Most people in the Computer Business industry are familiar with the big tech forums like Technibble, Podnutz, and several Yahoo groups. These are great resources, but they don’t fit the needs of every business owner. All of the major tech business forums allow anybody to sign up and the few “secure” areas are based on post counts rather than experience. So, your business conversations can be found by customers and low-quality competitors (aka “Pizza Techs”) with a simple Google search. This is where the PC Business Guide comes into play.

The PC Business Guide was designed to provide a secure area online that computer business owners can interact freely without customers and uncommitted part-time techs seeing those posts. Just imagine the quality of the content posted when you do not have to worry about customers seeing you post about your profit margins or giving away tips to a local high school kid that hung a shingle for part time work.  The vast majority of the site is secured and not indexed by the search engines. The public area, which is about 10% of the site, is open to anybody and has a set of boards for tech questions and startup business questions. The private area requires a public introduction post and then we verify that the prospective member operates a real business that provides a primary income stream, with at least 6 months of history and an active website. This is not a paid membership site, there is no cost to join or to become a verified business owner.

What are the benefits of becoming a verified business owner at www.pcbusinessguide.com? The primary benefit is access to open and unfiltered communication about business practices and tips. In the secure area, we are very open about things like dealing with problem customers, profit margins, dealing with various vendors, and more. Some recent discussions include Gillware Remote Backup, Laptop Battery Suppliers, reseller resources from distributors, Insurance needs and costs, upsell items, and more. Additionally, since the site is essentially an industry focused mastermind group, members of the PC Business Guide are expected to use their real name and treat each other with respect. This creates a higher level of respect between members and virtually eliminates arguments.

In addition, when PCbiz.org collapsed due to inactivity, the owners of that forum transferred the domain and data to the PC Business Guide. The archive of PCbiz.org is also visible in the secure area of the PC Business Guide.

So, if you are running a real computer service business and want to talk to your peers in an open and unfiltered environment, stop in to www.pcbusinessguide.com, sign up and post an intro. We’ll verify your business experience and grant access quickly. If you are just starting a new business or planning to start a business, our experienced members will help you in the public area and when you meet the validation requirements, we’ll upgrade your membership.

Expansion and Flexibility

By partnering with subcontractors across a wide region, your business can quickly find specialists ready to handle work that it otherwise could not perform due to distance limitations or skill requirements. We take it one step further though, and do not hire any employees; all technicians working for BienTek are subcontractors. They run their own business, and accept jobs from BienTek when they have the time and interest in doing them.

Trust

When you send a technician out to a job, you want him to represent your business, not his own. You do not want him soliciting your customers. For this reason, we have contractors sign a non-solicitation agreement. We also track how many return customers we get for each contractor, and average earnings per contractor.

You will also want contractors to be responsible for the work they do. A clause in our own contractor agreement makes contractors responsible for their work. There are many independent contractor agreements to be found online.

When trying out a new contractor, you will probably not want to assign him to many jobs at once. Our approach is to track how many jobs are in progress for each contractor and take this number into consideration before selecting contractors to invite to a new job.

Contractor Availability

The challenge this creates for us is that a contractor will not always be ready and willing to do the job when you need him; however, employees create their own challenges, like having someone on payroll when the work is not coming in – and it’s nice not to have to worry about that.

Advertising

The creation and management of efficient advertising campaigns is a special challenge for subcontractor-based businesses. Since the availability of contractors is less within your control, geographically-optimized advertising is more difficult. Your expected coverage (service area) might change as frequently as daily. This makes for a daunting task when it comes to managing your advertising without the assistance of specialized tools.

Communication

Communication with your contractors can be strained when you don’t see them very often. You will probably require regular status updates on contractors’ jobs in progress, paperwork & invoice tracking, and an efficient job dispatch system that handles invitations and acceptance. We started by using gmail for the management of all of this, and learned that it was too inefficient.

Automation

To manage the challenges of contractor availability, communication, and advertising, BienTek created its own tool for tracking and automating as much of the process as possible. By allowing subcontractors to log into our site to accept jobs and make status updates, everything can be managed in one spot on the web. If you also run a subcontractor-based business, you might create your own tool to manage these challenges – or you might email BienTek about becoming a Beta tester to use the same software that we do. If you’re one of the first to inquire, we might be interested in letting you use our program for free in exchange for your valuable feedback!

- Brian Bien, owner, BienTek LLC

Good Computer Technicians

• Cover the basic issue that the customer requested of them to fix.
• Perform the job in a timely manner.

Great Computer Technicians

• Check for other issues besides the primary one; for example, in addition to doing a virus removal that they were asked to perform, they also run other diagnostics and performance checks, and make appropriate recommendations to the customer.
• Follow up frequently with the customer regarding their computer’s status, especially if they have their computer on hand for a while.
• Check to make sure that the job was completed to the customer’s satisfaction, offering to have the customer inspect their computer after the work is done.

The attributes found in a great technician are the type that are in the highest demand.

So, what qualities are found in a computer repair technician who is in high demand for contract work? Most importantly, experience and specialization, closely followed by communication. Contractors are hired for their mastery of particular skills like virus removal, laptop hardware repair, Apple Mac repair, and home theater setup – but are not expected to have mastery of all these skills (that is rare). Contractors are not trained, so they are always expected to have sufficient experience in their area of expertise.

