First of, this is my wife's amazon account (Amazon.com only let people that order from the site to write reviews. She bought it for me) and that's how good this book is! I was compelled to write a review and help others make a good choice. I wanted to get this book, because I wanted to try to open my own storefront for PC parts. However I haven't a clue where to start. A friend of mine suggested this book and boy does this book open your eyes! The book is about 160 pages, but every single page is worth at least a hundred bucks. I really like the author's writing style. To the point and precise. Also if you can, use the links that he he has posted in the book (ESPECIALLY SCORE). To summarize, if you are thinking of owning a PC business (regardless if its a home business to a store front to consulting) GET THIS BOOK!

This book was well worth my purchase; for the price I had been expecting less but this book really made some good points. Very straight forward to read. I would recommend this book to anyone who has considered starting their own computer repair business.

I bought it for my husband, because he just opened his computer repair shop. I thought he might find there something he doesn't already know, maybe author would give him a good advise. Boy was I wrong. I read it too, nothing new for me either and I am not even in computer business.
Don't waste your money.

Unless you're completely clueless about basic business principles and devoid of any computer knowledge, you won't learn anything by reading through this book.

I read this book from cover to cover. Morris offers real practical advice for the beginning want-a-be computer repair person. My favorite being the who's who of suppliers. He also has another book of flowcharts that's a must have for your computer support library. Sign up for the Yahoo Computer Repair Business online to get feedback from others in the industry.

I'm about to throw this book in the trash. THe author just offers a wide array of opinions. Mostly negative and pessimistic. It comes across as real and straight-forward, but most of the content is overly sarcastic, negative stuff that to be totally honest is a bit counter-productive for a business venture. You may find it interesting but I found it overly opinionated and a bit obnoxious. Trash in my opinion.

The author provides some pretty good practical advice. The book does a pretty nice job of laying things out the way it is in the real world. The author is down to earth and this makes the book easier to read. Overall if you are looking for an easy informational read this is a good place to start, however if you are looking for complex details and specific situations you might want to look for a more complex (and probably larger book... this one only has 160 pages). All things considered, this was a pretty good read.

Great book, reading it now and almost done with it!!

Definitely worth the money, so far the only book that I've found that details the steps of starting your own business!

Great book, reading it now and almost done with it!!

Definitely worth the money, so far the only book that I've found that details the steps of starting your own business!

I really liked the information that was presented in this book. I plan on opening my own computer business and posibly my own brand of computers. This book helped me realize some errors I might have done in starting up, so it is a real good source for refference if you haven't already formulated a solid business plan.
The book was easy to follow and information flowed well through it. 2 thumbs up

-Skipp

This book belongs in everyone's library who is interested in starting their own computer services company. It does not tell you what you need for a startup business, it's a guide so you can make informed decesions for a beginning computer company AFTER you've taken care of getting your business license. Great ideas, what to look out for, what to LOOK for. I used this book to compare my ideas for a computer business and to get some measure on how an existing computer business I was researching to purchase was being run. I decided not to buy and started my new business from scratch instead. I believe this book helped save me thousands of dollars.

The book was fine for a one-person start-up. It gave insightful information, but mostly full of generalizations. It didn't assist much for what I wanted.

This book is worth buying and reading several times to make sure you "get it". I was thinking of building custom PCs after graduation, but after considering everything Mr. Rosenthal pointed out, I believe it would be wiser for me to start out offering repair services and one-on-one training.
Appreciate the honest reviews by others on this book also. Great reviews- Great Book!

I've been fixing computers on the side for a couple years now, and I still have a few questions before I go "prime time". This book will start off telling you the truth about starting a computer business. It's not easy, it's not even fun most of the time, but it can be done if you're committed. I'm giving this 3 stars instead of 5 because as it is a (very) general guide for starting a computer business, and it lacks a bit in details. In fact, you're not going to find anything technical at all in this book, which is partly why it lost my interest so easily. It was inexpensive, which I'm glad for, because it really wasn't what I was looking for.

One thing that threw me a bit was the author's recommendation of "cold calling". Not only is this tactic annoying to the people being called, but it is quickly becoming illegal to do under most circumstances.

