Originally Posted by Gabriel

I have my college degree for computers and a "certificate for Desktop Support" (it's basically the college's version of the A+ certification) but never got my actual A+. Our professor seemed convinced that a college degree is more relevent than any certificate. He almost went as far as trying to talk his students out of obtaining one.

College Degrees are great but when it comes to certifications I would say not so much. The reason I say this is because the CompTIA A+ is recognized world wide as the intro level certification. (Your customers may not know the difference but if one gets a hair up their ass then can google it and find out it's a great cert) Then If you get your Microsoft Certification they will see MICROSOFT and be like I know that name. Same reason I got a Dell Certification. Dell cert is real easy to get.

Basically what you always have to think "What can I offer the customer so they will choose me over the other guys" Make sure you check out your competition. Find out their prices and education (as in do they display them). and anything else you can notice that you can do to make yourself look better than they are.

Do not attack your competition directly in your advertising. Another advertisement I have is a sign that says Virus Removal. Most companies just delete everything on your hard drive and reinstall it. We actually remove viruses so your not at risk of loosing your data.

Yeah I may need to go the expense route. I registered with Bing, Google and Magic Yellow (I think they are the online version of the yellow pages). Their salesman was attempting to sell me advertising at $40.00/month, $350.00 for the 1st 6 months then $40/month after that for priority listing. Somehow this math doesn't make sense lol. Anyhoo I didn't have the extra funds to spend at that time. Maybe I should look into it again?

I'd shoot more for covering the general population in a more general manner. There may be lots of people with PCs and the internet that may never see your ads...I'm not saying don't do it, but try the good ol' local newspaper and the local radio station. Radio has very broad coverage...from people in their home and cars to the local businesses that have the radio on in their establishments. The goal is to "blanket" or "brand" your area. It's catching people's ears and eyes so that eventually when they have a need they'll start thinking....now what was that computer repair place I heard about?

Can always start off with something just to get your foot in the door, free diagnostics, cheap tune ups... that sort of thing. It might be silly but getting that initial penetration will do wonders.

That's right....attract people. You know, sponsor events like extreme midget wrestling...free hotdogs, etc.

That's right....attract people. You know, sponsor events like extreme midget wrestling...free hotdogs, etc

At this point, I'm ready to work for hotdogs lol

If you are going to register for web advertising make sure you register with google (I forget the name) but it is the service to make you show up for local results. Like if someone searched google maps for PC repair you would show up as a pc repair shop in their local area (if they were)

So how is it going?

Have you had your first call yet?