Re: Idea for a business... not entirely OT.

Andy Hewitt <thewildrover@xxxxxx> wrote:

Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Andy Hewitt <thewildrover@xxxxxx> wrote:

Chris Ridd <chrisridd@xxxxxxx> wrote:
[snip]

It might be worth getting in with one of those.

Hmm, yes, could be. My main concern was whether it was viable as a
business proposition to rebuild the old boxes and sell them on. I have
my doubts, based on the reluctance of punters to buy an old machine,
when you can get new ones so cheap - even when their needs are very
humble compared to the performance offered by a new box.

Edison didn't sell electricity at the start of that enterprise (or so
I've heard) - he sold light, driven by electricity.

Of course.

Hardly `of course'. He could have chosen all sorts of ways of selling
what he had. He sold lighting.

How about thinking about:

Sell the ability to do things.

Don't sell a box: sell a working computer system set up to do X, Y, and
Z with support for a year (optional extra?) to keep it all nice?

Something like that?

That was something that had crossed my mind.

The problem is that the support is what'd give your PCs their `unique
selling point', but also that's the part that could easily take all your
time. Working out a way to provide useful support without chewing up
all your time is the tricky bit - hence the (optional extra?).

[snip]

I *know* that for those it wouldn't take much effort to rebuild an old
computer and have them a pretty good machine for not a lot of money. The
trouble is with convincing them.

You just have to pick the right way to sell the stuff. Sell `You can do
your email, your Web browsing, your word processing, your X, Y, and Z
with this, it's all set up to do those things and costs
£ImpressivelyCheap and comes with local support'.

And if they ask about the hardware specs, take the Rolls Royce Motors
approach to the `engine power' spec: explain that it's adequate for the
job. And then demonstrate what the machine can do - have them play wiht
it. You're selling *the ability to do what the customer wants to do*,
remember - not a set of technical specs.

Indeed, that was my own thinking behind this.

Point is: not the setting up of what's needful, but selling of it.

I'm no salesman so I can't suggest how to actually *do* what I suggest -
but I bet you could get it to work if you're someone who *can* sell.

That's the problem for me, I'm someone that can strip a computer to
bits, and rebuild it, but a salesman I'm not.

Ah. Nor me.

That's why I've never gone
into business before. I'm only thinking about this now as I have a real
need to be able to work to my own hours.

Righto.

Rowland.

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