Self-employment?

Post Reply New Topic

I've been considering this a long time, but I need some knowledge on how to do this. Software that would let me take care of all the profits, money, taxes, expenses, etc. And then there's getting a business license and inventory and grants. There's a Seminar coming up for free that I signed up for.

I plan on doing this over e-bay. I plan on assembling gaming rigs and selling them over e-bay. That's my passion. Putting together working computers. I did have a problem with my first build giving me the blue screen, but I think even after 2 experts failed to diagnose the problem, I figured it out. I tore out the hard drive, which I suspected from the beginning, because of something that failed in the process of partitioning. Anyway I tore out the HD and sold it for super cheap, not knowing what it was and the guy that bought it said it worked fine for him when he put a new HD in. Anyways, that settled that. The only time I will repair is when a computer I sell has a problem. Warranty work that is and replacing parts that are assumed to be bad.

So, has anyone else went this route to get off unemployment or SSD/SSI benefits? How's it work for you? Really this truly is my passion. And If I can make just enough to be minorly happy that's great.

The problem with your business model is getting a high enough price for your units. Chinese labors do the exact same thing as you but end up making $0.07 and hour.... And they buy in bulk so they get hardware a lot cheaper than you can purchase it. If you want to do this for the rest of your life I would suggest investing in a small store front were you can charge closer to retail price and not loose money from ebay/paypal fees as well.

I'm not so sure that's true exactly. I've been researching and one thing I did was looked into one of the cheapest gaming PCs sold on e-bay and did a pricing inventory against even newegg.com's prices for the parts and it came out lower that what was being sold for. I intend on selling something more in the $1k range than what I had researched that time. Another time I came out on top comparing to another pc. Really, it doesn't sound like a bad model to me.

And I dunno, I figure it this way, too. If the Chinese are really doing this, then they're likely using really cheap motherboards and I've had some experience with these cheap-o motherboards and they suck. They don't last long and there's more bad ones in the bunch. I'd assume use motherboards from Asus or MSI.

Now, if I knew how to get these parts wholesale, then I'd be set.

My brother did computer refurbs at home and sold them over Ebay for several years. He made very little money doing this, and only a small fraction of what was needed to pay his bills. He was able to keep his head above water because he was living off money from a company buyout from the company where he used to work (computer work). He also took on odd handyman jobs for friends and from referrals by friends, but still wasn't earning enough from the refurbs and the odd jobs to pay his bills. He ended up burning through a lot of the buyout money. Then he lost a lot of money from stock investments that went bad. He had followed bad advice from a friend who advised him to put a big chunk of his investment dollars onto one thing, instead of diversifying his investment cash. He ended up fixing up the house he was living in and selling it, so he could buy a cheaper house to live in, fix up, and then sell that one, too. He continued to do some refurbs and odd jobs, also. He tried to find steady work at companies, but over the years away from the regular job market my brother's computer skills had become out of date. He now does temp work, when he can get it, along with odd jobs, web site design, and the occasional refurb. He is also fixing up his current home for resale, but the real estate market is bad now, and he won't get what the house is worth.

If you are really serious about self employment, you should pick something with a better profit potential. Building or refurbing computers at home doesn't have that potential, so you would still need to do other work to pay the bills. You might consider adding services like debugging other people's PCs, computer tutor work, web site design, etc., in addition to building the computers.

Or you could try something completely different. Good luck with whatever you do.

I also thought of DVD and video game sales through Amazon.

And I wonder how exactly one would get money to even start a business if I'm getting money from SSD/SSI.

Start small. Scrape together the money to build up one rig and sell it. Use the money from that to sell another and so on. If you don't have enough to build two within 3 sales you probably aren't going to make enough out of it to be worth while. If that happens don't give up. You just haven't found the right produce and market. Building computers for general sale is a very competitive market. Try to find a niche where you can justify higher prices due to extra services or building unusual specification machines.

Try different specification machines or different ways of selling. If you are into gaming, are you well known on any gaming forums? If so offer your services for building custom rigs. Ask around. What do people want from their machines? Asking questions and listening to what people say is very important. What about rigs for the simulator guys? Some flight simulator setups are huge and need pretty powerful hardware. How about train simulators?

It will be tough in the beginning. You will probably have to feed all profits back into the business for at least a year before you can start drawing a wage from it. Do you have the discipline to do this?

DON'T borrow money to start up. Many startup seminars encourage you to borrow money but don't fall in the trap. Paying interest on borrowed money will kill you. As you are on benefit you may be able to get a grant but still treat it with caution. Find out what happens if the business fails. Do you then have to pay the grant back?

As far as tax is concerned you will probably find that the book keeping requirements are pretty basic if your turnover is low, which it will be in the beginning. There isn't any real 'magic bullet' software for book keeping. There is plenty that takes out some of the drudgery but you still need to understand what is going on. Can you enlist the help of a friend or relative for this?

I personally would try building and selling a few machines privately without officially starting a business. If it doesn't go well you will just lose some time and maybe a percentage of your investment. You will still have had the fun of building the machines and you will have gained experience. If it goes well it will give you some encouragement to go ahead.

Going self employed is hard work and you need to be able to stay focused. However if you do have the strength to make a success of it, self employment can be very rewarding. I would never go back to being employed now.

What do you work with?

That sounds like a very good idea to me. Saving some of my extra SS income to start small is probably very good advice. I'll remember that. Thank you.

.

TurboCNC, or Mach3 by any chance?

.

What circumstances hindered you from topping Mach?