Setting up a Storefront & Mobile Repair Business with Dean Ingraham

In this episode of the Technibble Computer Business Podcast (with transcript below), I am talking to Dean Ingraham who owns and runs a business with TWO physical store fronts. We talk about the when its time to setup a storefront, when its time to take on employees and how to train them so they do consistent quality work every time.

We also talk about what marketing works best for him and we go fairly deeply into the business of mobile phone repairs.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 57:10 — 52.5MB)

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Discussion:

00:44 – Starting the business
03:23 – Choosing a location for the storefront
05:41 – Employees and how they were hired
09:50 – Setting up the second storefront location
12:01 – Overseeing two storefronts
13:44 – Software and tools used
19:17 – Marketing the business beyond walk-in customers
26:17 – Appearance is everything
29:20 – Switching to cell phone and tablet repair
33:12 – Stocking cellphone parts
35:09 – Are Mac Repairs worth it?
38:12 – Obtaining premium quality parts
40:23 – Dealing with warranty claims
42:52 – Employee’s training in cellphone repair
44:55 – How to handle client’s phones that die
48:46 – Managing clients’ expectations
50:33 – Looking into Manage Services?
52:55 – Getting the extra money

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Tweetables:

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Transcription:

Bryce Whitty: Hello and welcome to the Technibble Podcast. On this show I’m speaking to Dean Ingraham, who owns a successful business called The Computer Exchange with two physical storefronts. In this episode we talk about when it’s time to set up a storefront, when it’s time to take on employees, and how to train them so they consistently do quality work every time. We also talk about what marketing works best for him and we go fairly deeply into the business of mobile phone repairs. Please welcome Dean Ingraham. Hello Dean, welcome to the show!

Dean Ingraham: Hi Bryce, thank you for having me.

Bryce Whitty: Would you be able to take us back in time, sort of what led you up to the point of running the shop?

Dean Ingraham: Yeah, sure. I started the business about 5 1/2 years ago, actually closer to 6. I was a college student and I was working part time and going to school full time, and taking care of two babies. Just started dabbling with tech work, started purchasing some broken computers here and there and fixing them up and then basically reselling them. What I ended up doing was, I was selling these and then I was also purchasing for my customers who was buying these broken or refurbished laptops, their broken laptops as partial exchange, which is actually one of the reasons why we named the business the PC Exchange. We eventually got so busy that we ended up having to get an office, and then two offices, and a full suite, and then basically we got the suite that we’re at now.

Bryce Whitty: Is that the Jacksonville location or the Camp Lejeune, I’m not sure how to pronounce that.

Dean Ingraham: Yeah, it’s Camp Lejeune.

Bryce Whitty: Lejeune

Dean Ingraham: That’s the Jacksonville location that we’re at now, and we got about 1,400 square feet. Small little store in the front and good old sized work area in the back.

Bryce Whitty: You mentioned you got very busy and then jumped to the store. Was there a particular point where you knew you just couldn’t handle it anymore at the previous location?

Dean Ingraham: We started out of the house for the first 6 months, so as you can imagine, especially with two babies, I was constantly cleaning the house so that it was presentable for people to come in, look at the laptops I had for sale. It just got ridiculous after a while and so after 6 months I started looking for an office. Then we had to get two offices and then we were finally able to get a suite within that same building, but it was only about 700 square feet. We were starting to do so much work out of that same suite that we were literally building shelves on the walls to actually do repairs on the shelves. We were running virus removals, tune-ups, re-installs on the shelves on the walls just because we didn’t have room to do it anywhere else.

By the end of that, that was about a year and a half. Once you start doing repairs on the walls and not on a bench, you don’t have room anymore. We found another location, which is the suite that we’re at now and that’s about 1,400 square feet. Within a few years we were busting out of the seams and barely able to maintain the level of work that we were getting here. However, a lot of that has actually changed as of recently. As we’re starting to do more cell phone and tablet repairs, which obviously requires a lot less space. Actually, we’ve got a lot more breathing room than we did just a year ago.

Bryce Whitty: What made you choose that location? What were the factors involved to say, “Hey, this is the right place for us” other than just enough space. Was there anything else you took into consideration?

Dean Ingraham: The major thing was location. There is one main strip in the city that we’re in that gets the most traffic. There’s a couple other major highways that run through there that get a lot of traffic as well, but one’s pretty run down and ghetto, the other one is kind of ghetto as well but it’s one of those things where we just passed by every location that’s on that highway and unless you’re specifically looking for it you’re not going to see it. Western Boulevard, which is the strip that we’re on now, it just made the most sense. It’s also right across the street from the college and the price honestly, was just right. When we first moved to this location it was more than what I could afford. In fact, it was twice as much as what I was paying, but I knew that if I was going to grow that I had to have the room to grow. Between the location and the space, and honestly, the fact that the building that we’re in is actually nice and it’s kept up and everything, that’s basically what led us to making this decision.

Bryce Whitty: With the risk that you took with the rent being quite a lot more than what you were earning, how did you know whether that risk was going to pay off? Did you know that you were going to make enough money to cover all that fairly quickly or did you calculate it all before? What happened there?

Dean Ingraham: Yeah, I basically had to determine what is it that I had to sell or up-sell in order to make up the difference. I was just basically thinking of everything possible, so I would have to sell this many computers in order to make up the difference in rent, or I have to up-sell so many tune-ups in order to make up the difference in rent. I would basically set myself goals or bench marks that I would have to hit every single month so that my rent was paid. Basically, sales goals is what I was making for myself.

Bryce Whitty: What sort of things were you up-selling?

Dean Ingraham: Tune-ups was a big thing, still a big thing obviously, anti-virus software, the refurbished laptops, that does well for us, and then of course, accessories that went with that. I think the big things I was looking at back then was the refurbished laptops, anti-virus software, and tune-ups. Those are the big up-sells that I was counting on to make up the difference.

Bryce Whitty: Do you have any employees there? I assume, I’ve taken a look at your shop online and it looks to be pretty big. Do you have any employees?

Dean Ingraham: Yeah, we got about 7.