Become a system builder?

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, ARikozuM said:

Is this a Space Balls reference? I feel like it's a movie reference...

that is a 6AM i didnt sleep at all because my server is fucked reference

 

my brain does weird things on a lack of sleep...

[Energycore]

Just one: know a good cheap PSU from a bad cheap PSU. This thread should help with that, and in general OEM PSUs are fine, especially the ones made by Super Flower, Seasonic or Delta.

 

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/404921-strmfrmxmns-psu-whitelist/?page=1

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

You are going to get wrecked the moment a customer ships the entire system back to you and demand a refund when something goes wrong.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, v0nn_toaster said:

 

Is there anything i should know before taking the plunge

 

Pick the right plunge.

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

You are going to get wrecked the moment a customer ships the entire system back to you and demand a refund when something goes wrong.

Something like: My PC doesn't power on help when the PSU switch is at 0

[FRN]

Its hard to establish something like what you're envisioning. Think small first.

[Mamonos]

4 hours ago, Enderman said:

1) you won't make any money doing it

3) the market is already saturated with builders

4) there are many other companies that buy bulk orders of parts and can undercut you by hundreds of dollars, so nobody will buy from you

I will second this statements.

 

Also my opinion is that you should reroute yourself to the local market. You should spread the word that you are good with computers, especially with your parents' connections (they might have friends with offices or companies that need to change systems or similar things).

 

There you can really gain trust of your "customer" by starting small (for example fixing small software issue).

You won't make a lot of money but at least you will have some fun.

 

You might also end up building some 500-800$ decent gaming pc for your school friends, probably without any earning (but again, some fun). People willing to spend 1500$ on a gaming rig they will probably be as geek as you and me, and therefore they will build their own system.

 

Also stop for a few minutes and think a bit to the fact that with customer is almost never "build, sell, goodbye" but rather "build, sell, oh, not working, oh, it was too expensive, oh, you must repair it". They usually need support and that might be quite stressful.

[Sprawlie]

16 hours ago, Enderman said:

1) you won't make any money doing it

 

2) find a real job

 

3) the market is already saturated with builders

 

4) there are many other companies that buy bulk orders of parts and can undercut you by hundreds of dollars, so nobody will buy from you

 

5) sorry, the truth is though, even linus has said these facts several times.

As someone who ran his own small business for a while being a system builder, This is the unfortunate truth of it. There's no money in a single person, reselling computers, even higher end ones, if you have to purchase retail.

 

to top it off, being a single person doing system building means you're not going to be able to provide the support and warranty issues that are likely to arise from time to time, which will always cost you out of pocket. It'll be one thing to make a few extra bucks sellnig to friends and family, or around campus, But once you venture onto the internet and start selling to strangers, you are putting yourself into a tremendously large liability situation, that a single person cannot afford to deal with.

 

all it will take is someones system dieing in 6 months for some explicitness reason, losing their data before they come screaming to you that you're responsible for getting them back up and running.

 

the margin's that the big name players like Alienware are dealing with are already razer tight. if you are looking to make a business out of it, you just cannot compete unless you can give some sort of niche product that allows you to charge such premium. And the market for that is extremely tiny. Once you start dealing with Niche builds (hardline water, super OC'd builds), you're going to find more of those people are willing to do it themselves, than pay someone extra.

 

I'm sorry to say, that the days of a perseon running their own system building business for a livelihood are long gone and you missed it by about 15 years.

 

 

 

 

[Mooshi]

I'll be blunt. Outside of maybe neighbors or friends that know you personally, no one is going to buy a computer from a kid without any type of warranty support they would get for even the most craptastic Best Buy prebuilt system. 

 

Even those with more experience don't really make much.  For basic systems, people stick to what they know with HP and Dell. 

[hardtofindinthefuture]

So i took the tips people told me

Except the ones telling me to not do it.

 

So i would

 

1. Get a brand name

2. Get model names

3. Add support

4. Get Employees (pay friends to help)

5. Buy parts in bulk
6. Sell your PCs at the local flea market

7. Make more than just PCs

8. Refurbish used PCs

9. Add a warranty

10. NO refunds

11. Buy cheap but not horrible parts

 

 

Anything else i should know?

if you tell me to "get a job" or "not do it" just delete your comment

 

Thanks

[Guest]

Be at a legal age to work?

[hardtofindinthefuture]

4 minutes ago, deXxterlab97 said:

Be at a legal age to work?

Hold on...

Let me just edit my birth certificate

 

[stconquest]

You do not have anything related to learning in your list.

 

Knowing what parts are worth helps you realize what is, and what is not, a good deal. 

 

Knowing parts and their particular benefits helps you build PCs that are tailored for specific uses.

 

Familiarity with software minimizes your work/service time and helps build trust with your customers.

 

How much do you know about building and maintaining PCs?

[Mira Yurizaki]

Check your city/county/state/country's laws regarding setting up a public business.

 

You're also going to have to brush up on tax code unless you want the IRS or equivalent on your butt.

[hardtofindinthefuture]

2 minutes ago, stconquest said:

How much do you know about building and maintaining PCs?

Step 1. Build the PC

Step 2. Turn it on

Step 3. Use it

Step 4. Dont download a virus

[hardtofindinthefuture]

4 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Check your city/county/state/country's laws regarding setting up a public business.

 

You're also going to have to brush up on tax code unless you want the IRS or equivalent on your butt.

Im in middle school

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taxes?

What?

