Don’t Start a Computer Repair Business

With the fall of PC prices and the rise of tablets, mobile devices and cloud services, a computer repair business is a dying business model.  Don’t start a computer repair business.

Start an IT Services Business

Instead, if you want a business that’s both profitable and fully scalable then you should start an IT services business.  An IT services business typically offers a wide variety of IT services and solutions (including computer repair and support) to take care of all their client’s IT needs.

A good IT services business will position themselves as an all-in-one IT provider.

And as an IT consultant, your goal is to become your client’s trusted IT advisor.  Your clients will rely on you to point them in the right direction with all of their IT needs.  And as an all-in-one IT provider, you can then provide your clients with the services and solutions that work best for their business.

Managed Services

One way to do this is to provide your clients with support plans where you take care of all of your client’s IT needs for a flat monthly fee.  This is called managed services.  With these plans you also try and prevent problems from occurring by using remote monitoring and management tools.  With these tools you can detect problems before they arise and take care of them before your client experiences downtime.

So, instead of making money off of your client’s failures, i.e. computer problems, you now make money off of their success, i.e. keeping them up and running.  In return, these plans provides you with predictable recurring revenue for your business so you can hire new employees and scale as necessary.

Cloud Services

You can also offer your clients with a wide variety of cloud solutions such as hosted email, hosted and hybrid file sharing, hosted desktops, hosted phone services and offsite backup for a monthly fee.

The benefit for your clients is that they no longer have to purchase expensive servers, they are only billed for what they need, they can work from anywhere and their services can be scaled on the fly.  The benefit for you, again, is predictable recurring revenue for your business.

Other Services

There is also room for a wide variety of other services you can offer your clients such as Mac support, mobile device management, point of sale and line of business solutions, license management, print management, on-site phone solutions, etc..  The list goes on and on.

Again, a good IT consulting business will position themselves as an all in one IT provider so they can offer their clients all the services and solutions they need.

So, don’t start a computer repair business.  Start an IT services business instead and take care of all your client’s needs.  And if you would like to learn how to get started, check out my free guide on How to Make Your First $1000 as an IT Consultant.

And if you have any questions about starting an IT services business, please post them below.