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You can establish a business to teach mature people about computers - without any computer knowledge! We know it sounds a bit far-fetched, but you can actually create a business that cashes in on the booming 50+ market now using computers, without actually knowing much about computers yourself. This feature article explains how to go about it.
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People of our age have not grown up with computers and are generally less ‘tech-savvy’ than our children and grandchildren. At the same time we are reluctant to admit to this lack of expertise and certainly have no desire to display our ignorance to people we don’t trust. Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, we are more likely to trust people of our own age over these matters in the belief that we are not going to be blinded by science or made to look stupid by some young whizz kid.
We might also be reluctant to seek advice from our own family for similar reasons, but also because it’s a bit too close to home (literally) and we are left with no-one to turn to if we don’t quite ‘get it’ the first time.
So, if someone of our own generation were to offer a reasonably priced service for computer support and assistance, we would be far more likely to use them than risk going into the local computer shop for advice from a young geek. There’s a fantastic opportunity here to start a Computer Doctor business providing support by ‘phone or with home visits. Such a business might offer various different services including computer set-up; software installation; home networking; virus protection; upgrades; data recovery; service and repair and even one-on-one training.
Did you know that our age group, the over 50s, are the fastest growing sector in Personal Computer (PC) sales and represent something like 23% of the internet users in the UK? That’s getting on for 4 million people. That’s a massive potential client base with a limited knowledge about the modern computer age. It’s a market that you can tap into and you don’t need an office and, here’s the really good bit, you don’t need a great deal of computer knowledge or experience! So how is this possible?
Well, for starters, you don’t need an office because you can easily run this business from home. The Retirement Revenue website is all about home-based businesses and this is a typical example. You have to be well organised and have a good grasp of what modern managers refer to as Client Relationship Management – what that means in this instance is that you have to have a good telephone manner. OK, so that’s fine and expected, but what about the lack of computer knowledge? You obviously have some knowledge of computers or you wouldn't be reading this article, but perhaps not enough to feel confident about teaching others. This sounds like a real problem and a barrier to establishing this business.
It would be if you were going to try and do the work yourself, but you’re not. You’re going to use IT students. They have the know-how; they’re cheap and they can work the hours that you need them – day and night. You don’t have to employ them on a full-time basis, they will work as and when needed as a self-employed freelancer.
To find your staff you will need to contact your local university or college and find out what they are teaching in relation to computers. You are going to need people (men and women) who have skills in both computer software and hardware.
The best way to make contact with suitable students is to put notices or cards up on the student notice board or perhaps place an advertisement in the student newspaper or magazine. You might also be able to get a mention on their website. You could also place cards in shop windows whiich local college students are known to frequent.
It will be essential to interview your applicants to make sure that they actually know what they’re talking about in terms of their computer skills, but also in terms of their ability to deal with the type of customer that you’re targeting. If they don’t have the patience to cope with the more mature person they will damage your business reputation, regardless of how clever they might be with electronics.
As far as payment goes, they will work on a fee per job arrangement based on the time they spend with the customer. It’s a good idea to create a job sheet with the name, address and contact details of the customer along with brief details of the problem. You might want to include space to put the arrival and departure time that would be signed off by the customer so that you have a record. You should sometimes do a spot check by phoning the customer to make sure that they are satisfied with the work and that the time stated on the job sheet was correct. You should aim to pay the student about 1/3 of the amount you charge your customers for the first hour of any visit. So if your customer charge was £30 an hour, then your student would get £10. This should then give you a third for your overheads and a third for your profit.
It is usual to charge the first hour as a minimum even if the job only takes 20 minutes. After the first hour the rate might change to 30 minute units, but at a rate a little more than half the hourly rate so as to discourage customers from chatting to your staff! If you charge £30 for the first hour, charge £17.50 for each 30 minute unit thereafter.
If you are offering email or telephone support, you would be more likely to charge on a subscription basis for this element of your service and you might offer a gold, silver and bronze service at differing rates based on a total number of calls in any one period of 6 months or a year.
Charges will vary from one region to another, so rates in London are likely to be significantly higher than in more rural areas. A little local research will quickly give you an idea of what the market will stand. Check out the charges for PC support from local computer shops and aim to undercut them. After all, you don’t have their overheads.
Once you have become established and have a loyal customer base who trust you, you can expand your business by offering additional services or products. This might include software updates, upgrades to equipment and perhaps computer books and further training.
Your customer base will expand by word of mouth, but in the initial stages you might consider advertising in the local paper; leaflet drops in areas favoured by more mature people with some degree of affluence; Google advertising nowadays can be targeted at specific geographical areas, so that’s certainly worth looking into. You can have a look at Google Local Advertising here, or type this address into your internet browser http://www.googlelocaladvertising.co.uk.
As your business expands you might also consider giving lectures or seminars for your target audience. If you don’t fancy giving a seminar yourself, you might persuade one of the university lecturers to do the job.
So there you have it. This is one of those business opportunities that really suits our age group, where organisational ability and years of experience in the workplace are far more important than specific technical skills.