Reply to: White van PC man

[PropertyCrashUK]

By the way, PC World charge a few pence short of £70 for a home visit PC health-check.

[PropertyCrashUK]

yep, could be a money earner. All you need to do is work out how to get the leads.
i.e. when PC World (spit!) sell Mr Crosby a media center, telliing him he can interface with his wireless and his latest Blue-Ray shiny disc thingy and he just needs to pay PC World (spit!) lodas of £ to do it for him.

How will you get in there first ?

No idea but... surely this is an avenue to explore, especially in the coming years with all this home integration? I mean, if it was possible to be a white van man person doing this and earning 40Kish would that not be better than being a contractor forever chasing contractors, forever relocating, forever worrying abou IR35?

If PC people could become future equivalents of plumbers, sparks, kitchen fitters then surely that would be a more enjoyable type of business to be in - your own boss in the true sense, working with a 15-20 mile radius and having customers come to you?

I am not saying it would be easy. I am not saying that it is viable now - I do not know - but it might just be the business of tomorrow??? If so, the how discussion is important isn't it?

[MrsGoof]

But what about all this MS Media Centre, Intel Viv stuff? That is all about the digital home? Home integration? Isn't that going to make the PC white van man role a real money-making business?.

yep, could be a money earner. All you need to do is work out how to get the leads.
i.e. when PC World (spit!) sell Mr Crosby a media center, telliing him he can interface with his wireless and his latest Blue-Ray shiny disc thingy and he just needs to pay PC World (spit!) lodas of £ to do it for him.

How will you get in there first ?

[PropertyCrashUK]

Personally I would advise against 'Home IT support' I have still not been paid by top ML exployee with an address on Park Lane. I have had some very well off clients who prefered to bodge on rather than call me. I do a robust install so very little ongoing work. You would need to sail close to the wind to make any real money in that game.

Computer support is not a respected occupation in IT anymore. It is seen as COST not as a benefit.

It was OK in the 70's and 80's when it was not possible to own a computer without good support. Nowadays there are plenty of 'volunteer' workers who do this as a sideline for little return or for free if they are the 'whizzkid cousin'.

I would like to see you suceed but recommend you take a good gaze at the dark-side first.

2c
error

But what about all this MS Media Centre, Intel Viv stuff? That is all about the digital home? Home integration? Isn't that going to make the PC white van man role a real money-making business?

Satellite dish installers made a mint when Sky came out and there seems to be loads around still.

[errorista]

Personally I would advise against 'Home IT support' I have still not been paid by top ML exployee with an address on Park Lane. I have had some very well off clients who prefered to bodge on rather than call me. I do a robust install so very little ongoing work. You would need to sail close to the wind to make any real money in that game.

Computer support is not a respected occupation in IT anymore. It is seen as COST not as a benefit.

It was OK in the 70's and 80's when it was not possible to own a computer without good support. Nowadays there are plenty of 'volunteer' workers who do this as a sideline for little return or for free if they are the 'whizzkid cousin'.

I would like to see you suceed but recommend you take a good gaze at the dark-side first.

2c
error

[TheMonkey]

Thanks TheMonkey. Does your Dad employ others since his business has grown?

So why don't you go into business with your old man - or are you going to nick all his clients?

Yeah he employs 3 sub-monkeys part time or full time and manages to land about 6-8 jobs per monkey a day under both fixed cost support and per incident. Ironically one of the guys he employs is my old boss who is earning pittance now so I can take the piss out of him

Also, I wouldn't work with him or for him because he's a c*u*n*t.

I have my own list of clients from a company I used to work for that has gone under. Basically it lists most rich people with computers in Nottingham, Derby, Leicester and Newark. I'm going to move out of the city and work doing that. Oh and electrical contracting as I'm thinking about doing a C&G in electrics as it's more stable than IT! Keep a finger in each pot and you're sorted.

[PropertyCrashUK]

That is good busines. My father makes a living doing it via his own company which has grown rapidly over the last 3 years.

I'm thinking about heading into that as well but I have some secrets for success by analysing his mistakes that I'm not overly willing to share (apart from for a price).

