Depending on who you are, where you and how bad you are financially. If you run a business of any kind, chances are that you use a computer. And if your like most small business owners that don’t see value of IT as a strategic weapon in your business, you’ll eventually succumb to the movement known as “Hire Low, Work Hard”.
What is “Hire Low, Work Hard”?
Simply put, this is a market condition in which the economic rules of supply and demand are broken and never make economic sense. This condition exists because there is plenty of demand for IT Services such as Onsite Computer Repair, Network Support, Managed Services and Remote PC Support to mention a few. There is even more supply in the marketplace. It is this supply that is causing the rules of supply and demand to break, Regrettably the supply is broken into 3 categories.
1. The Have’s
2. The Have Not’s
3. The Want to Have’s
Let’s look at each one in a little more detail.
First up, Number 1: These are IT professionals, and Technology Consultants that charge a fair and market price for their services. Individual computer support tech and IT companies that provide their clients with exceptional service and support with pride in what they do and why they stand for. Consider them the high class hookers of the IT business. They know their stuff and can prove their worth so they do not play the price war game. Their rates are fixed and typically non-negotiable.
Then there is Number 2: These are the IT unprofessional’s, and computer consultants that charge the same price as a professional (described above) but deliver the worst service and support experience possible, thus leading to poor industry reputation, faith and trust issues from potential clients and excessive wasteful spending on the part of the client where there are no measurable results, and therefore resulting in a stereotype that becomes a block for the small business owner. By which time the need and value of IT is perceived to be very low if there is any value left at all. Consider them the night walkers, they look like they know their stuff, they look honest and reputable, but all they really want to do is their trade and it’s never a long term commitment to any client. Its more of a wham bam where is my check.
And finally Number 3: These are typically individuals, although I’ve seen a fair share of small computer repair companies that tout them-selves on various and numerous online resources looking for IT support and Computer Repair work at the lowest price possible. These folks lack both business sense and common sense. When Gas is at an all time high as of this post, and your average car gives you 15mpg, assuming you maintain it well, and one can expect a round trip of about 20 miles give or take traffic and weather conditions.
These guys are tricking the consumer or who ever will bite into their offer, that they can feasibly show up at their home or office and perform virus removal or adware removal at a flat fee of $19.99 and install windows XP or Install Windows Vista for a flat fee of $75. Let’s face it most small business owners and consumers don’t really know the effort involved in removing viruses or adware from their computers, let alone the actual time it takes to correctly and securely install Microsoft Windows XP. Worse still these kinds of services are typically performed on old ailing computers that have limited resources and capabilities, which further results in added time waiting while these operations are performed. The wana be’s
Analysis of a Stupid Service Call:
We can draw to a conclusion that the breakdown of a $19.95 flat fee would be something close to the following:
(Gas:$5) + (Vehicle Wear and Tear:$2) + (Advertising effort: $0.50) = $7.50 per visit per call. We have not even taken into consideration the time involved in traveling to and from any such location.
Assuming a flat fee of $19.95, and that the operation to be performed is to fix a virus infested computer. Which takes about 30 minutes to 1.5hrs on average at best, depending on severity. The true hourly rate turns out to be $19.95-$7.50 = $12.45/1.5 = $8.30ph + Travel Time. If you factor in travel takes a round trip about 45minutes.. this hourly rate further drops to $12.45 / (1.5hrs + .75hrs) = $5.53 FOLKS WAKE UP – THIS IS BELOW MINIMUM WAGE.
Ok.. lets be a little generous… We’ll assume an hourly rate of $10. Given that one can only perform 3 to 4 such service calls a day due to obvious restrictions like distance from one location to the next. It’s reasonable to assume that 3 calls will lead to 4.5hrs of actual service at a generous rate of $10ph. That’s a whopping $45 for the day.. not mention the wasted time spent traveling between locations.
Really! What are these people thinking. Not only are they doing harm to them selves, but others in the industry too..
At these kinds of rates, they are better off at Mickey D’s or at the Sanders Ranch. I’m sure the colonel and his men would love to see you choke a few chickens as you probably do everyday at the rates being charge. GUY WAKE UP. YOU DON’T HAVE TO WORK LIKE THIS.
Now on a positive note:
Although the likes of the geeks have created a perception in the minds of most that is can be done for less. The good news here is that fools will always be fooled and as such receive little in the way of value. Because they never saw value in the first place to offer to pay or charge the true and reasonable price.
The other positive note here is that, these kinds of operations can not continue and survive for too long and will eventually end up in some dark damp corner and rot the rest of their natural lives. Why am i being so harsh. Because as a company with real world operating costs, we are tired of the “Hire Low, Work Hard” movement telling us that Jim from the Ghetto can fix it for a flat fee of $19.95. Then my questions to you my dear prospective customer is what the hell are you calling and wasting our time for?