A good tech contractor only needs to specialize in one technology service, as long as he is capable of adequately handling related skills. For example, a laptop hardware specialist (who focuses on LCD screen replacements, motherboard & dc jack repair) would benefit from some virus removal experience, since a “broken laptop” may be a virus misdiagnosed as a hardware issue.

A good contractor usually has his own business cards and website that advertise his technology services. He has registered his business with the state. He may also have flyers or other advertising material that demonstrate his dedication and highlight his expertise. The IT contractor usually carries professional liability insurance because of the risky nature of some services. It almost goes without saying that the contractor has his own tools and transportation. Some contractors work from a shop; others work from home.

Finally, a good computer repair contractor has soft-skills (like communication) and values (like dedication and honesty).

Above, BienTek has covered the qualities of a good technology contractor (in the owner’s opinion). If you think you’re a good candidate to accept computer repair jobs from BienTek, feel free to apply. If accepted as one of BienTek’s technology partners, you will be notified of occasional jobs, which you may choose whether to accept based on your interest and availability. We’re currently particularly interested in partnering with Apple and laptop techs in Lansing, Brighton, Canton, Troy, and Royal Oak, MI. We’re also looking for Michigan home theater installers.

Website Marketing

BienTek now offers 100% guaranteed website services for small businesses.

Here’s how it works: you set your own price, and pay on a weekly basis to keep your payments small (through automated billing by PayPal). BienTek takes care of your online search engine marketing plus SEO. If you like the traffic you get, great! Otherwise, there is no obligation to pay. It’s a very low-risk proposition for small businesses looking to get some traffic, whether they have a basic website already or not.

It’s especially for small businesses that need help with their search engine marketing – businesses who don’t care about micromanaging the details of promoting their business online, and have pretty basic, unchanging websites or no website at all. To learn more, or to discuss a plan customized for your business, visit bienseo.com.

The Declining Cost of Computers

An increasingly-common customer objection is discussed: “I might as well buy a new PC [rather than get mine repaired]“. Some techs say the answer is to switch to the SMB market, focusing on higher-value services. For your business, this could mean focusing on small business consulting and specialized computer services outside of break/fix, like servers and company networks. Of course, there are already businesses covering this market, and as more former traditional PC repair techs seek to migrate to these higher-value technology services, competition increases; the SMB market will not grow as fast as the PC repair market will shrink, leaving a shortage of work to support technicians.

Will the Cloud Make Data Recovery Obsolete?

Although many people are still not backing up their data online, we have seen a trend where this task has been getting easier and cheaper at a rapid rate. The future of computing holds integrated automatic online backup solutions built-in to the application, or even operating system – or perhaps at a layer entirely outside of the O.S. (this would allow the user to easily and reliably restore the entire system to a previous date without any boot disks or obscure menus). Soon, the default will be to have one’s data stored online, and it will become an opt-out procedure for the few who don’t want this. The tech-savvy few, who place a high value on privacy, will have their own simple, redundant private backup systems.

Will Cell Phones (and/or Tablets) Replace Computers?

We can already see that some consumers who are very comfortable with their phones are settling with using them exclusively. Others will be happy to settle for occasional tablet use, and some will require a docking station to be comfortable. At the very least, these people will not be willing to spend as much to repair their computer since they have a good alternative. Gamers will hold onto their PCs for a long time to come (unless the console industry sees a breakthrough) – but the number of gamers that are not already fairly tech-savvy and capable of even building their own PC or replacing components – are not going to do much to sustain the PC repair industry.

The technician wants to believe that the PC will never be completely replaced, since other devices are not convenient for power-hungry applications or comfortable typing. While that’s currently true, consider how the supercomputer of the recent past fits in today’s PC – is it not such a leap to imagine that the power of today’s PC fits into the phone of tomorrow (5-8 years from now)? It’s easy to picture a future where our phones seamlessly integrate with monitors and keyboards, replacing the PC or laptop as we know it, except for power users. Imagine sitting down at a keyboard and monitor, which senses your phone’s presence wirelessly. You enter a password, and suddenly you’re connected to the operating system on your phone. (The Linux kernel is already on Droids.) The common computer user really only demands access to the Internet and its applications.

Even so, we won’t experience a “complete elimination of the PC” in the next 5 years – but we can be certain of a significant decline in the PC’s value, and the willingness of consumers to repair them.

The Good News for Techs

The good news is that, although it is easy to predict the end of the PC repair market, it is difficult to predict what markets will be created by the future of technology. That is, we won’t know what complicated technical mess the former “PC owner” will be finding himself in 10 years from now. Although technology will continue to simplify the current processes that we’ve become accustomed to, it will also allow for newer applications and complex integration among various devices, and this may be something a technician of a new era can solve for the technically-challenged.

Sources

Microsoft Girds For Demise of PC
http://www.technibble.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20839

Now you can have a bit extra confidence that BienTek will provide an excellent computer repair experience!

Pick-up and drop-off is now available for BienTek’s Mac Repair Services, like Apple Macbook repair.