I don’t know how it works around the world, but down here in South America, computer repair often boils down to a single guy working out of his garage. Or, in my case, out of my bedroom, where I keep a closet filled with tools and spare computer parts — to my wife’s horror.
Computer repair and tech support may not sound glamorous, but it is something that I very much enjoy doing. Especially working with hardware, testing parts one by one, cleaning and maintaining them, helping clients select new parts when old ones break, etc. It can all be very relaxing, occasional angry clients aside.
My day job used to be as an accountant, and that was hell. I’m much happier now that I get to work with computer repair full time.
What I want to do today is to tell you how I finally got enough clients to go full time. Hopefully, this will help you quit your nightmare job as well.
Some context
I’m not a young lad. I’m 51 years old, got two kids. Perhaps not the person you would expect to be good with computers.
I stumbled my way into learning about computer repair. My accounting firm asked me to take classes on basic computer work. That was about five years ago. While I was learning how to type and use Excel, I went ahead and started looking into hardware as well; into how the parts of the computer work and how they go together.
From there I started getting more into it and eventually started working at a local computer repair shop in my spare time. Working basically for free; the biggest benefit was getting hands-on experience.
Sadly, my partnership with the shop’s owner didn’t last. He was a troublesome fellow. But I had my knowledge, and I really wanted to stop being an accountant. I just didn’t know how to make that happen. I had the tools to work from home, but I didn’t have any clients beyond friends and family.
That’s when I started looking into marketing, advertising, SEO, and Social Marketing. If you want to get into it yourself, this article over on Srcxp.com covers some of the basics.
I followed my dream
It doesn’t matter what you are selling. If you have enough customers, you can turn it into a full-time job. With that in mind, I started working on getting some leads.
I created a beautiful blog, an Instagram profile, made business cards, started asking friends and family who used my help to send more people my way, things like that. I started investing hard in this opportunity. It was my escape from my day job.
However, what really did the trick – my biggest source of leads to this day – was joining Facebook groups.
I don’t know how big Facebook still is around the world. But it’s pretty big here in my country. Once I figured out I could get leads off Facebook, I started joining all the groups related to local topics I could find. Groups for local parents, for people looking to trade books, groups for people who carpool. They all had general discussions in them, and computer problems would be brought up from time to time. Whenever that happened, I took action.
Sometimes I’d outright promote my services in the comments of said Facebook posts. But I found out the best approach was to message the person directly, get familiar with their difficulties, and offer a free consultation. You know, establish a connection.
Where I am now
After I went that way, word of mouth got around, and the rest is history. I now have more clients than I can handle from my home, so I’ll be opening my own shop next year. I’m even looking into hiring some employees.
Five years ago, if you told me I’d be opening my own computer repair shop, I would never have believed you. I still can’t believe it myself.
