An important question or two.

[Guest zerodamage]

I have a couple of questions I would like to ask everyone.

 

1. Would you pay a monthly service to have someone keep your computer up to date with antivirus and spyware and windows updates?

 

2. How much would you pay for this service on a monthly basis?

 

 

3. How old are you or what age group?

 

20-26

27-36

37-46

47-56

57+

[Brillow_Head]

I'm 24, and I wouldn't pay for the service. I'm sure when I'm older and have suffered multiple virus/spyware problems that I will pay for a service. I'd pay $19 a month for COMPLETE protection, anything advertised as less...or if I find out it is less I would discontinue service.

[Acid-Flux]

1) me personally no. but if this is for some sort of buisness, I believe that there is a market for such a thing.

 

2) I wouldnt go over $100 a year, so <$10/month

 

3) 24

[Clueless]

1. I personally would'nt have a use for t, as I can do it myself.

 

2. Around 10 bucks a month sounds reasonable

 

3. 32

[Preacher]

1. no mainly because I'm able to do it myself

 

2. $10 monthly would be very reasonable via the web, but if you actually came to my place it could be marketed at $20 or maybe slightly more

 

3. 31

[Laz.e.rus]

1- No I wouldnt, but Im not of the group of people that may not even know how to use a forum.

 

2- 0/ but the other group? I can see 10

 

3- 33

[mrX]

The market here is really in people who don't understand computers fully. Which isn't really the crowd around GC. My mom, my aunts, my cousins, those are the groups I'd target, with the general consensus being they couldn't do this on their own.

 

Good idea tho ZD. Run with it!!!

[Guest zerodamage]

I am in communications with a new company with some amazing software for doing this kind of thing so I am trying to get a feel for this type of service and if I can get the expense at a reasonable level, i could provide a very unique service and even make some money from it.

[Clueless]

I could refer you to my boss, then I wouldnt have to go reformat his hard drive every few months from spyware infestation, lol.

[simkiller]

No

 

$10

 

27

Edited March 26, 2005 by simkiller

[Guest zerodamage]

I wanted you all to put yourselves in a noobs point of view. You know nothing about computers. You know of no such place like this. What do you pay and will you pay like 35 a month for such a service?

[Batman]

Your asking the wrong people zero, we are all computer experts.. And most guys here probably wouldnt want you seeing whats on there hd's.. LOL

 

Oh shoot im sorry though i forgot the questions..

1. I would not pay a monthly service, but lots of companys would.

2. I would have to say 5-10 per machine, but id offer discounts to 20 plus machines or more.

3. Im 32

 

The only problem im seeing is this: You maintain a companys integrety, your gonna have to be there during business hrs. So every new company you pick up your gonna have to hire a new person to sit there and monitor the company, and being a small business owner i use the $125,000/employee sales scale. For every $125,000 my company makes in sales invoices a year i can have an employee..

Edited March 27, 2005 by Batman

[Guest zerodamage]

This would not be a monitoring service. This would be either incident based, meaning a trouble ticket or phone call if a problem came about. And this would also be a regular checkup scheduled at a particular time to have windows up to date, spyware removed, etc etc.

[simkiller]

If thats strictly what you will be offering, then I think 35 a month is too pricey. But I guess that all depends how it's maketed. I bet you could scare people to pay 100 bucks a month if you tell them you're the only thing standing between them and millions of ruthless E-thugs!

[Guest zerodamage]

Well such a service costs a lot typically. I know of another who does this on a per incident basis and it is over a 100 per incident.

[simkiller]

I'm definitely in the wrong business then.

[Guest zerodamage]

Well I am looking into doing something similar but at a much smaller rate. I am thinking between 35 and 50 per incident. Working on my plan now and taking everything into consideration before I make such a move. It would put me in direct conflict with my current employer so if this panned out, I would be completely self employed. That is my goal.

[Clueless]

i could see such a charge if there is an incident, but not for a routine service, especailly considering the fact that companies like AOL are marketing their product claiming to have all the spyware in check, they would not feel the need for such a service. Perhaps you might focus on the recovery aspect for when they have problems.

 

The other issue I can see happening is that if you try to charge someone a fee to remove spyware that has caused them a problem, and youre charging them monthly, alot of people are gonna be like, hey, I pay you so this doesnt happen, it's on you. They may treat it like a warranty situation.

[appalachian_fox]

From a n00b point of view...It's a nice service, but can individuals justify the cost of on-site service? There's lots of costs involved in that, not the least of which is rolling a vehicle in the days of increasing gas prices. I'd say in small numbers, yes, because of the success of services like Geek Squad and such...But they often have lots of other things going for them, like in the case of Geek Squad a whole store that sells the products they install and the massive marketing that comes along with it. Plus, they're often an incident-based service, with no monthly maintenance costs (though a quick google will show some small services trying this model). I think in a small area, on an individual basis, with a monthly subscription model you'd have a hard time justifying staying in business and keeping the costs in-line with the revenue.

