How is business??? Blahhhhh!

[River Valley Computer]

WOW - after a great first 3 1/2 months our residential business has nose dived. We are talking two locations in Arkansas and one in Iowa.

Fortunately we have our business customer base holding us up but WOW - never seen it this dead. One store is in a college town and usually busy this time of year, but no!

I really think tablets have had a dramatic effect on computer repairs - people are buying tablets and letting their other computers sit. Oh well, some day when their eyesight is 60/60 they will be back on their 19" desktop.

Another thing we are seeing is Staples selling ASUS laptops for $199. Walmart - desktops for $199.

We have fortunately?????? become the only repair facility in town to do Ipad Mini and fulls size tablet screen replacements - no one else wants to. They are not that bad.

Oh well - we'll ride this wave like we have done in the past.

Hope everyone else is prosperous.

 

[NYJimbo]

Too many cell phone repair shops around here are now hanging "COMPUTER REPAIR" signs on them. We are down a bit for the past few months over last year, but I have a big hosting business that always pulls me through. I think the cell phone shops are hurting because there are so many and phones are so cheap and many people toss them rather than get repairs, so these shops are pretending they know how to do computers. I had a customer come in complaining that a shop 2 blocks over screwed up a LCD install and damaged the hinges. The "tech" at the shop told the customer it wasn't his fault because "you cant get manuals on how to open these things".

BTW- I am thinking of offering IPAD screen repairs ONLY as an extra service. No need for me to go all out and do phones, tablets, etc and no need to compete with the "same day" guys. Just IPADs. Of course I can fix anything else on the IPAD when they come in, but just offering screen/lcd/digitizer repair should bring in some extra $$$ and not have me commit to doing everything.

 

[River Valley Computer]

That's exactly why we are doing it to Jimbo. Other then getting shards of glass in your fingers, their not to bad and a good source of extra revenue. We charge between $120 and 140 for the IPad minis and about $160 for the Ipads. We will 'try' some of the other tablets but most are cost effective for the customer to do.

We have stayed away from phones also for the same reasons. It's rather ironic that we also have a 3 cell techs - same situation - we get a lot of computers that they've worked on.

We are contemplating devoting a corner of our larger store to a rent-a-cell tech. My wife broke her Iphone 5S last week when we were in another town near by. I called around and found a company to do it for $50 in 30 minutes. After he fixed it we started talking - he has 4 locations in AR and wanted to add more. I called him Mon and told him he could have space in our store for his services. He would pay us 30% and we would not charge him any rent or utilities. He is going to do it in about a month. I figure it would be more traffic in the front door of prospective computer service. I am keeping it separate from our business so there won't be any liabilities in case he did something wrong. I'll let you know how it goes - might work, might not.

 

[TechLady]

Possibly a lot of people got nailed at tax season...

 

[phaZed]

I seem to be on the opposite side of the spectrum.. busier than ever. 12 laptops, 2 desktops, 3 data recoveries - and that is just today!

 

[River Valley Computer]

Do you want our address???

 

[Larry Sabo]

It gets bleaker and bleaker. We're down 42% YTD. Good thing I'm semi-retired, soon to be just retired if this keeps up..

 

[gadgetfixup]

We're slower than previous weeks but we're in a rural area and just getting our warm weather. Around here as soon as it gets warm we see this slowdown as people want to get after their yards, gardens and farms. If a laptop or computer goes down, it just has to wait.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

We've been down in the last year or 2 also. I need to get my web site back up, we just started advertising again in the phone book with is helping with the hits on google, etc. Thankfully for me though this is a side job. I work as helpdesk/network guy by day. So the pc repairs help with the bills. Thankfully starting to get to where those are paid down. I even have told my wife that as long as I can make 200-300 a week on repairs I'm ok with that. Gotta remember though, got a lot of kids out now that know technology pretty well. I had an issue at work the other day that someone was having trouble with a headset. Was not sure about it at first, said lets get in touch with the company etc. Got an email a little later one of the part time 20 something guys figured it out. Thankfully they told me what they did, but just makes me realize, I am actually 34, which is a pup to you older folks, but it also makes me realize how fast technology changes around us and how fast time goes by.

 

[katz]

WOW - after a great first 3 1/2 months our residential business has nose dived.

Exactly the same thing here. I'm not sure if I attribute it to tablets, maybe a small amount to that. I'm in Penna., and we had a bit of a harsh winter, so I was kinda figuring that everyone is spending more time outdoors right now. But things are very bleak for me right now...

