Mobile phone repair training
- Thread starter Bennysavo
- Start date
S
SoleTraderHub
Youtube is your friend. There is a walkthrough / tutorial / tear down for virtually every phone out there.
Must admit, I have been involved in a business recently that does just this and to be perfectly honest, there is little to no money to be made if oyu want to providing a decent service.
Having said that, if you are happy to take a chance on cheap Chinese components (screens in particular) and can get the actual replacement of such a screen down to a knack, you may be able to make a bit here and there, but you certainly wont be able to retire early on it.
Take iPhone 6 screens for example. You can source a cheap Chinese screen for less than £20, but to be competitive you need to be able to supply and fit for £35 or less (a local "shop" supplies and fits for this amount). If you are good, you could do the repair in 15 mins, so £15 for 15 mins work is not to be sniffed at. Well it would't be if you could guarantee 4 repairs like that an hour and unless you have a shop, or can reside in one, have decent foot fall and know that there are no other competitors around you doing the same, then you might be able to cover your costs and have enough for a beer or two on Friday. If you are looking at doing this outside of a retail outlet, my advice is to forget it as you simply wont be able to make the money. There are many cheap while you wait services available in almost every high street now, so you would have to be offering something quite exceptional to even get potential customers to even consider you.
The only real way of making money in this field (seeing as the pop up shops are undercutting each other in a race to the bottom) is to provide a more upmarket service only supplying OEM quality parts. You then market the business as a elite service and play on the quality of the components you are using, and maybe offering a longer warranty to offset the higher prices.
Its a lot of effort for very little return, unless of course you are in the only part of the world where this market has not already been saturated.
Must admit, I have been involved in a business recently that does just this and to be perfectly honest, there is little to no money to be made if oyu want to providing a decent service.
Having said that, if you are happy to take a chance on cheap Chinese components (screens in particular) and can get the actual replacement of such a screen down to a knack, you may be able to make a bit here and there, but you certainly wont be able to retire early on it.
Take iPhone 6 screens for example. You can source a cheap Chinese screen for less than £20, but to be competitive you need to be able to supply and fit for £35 or less (a local "shop" supplies and fits for this amount). If you are good, you could do the repair in 15 mins, so £15 for 15 mins work is not to be sniffed at. Well it would't be if you could guarantee 4 repairs like that an hour and unless you have a shop, or can reside in one, have decent foot fall and know that there are no other competitors around you doing the same, then you might be able to cover your costs and have enough for a beer or two on Friday. If you are looking at doing this outside of a retail outlet, my advice is to forget it as you simply wont be able to make the money. There are many cheap while you wait services available in almost every high street now, so you would have to be offering something quite exceptional to even get potential customers to even consider you.
The only real way of making money in this field (seeing as the pop up shops are undercutting each other in a race to the bottom) is to provide a more upmarket service only supplying OEM quality parts. You then market the business as a elite service and play on the quality of the components you are using, and maybe offering a longer warranty to offset the higher prices.
Its a lot of effort for very little return, unless of course you are in the only part of the world where this market has not already been saturated.
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SoleTraderHubs post is bang on.
I used to have a phone repair business and it was quickly becoming a race to the bottom when I gave it up, and there isn't really a great deal of money to be made, so don't expect to get rich from it!
Everyone (on Facebook at least) wants to know 'Where is the cheapest place to get my phone screen repaired' and people are often to do it for very little.
Where I did make a bit of money was having my own website - I ranked very highly on Google and I offered a service where I would go to people's houses. you can charge quite a premium for this, and subsequently use higher quality parts which are less likely to fail - the cheap Chinese screens are awful and have a high failure rate, often they are faulty on arrival.
I live in a fairly rural, fairly wealthy county and visited some very nice homes where the customer was more than happy to pay for quality parts and to have it done within 30 minutes in their home.
As for training, I learnt everything on YouTube and ifixit, so use these as guides. And definitely get insurance.
I used to have a phone repair business and it was quickly becoming a race to the bottom when I gave it up, and there isn't really a great deal of money to be made, so don't expect to get rich from it!
Everyone (on Facebook at least) wants to know 'Where is the cheapest place to get my phone screen repaired' and people are often to do it for very little.
Where I did make a bit of money was having my own website - I ranked very highly on Google and I offered a service where I would go to people's houses. you can charge quite a premium for this, and subsequently use higher quality parts which are less likely to fail - the cheap Chinese screens are awful and have a high failure rate, often they are faulty on arrival.
I live in a fairly rural, fairly wealthy county and visited some very nice homes where the customer was more than happy to pay for quality parts and to have it done within 30 minutes in their home.
As for training, I learnt everything on YouTube and ifixit, so use these as guides. And definitely get insurance.
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0
Plenty of training available, not all is good, check out people carefully, google is your friend.
I self taught myself many years ago, a friend paid for an employee to become top qualified with various companies, the employee promptly set up on his own. You could work at a repair company to gain experience, but as mentioned the rates have plummeted. Many guess at repairs, many clients expect not to pay for your time unless a budget repair works.
Don't expect to become wealthy from it, unlocking and flashing the phones to better specs, removing security locks or recovering contacts make much more money IMO.
I self taught myself many years ago, a friend paid for an employee to become top qualified with various companies, the employee promptly set up on his own. You could work at a repair company to gain experience, but as mentioned the rates have plummeted. Many guess at repairs, many clients expect not to pay for your time unless a budget repair works.
Don't expect to become wealthy from it, unlocking and flashing the phones to better specs, removing security locks or recovering contacts make much more money IMO.
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T
TechCartel
I have read a lot of comments here saying that mobile phone repairs don't involve a lot of money!
We are distributors for the LCD's used in the repairs and I can tell you now some of our clients are on over 300% ROI on product mark up, and the only other expenses are their salary and potentially site rent. Now ROI does not mean a thing unless you know what money they are turning over, we have some customers spending upwards of 5k a month with small shops in rural areas where there is little competition. There are also shops spending in excess of 20k a month in suburban and metropolitan areas, these shops do usually have a couple of employee's although its entirely possible to be run as a one man band.
Your reputation means everything, how you handle your customers and their devices. Your turnaround time and most importantly the product you are using.
As for the training there is no replacement for a certificate from a genuine repair school, or a form of electronic engineering qualification.
We are distributors for the LCD's used in the repairs and I can tell you now some of our clients are on over 300% ROI on product mark up, and the only other expenses are their salary and potentially site rent. Now ROI does not mean a thing unless you know what money they are turning over, we have some customers spending upwards of 5k a month with small shops in rural areas where there is little competition. There are also shops spending in excess of 20k a month in suburban and metropolitan areas, these shops do usually have a couple of employee's although its entirely possible to be run as a one man band.
Your reputation means everything, how you handle your customers and their devices. Your turnaround time and most importantly the product you are using.
As for the training there is no replacement for a certificate from a genuine repair school, or a form of electronic engineering qualification.
Upvote
0
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