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cochranb
191
Asked
Small Device Repair Business Advice?
I'm interested in repairing small devices such as iPhones, Roombas, and Blackberries as a business. I think the market may exist in my locality (the Washington, DC area.) I have fairly good electronic lab facilities.
I don't have much experience doing this work, and I can use advice from others who have been there and done that concerning: how much inventory to keep, access to technical manuals, test equipment and tools that I might need, techniques for dealing with customers who are in a rush (especially with cell phones.)
I hold a day job that I depend on very much and I'm not quite willing to quit that for at least several years yet. I think my eyes are on getting needed experience and slowly building up business for my post-retirement years.
Advice, suggestions, books I ought to look at are all appreciated.
3
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Miroslav Djuric
40.4k
Answered
Check out this excellent thread on starting a repair service that was posted on our discussion board a while back: http://www.ifixit.com/Discuss/thread/229...
The discussion was geared a bit closer to what the original poster was asking, but I think the overall thread will give you some good insight on starting your own repair business, whether it's fixing Macs or Roombas.
What an interesting thread! I'll look it over a few more times to make sure I'm getting the most from it. I should have noted in my original post that I'm a very experienced computer repair technician, I run a small "moonlighting" business in it that is pretty interesting in many respects. I go to the customer's location rather than have the customer come to me. What I want to look into now is fixing small devices. I think the advice you are giving the young person is right on target too.
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markus weiher
21.4k
Answered
spare parts are always an issue - not only when repairing mac's
i was a few years in the cell phone repair business (right after i worked at a nokia shop) - sometimes the only ways to get enough parts is buying computers to repair them - if they are working - sell them to get more computers to repair them again or to use them for parts
a dead 50 bucks MacBook with a working lcd and lots of smd parts could be worth hundrets - if you know how to deal with smd parts
0
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Answered
Roombas! I took my original red Roomba apart and fixed it's issues with helplessly spinning in circles. I was an Electronics Tech in the Navy for 10 years so gutting this little guy wasn't that big of a deal. I thought that as iRobot wasn't that big on fixing these little guys I might give it a try.
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remacberli
7.3k
Answered