Appliance Repair Business

An appliance repair business is an excellent business idea if you love working with your hands, solving problems, and helping your customers save money. 

. . . In writing this, I'm reminded of how important a good repair person can be since I had a recent (frustrating) experience with a refrigerator repair.  More on this later. . .  :(

With new appliances becoming more sophisticated, a knowledgeable repair person can save  their customers time and money from having to purchase replacements. 

We take our appliances for granted until they're broken and then we start considering our options -- including whether or not to replace???  

According to the Huffington Post, appliances break down much quickly than their precedessors did in the past.  While many will decided to buy new, there are a percentage who will want to fix the appliance rather than replace -- this is good for your business as appliance ownership is projected to continue to grow into 2017.    

The first place to start when launching your business is with training and experience.  You may have experience working for an appliance repair company, but if you don't there are a variety of options to get the training. 

Take advantage of online courses as well as hands on, classroom appliance training classes where you receive a nationally recognized certification. This allows you to work anywhere in the country so you can work where you live.  

After you have the training, market your appliance repair business to home warranty companies, local property managers, local churches, restaurants, on free internet services such as Craigslist, etc.    

Get started by volunteering with local churches and faith-based organizations to provide services for their low-income clients in exchange for some free marketing.  Contact the local paper to write an article highlighting your partnership.  Ask for online reviews on sites like Manta and Yelp so you can develop a positive online reputation.

Green Business Trends & Opportunities

. . . So back to the appliance experience I mentioned earlier???  Well I had a refrigerator which wasn't cooling so I looked online and found a appliance repair business. The local repair business I chose wasn't necessarily up to the task or the best in customer service. 

To make a long story short, the repair person didn't show up at the first agreed upon time, he was late the second time and he didn't have the part he thought he would need to complete the repair, and he had to return a third time to finally repair the refrigerator.  Needless to say, the experience wasn't a positive one for me.    

The reason I tell this story, is just to share some (poor) experiences from the customer's side to give you some insight about what "not to do".  

Moral of the story?  As you start your appliance repair business, or any other business, make sure you live up to your commitments, communicate with your customers if something happens where you can't do what you said you would do, and provide the best service to meet the customers' needs including having parts available to finish the job.  

Niche Notes!!

Specialize your appliance repair business to fill a niche note met by your competitors:

1)  Expand your business to cover other appliances such as vacuum cleaners, outdoor grills, natural gas fireplaces.

2)  Repair appliances in Recreational Vehicles -- and add cleaning services too!

3) Work with large apartment complexes to keep their large volume of appliances running smoothly with both maintenance (upon move out) and repairs.

4)  Specialize in emergency service coverage -- partner with other appliance businesses to cover their after-hours calls.

5)  Create your own green business idea -- Buy good used machines, refurbish the machines, and re-sell them for a profit.   Include delivery/set-up fees to add to the profit.

6)  Repair small electronic devices (e.g. cellphones, tablets, etc.)


Appliance Repair Business -- What's It Take?

Lawn Mower Repair

Interests/Skills:

  • Experience or training with appliance repair.
  • You are good working with your hands and various small tools.
  • Excellent problem solving skills.
  • Great customer service skills.
  • Organization and scheduling skills.
  • Prompt and timely.

Resources:

Launching you business will require you have up-to-date knowledge of increasingly complicated appliances.  You can gain this knowledge through on-the-job training at a local appliance repair business.  There are also online and classroom training courses -- these can get you certified in as little as a month.

Of course, you'll also need a vehicle large enough to carry your tools to get to your customers and their

Cellphone Repair

Time Required:

Can start business part time at 10-15 hours/week, full time 30-40+ hours/week.

Market:

Home owners who would rather repair rather than replace, property managers, and landlords, restaurants, laundromats, etc.

Home Based:  Yes

Internet:  No

Location:  Local

Start-Up Costs:  $5,000-$20,000

Aquarium Maintenance

Minimizing Start-up Costs:

Begin with word-of-mouth advertising.  Contact local property managers to provide 24 hour support to their tenants. 

Discuss your services with commercial property managers, restaurant owners, and other businesses to promote preventative maintenance to commercial accounts reducing costly downtime for their businesses. 

Offer free haul away of used appliances, refurbish them, and sell them to provide continuous income and working capital for your appliance repair business.

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Appliance Repair Business back to Service Business Ideas . . .