If you're looking for a story about how someone else got their computer business going, buy this book. The author definitely doesn't let loose any secrets (even though the OEM thing is interesting). As another reader stated, you're not going to find waivers or any kind of contracts. I'll probably break down and pay a lawyer myself. I do computer repair, and to tell you the truth, this book didn't help me very much at all, if any. In fact, it kinda discouraged me, because I have yet to find a book that will help me answer my many questions, be it technical or legal.

It may help you, but personally, I'm stuck on different problems at the moment.

I was excited to get this book based on previous reviews because I though it would answer the last few questions I had about starting my business. This book provides a general view of how a computer business should be run. What to look out for and ideas on how to run the business. The book lacks information on how to start the business form the ground up. When I got this book I was looking for some real life examples of service contracts, invoices, warranty contracts, advertisements, how to deal with sales tax, ect... The book is for you, if you have totally no idea what type of computer business you want to start. If you already have an established plan on how you will run your computer business then I would not recommend this book.

I am probably being generous with giving it three stars.
Yes the book has some good information in it.
But that good info could have been in a 20 page book.
If you want an outstanding book on the subject or close to it I recommend From Surf to Surfer.
The author has a fairly busy forum at Yahoo.
Why he chose Yahoo groups I don't know because they are very difficult to use.
I just don't have anything outstanding to say about it.
It is an average book at best.
Though I don't think you have to many choices in this category of books.
If it wore 8 bucks I would recommend it.

This book showed me two things. One, that there is no money to be made in the computer repair business, and two, the liability is way to high. Thanks to this book, and some additional research, I found that if you want to go into this business you will need a lot capital to get going correctly, and be able to build your business. My advise is, don't go into the computer repair business.

I liked the book.

From a small pc builder's viewpoint, a hard part in getting started is in finding REAL wholesaler sources.
(Not middlemen who get in the way and jack up one's final costs).

The book mentioned a website called the Reseller's source kit.
( www.rs-kit.com). It is a "subscription only" site
(to gain access to the vendor's).
But, they also offer a free newsletter.

I joined the site and while it had interesting newsletters and informative details about the "small-biz-owner-pc-shop" business.
I was not blown away by any great pricing, on OEM software, or on hardware.
[So the idea of finding cheap hardware and software, then build a pc for cheap,WHILE making a reasonable ($100+) profit, very quickly vanished]

The small biz owner that deals with PC's has to think NICHE!
There's not enough money to be made in marketing of pc's directly to consumers. Maybe $100 per pc, a big MAYBE!

One NICHE could be after-the-sale "services".
- Training on software apps,
- peripherals training (i.e. video editing),
- remote data backup services (offsite disaster recovery)
- or other services.

If nothing else, it is an eye opening book into what is involved in running this type of business.


In today's world, I think a small pc retail business would be very hard pressed to compete against someone like Dell ,head to head. Only on price.
The giant pc makers have volume purchasing on their side and inexpensive overseas tech support personnel on call.

But if you think "computer Consultant" and find a niche area to specialize in, there is money to be made.
Especially if you can solve problems in person, if needed.
Examples:
- Performing a disaster recovery after a hard drive crash,
- re-configuring a specialized software application to get it to work again
- removing mal-ware and/or virus' and reloading the OS.

Just my 02 cents.

I liked the book.

From a small pc builder's viewpoint, a hard part in getting started is in finding REAL wholesaler sources.
(Not middlemen who get in the way and jack up one's final costs).

The book mentioned a website called the Reseller's source kit.
( www.rs-kit.com). It is a "subscription only" site
(to gain access to the vendor's).
But, they also offer a free newsletter.

I joined the site and while it had interesting newsletters and informative details about the "small-biz-owner-pc-shop" business.
I was not blown away by any great pricing, on OEM software, or on hardware.
[So the idea of finding cheap hardware and software, then build a pc for cheap,WHILE making a reasonable ($100+) profit, very quickly vanished]

The small biz owner that deals with PC's has to think NICHE!
There's not enough money to be made in marketing of pc's directly to consumers. Maybe $100 per pc, a big MAYBE!

One NICHE could be after-the-sale "services".
- Training on software apps,
- peripherals training (i.e. video editing),
- remote data backup services (offsite disaster recovery)
- or other services.

If nothing else, it is an eye opening book into what is involved in running this type of business.


