Thinking of starting an airsoft-tech service.

[Finius]

So guys,

I have yet to develop my business model thoroughly, but I have decided to investigate the potential for starting up my own airsoft techie service.

Thinking of encompassing repairs, customisation and upgrades; focusing very much of the stuff most people don't know to do (for example, z1 will upgrade your gun, but they won't modify the parts for optimum efficiency etc, they'll just put them in and bam, upgrade done).

Was also toying with the idea of a "membership" scheme, whereby a years labor could be purchased; this would guarantee you free labor on all guns; reducing the cost to postage + parts (most sites charge at least £25 for labour, even if they only tell you what's wrong with the gun). The idea being that if you have the membership, you can have any of your guns repaired (you tell me what guns you have, and when you get rid of them or get new ones as there are some I wouldn't work on just yet) as many times as they need and all you do is pay postage and parts.

I know things like this exist, but they're usually affiliated with a site and they certainly don't go to the sort of lengths or levels of expertise I went to with my L85....

Forum based initially to gauge success, then after a few months get a website and go national...

Thoughts and feedback? (Tell me anything you think, even if it's "don't be so sirry, this is sirry idea!")

Cheers!

 

[luke159]

This sounds like a really good idea you have. Especially the membership idea id be intrested in that.

 

[Boro]

Membership idea could work but you'd have to have limits on how many upgrades you can have in a year or something similar.

 

[Cyrax]

Whilst im still thinking of useful additions and ideas, I would like to say that the £25 charge puts me off using techs unless I absolutely have too.

Personally, I would much prefer a system where the tech tells me straight out that what I want done will take 1 hour, at a labour charge of £X. The customer can either say "call me if it will cost more/takes longer" or "go ahead up to £X amount, then call me".

I dont want to pay someone £25 for 5 mins work to install a £15 part, but if they charged me say £7-10 per hour (excl p&p and parts) I would chose that company every time.

Often, people do the little job themselves, despite being worried silly about breaking their gun. They do it because the parts are expensive, and we arent all made of enough money to have bits installed for us whenever we buy them!

If people want a big, time consuming job done, then give them discount, or cap it at a certain amount (whilst undercutting competitors, naturally).

There may well be reasons why this doesnt work, and it isnt done. Its just how I personally would like to see it.

On the flip side, another possible idea is to have repairs done as suggested above, but to have certain "procedures" done at a capped price - things like spring upgrades. People love pricing structures, and will work them into budgets ("It cost £200 for the gun, £30 for the parts and £25 for FPS FINIUS to do the upgrade - totals £255. Now i know what to save....")

Membership is a good idea, depending on your costing. If you make it too high, people wont bother, make it too low, and you will make even less money per hour than my suggestion, as you will be inundated with stuff - time is money, as they say.

Hope that helps in some way buds.

 

[Finius]

I like that people are interested!

Boro, I got your message, at the moment I'm still doing my market research, but should I choose to move ahead with everything, I'm definitely game for your offer.

If I was to have a varied scale of costs like this:

Inspection + Logistical Flat Rate: £5 (covers all costs and time used in initial inspections, calls, communication, sourcing of parts etc etc)

Cosmetic & Hop Repairs: £5ph (covers all hop unit and barrel issues, as well as bodywork etc)

Mechanical Repairs: £6ph (all things within the gearbox aside from electronics)

Electrical Repairs: £5.50ph (all essential switch assembly electrics)

Exceptions Rate: £7ph (non-standard circuits, mosfets, tracer circuits, shot counters etc, guns which are completely custom and require specific and intricate work etc)

Internal Upgrades V2: £6ph

Internal Upgrades V3: £5ph

Cost-Cap: £20 (point at which rate ceases to be hourly)

The above is just exemplar of different ways in which I could categorize pricings etc and is not absolute, but working to that...

Your TM AK has a blown gearbox, you're not sure what exactly is wrong, but it's just making horrible noises and not actually cycling (stripped or slipping piston, gears, various other possibilities), you send it to me and I discover that one of the gear-shafts has sheared off because of poor bearings and a bad shimjob, here's how the pricing would work: £XXX(P&P) + £5(Flat Rate) + £15(Approx parts cost for shims, bearings and gear from China; customer could specify a budget or choose specific items) +£12(Repair Rate; two hours to properly install gears to optimise prevention of further damage; AOE, shimjob etc) =£32 + Postage.

