Operating your own PC repair store in a successful manner requires careful planning--and some math skills--in order to establish a profitable pricing structure for services rendered. The labor costs you charge customers will represent the bulk of your income, so make sure you are charging enough for this revenue component to make a profit, and not so much that you price your company far beyond your competitors.
Instructions
1. Calculate your base cost-per-hour of your store operations. Take the number of days per month that your store is open for business. Multiply this figure by the number of hours your store is open every day. This number will be something like 172 hours for a full-time Monday through Friday store.
2. Take your average monthly expense budget and divide it by this monthly store hour figure. Example: your monthly expenses amount to $3,000 per month. Divided by 172 hours, the total is $17.44. This means that to simply pay your bills, your repair store must earn an average of $17.44 for every hour the store is open.
3. Consider this per-hour base number. The number of computers that come in the door for repairs will rarely equal one computer per hour. You must charge more than $17.44 per hour to cover the hours when no computers come in the door in order to meet your expense budget, and to earn any profit from your work.
4. Multiply your per-hour base number by a factor of 4, 5, 6 and 7. Examples: $17.44 x 4 = $ 69.76 per hour. $17.44 x 5 = $ 87.20 per hour. $17.44 x 6 =104.64. $17.44 x 7 = $122.08 per hour. Round these "target" figures up to the nearest dollar and enter them into a spreadsheet.
5. Check your competition's prices for labor. Have a friend call every repair shop in the area and find out what they charge for an hour of labor. Add these competitors' prices into your spreadsheet.
6. Sort the spreadsheet by "Amount Per Hour." Locate the middle range of prices and identify if any of your target prices fall into this range. For example: if the middle of the prices is $80 per hour, your "5" factor target falls at $ 88 per hour. If this becomes your labor charge per hour, you will be just above the middle of the "pack" and yet still below many of your competitors, a good marketing strategy.
7. Think about your proposed target charge per hour for labor in terms of real repair time. You must decide if you will charge strictly for every hour the computer is on the repair bench, or whether you will charge less for the second and third hours of work. With prices for new computers so low in 2010, it makes no sense for an owner to pay more than $300 for a computer to be repaired when they can buy a new one for not much more. If you charge $88 per hour for every hour it's on the bench, you will have exceeded the value of the computer within 4 hours of work.
8. If you plan to make "house calls," set those prices higher. Computers repaired in a shop are more cost-efficient since you can usually repair two or more computers at one time. House-call repairs gobble up tech time for just one computer.
9. Keep your charges flexible. Inform inquiring customers about your base rate, but assure them this cost is dependant on many factors.
10. Revise your pricing policies as time passes. Revisions every six months are not unreasonable. Avoid large, sudden increases for labor that may shock customers away from your business.
11. Defend your labor costs at all costs. Many consumers are under the mistaken impression that PC repair technicians do not deserve healthy labor charges. Remember that you are a professional with vast knowledge, rivaling any auto mechanic.
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