Pls teach me how to grow my new small business.

Question:
How can my repair shop do better?

Recently, gotten involved in the business of repairing Apple products, computers, iPhones and such.

I just invested and have a large piece of a business. I have no clue how to fix phones and computers. My partner is responsible for that. I just put out the upfront funds.

Very small, no staff, just my partner and me. I love to traveling to Indonesia and have a trustworthy friend here so thought ok, I'll help him get his business started.

We rented out a small office inside a busy mall in an upper middle class area. Been open for a few months. In the red for first 3months but last few months have been breaking even or showed a small profit.

What I observed so far:
-walkins are few. Avg about 2-5 a day
-signage is really important. So many people walk by and remember our little store
-word of mouth is everything. 75% of my business are referrals
-printed out and distributed 10k fliers but almost nothing came out of it
-competition in the area is almost zero. Closest iPhone repair store is almost 40min drive away
-I copied the poker rakeback affiliate way of giving a small financial benefit to whoever sends me customers. Usually give them 10% of what I bill the customer
-accessories sales are way lower than expectations
-fixing computers is way juicier than doing cell phone repairs

What else can I do to generate more business?
The profit margin is huge in this industry. We sell a repair service and have connections to purchase inventory at cost.

All that said, I need more customers. How can I get them?

Providing good and quality service.

those fliers you distributed need time to work, advertising and marketing are long term efforts. clairaross already said it, do good work and word of mouth will bring more customers.

Do you have store signage that is easy to see? Portable street signage in front of your store and on street corners if applicable?
Who did you send them to? When did you send them? What day did they arrive in mailboxes/on doors? What words did you use to tell them to come to your store?
Give gift cards depending on your margins. Assuming you're in the US you can deduct gifts up to $25 for customers.

Why? Do your customers not know you sell accessories? Are you not carrying what they want at a price they are willing to pay? When you get them in the store are you telling them to buy your accessories?


Tell them you exist, give them what they want at a price they'll pay and give them a reason to recommend you to friends.

How big is your city? Or, if you can deduce it, approximately how many Apple products are there in your city? Is there an Apple store in it, or nearby, that people are going to instead?

How many people in your area have smart phones? About how many would you estimate have smart phones with cracked screens?

Basically, you need to figure out if it's an issue of your addressable market (people within 20 minutes, which is halfway from the other guy, who have broken devices you are capable of fixing) or if it's an issue of awareness. Margin % doesn't mean much if there aren't enough customers.

You need to figure out your average ticket, the margin on it, and your costs. Back in to how many repairs you need to do in a month to make a good profit and see if there are enough people nearby to make that work.

I could give you fantastic advice to make a profitable iPhone/iPad repair franchise but I'd only do it over PM. A friend got into the business a couple of years ago and just opened his fifth store. But I take it you're in Indonesia, which is worlds apart from the professional middle class you'd service in a Western country, so if that's the case it's not really applicable.

Look at the competitors and figure out what they are doing.

Take a drive to the competitor 40 min away and start figuring it out.

Do not try to pave your own way and reinvent the wheel. Someone already figured it out. Copy them.

You don't really say where you are, but it is presumed you are in Indonesia which is a random market for most people here to be able to understand or relate with, but some of the red flags of your business are the following:

This all leads me to believe:

You are wasting your money on a storefront.

Your advertising dollars/energy is targeted wrong.

There is little to no need for services in your area.


3 months is hardly a barometer for trends, but with the information you provided this is what your results tell us.

There is little market, otherwise there would be a lot more people already doing it.

If word of mouth is your best avenue, you need to re-direct your marketing to concentrate solely on this.

A few small kiosk locations + online ship and send back or drop off and deliver business is much more logistical and cost efficient perhaps.

All that being said......its only been 3 months.

If there isnt local competition, try to buy broken iphones locally [craigslist, or whatever the local equivalent is for you] and then selling them online. Do this to keep your partner busy and to generate extra cash. I would also try advertising on Craigslist or the local equivalent.

That was one of the main reasons I chose this location. My store is in the heart of a trendy area with lots of restaurants, shops, Starbucks, offices around. Very easy to see, I invested in a large simple sign and also had some large windows covered with decals of my store name.

Thank goodness for signage in some way, without that I don't think we would've received so many calls. Many will walk by, eating at a restaurant, see my store number and jot it down.

Nothing too creative, normal standard fliers. I did use more expensive glossy paper than most. I distributed them mostly in my local area. Apartment buildings, inserts with newspapers, walked a few hours and placed some on windshields, bribed a few security guards and placed some inside condo, apartment mailboxes.

Not sure of the answer, but nowadays iphone accessories are EVERYWHERE. Many already have what they need. My store is focused on repairs only, merchandise sales are just a bonus if we do move some product.

