Do you know anyone who has dropped and broken their iPhone screen? There are millions of people with the same problem, you can be the solution.
In todays day in age people are relying on their smart phones and mobile devices for more and more aspects of their everyday lives. The Apple iPhone is the most popular smartphone in the world with over 60 million units sold, and their sales are growing exponentially. With the ability to manage your whole life and business from these devices, it is no wonder why people depend so much on their iPhones. They face only one downfall - they are very susceptible to breaking.
On average 4.5 million iPhone 3G and 3GS's glass screens break every year. In the past the only options were to take the phone to Apple ($200 to repair), take it to a big repair shop ($80 to repair) or do a mail in repair service and be without a phone for 3-5 days. A new trend of home based iPhone repair businesses are now emerging and becoming extremely successful. The factors that contribute to their success are
- Local - Within 10 miles of customers
- Fast - Repairs done in under 15 min
- Inexpensive - On average charging $40 - $60
If you are a mom looking for a home business opportunity, an iPhone repair business may be the perfect fit for you. If you have a willingness to learn and a steady hand you will have no problem because the repairs are straightforward. With a little self discipline and by devoting a couple hours per day you can start making money by fixing iPhones within a week.
There are three key things you need to run a successful iPhone repair business.
- The ability to do the repairs quickly and correctly
- An efficient marketing strategy to bring in customers
- Quality replacement parts
Repairs
Learning the most common repair, a cracked screen, takes 3-4 hours. You can get a general idea for how the repair process works by watching one of the available videos on YouTube. However, you must be careful because many of them leave out important steps in hope that you will break it and send it in to be repaired by the company that produced the video. When learning the repairs it is really helpful to buy a used or broken phone that you can practice taking apart and become familiar with the process before you are dealing with a paying customers phone.
Marketing
Once you are comfortable with the repair process you need to start marketing your new business. If possible the best first customers are friends or acquaintances that you know because they will understand if you take a long time to do the repair or encounter a problem.
The next step is to start marketing around your local area. There are dozens of ways that this can be done for free. There is absolutely no need to spend money on anything else other than business cards and flyers. One way for example is to put up flyers with pull tabs on pin boards in grocery stores, day cares, car washes and restaurants around your city. Another free option is to post advertisements on websites like Craigslist and Kijiji.
Parts
Finding a source to supply you with quality replacement parts is essential. In China there are factories that make knock off iPhone parts and surprisingly many distributors in the US pass these off as Apple parts. Not only can you tell the difference in the performance and feel of the knock off parts but sometimes they will not work at all. There is nothing more stressful than having a customer waiting on their phone and running into a problem of faulty parts. Speaking out of experience it is always worth the extra penny for the quality parts.
Easiest way to get started
The easiest way to get started is to find a company, such as United iPhone Repair, who provides turn key iPhone repair business kits with a model geared for homepreneurs. By going this route all the tools, research, information, advertisements, forms and replacement parts are already provided for you. Some programs also come with 1 on 1 business coaching to help you establish a business plan and provide support if you run into a problem. These kits will save you weeks in learning the repairs and putting together marketing strategies as compared to if you were to attempt to learn it on your own. More importantly it also will save you thousands of dollars during the start up process by helping you avoid mistakes and bad part suppliers.
A real life example
Dan and Kris at Rockwall iPhone Repair both work full time jobs. They have a voicemail system set up to handle calls during the day while they are at work. In the evening they go about their normal routine cooking dinner, watching TV and enjoying the family. The only difference is the doorbell rings 3 to 5 times per night, and when it does they answer it and fix a customers phone. The most common repair, a cracked screen, takes 10 minutes to do and then they are back to whatever they had previously been doing. This equates to roughly $750 to $1250 of extra income per week if you repair phones 5 days a week.
Would you be willing to give up 30 - 50 minutes of your time each evening for $4,000 a month?
If the answer is yes then you should be running a home based iPhone repair business.
DISCLAIMER: The above business idea is written and provided by Daniel Vitiello
Owner of United iPhone Repair LLC. This is a third-party business idea and it is not legally endorsed or associated with Bizymoms.com but provided solely for public knowledge. For more information about this business idea please visit: www.unitediphone.com
