Starting a PC repair business. Good idea or bad idea in a mid-size town?

In the town I'm in there are about 50,000 people and I would say there are a total of 5 to 7 pc repair shops including those geek squad loosers. I used to work for one of these companies in town, which has a lot of customers.





Is it a good idea to start my own pc repair business?? I would also be doing business and home networking (since that's my specialty. b.s. in computer networking). The company I worked for was very profitable as far as I could tell.





What are some of the pro's and con's? How much money would I need to get started? How can I compete with the other businesses here in town? Would buying a location be better near the mall area?





Hope someone can help.

Starting a PC repair business. Good idea or bad idea in a mid-size town?
I also work in computer repairs and I would say a large amount of people rather fix what they know instead of going with the unknown of a new system, and with Vista out there most people are even more unsure about buying the new PC now a days. Home network is a great business now a days, of course I could be saying that since I am also getting certified in that area, but with multiple PC's per home it's in demand. Not sure about start up money but realistically you could start from home with the supplies and tools you know you would need, check local prices for inhome services, price accordingly or at least starting off cheaper then the other guys and then make a name for yourself and spread the word. Probably best advice is test the water first before any huge investments in retail location. Good luck.
Reply:Well PCs are outdated 10 minutes after purchased, the prices keep dropping, and most people replace them before they spend money to repair them.





Well that is me at least. maybe there are allot of people who spend money on repairs.





Another thing about PCs is they are built modular. That means it is just easy component replacements almost anyone can do themselves.





I guess there would be warranty work but enough to make a living?





I don't know anything about the business but that is how I would see it.
Reply:Great idea. Be ready to work though. People are idiots when it comes to computers.





Pros: work from home


Cons: computers are like woman, you think you got it figured out then, well you know.

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