 

[stconquest]

6 minutes ago, v0nn_toaster said:

Step 1. Build the PC

Step 2. Turn it on

Step 3. Use it

Step 4. Dont download a virus

Well then, you are surely ready to be a tremendously successful and a proficient system builder.  Best of luck. 

[AnonymousGuy]

Quote

1) you won't make any money doing it

 

2) find a real job

 

3) the market is already saturated with builders

 

4) there are many other companies that buy bulk orders of parts and can undercut you by hundreds of dollars, so nobody will buy from you

 

5) sorry, the truth is though, even linus has said these facts several times.

All of these points are correct.  I love the enthusiasm and entrepreneurial spirit, but you have to realize that it's a marketplace where there's no way you're going to win.  You won't have the initial capital to buy in bulk, you aren't going to be able to build a customer base, you aren't going to be able to have the infrastructure to do even basic things like proper shipping.  

 

And if you try to piggyback off ebay, you're paying them a 10% cut immediately for every sale which will destroy any profit you make.  Not to mention warranty support.  It is *not* cheap to ship 30+ lb machines across the country.  A single warranty claim can take the profit away from multiple successful sales.  Not to mention as a builder you're not eligible for "standard" warranties offered on parts and you will get blackballed if you're sending tons of hardware back to OEMs as a civilian.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, v0nn_toaster said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taxes?

What?

 

Welcome

[Slottr]

Like everyone else is saying, theres more to it than just building and selling a pc. The financials behind running a business are complicated, you need to know how to advertise and as someone in middle school you can't expect much business - if any.

[Mira Yurizaki]

6 minutes ago, v0nn_toaster said:

Taxes?

What?

It's that thing you do when you're an adult.

[Princess Luna]

everyone gets hyped and excited after their first build, but actually think you can live from building up PCs is probably even less than realistic than becoming a professional e-sports player nowadays.

 

I don't want to be a bad person here, if you really love PCs you could always mare a career related to them, so computers science, programming, electronics, at a college you might even end up at a respectable shop actually building PCs under demand, but think that just because you watched some youtube videos and built a machine you can go solo on this market is delirious.

 

If the person is going after a high end system they are more than likely to study enough to do themselves, if they want a prebuild they will go to cheap best buy kind of shop for their name and marketing, you will never find costumers, only a couple of friends asking you to format their PCs for them at best.

[hardtofindinthefuture]

1 minute ago, M.Yurizaki said:

It's that thing you do when you're an adult.

ik that

 

i just couldn't word it diffrent

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, v0nn_toaster said:

ik that

 

i just couldn't word it diffrent

The percentage of money from your salary you pay to MR. Trump

[dizmo]

34 minutes ago, v0nn_toaster said:

So i would

1. Get a brand name

2. Get model names

3. Add support

4. Get Employees (pay friends to help)

5. Buy parts in bulk
6. Sell your PCs at the local flea market

7. Make more than just PCs

8. Refurbish used PCs

9. Add a warranty

10. NO refunds

11. Buy cheap but not horrible parts

 

 

Anything else i should know?

if you tell me to "get a job" or "not do it" just delete your comment

 

Thanks

Ahhh to be in middle school and have slightly unrealistic dreams. There are a few issues with what you have laid out, and I'll try to explain them quickly to you.

•  Setting it up as a legit business requires a business license. If you want to do that, the best way to go is via a home based business. In Canada, home based businesses (generally) cannot have employees.
• If you're a business, you must charge, collect and submit taxes. I think this will depend on your state.
• You'll have to file taxes for the business at the end of the year. This is on sales, not on profit.
• You likely won't buy parts in bulk with enough of a discount to make it worth while. Just go for sale items, pay in cash so you can hand off the warranty to the person who buys it.
• What would you make more than PCs?
• Don't offer a warranty, unless you can fully support it. Once you do that you open yourself up to lawsuits.
• As a business you might not legally be able to refuse refunds.

Judging from what you want to do, I'd go with refurbishing computers, or buying parts and building completes. You'd have to be on top of sites like Reddit and eBay, grabbing the sweet deals as they come. You won't make a ton of cash, but you can make a decent amount. Just do it as some dude on Craigslist. Don't get everything else involved.

 

21 minutes ago, v0nn_toaster said:

Im in middle school

Taxes?

What?

 

Don't make it a legitimate business then.

19 minutes ago, AnonymousGuy said:

All of these points are correct.  I love the enthusiasm and entrepreneurial spirit, but you have to realize that it's a marketplace where there's no way you're going to win.  You won't have the initial capital to buy in bulk, you aren't going to be able to build a customer base, you aren't going to be able to have the infrastructure to do even basic things like proper shipping.  

 

And if you try to piggyback off ebay, you're paying them a 10% cut immediately for every sale which will destroy any profit you make.  Not to mention warranty support.  It is *not* cheap to ship 30+ lb machines across the country.  A single warranty claim can take the profit away from multiple successful sales.  Not to mention as a builder you're not eligible for "standard" warranties offered on parts and you will get blackballed if you're sending tons of hardware back to OEMs as a civilian.

While I agree with most of your points, I don't think you're correct about a few.

• It's not impossible for him to build a customer base. He's not looking for repeat customers, it's not like he's selling something that needs constant replenishment.
• Shipping on a small business scale isn't hard. You don't need much infrastructure at all.
• Selling on eBay is a rip off, however buying isn't.
• Shipping isn't cheap, but it's not that expensive either. Normally shipping costs are passed on to the buyer.
• There are work arounds to the warranty issue when it comes to the parts installed.