Going to start selling custom PC

[alan888]

I'm going to start selling custom built PC's locally around my area. It is very competitive however I want to make this work, has anyone got any advice on starting out?

Also does anyone have any good contacts for distributors for PC components?

Any help is much appreciated

 

[AlphOmega]

try micro p http://www.micro-p.com/index.htm I used to work for them when they had an office in romsey. They supply loads of people including dabs.com. However, you have to buy quite a bit to get a good price or it would be cheaper to get your products from dabs.com!

They used to have exclusive contracts with hardware manufatcures, they were the sole distributor for gainward, mitsumi, pny, fujitsu siemnes and many others for the uk.

 

[alan888]

Thank you Alpha i will take a look at them.

 

[KM-Tiger]

Are you targeting domestic customers or businesses?

Seems to me the gap between what is required for a business PC and what is desirable in a home PC is getting wider and wider.

I always buy custom PC's, now from our local builder (I don't mean Estwig!). I like being able to talk directly to the person doing the build to get the spec exactly right.

 

[estwig]

I had a flash of inspiration then, a nice little sideline.

Pickhill Computers, a free cup of tea with every purchase!!

 

[alan888]

Well i really want to target both sides but want to focus on the business end more.

 

[KM-Tiger]

I had a flash of inspiration then, a nice little sideline.

Go for it, but remember you already have competition.

I use these people on the Medway City Estate:-

http://www.instantpc.co.uk/

 

[UK-Networks]

If you want to do the business end then you have to think about providing hardware/next day replacement.

I'd say get a couple of standard barebones business machines (one for WinXP, and one for Win VISTA).

You can buy OEM software to sell with the PC in 3 packs from Ebuyer (http://www.ebuyer.co.uk), I doubt you will have the start up funds to buy in 30packs... If you do talk to Ingram Micro.

Rgds,
Chris

 

[asonda]

I'm doing this particular thing down in cornwall.

Computers are a subject businesses don't really want to get into. I look after Small to Medium businesses computer networks.

The Networks I look after, it's fine selling them new PC's that I've built and spec'd for them.

Business who have no knowledge and no support will almost definately buy Dell, who claim to Tailor computers (from my findings in cornwall).

Some prefer mainstream companies and some prefer the nice chap building cheap PC's. There is usually a large gap/ a correlation between the different types of businesses.

Computers are hard to get into, Price, Speed, How well you present yourself and how you can communicate are things you NEED to make anything successful. Don't however take it for granted that if your cheaper you'll get the deal, people who can spend big bucks, will, to get a highstreet name!

Just my two cents!

 

[KM-Tiger]

Business who have no knowledge and no support will almost definately buy Dell

Or worse, PC World!

There is a strange mindset at work. I know many otherwise hard-nosed business types who suddenly lose all business judgement when it comes to IT, and think they must have something "proper", like M$, and "well-known" like Dell, irrespective of any value analysis.

As asonda says maybe it's networking you should sell, with the PC sales following from that. Good networking you cannot get from Dell.

 

[estwig]

Go for it, but remember you already have competition.

I use these people on the Medway City Estate:-

http://www.instantpc.co.uk/

They look good KM, have bookmarked 'em. Suppose starting my own custom PC business is a bit of a stretch, unless I could get the labourer to knock them up, with a 5lb club hammer and a Kango...........in his tea break

 

[asonda]

Yep it's definately hard work.

Where abouts are you situated, what city, town?

Support is where you can make the serious money. If you can build pc's then I assume you could easily spec up a monster machine, or repair an old ladies virus ridden computer.

Have a look at what competitors are around you. Is there anybody that sells JUST high powered monster machines?? perhaps thats an Idea you could take. (you'll find that now Computers are becoming the IN thing, having a machine better than your mates is increasingly the scene, if you can supply these people with TOP Spec machines and high profit margin per PC your sorted)

If you have got people skills then it wouldn't be that difficult to offer cheap services for computers in homes, you'll find that the general consumer will want cheap, friendly services i.e virus removal, upgrades, pc health check.

Start with the general home user as a safe base to work up from.

Remember with networking, you have a HUGE responsibility, your on 24/7 call out. God forbid if anything goes wrong and you lose your client thousands of pounds worth of business because you messed something up on your clients network... you'll end up, well.. finished.

 

[alan888]

Well in bedfordshire and ingram micro is only about 10 miles away which is handy i guess. I will have to start off very small - maybe help out very small business's and build for for the public locally. Any advice on marketing?

 

[confused]

Ok, heres a bit of input, hopefully of some use.

consider these points:
Almost anyone can build a pc these days (thats not to say they will do it as well as it can be done, and it is also not to say they will ocrrectly install the best drivers etc- xp/vista are good at installing microsoft drivers)
A "high spec" (wich means loads of high numbers that actually mean nothing to a non technical person but sound good) machine can be had for a few hundred quid off the shelf.
An el cheapo 17" tft can be had for just under £100
XP can be had for about £70 ish or so now, as can vista (ok give or take a bit)
A cheapo pc case can be had for £25 with an equally cheapo PSU
so £195 so far
A cheapo board with onboard everything, about £35 (PLEASE dont go even cheaper and get a jetway or pc chips board, all they are good for is the bin)
CPU - celeron/sempron 3000 about £35 - the Ladas of CPU's
HDD 200 gig about £55 ish
writer, about £25
cheapo kb/mouse £10
cheapo speakers £6 if the monitor doesnt have them
floppy drive £5 (I ALWAYS fit them)
thats about another £100 which brings the total to about £300
Thats going off approximate decent retail prices off the top of my head, could be a few £ either way on each item.
so £300, then theres your time for building it, installing windows, drivers etc.
So that puts the selling price at about £400 to make it even worthwile thinking about it. Then if you are posting it theres postage, if you are delivering then there is your fuel and time, which of course you may offset with a setup charge.

