Executive Summary
Your executive summary is the first part of your business plan, but you usually write it last because it is a summary of all the important parts.
The point of your Executive Summary is to get the reader’s attention quickly. Tell them what kind of computer repair business you have and how it is doing. For example, are you a new business, do you have a computer repair business that you want to grow, or do you run computer repair businesses in more than one market?
Next, give an overview of each part of your plan that follows. For example, give a short summary of the computer repair business. Talk about what kind of computer repair business you run. Detail your direct competitors. Tell us about your ideal customers. Give a brief overview of your marketing plan. Find the important people on your team. And explain what your financial plan is.
Company Analysis
In your business analysis, you will explain what kind of computer repair business you run.
For example, you could run one of the following kinds of computer repair businesses:
- Hardware repair is a type of business that fixes physical items like PCs, game systems, accessories, and motherboards.
- Software repair is a business that includes troubleshooting, updating the operating system, and removing viruses.
- IT services: This type of business offers a variety of services for IT products and parts, such as upgrades, installation and maintenance, security testing, technical support, and both hardware and software repairs.
In the Company Analysis section of your business plan, you need to explain what kind of computer repair business you will run and give some background on the business.
Answers should be given to questions like:
- When did you start your business, and why?
- What important steps have you taken so far? Some milestones could be the number of repairs done, the number of contracts for maintenance signed, etc.
- Your legal structure. Are you set up as an S-Corporation? An LLC? A single-person business? Explain your legal structure here.
Industry Analysis
In your industry analysis, you need to give an overview of the computer repair business.
Even though this may seem pointless, it has more than one use.
First, learning about the computer repair business makes you smarter. It gives you a better idea of the market you are in.
Second, market research can help you make your strategy better, especially if it shows you market trends.
The third reason to do market research is to show your readers that you know a lot about your field. You do this by doing market research and putting the results in your plan.
In the industry analysis section, you should answer the following questions:
- How much money does the PC repair industry make?
- Is the market going down or up?
- Who are your main rivals in the market?
- Who are the main market suppliers?
- What changes are happening in the field?
- How fast is the industry expected to grow in the next 5–10 years?
- How big is the market that matters? That is, how big could the market be for your business that fixes computers? You can figure out such a number by figuring out how big the market is in the whole country and then applying that number to the population in your area.
Customer Analysis
In the customer analysis section, you need to list the people who use your computer services or who you expect to use them.
Small businesses, nonprofits, government agencies, and individuals are all examples of different types of customers.
As you might guess, the type of PC repair business you run will depend a lot on the customer segment(s) you choose. Obviously, marketing campaigns for government agencies and nonprofits would be different.
Try to figure out who your ideal customers are based on how they look and how they think. In terms of demographics, talk about the ages, genders, locations, and income levels of the people you want to serve. Because most computer repair shops mostly serve people in the same city or town, it’s easy to find this kind of demographic information on government websites.
Psychographic profiles tell you what your computer service customers want and need. The better you can understand and define these needs, the easier it will be to get customers and keep them coming back.
Competitive Analysis
In your competitive analysis, you should list your business’s direct and indirect competitors and then focus on the direct ones.
Other businesses that fix computers are their direct competitors.
Indirect competitors are other places where customers can buy things that aren’t direct competitors. This includes repair options through the warranty or from in-house IT teams.
When it comes to direct competition, you should talk about the other PC repair businesses that you are in direct competition with. Most likely, the businesses closest to you that fix computers will be your main competitors.
Give an overview of each of these competitors’ businesses and list their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you’ve worked at one of your competitors’ companies, you won’t know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key facts about them, such as:
What kind of clients do they work with?
Do they specialize in certain services, like fixing PCs, fixing Apple products, fixing software, etc.?
- How much do they charge (high, low, etc.)?
- What can they do well?
- What do they do wrong?
For the last two questions, try to answer them from the customers’ point of view. And don’t be afraid to ask the customers of your competitors what they like and dislike about them.
