Repairing iPhones for a living
I'm thinking of getting into repairing iPhones for money. Screens, batteries, stuff like that. I have a background in electronics (A+ Certified computer tech) and many independent techs are switching to iPhone support. The main problem with it is my mild dyspraxia, I can't solder because of it (I sold my soldering station, good thing that soldering is not required for this) and handling the dinky little screws is a problem. I already took apart and reassembled a 3GS, and two screws popped out of the tweezers and vanished in my rug. I've got a iPhone 4 GSM on the bench now. I've decided that there isn't enough money in the iP 3 series to fix them. I've decided to use an old pair of electronics-specific needlenose pliers I already own for the screws. I also bought a magnetic mat so they won't roll off the table. Anybody else doing something like this to earn a living?
When I do this type of work I lay on the floor and put some sort of mat out. Then there's nowhere for anything to fall, my eyes are nearer the object, and I have somewhere to rest my elbows/arms.
I guess the difficulty is in getting customers. Many people would take their phone to a shop. You see the phone type shops here in the UK everywhere. There's ebay where you could ask people to post their phone to you and you will repair and send back to them, but this relies on a great deal of good will on part of the customer who may be unwilling. But this way you could build some good feedback, and hopefully some trust from potential customers.
I guess the difficulty is in getting customers. Many people would take their phone to a shop. You see the phone type shops here in the UK everywhere. There's ebay where you could ask people to post their phone to you and you will repair and send back to them, but this relies on a great deal of good will on part of the customer who may be unwilling. But this way you could build some good feedback, and hopefully some trust from potential customers.
I live in a fair sized city by USA standards (1.3 million people) and there's only about 7 or 8 shops doing it in this town, and a couple of those are disreputable. Americans generally don't trust mail order repair places, if given a choice they will take it to somebody local. I'm thinking of offering a 100% mobile service, in that I would do it at a customer's kitchen table. I drive so transportation is not an issue. I noticed while disassembling the phone that the back of my neck started to hurt bad, and I had to lay down after. If I'm doing this on time I need some sort of neck brace. My understanding is that phone repair is more common in the UK than the US.
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