Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
I quickly found myself getting calls from customers who wanted to drop off or pick up
their repaired devices “after work.” Well that meant that I needed to stay until 6:00 or 7:00
p.m.—and I was happy to do so. I felt that my customers needed to work too and I didn't
want them to be inconvenienced. As a struggling new business owner, I needed to make
things easy for my customers, not difficult. Now, with enough employees, we operate sev-
en days a week.
In the beginning it'll most likely be just you running your operation. This is the simplest
and quickest way to get started. However, it puts all of the pressure on you to make sure
that everything gets done. Ultimately this means that your schedule will be somewhat dic-
tated by the number of repair requests you have and the number of service calls you accept.
I was personally of the mindset that I wouldn't turn down any customer unless the service
request was way out of my depth.
My philosophy on the subject was that in the beginning, I didn't have a recognizable brand
or a steady stream of business and I didn't have a reputation that I could lean on. All I
had was my word and my promise to my customers. I regarded each of them as a potential
“good review” somewhere on the Internet, in a coffeehouse, or at the family dinner table,
so I made sure to attend to each new customer with a committed customer service mental-
ity. Adopting this attitude ultimately means that your schedule will need to be flexible. It
means that you'll need to be available, and if you are the good reviews and word of mouth
will spread.
Don't plan on being able to work 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Plan on working until the job is
finished, then you can fall asleep knowing that your day is complete. Otherwise you may
get complacent, figure that “there's always tomorrow,” and find yourself in a bind if you
are busier “tomorrow” than today. It's called the “snowball effect” because as your days
flow from one to the next, your backlog of business gets bigger and bigger. This may seem
good on the surface but it will backfire on you sooner or later as you will be fighting fires,
making excuses to customers, and ultimately losing business. Remember the customer ser-
vice factor? It's applies to your business 100 percent of the time!
Find a Niche: PCs? Macs? Tablets?
As you gather more information about how and when you will begin your new business,
you may at first think about doing it all. This is a noble thought. However, you might soon
be overwhelmed by the huge variety and intricate details of modern-day electronics and
you'll find you can't even get your business off the ground.
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