The last part of your competitive analysis section is to list the ways you are better than your competitors. As an example:
- Will you offer a wider range of services or services that are more specialized?
- Will you offer things like fixing phones?
- Will you provide superior customer service?
- Will you price things better?
Think about how you will do better than your competitors and write them down in this part of your plan.
Marketing Plan
Usually, a marketing plan has four parts: the product, the price, the place, and the promotion. Your marketing plan for a business that fixes and fixes up computers should include the following:
Product: In the product section, you should repeat the type of computer repair company you wrote about in your Company Analysis. Then, give specifics about the products you’ll be selling. For example, does your PC repair business offer software upgrade services in addition to fixing hardware?
Price: Write down the prices you’ll be charging and how they compare to those of your competitors. In your marketing plan, the product and price sections are basically where you list the services you offer and how much they cost.
Place: This is where your computer repair company is located. Write down where you are and how that will affect your success. For instance, will you have a physical office or will you mostly meet with clients at their homes or places of business? In this section, talk about how where you are will affect how many people want to use your services.
The last part of your marketing plan is the section on promotions. Here, you’ll write down how you’ll get people to your location (s). Here are some ways you could promote your business:
- Putting ads in newspapers and magazines in your area
- Contacting local websites
- Signs and billboards
- Flyers
- Social media marketing
- Local radio advertising
Operations Plan
In the other parts of your business plan, you talked about your goals. In your operations plan, you talk about how you will reach those goals. Your plan for operations should have two separate parts.
Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks you need to do to run your PC repair business, such as marketing, giving consultations, troubleshooting, doing the actual repairs, keeping up with new technology, etc.
Long-term goals are the goals you want to reach in the future. These dates could be when you plan to fix your 100th computer or when you hope to make $X. It could also be when you plan to open a computer repair shop somewhere else.
Management Team
To show that your computer repair business can be successful, you need a strong management team. Showcase the backgrounds of your key players, focusing on the skills and experiences that prove they can help a company grow.
You and/or the people on your team should have experience running PC repair businesses. If so, talk about your experience and skills. But also highlight any experience you think will help your business succeed.
If your team is missing something, you might want to put together an advisory board. A two-to-eight-person advisory board would help your business in the same way that a mentor would. They would help answer questions and give advice on how to plan. If you need to, look for people on your advisory board who have experience fixing electronics or running IT businesses well.
Financial Plan
Your 5-year financial plan should include a monthly or quarterly breakdown for the first year, then an annual breakdown after that. Your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement are all part of your financial statements.
A more common name for an income statement is a Profit and Loss statement, or P&L. It shows your income and then takes away your expenses to show if you made a profit.
You need to make assumptions in order to make your income statement. For example, will you only fix hardware, or will you also offer help desk services and software upgrades? And will sales grow by 2% or 10% every year? As you might expect, the financial forecasts for your business will be greatly affected by the assumptions you choose. Do as much research as you can to try to make sure your assumptions are true.
Balance sheets show both your assets and your debts. Balance sheets can have a lot of information, but try to boil them down to the most important parts. For example, if you put $50,000 into building up your computer repair business, you won’t start making money right away. Instead, it is an asset that you can use to make money for years to come. Likewise, if a bank gives you a check for $50,000, you don’t have to pay it back right away. Instead, you will have to pay that back over time.
Cash Flow Statement: Your cash flow statement will help you figure out how much money you need to start or grow your business and make sure you never run out of cash. Most business owners and entrepreneurs don’t realize that you can make money but still go bankrupt if you run out of money.
When making your Income Statement and Balance Sheet, be sure to include some of the most important costs of starting or growing a PC repair business:
- Setup of an office
- The price of buying or renting a company car
- Costs of office supplies such as computers and software
- Payroll or salaries given to employees
- Business insurance
- Taxes and licenses:
- Legal expenses