You will have noticed that I use the word "cheapo" a lot, personally I'd either do it properly or not at all, unless I'm 10000% sure that all the user wants is basic pc use then I simply wont go there. I lost out on a tender recently for a small business (I actually do regular work for their other company and thought I had it in the bag) They wanted 30 vista premium (ok he'd been reading mags lol) ready pc's, server, comms, etc. Anyways I quoted for Decent base units, 939 X2's, decent vga cards etc, gig ram etc, . I didnt get it, another company did, they now have 30 celeron D's with 256 ram and onboard everything, of course they are FAST now! well they will be with nothing installed lol, when they come to upgrade to vista later this year then the fun will start. My point is, COMEBACK....

So you build a cheap pc, fine no probs, "its only for the kids" (Forgot to put antivirus on my list above) Then they come to do their homework, a typical phone convo might go like this:

Them: "That pc you sold me doesnt have windows"
You : "????"
Them: "It has no microsoft windows"
You: "Theres a problem with the pc?"
Them "Yes, theres no word and stuff"
You: "Microsoft office XP currently retails at about £300, but I can get it for about £200, you might even qualify for the student/teacher license thats even cheaper"
Them "I just spent £400 on a pc and theres no way I'm paying that for something that should have been on anyway"
..... and so on

Then when you sort that out:

Them:"Just bought HALO 5 and Halflife 4 for the pc but its really so jerky its unplayable"
You :[insert your thoughts here] "But you wanted a basic pc"
Them:"Yeah but I want it to be able to do simple stuff like play games"

I think you see my point. As you may have gathered, I am somewhat reluctant to build basic pc's. If someone wants a machine for a particular job, such as video editing then I'l be only too happy to do one, but again it wont be cheap because A I want a machine that will do the job, and B Whilst I Know that just because a celeron D cpu has "More mega hurts" than a code duo 6800 doesnt mean they will know the difference between a £30 CPU and a £600 cpu that has "Less Mega hurts".

Not a lot of positives there I'm afraid, but at least my input might give you some things to consider, dont think short term, dont do cheap crap for a few £ profit, do it properly please ! (Not implying you wouldnt of course!!)


Regards

 

[richard83]

Have a look at VIP Computers. When I worked for a computer shop, that's where we used to buy from. I think the URL is www .vip-computers.c o.u k (maybe without the - !).

Rich.
Entrepreneur in the making!

 

[CG Effect]

It's a competative business all computer users believe in is big brand names and hight Ghz numbers. They buy a 3ghz cpu with 4k cache memory and believe it will run anything because its a good make. Just be sure you keep business customers and gamers seperate and inform them of you get what you pay for. So many friends tell me instead of building my rendering and gameing computer I should of got that Dell one for £400 its the same Mhz. It cost me £300 just for the processors on their own with no coolers and they were at a good price.

 

[JustOneUK]

a typical phone convo might go like this:

Them: "That pc you sold me doesnt have windows"
You : "????"
Them: "It has no microsoft windows"
You: "Theres a problem with the pc?"
Them "Yes, theres no word and stuff"
You: "Microsoft office XP currently retails at about £300, but I can get it for about £200, you might even qualify for the student/teacher license thats even cheaper"
Them "I just spent £400 on a pc and theres no way I'm paying that for something that should have been on anyway"
..... and so on

Then when you sort that out:

Them:"Just bought HALO 5 and Halflife 4 for the pc but its really so jerky its unplayable"
You :[insert your thoughts here] "But you wanted a basic pc"
Them:"Yeah but I want it to be able to do simple stuff like play games"

I think you see my point.

LMAO!!!! Hilarious one Confused! That rings some bells, specifically for some of my friends trying to run games on their 8 year old machines.

I went to help a friend the other day to set up a new machine and I asked him where he got it from,

he replied "out of the cupboard"

Laugh? I nearly died.

James.

 

[Deleted member 9840]

Hello and good luck.
Can i recommend, from what i've been told by people in the know.........

www.scan.co.uk

I'm not clued up myself, but a few of my mates find their service and prices very good.
oh...... and i installed their air conditioning years and years ago...

cheers

steve

 

[alan888]

Lol confused that was some funny conversations you wrote there! but thanks for the advice

Yeah i used scan before however they charge extremley high delivery charges for example if you want to but a usb cable its about 78p inc vat + £8 delivery .......... mmmm

 

[theguvnor]

My mate has recently shut down his business, started in 2002, went great guns building pc's for the local populace. Basicly what has killed it for him is the move to cheap laptops and the likes of dell. He simply can't make the money any more. He is going back to contracting (he used to work for deutche bank i.t support) to pay the bills.

 

[dagr]

I echo a lot of what's been said above. As a customer, it's difficult to compare like for like. For example, DELL have extortionate delivery charges, while a chain here in France (PC City) have eye-catching billboard ads with what looks like great prices (until you realise the price doesn't include Windows, monitor, keyboard, etc.).

I would play the local, quality, service card and build up slowly. Then, once you're up and running, work on both the supply chain (sourcing parts direct from Taiwan/China) and building up brand/company recongition. And as per my first paragraph here, customer education / honesty is a good way to build up a client base. Maybe start with a series of fact sheets for the non-techy customers on what's in a PC and what's important. You may also want to put out different level of "service contract" offers straight away, not just to get extra income, but to show customers what's involved (anti-virus, upgrades, direct replacement, "anything wrong, we'll fix it", etc.) and help them understand what they are getting.