Do any of you build for

  • Thread starter Thread starter TC
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TC

profit? Is it profitable to build and sell home-built PCs? My
brother-in-law is planning to move from England to America. His
business is good there, but I can't possibly see how he could compete
here. He said his niche is customization but I told him that's fairly
common here. I just don't want him to come here and be disappointed.
 
TC said:
profit? Is it profitable to build and sell home-built PCs? My
brother-in-law is planning to move from England to America. His
business is good there, but I can't possibly see how he could compete
here. He said his niche is customization but I told him that's fairly
common here. I just don't want him to come here and be disappointed.
Click to expand...


He might be disappointed and he might not. It boils down to who can sell
their services i.e. if he's a good salesman he might do OK. I doubt he'll
get rich as it is a small niche market.
 
TC said:
profit? Is it profitable to build and sell home-built PCs? My
brother-in-law is planning to move from England to America. His
business is good there, but I can't possibly see how he could compete
here. He said his niche is customization but I told him that's fairly
common here. I just don't want him to come here and be disappointed.
Click to expand...


I can't speak for over there but over here (new zealand) every Tom, sick and
harry and his dog are building PCs. It is a very compeditive market with
prices dropping daily. And now with ordering over the net so common I
really don't pity anyone in the trade. It is really hard to make a dollar.
 
Is it profitable to build and sell home-built PCs? My
brother-in-law is planning to move from England to America. His
business is good there, but I can't possibly see how he could compete
here. He said his niche is customization but I told him that's fairly
common here. I just don't want him to come here and be disappointed.
Click to expand...

it;s going to be quite tough
considering the extremely low price of commercially built machines
 
I used to do custom builds, but got out of it when everyone started bringing
me the Dell ads asking me to build them a system for $399. My cost for
decent name brand components was easily over $399 for the parts. I won't
even mention the technical support some people demanded of me. One guy
found my number at my real job and bitched me out because his computer did
not play DVD's. When I built the system for him he said he did not want any
software installed. I guess he had an old copy of Win2K and loaded that.
The day after he picked it up it was back because it was not working right.
On boot up I found that he was too stupid to load the motherboard and video
card drivers. Anyway that was day one. On day three, I'm closed on Sunday,
one of my staff gets me out of my 9:00 meeting at my 'real' job. This guy
is on the phone irate as all hell. I can't play a F***'n DVD....you don't
know crap about making a usable system....I could have paid less for a
flippin Dell or Gateway!!!!! I told him to bring the computer back to the
shop I would refund his money just to be rid of him. Also reminded him that
he was the one that was too cheap to pay $30 upgrade for a DVD/CD-RW combo
instead of getting the CDR/W standard drive. If he would have kept the
system my net profit on that would have been $56. Not enough to keep my
lights on.
Anyway this is just my story. I started charging to build systems because I
got tired of doing free builds for some friend of a friend's. They were
bringing me junk components and expecting a high end game machine. Or worse
yet an AMD processor with a Intel Motherboard.
 
TC said:
profit? Is it profitable to build and sell home-built PCs? My
brother-in-law is planning to move from England to America. His
business is good there, but I can't possibly see how he could compete
here. He said his niche is customization but I told him that's fairly
common here. I just don't want him to come here and be disappointed.
Click to expand...

I build for friends only. My price? Dinner at Outback, Roadhouse or TGI
Fridays ;-) And I would starve to death if it wasn't for my "day job".

FRH
 
TC said:
profit? Is it profitable to build and sell home-built PCs? My
brother-in-law is planning to move from England to America. His
business is good there, but I can't possibly see how he could compete
here. He said his niche is customization but I told him that's fairly
common here. I just don't want him to come here and be disappointed.
Click to expand...



The margins are very thin..which is why is seems like every local
builder who is actually maintaining storefront is also vending wireless
phone services, etc. You probably better be able to set up basic
networks for (and establish service relationships with) small businesses
(and...get out the beeper...cause you're gonna be tethered to it!).

I've often that that if you were in Florida --or another area with a
high concentration of seniors-- there'd be a decent market for custom
builds and 1-on-1 training for older folks who want to explore
computers, but are intimidated by what they see as youth-focused
technology.

On the other hand, doing custom builds for individiuals on a parts plus
(whatever the market will bear..including dinner at the Outback as
somebody else mentioned) basis could be a way to keep a little extra
cash rolling in. Just hope you are building machines for smart users who
will recognize a stable build, and then NOT do things to screw it
up...and get your post-build service policies firmly established up
front:-)
 
The margins are very thin..which is why is seems like every local
builder who is actually maintaining storefront is also vending
wireless phone services, etc. You probably better be able to set up
basic networks for (and establish service relationships with) small
businesses (and...get out the beeper...cause you're gonna be tethered
to it!).

I've often that that if you were in Florida --or another area with a
high concentration of seniors-- there'd be a decent market for custom
builds and 1-on-1 training for older folks who want to explore
computers, but are intimidated by what they see as youth-focused
technology.

On the other hand, doing custom builds for individiuals on a parts
plus (whatever the market will bear..including dinner at the Outback
as somebody else mentioned) basis could be a way to keep a little
extra cash rolling in. Just hope you are building machines for smart
users who will recognize a stable build, and then NOT do things to
screw it up...and get your post-build service policies firmly
established up front:-)
Click to expand...

My assessment is just as all of you have said. I'm going to send him a
link to this thread. He's quite intelligent and adaptable so perhaps
he can do this on the side while doing something else. I just didn't
want him to come over here comitted to just this and fail. America can
be real tough on entrepreneurs.
 
Frank Hagan said:
I build for friends only. My price? Dinner at Outback, Roadhouse or TGI
Fridays ;-) And I would starve to death if it wasn't for my "day job".
Click to expand...

What people really need is advice on ISPs, v92 modem use, broadband, VoIP,
Anti-virus, online banking, buying and selling on eBay, setting up a home
network, help buying a good laptop cheap, and just plain using their
software and the internet. Unfortunately, many of them are hopeless. Getting
them off AOL is like pulling teeth. Many will never get beyond being able to
check their e-mail and visiting a few web sites. Despite their extreme
ignorance, they will often fight you on issues like the need for a second
partition to protect their data (what little they have) or upgrading to
WinXP.

Often, they don't realize their old computer is only worth $50 so you don't
want to spend all day sprucing it up. I usually convince them to let me put
a new one together for them for a few hundred, then tell them to network
their old computer to it. But usually it just ends up in their basement,
depreciating to worthlessness.

It would be funny if it weren't so sad. These people spend $22/m for AOL so
they can check their e-mail, some not even knowing how to enter a URL. Their
biggest problem is accidentally dragging their taskbar to the wrong side of
the screen and not knowing how to get it back. When I try to explain the
process to them they don't want to hear it, they just want me to put it
back. Always lock the taskbar.
 
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