I'm not saying whether the above is realistic for me to do or not etc etc, but in terms of pricing, how does that fare with what people are expecting?

By comparison, Land Warrior have a flat rate of £20ph D:

 

[M_P]

Sounds a hell of a lot better than the last time I sent a gun to be repaired

If I ever got another AEG i'd use it for those kind of prices

 

[magicaldr]

Would peak my interest certainly (man with box of bits instead of the MP5)...

I would suggest you need to work out a good postal link to those you hook up with, might be worth looking into if some courier company could offer pickups and drop offs at a reasonable rate? That may only be for big companies like amazon (who sent someone to pickup my dead kindle), but the easier it is to get stuff to you and back again the more likely I would be to use a service.

 

[Cameron364]

Sounds like a great idea, especially scene as though I am not very internal savvy and I'm sure there are others out there to, Great Idea!

 

[l96Freeman]

Sounds good, I could be interested in this service if the cost of postage isn't too high

 

[Boro]

In all honesty, it's too cheap!

If people out there are charging £20ph, you need to be cheaper obviously but not a quarter of the price.

I don't know what other repairers charge but if it's in the same region, you could charge £10ph flat for everything. As it stands there are too many rates depending on what work needs doing.

Keep it simple, cheap and quick! Not too cheap though or you will end up doing alot of work for very little reward.

If you're good at what you do and offer a great service, people will pay a reasonable amount if they trust you.

 

[Finius]

Guess I ought to start looking into postal costs etc then!

Will call round some couriers tomorrow and let you all know what I find!

A quick estimate though, for a 150x20x30cm package weighing 6kg would be a cost of £20 to get it send door to door both ways; next day, meaning that essentially, providing it arrived AM, a gearbox repair job could be shipped to me on a Wednesday, arrive Thursday morning, be sent back same day, and be with you for Friday in time for a Saturday Skirmish.

 

[Boro]

Check out parcel2go website.

There's a few online comparison website that tell you which courier is cheapest depending on overall size and weight of the parcel.

If you get busy, get the courier sales rep in to discuss doing a deal.

 

[Cyrax]

In all honesty, it's too cheap!
If people out there are charging £20ph, you need to be cheaper obviously but not a quarter of the price.

I don't know what other repairers charge but if it's in the same region, you could charge £10ph flat for everything. As it stands there are too many rates depending on what work needs doing.

Keep it simple, cheap and quick! Not too cheap though or you will end up doing alot of work for very little reward.

If you're good at what you do and offer a great service, people will pay a reasonable amount if they trust you.

Interesting point, but a low cost will ensure increased business to start with - as the word spreads, more people will use Finius and he can up the prices slightly? Thats long term, but getting a business off the ground and getting it known is easier if you are cheaper than everyone else by a fair bit..?

 

[Airsoft-Ed]

I think this is a great idea. I'd happily send you my L85 right this second if I could get it back within a week performing to same standard you claim your's does.

I wouldn't even particularly care what the cost was so long as it wasn't OTT.

 

[Deva]

Flat rate is easier in my opinion too. £10 is a nice round amount and saves any confusion in how much someone should be billed. You can't tell with this kind of work what you're getting into until the gun arrives, so you should charge a reasonable amount to cover off anything. It also means you build up some extra finance if you ever want to advertise or build up some demo guns and such.

 

[joshcowin]

Sounds good mate you could get some business if you do some marketing

 

[Finius]

With the intention of moving forward, does anyone have a broken gun they would like repaired for just the cost of return postage and parts?

I'd like to see what sort of turnaround time I can manage etc, see whether I can actually pull off a reasonable repair and such.

If you DO have something you want repaired, please send me a PM outlining what the issue whatever it is is having etc.

No gas guns for now.

Inboxing me is no guarantee that you'll get a free repair, I'll only be taking a couple on so I can test myself out.

Once I've figured that out, I'll look into what my official rates might be, and maybe, with Dev's permission throw up a thread on here somewhere (I'm sure that if I turned this into a successful venture some of that money could find it's way into supporting AFUK).