Not only that, if someone gives you fifty quid out of petty cash, forget to give them an invoice and spend it down the pub quick

I will say that you NEED two people on the job. One to take calls and manage your workload and one to do the work. That is the ONLY thing I'm telling

Thanks TheMonkey. Does your Dad employ others since his business has grown?

So why don't you go into business with your old man - or are you going to nick all his clients?

[TheMonkey]

That is good busines. My father makes a living doing it via his own company which has grown rapidly over the last 3 years.

I'm thinking about heading into that as well but I have some secrets for success by analysing his mistakes that I'm not overly willing to share (apart from for a price).

Not only that, if someone gives you fifty quid out of petty cash, forget to give them an invoice and spend it down the pub quick

I will say that you NEED two people on the job. One to take calls and manage your workload and one to do the work. That is the ONLY thing I'm telling

[PropertyCrashUK]

I do this kind of stuff as a sideline from my "main" contracts. All done through word of mouth. Useful as an additional source of income for MyCo but wouldn't make enough to be able to do this as the only revenue earner.

There are some national companies who contract out to local technicians (eg www.pc-callout.biz) but their rates of pay are terrible (£15 per hour to the technician, no pay for travelling time). There are also a few local ones around my area with vans etc.

Thanks martin - trying to figure out whether this is a struggle to make 20K a year type thing or a 40 to 50K thing. There seems to be an awful lot of oys doing it but, perhaps like plumbers and other white van man types, the good people will flourish as word of mouth gets round.

As home automation and pcs increasingly make inroads into the home I think that it will eventually become a white van man business, and probably a good earner at that, but whether it is there or not NOW is something I am not so sure about.

[ASB]

but what if the refurbished drive had been Gary Glitter's?

Maybe he's right. He's not a nonce and PC world put it in when he got them to fix it....

[martinb]

I do this kind of stuff as a sideline from my "main" contracts. All done through word of mouth. Useful as an additional source of income for MyCo but wouldn't make enough to be able to do this as the only revenue earner.

There are some national companies who contract out to local technicians (eg www.pc-callout.biz) but their rates of pay are terrible (£15 per hour to the technician, no pay for travelling time). There are also a few local ones around my area with vans etc.

[meridian]

PC world mailed my Ltd last week offering their service.

Last week I had to re-fix a michine fixed by PC world. Feckers add a 15Gb partition to the HD (ext3). Plus the removed loads of software from the HD. Simple for me to fix but scary what these guys can do to the uneducated. If only I could prove the swapped the HD, al in the name of a new PS, Graphics card and HD cleanse (AV check....)

Mates of mine bought a new PC from PCWorld a year or so ago. It crashed recently so they took the harddrive to a recovery expert to recover their holiday snaps, only to find that there was a shedload of business training documents, contact details, porn, etc that wasn't theirs.
Took a great deal of grief trying to get PCWorld to admit that their 'new' PC had a refurbished second-hand harddrive in it, but they eventually coughed up a spanking new pc.
Their main worry was that in this instance the porn was fairly innocent (as far as porn goes), but what if the refurbished drive had been Gary Glitter's?

[MrsGoof]

My yellow pages has numrous ads and a friend got a flyer round his door a few days ago. I was just in PC World and noticed they are now branching out with brochures aimed at schools, the public sector, business and SMEs re their repair and support services. So PC World must see a market there?

PC world mailed my Ltd last week offering their service.

Last week I had to re-fix a michine fixed by PC world. Feckers add a 15Gb partition to the HD (ext3). Plus the removed loads of software from the HD. Simple for me to fix but scary what these guys can do to the uneducated. If only I could prove the swapped the HD, al in the name of a new PS, Graphics card and HD cleanse (AV check....)

[PropertyCrashUK]

My yellow pages has numrous ads and a friend got a flyer round his door a few days ago. I was just in PC World and noticed they are now branching out with brochures aimed at schools, the public sector, business and SMEs re their repair and support services. So PC World must see a market there?

[MrsGoof]

I've had to re-fix a couple of machines for friends who used one of these monkeys to supposidly fix their PC.

The bad ones may not survive, the good ones will grow their business by word of mouth.

Have a look in your local free-bee papers. I bet you see at least 1 ad., last time I look my local rag had 3 ads.

It's definatly a means to earn some cash. I probably earnt about £500 last year doing simple things for Friends of Friends.