For years, I’ve been fixing computers, setting them up, cleaning out fhe junk files, getting rid of viruses. To distract myself as the mayoral term draws to a close, I decided to have one last blast of tidying up computers. I announced a special on Facebook, made some appointments for housecalls, and then after that, I’m retiring from the computer repair business.
That doesn’t mean that I want out of the business altogether.
On the contrary, I want to share what I know. I’ve got a couple of websites set up that deal with computer issues and one of the treats I have in store for the weekend is getting them focused, updated, and informative. I’m also launching my business as a technical writer and a technical writer only. In the day, being a jack of all trades was the way to go but as I get older (and wiser?) I like the focus factor a whole lot more.
In switching back to writing and bringing it together with the topic I know best, a couple of classic old factors emerged and I could see the wisdom more clearly than ever before. One of the best approaches an entrepreneur can take is to value his or her work. Another aspect an entrepreneur needs to remember is that if you spread yourself too thin, you lose your branding factor.
I love problem solving and I enjoy being able to tackle a challenge and win. This causes me a problem because I end up doing too many things and risk being viewed as the old lady virus remover who writes or the writer who spends hours fixing computers to avoid her real job. Ah, she’s a dabbler. Neither writing nor computers are her strong points so she is struggling to make a go of something…anything…and a whiff of desperation arises.
One of the reasons I am good with solving computer problems is because I learned DOS in the good old pre-GUI days. So when I find a computer misbehaving, I can get to the root of it right quick. Now here I am going to sound like an arrogant creature but it’s a lot more satisfying to do it right than it is to do it the brutal way – reformat the hard drive, reinstall software, and lose all the client’s pictures and documents and history and other good things they have saved over the years. And yet too many of the technical wizards do it that way and charge a lot more than I do because most of them were little kids when I learned the innards of computers. There’s no need for them to learn 20 years worth of old stuff when they can handle the problems the new way. Their job is to make the computer work right. If some personal data gets lost, so what. Their attitude is that you should have backed it up.
Which leads me to the other lesson I’ve learned. I charge around $40 to solve a sluggish computer problem and this can take hours and hours (sometimes 8 hours or more). The bright ones new to the field, who grew up with XP work in places that charge double or triple that. So I get viewed as the cheapie version of the expert and let’s face it, wouldn’t you rather have the expensive expert do your work? After all, if a person charges $120, don’t you feel that his or her work is three times better than that of someone who charges $40? It’s human nature to think you get what you pay for. Sometimes that’s not the case. The biggest mistake I made was pricing myself as the no-name version. The result is that I get viewed as the less-than-expert choice. But then, what did I expect? I’m seen as a dabbler – self-created perception due to my lack of focus on what I do.
But it’s so tempting for someone breaking into a new field to dabble with something they like and can do easily. A quick buck here and there helps pay the bills. The one day you wake up and realize that all the time has gone into working for the quick buck, making $5 an hour while the main goal gets lost in the clutter.
It takes a little while to establish credibility and things can be lean while the entrepreneur builds a reputation but the effort is worth it. To keep shifting focus creates a muddy and twisted and complicated path. Keeping focused is almost as difficult but the payout is great.
Now I just have to remember that.
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