and one that had a shop has closed it (they are a chain so have others).
actually just been on on g keywords looking for seo ideas. Im page 1 for most things (repair,pc laptop virus etc), but i see from g that no-one is searching for those terms with the town names included.
cant believe with that much population theres no one needing techie services, so unless their just searching using the fault (virus,repair etc) WITHOUT the town name?
what sort of traffic do you rural guys get to your site and under what search terms?

 

[bsd13]

They Call Geek-squad Because They Don't Know Any better/ anybody who fixes Computers.

A town that small, go to ALL the "Churches" and put an ad in their Sunday Bulletins.
Go to the local HS and have them put up a banner for you on the ball-field.
"TOWN-NAME Computer Repair - Keep I.T. Local"
"(555) 555-5555"

Geeze - 5,000(!?)
Get a list of every household in town (Town Hall would have it).
Print some Fliers/Door Hangers/tri-fold Fliers
(Full Color 2 Sided - Decent Card stock)
Do Direct Mailing (Drop everybody's name in to a database and print out personalized letters).

Go Door to Door introduce yourself, hand them a pamphlet, 2 business cards and flier. Take a clipboard with you and check off their name if they have or don't have a computer. - There's your "Farming List" - Mail everybody on that list a news letter once a month/quarter.
ALT - Hire the local Football team/cheerleaders to do it for you.

- if they don't have one they still get you package in case they get one. Take extras with you for folks who know somebody who might need your service.

Follow up - make sure they are happy with you. (You can't please everybody, but you can show that your trying).

UPSIDE:
You have a captured audience.
You know what Geek Squad is charging...
Not that hard to keep your name in front of them.

Its about community and you might be the new guy in town, but You Chose their Town to live in (out of all the other places you could have picked - you picked there).

Good ideas. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Parkwaytech]

We started our business in a small town (population 800, but had about 15K within 20 miles). We did primarily in store service, though we did offer onsite.

I'll tell you that the only thing that kept us going was work for businesses. In fact, by the end, we shut down the retail store and went exclusively after the businesses. I'm not suggesting you have to do that, but focus on the businesses. They will provide steady income while you build up the residential. Even with advertising, word of mouth, etc., it took us about seven months to really get steady residential business.

 

[3 More Years]

I am not sure if a small town population of 5K will be enough. I am sure you going to anyway, but check if there are other people providing a repair service. In small towns, there is often the case, that someone everyone knows, go to for their repairs.

 

[FoolishTech]

I live on an island in a town of not quite 1.5k, maybe another .5k in the other town on the island. We are in between the mainland and the outer banks of NC, where there are MAYBE 8k permanent residents. I have one local competitor in town, and quite a few on the outer banks including a Staples, a few independent shops, a ton of home based techs, and a few business-client-only competitors specializing in managed services.

Here on the island everyone mostly sticks with my only local competitor who even though he is a rip off artist has been in business here for at least a decade. They stick with him because it is who they know, it's a familiar spot and telephone number. It's tough to break into in-town service, and if not for the beach side over the bridge, I wouldn't even attempt to open up shop in this town.

The beach side is where most of my business comes from despite all the competition over there. This is probably because the population changes a lot; people move here start a business and move out when it fails. Additionally a large portion of my business are tourists.

Point being, if you have a town as small as the one you mention and THREE competitors, you're in for a lot of work to build a rep. Maybe your town's people will be more willing to shop around with their I.T. needs since they already have a choice in the game, but maybe they stick with what they know like my town does, granted my town isn't used to having a choice...

I agree to focus on getting business clients, meet them face to face, and all that. They will provide far better than waiting on building your rep with home clients.

You may also find that in your area being as small as it is, there are a lot of small home based businesses, there are in mine. Don't exclude them. That means you will be baiting business clients by sending out mailers to homes. So I also agree it's worth a mailing campaign to all the homes in your town.

The tough thing is that you know you will have to be mobile to be competitive. You can't expect to get many business clients without a store front or office, and you can't run one without an employee and be mobile at the same time. You probably won't have enough business to pay an employee for a while. That is my but one of my dilemmas. But if you have enough saved up to start a store front and run it for a good 6 months or so, with an employee, (I don't) then you might be good to go.

Either way, best of luck!

 

[bsd13]

Where I live is about 80% Mormon. I am not Mormon so that is an immediate disadvantage. If anyone on these forums is a Mormon or knows any they know that not being Mormon in a Mormon community can be a problem as far as getting a new business going.

I think I'll focus my efforts on the larger city that is about 80 miles to the west of me. It would be a lot of driving but I think if I focus on remote services I should be good to go. Not to say that I'll neglect where I live but I need to be realistic and if I need to drive that 160 mile round trip 2 or 3 times a week that's fine by me. I can go 75-80 the whole way so it's not like there's a huge chunk of time wasted. I'll just have to charge and appropriate trip fee and try to have at least service calls on the same day so I don't waste my time.

 

[3 More Years]

@FoolishTech and @bsd13, I am curious what you guys charge for your repairs in these small towns.