Creating a Business?

[hueylax70790]

So...

 

I love computers. I love everything about them. I love building them, I love reading about them, and I love seeing people's custom rigs. 

A buddy and I were talking and came to the conclusion that we want to start a business. Now we know we can't just start up and expect to become big right away, so we talked about establishing a small group of trusted customers. 

What we would do:

Initially, we would provide consultations and diagnostics. Free consultation and physical diagnostics, but a small charge, maybe $15-$20, for system diagnostics. We would also help people build custom rigs. Whether it's us just giving them a hand, or they give us money to buy pieces to the computer (within the budget of course, and showing them the parts and explaining them before buying them) and building it, then charging for labor, say $50-$100. This custom rig that we built for them would come with a standard 1 year service plan (or something along those lines).

Eventually we want to create a small business. We would sell fully built computers/laptops from the manufacturers as well as custom PC's, parts, peripherals and services. Essentially a mini Micro Center but with a lot more personal attention.

 

These are my ideas. They aren't fully developed, but any input would be great! Tell me what you think, tell me what else we should do and let me know how I could grow a tech business.

 

P.S. We would make a youtube channel for basic instructions I.E. What does what, intel vs AMD etc.

[Easy To Pronounce Name]

Good luck man but I would recommend that you have quite a bit of money to start.

[Oshino Shinobu]

The trouble with this is that there's so many places that do it. It's extremely hard to make a business out of it. 

 

One of the biggest problems you'll have, in particular with system diagnostics and such, is that people will want to go to someone with official qualifications, or a place with a large reputation so they know that if something goes wrong, they'll be covered. For consultations on parts and such, they can just go to places like LTT and get loads of opinions very quickly, you need to think about why people should want to go to you. 

 

As for building systems, it's really not a very good business. People that don't know much about PCs will just go to a big electronics store and buy one from there, and most enthusiasts will either build it themselves, or buy a prebuilt PC from someone like PCSpecialist. You might get a few friends and local people, but nothing huge. You also will need a portfolio of builds that you have done in the past. If you look at guys like SingularityComputers, they have an area of expertise, such as watercooling, especially with hard tubing. 

 

There's a lot of people that have similar ideas, but we almost always tell them the same thing; It's not really a viable business unless you have a USP, connections or a fairly large customer base already lined up. It's okay to do as a sort of hobby to get some more money, but is extremely hard to make as a business. 

[Wauthar]

Not to shoot your idea down, but I think the market for that is really small. You would have to put in immense amounts of effort into it to get people to you and the return can be very small. Are there any other services that offer these kind of services close to where you live? If so, maybe you could team up or else competition (if any) wouldn't be beneficial.

 

EDIT: Pretty much what @ said.

Edited September 19, 2014 by Wauthar

[techswede]

If you really want to do it. Go for it
But since this has been done quite a bit you'll have tons of competition.

Start off with a smaller "Hobby" company (If your country has that kind of company that you can register). 

And when you register it as an actual company i suggest getting a good and trustwhorthy accountant. 

[loccilucas]

If you really want to do it. Go for it

I would say this, only if you REALLY REALLY wanna do it.

Maybe I'm a pessimist but I think you'll just spend alot of money starting the business then

Not get many customers. But good luck either way

[techswede]

I would say this, only if you REALLY REALLY wanna do it.

Maybe I'm a pessimist but I think you'll just spend alot of money starting the business then

Not get many customers. But good luck either way

Still. It's safer if a company fails in the early stages (Unless there is a lot of borrowed money invested in it)

My company tanked right after it's best year. And that is far worse 

[peaking duck]

you'll need to give it more thought

 

What you said above sounds like the motive or the drive u have to do this. but there are so many questions that you need to ask yourself.

Even if you become really good at doing what you've described, it takes a lot more to take what is essentially a paid hobby and turn it into a business.

 

Google: "starting a business checklist"