I've bumped up all advertising, and have even considered putting ads on craigslist, although I tend to stay away from that, due to the bottom feeders and the ads get flagged by other (pizza) techs right away anyway.

Just sent out a check for $500/6 month billboard ad renewal which has done very little for me in the past 1.5 yrs., I'm thinking of letting that billboard go after this round - but I keep hanging on to it because of the "cheap" rate.

 

[pceinc]

Our in-store service is definitely down from last year but only by $10k for Jan 1 - Apr 30. Business work is steady. Times like these make me look at doing away with residential carry-in work altogether and putting more focus on business services. Previously we were only game in town but a very close friend of mine has recently started a mobile repair business due to possibly losing his government contract job. I know that is taking away from our residential carry-in work but with so many locals under threat of lay-off I'm not surprised at the slow period.

 

[coffee]

Things have slowed down for me too. I have to say at the beginning of the year things really took off. But now everyone is outside and spending their money on garden equipment, flowers, ect...

I had one call this morning from someone needing windows 8 reinstalled because their hard drive died. I told them 75 for my full cleaning (inside and out) and install the operating system with antivirus. It was too much for him. lol..

My plan is to use this slow time to work on my car. Poor thing needs alot of care since winter. Just finished an oil change and have to fix the ABS system (Rework the backend wiring) and the wiper fluid low sensor. I need new tires too. So, That will keep me busy.

My website stinks too. Have to get that back up and running ...

Hang in there everyone!

 

[JoeTech]

I know that spring is usually a slow period but the last few months have been really slow. Last few years usually average around $3,000/month and its been around $1800/month this year. I know it's hurting the other shops in town too as one closed up and I guess is doing it from home now.

I think tablets are one reason business is slow. It is not just for hardware repairs either. We used to have a lot of repeat customers that needed clean-ups monthly just because they loved all those free online games and just bad web-surfing habits disappear once they got tablets.

It seems like two years ago, I was doing 15 fake-av virus removals a day and now maybe get one a month. So that is also hurting business. The one thing that hasn't slowed down though is the fake tech support calls. It seems like that is the main focus for scammers to make money these days. Since I live in a smaller city where that is mainly a lot of older people, a lot of them still fall for it and we get one or two of those a week.

Actually had one person say they haven't used there desktop for months but got a call and went through the routine until he realized something wasn't right and then hung up. Then they brought it to us to have it checked out. Not sure how people fall for it so much, but it does provides a little extra business.

 

[cypress]

This is my side business so when things really pick up it helps alot. Looking at my numbers I am little behind from this time last year. I got a couple of clients that are doctors so that monthly check is always there but I haven't done much other work in about a month. The plus side is my site is now almost 90% done and I fixed up my Facebook page. Now I am working on getting my shirts done. At least I will be more prepared for when things pick up again.

 

[carrcomp]

We're seeing spikes with our clients depending on where they are.

Some of them have seen an increase in calls in the last couple of months. Southern states so maybe it's too hot to go out

 

[buzzcut]

slows down at this time of year, this is cottage country and everyone is too busy opening up their camps.
I will be doing the same next week, going up to camp and get it ready for the summer.
I still get a few calls a week, also in the process of taking my CCNA course.

 

[AlaDes]

My business has actually been picking up gradually since opening over four years ago. I recently moved my location to a smaller office, which provided more parking and have opted to do much of my work out of my home, as of January 1 of this year.
I am in a very small city (second largest in the county) with less than 2,500 residents. However, I have been steadily picking up customers from other surrounding areas by word of mouth.
I feel the most important decision I have made concerning my business is customer service. Regardless of how aggregating a customer can get at times, I always treat them as if they are my biggest spending customers, especially if I have other customers waiting on me.

 

[PCX]

We are just starting to pull out of our slow season, but even our slow season is doing much better than last years. Our main store has seen a 58% increase and our other store has seen a 28% increase in gross profit. It does seem that we are doing less and less computer repair, but as a result we have hired more mobile device techs to do cell phone and tablet repair. Even with the change though, our business has substantially increased from year to year. In fact, we are looking for a bigger location now to facilitate the growth and the growth we want to continue seeing.

 

[carrcomp]

Yeah, I hate aggregating customers

@AlaDes you hit the nail on the head. There is no such thing as "my best customer". Everyone is my best customer.

Just keep in mind that sometimes you need to fire a customer. I'm in the process of writing my next newsletter (Yes, it usually takes a month just to get the thing written, who knew ) talking about choosing your customers.

 

[joydivision]

Pure domestic work is pretty much dead for me, but I still have plenty of small businesses to support and this is the area I am not focussing on.

I am down from last year but last year was my best every year.