I'm currently looking for employment for summer, but as I wait, I'd like to build some PC's for money.
Problem is, I'm not sure how I should charge for them. Should I do it hourly? Should it be a percentage of the cost of the PC? Should it be a flat rate?
I'm not sure which one makes people the most comfortable while making me a decent amount of money without ripping them off.
Currently I'm thinking of simply taking parts the customer has bought and assembling them. Would buying the parts myself, building the PC, then selling it have a higher margin?
Any ideas?
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Edited by DeadliestDragon: 6/3/2013 5:25:52 PMI hate to break the news to you Abotelho but you are about 5-10 years too late. When I was in college from 2002-2007 I paid for most of my college and cost of living by building PC's for customers in the community. My little "business" got to the point where I actually thought when I graduated that I could grow it bigger and make even more money hiring some workers. I was wrong. By 2008 the cost of computers had come down considerably as well as the quality of computer parts had gone up dramatically. The days of needing a new computer every 2-3 years really ended around 2005 or so. Let me explain it this way to help give you a better idea. The sweet spot for a custom PC build where you will make profit was always $2,000-2,500.00 for everything (pc, monitor, keyboard,etc). Hardly anyone wanted to spend more than the 2500 but most realized you needed to spend around 2,000 to get a decent PC. BUT, by 2008 people realized that quality had caught up and competition was so stiff, that in order to keep my customers from going to circuit city, best buy, dell, or HP's websites to buy a PC, I had to lower my prices. By the end of 2009 it became a hobby and I was barely clearing 2-300 per build. AND nobody was really looking anymore. Why? Laptops were the craze by that point and PC's that I had built for customers in 2004,2005,2006 people were still using and were happy with. Also, Windows Vista bombing did not help me at all. Tons of people that I was hoping to get repeat business or referrals from had gone to Apple computers because of the negative press Vista had gotten. Now you have tablets to compete with and custom PC building in my opinion unless you are a big business like HP/Dell, is pretty much dead. So, I would say to you don't do this unless you want it to be a hobby. I build about 10 a year now for friends of friends of friends. I have built 3 this year. That's it. I made about $200 each.
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I think you'd be better off selling a service to fix PCs, not build them.
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Edited by TheBrandingIron: 6/3/2013 4:26:48 PMI'd say just do one single fee per computer. 60$ per computer, maybe? Or you could have a couple of different fee levels depending on the number and complexity of the components. But yeah, just let them get their components.
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Edited by Spartan Palmer: 6/3/2013 5:10:23 PMI like your idea. I just think it would be hard to find customers. Most people who buy PC parts individually know how to assemble them. The second idea you had seems more promising though; I would do the same if I had more money.
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Edited by Bulldozer: 6/3/2013 4:28:59 PMHorrible business idea The custom PC market is very small. Most people just go to Bestbuy and buy whatever the clerk tells them. I use to do this like two years ago; build gaming PCs for people on eBay. I only got like one order a week and only made like $40 profit per computer because of eBay and PayPal fees. But if you want, you could just charge a 10-15% fee of the price. You make more money assembling them yourself and then selling them already built though.l