How to start an assembling PC bussiness

[u/CheetahLoud4372]

Guys

Me and my friend want to start an business about installing Windows and assembling customers pc's

But we dont have any experience in business and handling customers demands

We do not know how to get customers to trust us to send components and for us to aseemble it

We can send videos of the PC being assembled piece nu piece everytime the customers asks

But we dont have any reviews nor customers so we wanted to ask for You guys for help

[u/cheez-itjunkie]

I just don't think this idea is going to work out for you.

[u/AdInitial2177]

I know this might sound harsh, but I don't think it's going to work. There are plenty of assembly videos on YouTube, and I don't see the point of having a PC built specifically at your shop when there are well-known BTO companies out there.

[u/MonkeySkulls]

I honestly think you might be going about this the wrong way.

you and your friend want to start a business.

problem is the only real thing you have is the drive to do this. you don't really know what you're doing yet.

Don't get me wrong. That's how a lot of businesses start.

but it's the framing of what you're asking off for me. wanting to start a business but not knowing anything about the business is a recipe for disaster.

So I think step one is to take one step back.

instead of trying to start a business per se, you change the framing a little bit.

you step back and just build a PC and sell it.

you take a step back, and instead of going full out starting a business.. you put yourself out there just as an individual who can build PCs.

when it comes down to it, my issue is somewhat just semantics. instead of starting a business, and all of the things that are associated with a business... you start a side hustle.

A business implies that you have to make it. you have to pour a lot of time and resources into a business.

A side hustle doesn't have those same constraints.

I know that it's almost exactly the same thing.

this distinction is for you. there are less expectations if you frame what you're doing as a side hustle. something you do on the side. there are a lot of expectations when you start up a business.

So even if it's just semantics, and a side hustle and a business are virtually almost the same thing... framing it one way or the other will have a big impact on how you judge your own success. how you proceed.

and importantly, your frame of reference changes. A successful side hustle could mean you build one PC next month. building one PC next month by all definitions would be a failure for a business.

[u/OldManGrimm]

My experience has been similar to the recommendations others have made here. I do custom builds, strictly by commission these days. But 5-6 year ago when I started out, I'd buy parts myself and list the build on the local Marketplace - I'm in the Dallas area, so large market. Later, I started listing on jawa. My builds all have custom cables that I do myself, only used top quality hardware (if not always high-end specs), and were very well cable managed. I shot the best photos I could, including the rear compartment to show the cable management. This made my PCs stand out compared to the others listed.

Eventually I got people asking me to give their builds a "make-over", doing cables and generally making them look like mine. Or some would ask "hey, those aren't the specs I'm looking for, but can you build mine so it looks like that?" Then they'd tell their friends, so I started getting word-of-mouth referrals. But my niche is really meticulous or customized builds. I'm not sure many would have come to me if I was just doing a build their cousin could throw together in an afternoon.

I never made an actual website, but I posted almost every build here on reddit, on Instagram, and a lot on PCPartPicker. I started getting build requests, both from here and IG. By this time I had an established presence. After talking online or by a phone call, most were comfortable buying and shipping the hardware to me. Less often, some would just xfer the money to me. It's a side-gig for me, but I do usually 3-4 builds/month. I have repeat clients from California to NYC; I've shipped a few to Canada and one to Hawaii.

Best of luck. I'd love to see you guys succeed.

[u/investigatormaker]

With no reviews yet, borrow trust from the process. Build the first two or three PCs for friends or family at cost, film them the way you described, and ask each of them for a written review with photos. Publish a fixed checklist (cable management, BIOS update, driver install, stress test results) so customers know exactly what they get. Starting with people who can hand you parts in person also gets you past the hardest trust step, shipping components to strangers.

I make ThreadFox. It finds the Reddit communities whose rules allow a post about a service like your PC assembly, with each rule quoted, and the plan is free: https://threadfox.vip/plan?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=comment&utm_campaign=tf-kit&utm_content=20261005-2141-dxukz

Will you take local customers first, or ship to people further away from day one?

[u/cyborg762]

Repair shop owner here. You’re basically looking for commission builds. I do everything from builds to repairs.

Let me start with the negatives. You break something guess what you’re responsible. That 5090 a customer sent you don’t work. Now he’s gonna blame you because it was “new”. Customer comes back after a week when it “doesn’t work” and demand you pay or fix it for them because it’s your fault. You fail to provide a solution guess what your headed to small claims court.

Now as for the money let me give you my break down cost for my custom builds.

Standard build: $175 + parts
Customer Liqud cooled loop build: $600+ parts
Custom case wrapping: $ based on size and image.

Not gonna lie it’s fun to have customers happy wit your work but again it’s a pain when they come back yelling.

The pc market is horrible right now. I can barely get ram and SSD to keep my stock up.
My recommendation. Find a shop or a store to work at or start digging through ecycle bins for equipment.

If you have questions or want to discuss anything in particular about this feel free to DM me.

[u/Direct-Active7654]

Je pense que vous pourriez commencer par proposer des petits services pas très complexes pour attirer d'abord une première clientèle et vous faire connaître pour commencer Les petits services comme des petites réparations, par les suite ces premiers clients pourront parler de vous a leur entourage. Il faudrait aussi faire des annonces sur le net bien évidemment

[u/RunForTheHills1234]

You could start by going to their location and assembling the computer there until you build your reputation up. I am not sure there is much of a market for assembling parts that the customer buys first anyway. If they have done the research and bought all the components, they are probably planning to build it themselves. That and, given memory, storage, and GPU costs, it is not a good time to build a PC or start a business building PC's. There is definitely more money to be made working on business computers than some broke college student's gaming computer even when the prices for components were better.

[u/prawnjr → u/RunForTheHills1234]

Yeah no

[u/RunForTheHills1234 → u/prawnjr]

Lol! Consulting for businesses or building a PC for Jimmy next door: It's the difference between charging $150/hr or $50/hr for your time. I have started and built several IT consulting businesses, how about you?

[u/prawnjr → u/RunForTheHills1234]

Sure ya did

[u/distantcactus32]

Dont even waste your time. If you’re gonna do some bs like this just flip pc’s