Do you guys think I could make this work?

[Cacao]

Hello everyone, I have an idea for a pretty cool project that could make me some money and I would like to know what you guys think.

 

So here in Switzerland the computers you buy in the store (or even online) are either complete and utter crap or seriously overpriced and people have a surprisingly low understanding of tech.

There's one website which has 'decent' computer component prices along with free next day shipping to all of Switzerland. - https://www.digitec.ch/Startseite.aspx

Also there is the Swiss equivalent of ebay where I could sell pretty much anything. - http://www.ricardo.ch/

 

So what I would like to do is put up the specs for a PC on ricardo (along with some pics of the case) and offer shipping within a week of purchase. So I can order the parts off of digitec (obviously I'll pick parts that are in stock and ready to be delivered), build and test the PC then ship it off to the client for +100$ (or something similar) of the component price. I could have different tiers (500$, 1000$, 1500$ PCs) also I could offer different versions of windows or completely custom builds.

 

This way whoever purchases the PC will save a tonne of money and actually get a quality machine, and I'll be doing what I love and have the possibility to make some money. I'm really hoping to open a computer shop somewhere in my area when I'm finished with school.

 

So what do you guys think? Is it doable? Would I have to offer some kind of warranty or would the ones for the individual parts suffice?

 

Please point out any flaws you might see in my plan. Thanks.

[Samdb]

Have a word with @PCBudgetSolutions. He should be able to help you out.

[Hyydrah]

So you plan on opening a dedicated shop as soon as you finish school? That can get very expensive, but I wish you the best of luck.

 

From what I hear, setting up shop in your house can also be effective, look at SingularityComputers for example.

[hehehehhehehehe]

It's definetly an awesome idea just one of the many things you will have to be careful about is having some money in reserve incase you get a part thats lets say DOA or doesn't turn up, I can guarantee people won't be happy if they pay you $2000 for their PC and have to wait for an RMA or something :P

[mr moose]

I would say you should ideally have enough cash in reserve to cover yourself if a customer decides go postal on you. I am not too sure what the consumer laws are like over there but here they are pretty heavily protected and things like public liability and postage insurance are a must.

[Matsy]

Good luck is all I can say to this.
So many people have tried, it doesn't work most the time.

Who would want to pay a complete stranger so much cash who just popped out of no where and just left school, when they can get their computer from somewhere else that is known (even if they are crap, non tech people will not know the difference).
People who are into tech would most likely want to build the computer themselves, its a very simple thing to do and they wouldn't get someone to do it for them, specially such a young person.
It could work but you will have to do something like setting up a website + youtube channel (which will mean you will have to buy a decent camera as phone video will not look very professional) with videos on your computers explaining why you picked those specific parts and why they should buy from you and also actually be in front of the camera, not holding the camera like so many other people do while walking around the computer, you need to be sat in a chair with the computer next to you, the camera stationary and you going through professionally why your computers are the best showing every feature as-well as the computer working (booting up).

[Bicko96]

go for it man

[Cacao]

Have a word with @PCBudgetSolutions. He should be able to help you out.

Thanks!

 

So you plan on opening a dedicated shop as soon as you finish school? That can get very expensive, but I wish you the best of luck.

 

From what I hear, setting up shop in your house can also be effective, look at SingularityComputers for example.

I was thinking about starting off from home (maybe this would be my first step), I still have a few years to go though, so we'll see!

 

It's definetly an awesome idea just one of the many things you will have to be careful about is having some money in reserve incase you get a part thats lets say DOA or doesn't turn up, I can guarantee people won't be happy if they pay you $2000 for their PC and have to wait for an RMA or something :P

Well unfortunately that's just part of the risk :( Hopefully I won't have too much trouble with stuff like that.

[Scia]

Ich lebe in Tessin (so I'm still learning German :D ).

 

Sry for that ^^ What I was saying is that PC sales are declining worldwide, they are selling horribly. You might sell 1-2 and have the rest gathering dust. People seem to be more interested in laptops and tablets and desktop PCs especially high end ones have become really niche.

I don't think it'll work :/

[azzo]

If you plan to do it, you can bring affordable pc's in another country

So if you follow through, Best of luck
 

[Dave :)]

English only please..

[hehehehhehehehe]

 

Well unfortunately that's just part of the risk :( Hopefully I won't have too much trouble with stuff like that.

Sorry for kinda being negative...

But I mean if your careful you should be fine!

[Cacao]

Good luck is all I can say to this.

So many people have tried, it doesn't work most the time.

 

Who would want to pay a complete stranger so much cash when they can get their computer from somewhere else that is known (even if they are crap, non tech people will not know the difference).

People who are into tech would most likely want to build the computer themselves, its a very simple thing to do.

I agree, it's definitely a risky business to go into, however I have tried looking for someone doing something similar in Switzerland and I really couldn't find anything. As long as everything goes as planned I wouldn't even have to spend any of my own money. You should see the mentality of the people that live here, I have not yet met a tech savvy Swiss person in my life, yet they all want to spend the least possible to get 'fast' computers, then they get completely ripped off by the local shops. I was hoping to maybe get some quality PCs to a few people in my area, without ripping them off. I just hope that they can see that too.

