It is the dream of many computer technicians is to start
their own computer repair business. This dream is a great
one to go for but before starting a business, you will need
to face the realities of the businesses startup costs. In
this article I will cover some of the startup costs one can
expect.
Getting Setup Legally
On the Technibble forums, we occasionally get questions
about how to get a business set up legally like how to get
the appropriate tax IDs or what items can be deducted on
tax. The answer is nearly aways the same which is “Just get
an accountant”. As much as the Technibble community likes to
help other technicians, there is just no replacing the
knowledge of a local accountant who knows the laws in your
country and state. Having an accountant set you up legally
should be one of the first things you do because you can
then claim many of your other start up expenses as a tax
write off for next year. Take this time to pick the
accountants brain asking about what items you can claim as a
business expense and what is the best way to keep things
organised to make things easier at tax time. Getting an
accountant to set you up will cost around $100 – $300 USD.
Rent and Utilities
I find the best place to start your business is in a home
office. As I have mentioned in many articles, I was 17 when
I started my business so my rent and utilities were zero at
the time since I was still living with my parents. Now days
I have moved my office to the place where I live and since I
was already paying my rent tolive there,
it doesn’t make much difference working there
either. As I mentioned before, talk to your accountant and
you will most likely be able to claim part of your rent on
tax.
For those of you who want to start your business as a retail store front, I still highly recommend starting in an home office as it takes time to build a client base to support yourself until things get busy.
Stock
Stock can be one of your big startup cost but luckily its
not always necessary to carry much stock. When I was first
starting out, if I found that I needed a certain part while
on site, I would often go out to buy the needed part at a
local computer store but not charge the client for the time
since it was my fault that I wasn’t carrying the stock. Now
days, I just carry one or two of most computer parts that
don’t devalue quickly like RAM (old RAM prices can actually
go up), DVD-Burners, Power Supplies, Wireless Routers,
Wireless USB Dongles, Cables, Cases, Keyboard/Mice and
copies of Windows XP/Vista.
Items like CPUs, Video Card and Hard Drives I only buy on a
as needed basis as the value drops too quickly.
Tools
The absolute minimum amount of tools you should have is a
small toolkit for computers (mine was about $14 USD), a USB
drive ($10 to $100 depending on size) and a CD wallet (about
$2 to $10) loaded with free
utilities you can find here. However, its ideal to have
a complete kit with a laptop, blank CDs, thermal paste,
various cables and a cable tester like my onsite
technician gear.
Business Cards
Your business card is often what your client bases their
first impression of you on. Your business card is
representative of your business and this is why I strongly
recommend that you business cards made professionally. To
me, those tear off make-at-home cards just screams amateur
or fly by night business. Of course, any business card is
better than no business card but if you are really short on
money, you could consider getting them professionally
printed for free at a place like VistaPrint.
Professionally printed business cards will cost you around
$120 – $300 USD depending on the the amount you want printed
and this often includes the printshop doing the designing
work for you.
Office Items
You don’t need big wooden desks, special technician benches
and new leather chairs when you first start out (or even
down the track ). I find it is best to get office items as
you need them rather than buying all of them outright. A
computer, printer, mobile phone, answering machine and some
writing material is all you need for a small home business.
A fax machine can be nice but I find they are getting used
less and less as suppliers begin to allow online orders.
Web Hosting
If you happen to have a website, do not host it on a free
host. Most free hosts only allow for a lame domain name like
yourbusinessname.freewebhost.com. Many of them are ad
supported so as you are trying to sell your services, your
competitors ad is on your site too. With hosting companies
like Hostgator which
offer amazingly reliable services for $4.95 USD a month, you
will be crazy not to use them.
Business Forms
While I didn’t have any business forms when I started my
business (mine were created over many years), I wish I did
as it didn’t take me long to run into bad customers who were
happy with my work, but chose not to pay me. If I had a
signed work order this wouldn’t have been a problem. The
reason why I recommend you buy something like Technibbles Computer
Business Kit when
you start your business is you only need to encounter one
bad customer that wont pay your $60 charge (even though you
have a signed work order saying they are happy with your
work) and you have covered the $49 cost. You can get the Computer
Business Kit here for $49.
