RE: Re[2]: FN-FORUM: Advertising for 'home PC repair' work..

date posted 5th January 2005 16:03

My husband actually still does this part-time in our living room. =
Although,
I had to ban all such work from the house from December 15th to today =
just
so I didn't have to clean around them or deal with them over the =
holiday.
Just a few machines can generate =A3200 extra per month depending on =
what kind
of fix is needed. =20
From the middle of November until the first week of December we had up =
to 4
machines in our living room in various states of repair. Why the living
room you might ask? Because we do the fixes and upgrades while we watch =
tv.
Most of the computer bits for upgrades come from the shop just up the =
street
from me but what he doesn't carry, I order online to be delivered to the
house. The upgrades can be downloaded from our broadband line or over =
the
network after we have ensured the machine is clean from virii and other
nasty stuff. And the beauty of this arrangement is that we can work =
through
the middle of the night if one of us can't sleep and there is no lugging
bits to someone else's house.
Most clients drop the computers off at the house but looking at the =
calls on
the machine, we could start a small pick up service locally too. =20
Early on, lots of people wanted to come and watch us fix the machines or
wanted us to do it on site...but they got bored very quickly and this
arrangement seems less disruptive for them. They get to understand that
when hubby is on-call for his regular job (he's a Senior DBA for =
Vodafone)
hardware repairs don't get completed as quickly as it's down to me to do
them. I prefer to work on software upgrades and virus extermination.

I think the key is flexibility to this kind of work. But I have a =
strict
policy about machines I've fixed in the past, similar to advice given to
Honda owners: Don't open the hood to strangers!! I have a dim view of
letting everyone who thinks they know something about the internal =
workings
of a computer mess with it. My clients tend to discover quickly that we
know what we are doing.

Sherry