Do these three things to get your tech repair start-up off to the best possible start.

Despite all of the businesses that are suffering at the moment, if you are thinking of using your established skills to start up a tech repair business, then there is a good chance you have hit pay-dirt. This is for two very good reasons:

•    People are more reliant on their tech than ever before.

•    People use their tech almost 24/7 – which means it breaks down, a lot.

And this is where you come in. Most people’s lives revolve around what either comes in on or goes out via their phone. So if it is out of action for any reason (but most usually a broken screen or faulty charging port) they need it fixed, fast. As you are local you are going to be faster than sending it off to be repaired which can take weeks. This means you are in demand and you can charge a premium for a quick turnaround.

Before you get carried away though if you just start-up in your kitchen you are going to hit a few problems straight away. Better to do things right from the start, so that when things take off, you will have the resources to make the most of it.

#1Get your start-up capital with an awesome business plan

As well as working out your margins, you will need to detail all of your start-up costs like premises, quality materials (more on that next),and a clear vision of where you see your business in 5 years.

Do not cut corners here. Everybody knows these businesses are not cheap to set-up, including the guys who are going to back you, so do not make it look like you are trying to deceive them or, worse, that you do not know what you are doing.

The bad news is that banks are nervous at the moment and you might not get what you want from them. Instead, you can find backing from people that understand your business and can see the potential. You might even get a better interest rate than you did at the bank. (which is why that business plan is so important).

#2Use the best quality parts to give your start-up the right reputation

People love their tech, some more than their partners. You will gain points here by using the best quality materials to do your repairs. The obvious problem is that quality is usually hard to find, and here a specialist search engine like Octopart is your secret weapon.

Unlike just using Google to find your components, using an industry-specific search engine will give you a greater depth of industry-specific search to find exactly what you need.

#3 Check out the competition to see how you can beat them

You are not going to be the only one with this idea, but you can be better than them. To work out exactly how you are going to do that, you need to look at their set-ups and see how you can beat them on service or price.

This is also where you will be able to see what your margins are going to be on the work you are going to do and how much profit you are going to make. Do not think you are getting ahead of yourself here, you will need to know these things (and a few others) for writing your business plan.