 

However, there's another revenue source: Small businesses, especially upstarts. You could offer a whole package, too, where you can do everything from getting the computers (new, additional, upgrading outdated machines) through setting them up, networking them, guaranteeing a certain amount of uptime for certain applications and offering the maintenance package you proposed earlier. This would have a monthly maintenance tag that secures certain services and a certain amount of troubleshooting, but allows for a scalable incident-based service for certain other types of incidents. And, that can generate a large revenue stream.

 

However, several things to be careful of: (1) Don't promise uptime of things you aren't intimately familiar with. If they have vendor-specific systems for, say, their restaurant, I wouldn't guarantee anything. Specific software running across a network you install? Guarantee their network. Common software you should be familiar with? If you can make the guarantee, great. Just be careful. (2) Don't charge per incident things that should be covered in the monthly contract. If you promise to update virus databases, spyware definitions, etc. at a certain time, great, certain things you can charge per incidence...But that should be clear. Otherwise, you come in, give them an invoice for things they thought should have been covered and they'll never call you back. (3) On that note, make it crystal clear that you are what the business calls a Value-Added Reseller (VAR) for antivirus / spyware / etc. products. You don't have to use that terminology, necessarily, but the distinction is you maintain that software, you dont' write it, so you cannot protect them against viruses that beat definitions, new spyware and the like, and you cannot protect them during the lag time between new definitions and patching. Honestly, most people are very understanding, especially after you ask them how long it would take them to realize there's an update and actually get the patch themselves...If they go home and look at their personal computers, odds are the benefits of your service will be crystal clear when they see the Windows updates as yet uninstalled.

 

Good luck, this is a hard market segment to get a sustainable business model up in but the times are a changin' and there have been some successes in parallel markets that indicate you could stand a good chance if you can get a decent customer base. Just make sure from the start that you dont' undersell yourself or your business life will be miserable.

[auggybendoggy]

zero,

 

I am now servicing comps and I just did a job for about 100 dollars to install firewall and update all virus. Too bad she was already infected with about 7 viruses and about 4 trojans.

 

so we formatted and reinstalled costed her about 400 overall.

 

its a HUGE business since most people dont want to learn it.

 

Aug

[simkiller]

Seems to me the computer repairman is a risky business to get into. PCs are becoming so inexpensive now a days you could grab a Best Buy ad and puchase a brand spanking new one for 400 bucks. You don't find as many appliance repairmen as you did back in the day since prices of the items dropped.

 

I'm probably wrong on the above Zero so just ignore me. Just writing what came to mind.

Edited March 29, 2005 by simkiller

[appalachian_fox]

It's come to my attention that there's a student one of my bosses knows around here who gets all of his spending money for a semester installing broadband connections for other students at the start of each semester, most being the fall semester. He doesn't pay for his college this way, but in Georgia it's cheap and in many cases tuition is free, so he's got a good racket. And that's for a month or two of work just setting up networks.

 

Several years ago (dang near 10 now, actually...wow) I worked for a guy who sold computers and did computer service. He had several small business contracts which was his meat and potatoes, but he did individual stuff, too. His service calls didn't net him a lot of money after paying me to roll (my hourly pay rate was jacked up to cover off-site work and car expenses) but he tacked that on to whatever else he sold them and that's where he made more money. If you can get into vendorship for some networking products you can make some back-end money on equipment markup...Why deal with other stores and let them take that cash out of your pocket? I don't know what it takes to be a vendor these days, but I'd encourage you to look into it, especially if you're looking at network setup / upgrading as well. Also, it would benefit you to look into becoming a software vendor for the stuff you want to support...Again, make your sales money as well.

[dwEEziL]

Personally No. But I have also personally set up several people with Spybot/Ad-Aware/SpywareBlaster and walked them through how to use it so I do believe there is a decent market here.

 

$10-20 a month depending on package features

 

32

[NOFX]

zero,

 

I am now servicing comps and I just did a job for about 100 dollars to install firewall and update all virus.  Too bad she was already infected with about 7 viruses and about 4 trojans.

 

so we formatted and reinstalled costed her about 400 overall.

 

its a HUGE business since most people dont want to learn it.

 

Aug

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Wow are you serious? Some lady paid you 400 dollars to do the same thing she could do with her XP disc that came with the machine??? I can't believe the lazyness in some people.

[appalachian_fox]

NoFX, you're making the assumption that the lady has the required knowledge of what's on the CD and how to boot from CD, in addition to the confidence in her ability to perform the operations. Most Joe Schmoe computer users don't know what the term reformat refers to, much less how to do it, regardless of how simple it seems to even the most basic hobbyist. Sure, part of it may be laziness in some people...But some people just don't know. As far as computer repair go, they are functionally ignorant...And as I've personally seen around the university, these can be very bright, intelligent individuals. Just functionally ignorant around computer maintenance issues.