[3DDude]

Have you tried finding your own customers ?

Have you built several pc's for anyone yet?
 

I'd start by finding your own customers:
If those are satisfied with your work (building computers) and price/performance is really good. It is likely they will 'advertise' for you.

 

I would start there.

 

- You can go on ebay in a later period of time.

- Also renting a shop isn't a great idea unless its really cheap.

- Go find yourself a few customers first,  they will tell all their friends, colleagues if you are any good.

[Cacao]

Sry for that ^^ What I was saying is that PC sales are declining worldwide, they are selling horribly. You might sell 1-2 and have the rest gathering dust. People seem to be more interested in laptops and tablets and desktop PCs especially high end ones have become really niche.

I don't think it'll work :/

Well I would only be constructing them on order, so I don't have to worry about trying to sell something. Even if I only sell 3-4 a year, that's fine for me.

[Scia]

I agree, it's definitely a risky business to go into, however I have tried looking for someone doing something similar in Switzerland and I really couldn't find anything. As long as everything goes as planned I wouldn't even have to spend any of my own money. You should see the mentality of the people that live here, I have not yet met a tech savvy Swiss person in my life, yet they all want to spend the least possible to get 'fast' computers, then they get completely ripped off by the local shops. I was hoping to maybe get some quality PCs to a few people in my area, without ripping them off. I just hope that they can see that too.

 

There used to be shops like that, "PCHai" was one of them, but they all went out of business :/ They can't compete with Steg / Digitec and there simply is not enough demand ...

It's really really risky and almost guaranteed to be not-future proof :/

[Cacao]

Have you tried finding your own customers ?

Have you built several pc's for anyone yet?

 

I'd start by finding your own customers:

If those are satisfied with your work (building computers) and price/performance is really good. It is likely they will 'advertise' for you.

 

I would start there.

 

- You can go on ebay in a later period of time.

- Also renting a shop isn't a great idea unless its really cheap.

- Go find yourself a few customers first,  they will tell all their friends, colleagues if you are any good.

I have built several computers for friends, the computer shop thing would be several years down the road, for now I'm planning on doing all of it online and the building at my house.

[Cacao]

There used to be shops like that, "PCHai" was one of them, but they all went out of business :/ They can't compete with Steg / Digitec and there simply is not enough demand ...

It's really really risky and almost guaranteed to be not-future proof :/

Well I'm really not planning on making a living off of this, it's more like turning a hobby into a bit of a profit. Plus I wouldn't have to spend any of my money, so even if I don't sell a single one, I don't really lose anything?

[Jebonia]

Why don't you consider selling the service rather than the actual PC? That way you won't have to deal with issues of you being the middle man if there pc breaks 7 months down the line when it still has warranty and that means you will have to eat up the cost of sending the parts back. Your costumers will also be pissed by the ammount of 'downtime' as they would have to ship it to you, then you ship it to the company, then the company gives it back to you then you give it back to the costumer

[Scia]

Well I'm really not planning on making a living off of this, it's more like turning a hobby into a bit of a profit. Plus I wouldn't have to spend any of my money, so even if I don't sell a single one, I don't really lose anything?

 

If your intention is doing this for funsies, why not, give it a shot, but don't expect it to be an actual future ^^

[Mcdoorknob]

You said that you have a few more years until you're finished school, so you have lots of time to try things even if they fail. You should give it a shot and find out how much interest there is. If there is enough, you could eventually upgrade your business and gradually turn it into a shop. No reason not to try it I guess. Good luck

[PCBudgetSolutions]

Advice, do it as side work.  I do it as side work and I keep busy.  eBay is a hard area because you lose 3% profits to Paypal, and if you have an eBay store you can pay 4%+20/month on top of that.  I stay busy with good local networking but long distance is a pain.  You may make 150-200/PC but when things fail you're paying up to 150 round trip for shipping.  Good luck making someone pay shipping to fix it or buy w/o a warranty.

[tobben]

Sry for that ^^ What I was saying is that PC sales are declining worldwide, they are selling horribly. You might sell 1-2 and have the rest gathering dust. People seem to be more interested in laptops and tablets and desktop PCs especially high end ones have become really niche.

I don't think it'll work

almost all non tech people i talk with seem to want to get rid of desktop pc's as they consider them inconvenient annoying and bulky and they don't see a reason to keep them, most people i have talked to lately have either wanted to buy 

A) Tablets

b)laptops

C) a solution like apple has where the pc is integrated in the screen

 

all for the purpose of getting rid of the desktop pc .. some guy even asked what the hell i needed my pc for when i could just buy a tablet that does the same thing, obviously a desktop pc will seem inconvenient and impractical to those people. 

 

And to be frank some people actually don't need a desktop pc at this point for their use.

[BigD1970]

Alot of companies that have been successful were actually basement businesses that werent intended on being mega successful.I think u need the perfect storm to be super successful.And a bit of luck.