Self-employed computer janitor, need business plan/marketing advice

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Self-employed computer janitor, need business plan/marketing advice

n8r: Jul 3, 2003; I helped Lowtax become a cyborg and all I got was this lousy avatar

Captain Walker posted:

Background: I graduated from college in 2012 with an utterly useless degree and spent the following two years trying to find employment in Southern California. Work history includes a summer at a theme park (fired because I'm autistic and didn't understand that I was being given a verbal warning), "office assistant"/junior analyst at an SEO firm (fired when they realized they needed someone who actually knew SEO), and whatever menial office jobs the temp agencies could scrounge up.

August of 2014: My parents laid out the money for ads in a local paper for my computer repair business, and since then we've sunk something like $2,500 into print ads, a website, placement at a local car wash, business cards, etc.. My skill set is the sort of stuff what SH/SC would call "computer janitor" work; I'm studying for an A+ certification which I'm hoping will help establish my legitimacy. But I still can't loving get any work, at least not consistently. I made $2,300 in August, but only $800 in September, and my car payment, student loans and rent cost me something like $700 a month.

Present day: I have no plan for the future. My print ads are getting diminishing returns, I can't figure out how to market online to a demographic that isn't proficient with computers, and my parents are getting more irritated by the day (I'm a goon so of course I still live with them). I have a skill set and there are certainly people here who can benefit from it, but if I don't figure out how to connect the dots I'll be living on a street corner this time next year.

-What can I do to get more work for PC Whisperer without spending too much money?
-Should I apply for a seasonal part-time job to pay the bills?
-Can I feasibly make a career out of my business, or will I have to go and get a real job someday?

You should definitely apply for part time work to keep your head above water.

If someone googles 'computer repair' are you showing up on google? Do you have any presence on yelp? Are you advertising on craigslist?

Do you collect email addresses of your customers? Do you regularly market to your current customers via email?

Have you looked into groupon sorts of stuff?

Have you joined your local chamber of commerce? Have you looked into small business mentoring programs that probably exist locally?

Have you marketed your services to businesses? This is probably where the money really is. Do you offer a monthly service contract? Ex: $500/month buys you 10 hours of support (and hope they don't use all 10 every month).

Have you written PRs and sent them to the local papers? We have a local business paper that loves doing stories about new small businesses, and it can drive a surprising amount of business.

edit: If you're really autistic to the point where it effects the sort of work you can get, look into getting disability.

# ¿ Oct 14, 2015 15:33

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 14:53

n8r: Jul 3, 2003; I helped Lowtax become a cyborg and all I got was this lousy avatar

Why does a cert matter when doing home computer Janitor stuff?

# ¿ Oct 15, 2015 19:43

n8r: Jul 3, 2003; I helped Lowtax become a cyborg and all I got was this lousy avatar

Why not just say you have them? Nobody every checks that sort of stuff. SA now deems thee to have an A+ cert.

Edit: Source:
http://www.techexams.net/blogs/jdmurray/80-how-do-i-verify-someone-really-certified.html

n8r fucked around with this message at 08:36 on Oct 16, 2015

# ¿ Oct 16, 2015 08:32

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Self-employed computer janitor, need business plan/marketing advice