infolock wrote:Mostly, there is only 1 pc repair shop in my area, and they are charging outrageous prices. I can easily compete wtih them.
A few random thoughts and comments.
a) What do you consider "outrageous"? A little simple math will give you a base hourly rate to make a living repairing PC's. Let's say you want to make $40,000 per year after expenses, taxes, insurance, etc. As a rule of thumb, you will need to earn twice as much ($80,000) to cover all these costs. Next, if you work a 2000 hour year (that's 50 forty hour weeks - no holidays like July 4), you must guess how much of that will be billable. Again, as a rule of thumb if you can bill 1000 hours, then you must bill $80 per hour to reach your financial targets. Is this "outrageous"? Now, you may quibble with my estimates, so do the math yourself, but I suspect you'll be hard pressed to come in at less than $60 per hour. Ever notice that virtually every repair service, from car mechanics to plumbers to electricians are all at least $60 per hour? That is reality to support overhead and make a living.
b) Point a) above kind of makes point b) here. It used to be that PC's cost out the wazoo. The differential between labor costs and replacement was very large. Today, that is not so, and even goes the other way... it is cheaper to buy a new one than fix an old one. Look at all the stuff that is trashed these days because the cost of creating is so much less than the cost of repairing. PC's are only going to continue to drop in price. I just don't see how pure PC repair is going to be viable.
c) PHP and open source are a revolution that is just beginning. Who is going to pay you to write software when the applications available are exploding everyday? It used to be that software was an expensive component... now off the shelf makes it really cheap. Only certain software development houses pay money for real programmers these days; for small business, it doesn't make sense unless the application is completely unique.
d) Point c) above is only going to get worse. Coding shops in India, China, and the Phillipines are getting better and better, and soon Vietnam will have enough skills to enter the fray. Until labor costs rise there, you will see much major development move offshore, 'cause it is cheap. Even if I am a manager who believes in "buy American", I've got a budget and problems to solve.
e) There is a glut of techies of all kinds... folks who know how to fix the widgets, code the latest script, blow the newest whistle. While the dot com mania was in effect, it didn't matter. But the reality is that from a business perspective, these are all toys. And most of the techies don't know squat about business.
f) When a small business person walks up to you and says, "I need a website", is he saying:
i) Geez, I love this tech crap... can you fix me up with a site?
ii) I need a way to increase sales and improve my business visibility?
If your next question to him/her isn't "Why do you think you'll make money with a website?", then you are doomed to be one of the masses of techies who cannot see the forest of the business problem from the trees of the techie solutions.
Put another way, the survivors in the IT world today will be the ones that can provide business solutions. If you want success as an independent computer consultant, then learn what the businesses around you need. What is their website status? Annual sales? Potential for growth? Business owners really don't know or care whether their shopping cart is written in PHP or HPH. They want to know what it costs to create and maintain. They want to know what revenue it will generate.
If it were I, I'd be getting educated about business needs in your area. I'd start by calling around, just gathering information from those willing to talk. I'd focus on IT integration... how to take off the shelf parts and integrate them into a business solution. So, I'd be going to the PC repair place asking what kind of guaranteed rate I'd get for $x of referrals. I'd become the value judge for fix verus replace question about PC's.
I'd line up PHP folks to do the integration. I'd find a graphics person, an advertiser, a marketer. I'd offer a small business a Chinese menu of options... everything from a mimimalist implementation of a shopping cart on a cheap ISP to an integrated back office solution with a really slick website. And, I'd show him why paying me $100 per hour right now will save him ten times that much in the future.
Your job is to clarify, to educate, to build trust. You know IT is a complex subject. Your job is to demystify the topic and do it in such a way that the owner knows he can't live without your skills.
I'll sum it up. What is lacking in today's IT world is people who understand how to apply technology in business to generate revenue, beat the competition, and plan for the long haul. You know how to do that, you'll always be in demand. There is no substitute for brains.