Yes, certainly. At the moment, business is picking up but still very far from reaching its potential. I'm actually surprised at how many small transactions we do. Many come in for stuff that they can easily do at home, like restore and backup. Those are easy jobs with enormous profit margins, but volume is key with small transactions like these.

That'd be great, I will send you a PM.

I did that even before we opened up shop. Weird but I truly believe that we are doing things better, I'm not sure internally what the more experienced shops are doing but our priority is customer service at the moment. We are even doing free deliveries and pick ups, no others are doing that to my knowledge.

Must get better at observing and stealing the success formulas of others, as of now, I still do not see it that clear.

I honestly thought the same before deciding to rent shop space, I have now changed my mind as having a nice physical location gives customers confidence in a legitimate business and walk ins are increasing (still not as many as I'd like)
How should I be doing it? I have not spent any money on marketing for Nov and Dec 2012.

Not sure if I can agree, no other shops I think is due to the fact that the area is upper middle class and rent is expensive. That might be a reason there are no other Apple repair shops in my area.

True, any suggestions on how to set up a good marketing strategy for this?

Yes, at the start this was one of my big aspirations. Problem is, I havent been able to find more broken iphones people want to sell. I must search harder. Where online can I sell them? Ebay and where else?

First week of January has been good, not great but satisfactory I suppose. With this pace, rent for the month should be covered in ten days of business. I rented out next door's window so I can place more signage, that should generate more calls and exposure. Profit will be around the corner, just doubting whether it'll be worth it for such a small number.

I don't really agree with PFUNK, a shop front in a mall is a good idea for a lot of reasons provided rent isn't killing you.

Look, you have an unusual business. You have to start thinking a bit more logically about this. Let me walk you through what happens:

1. Someone in the local area drops their iPhone and the screen shatters.
2. This person wants to get it fixed. What do they do then? Do they:

- Google "iPhone repair Jakarta"?
- Look up local business directory (printed or online)?
- Ask a friend?
- Return their phone to the shop they bought it at?
- Ask an phone or accessories store?
- Remember your storefront or flyer?

I think you'll find that the last is a tiny fraction of all broken phones in your local area.

People who just broke their iPhone have a pair of eyeballs and a search strategy. You need to figure out the typical strategy, and get your name wherever those eyeballs start looking.

In the West this means making a professional looking website, and mainly SEOing and adwording for example "iphone repair San diego", as well as getting the local non-iPhone repairing phone and computer shops to send you business from their walkins. I have no idea what the deal would be in Indonesia. You need to find out this information by talking to lots of people if you want to target your marketing effort effectively.

I haven't spent much time in Indonesia but it's pretty densely populated. A billboard in a high traffic area like a major road might be a very effective option. In fact just about any billboard should be superior to renting the signage in the shop next door. Given the low percentage of the population that are your customers and their random distribution, you need much broader advertising traffic than leaflet drops or shop signage will give you.

Advertise on facebook, 99% of Indonesians who have an iPhone use facebook.. and they will probably be rushing to post something like "****, just broke my iphone.. where can I fix it?".

Obviously only if you can restrict showing the ads to people in your area though.

Rent is actually very reasonable. I asked around and the consensus was purchasing broken iphones, fixing them and reselling them actually is not that great. Most iphones once repaired still are not so reliable.

For the time being, I will still focus on doing repairs only. Yesterday, had 3 walkins with water damage on their macs. The task was too difficult so we brought the 3 macs 2hrs away and got another kid to fix it. Charged 40% mark up on the job so that made it profitable. Normally, I turn away jobs that are too difficult to do but this one was worth it as it were 3 machines from referrals.

The plan is to advertise more on local newspapers, the location is in an area where people have money and are willing to spend. Most know that they can drive out further to get better deals but still choose my shop as it's beautifully decorated and very legit, also being able to speak fluent English with an American accent is a bonus as well.

With everything sounding positive, we are no where near our potential. We can handle wayyyyy more orders.

What's 'upper middle class' by Indonesian standards?

Do you do Apple only?

I found this book to be helpful Become a Millionaire in 3 Yeasr: Make Money Young and Enjoy it

Nothing ground breaking, but it has some great insight on starting a business and tips on what you should be doing.

You should never need people to jot your number down. Put out a stand with fliers at the store entrance with your number and pricing info.

Also, if possible get your signage somewhere that would be seen by people headed to an apple store or other store that sells the products that you fix.

As far as the free pick up and delivery thing, that's good from a customer perspective but that costs a lot of money from a business perspective. You need to think about if that is really worth it. Business isn't just about providing the best customer experience. You have to see if it is worth the costs. Also, if you are providing premium service and in a market with no competition then you should be able to charge a premium price.

Plan B should be to walk around the city smashing people's iphones.

naked girls standing outside

Probably in Indonesie there a a million guys on a scooter available and jobless, so it should be fairly cost-effective to provide this service.

I'd keep doing that as happy customers are always the best marketing, and it is a nice usp.