In today's world, I think a small pc retail business would be very hard pressed to compete against someone like Dell ,head to head. Only on price.
The giant pc makers have volume purchasing on their side and inexpensive overseas tech support personnel on call.

But if you think "computer Consultant" and find a niche area to specialize in, there is money to be made.
Especially if you can solve problems in person, if needed.
Examples:
- Performing a disaster recovery after a hard drive crash,
- re-configuring a specialized software application to get it to work again
- removing mal-ware and/or virus' and reloading the OS.

Just my 02 cents.

If you think those two pearls of wisdom are good then you will love this book.

I love this book and the yahoo group computerbusiness.
The author has taken the time to include quite a bit of information on items that are not generally considered when starting a business. Some examples are The type of business to open (i.e. repair service, retail store front, or working as a contractor). I now know I should probably open as a Sole Proprietor rather than incorporating my business. The Yahoo group has been very very useful also. I check the boards on a daily basis. Bottomline, If you are considering your own computer business, you should read this book first. It definatley helped me get my ducks in a row.

Thanks Morris.
Can't wait for the update...

I love this book and the yahoo group computerbusiness.
The author has taken the time to include quite a bit of information on items that are not generally considered when starting a business. Some examples are The type of business to open (i.e. repair service, retail store front, or working as a contractor). I now know I should probably open as a Sole Proprietor rather than incorporating my business. The Yahoo group has been very very useful also. I check the boards on a daily basis. Bottomline, If you are considering your own computer business, you should read this book first. It definatley helped me get my ducks in a row.

Thanks Morris.
Can't wait for the update...

To the point. No BS book

Not written like a get rich quick infomercial, but
more like a reality check. What I have learned from
experience in the computer business. I could have
obtained easily by reading this book first.

Good book for starting a business. Should give more detail and elaborate on business aspects of small business...

This book is mainly geared towards PC repair/networking people looking to start a business without the use of the contract brokers so prevalent in software/database/programming business.

As such, it presents a view that is very complimentary to that exposed by Ruhl and Myers in their books. Instead of approaching brokers for contracts, it advocates "guerrilla marketing" techniques: mass mailings, postings at laundromats and supermarkets, cold calling, etc. as a way of obtaining clients.

As other reviewers have mentioned, Rosenthal does not sugarcoat the potential pitfalls of this business. He also provides what is likely the best resource associated with the book, the Yahoo! Group "Computer Business" (http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/computerbusiness/).

Overall, a great resource.

IF you want a book heavy on accounting theory or how to repair some rare technical problem, this isn't it. If, however, you are looking for a book to help you tell if this is the correct business for you and perhaps how to start such an enterprise, it clearly is! Morris is grounded by his years of experience in the field and uses that experience to explain what is different about the field. He does a great job explaining how to make the jump into the field a success! No one resource will prepare you to enter this business, but Morris' book made my start a roaring success!

Dave Hayden

In this book, Mr.Rosenthal, like a trusted friend, gives the individual who is thinking about starting their own computer business much food for thought.

The very first story, of how the budding computer consultant can loose money with the best of intentions,is an eye opener, and awakens the reader to the often harsh realties associated with the business of providing tech help or selling computers.

If one pays attention, the benefit of Mr.Rosenthal's experience will guide the reader to make critical decisions,define the parameters of a successful business,(versus a hobby) and invaluable ways to avoid common pitfalls.

You may be surprised to learn that well guarded industry "secrets" are laid bare (certifications,OME vendors) and that the most important aspect of surviving the trade is honesty and reliability.

Highly reccomended.

An Excellent book, I already had been in the computer business for 8 months before I bought this book, but I wish I had done it before I stared out, because I made some of the mistakes described in the book, and I could have saved myself a lot of sleepless nights and money.
If like myself you live outside the U.S., then about one fifth of the book will not apply directly to you, because that information is related to taxes, legal advice and procedures, particular to the U.S.
The author gives useful tips based on first hand experience, that could help anyone thinking of starting in the computer business by themselves, or like myself, if you are already in the business and are in need of some ideas.
I definitely plan to make some changes based on the recommendations given by the author in the book.

A concise, very entertaining read. The author does an excellent job of providing a down to earth practical advice guide without pulling any punches. It opened my eyes to some of the pitfalls of the computer business and made me re-examine my assumptions.

If you are even thinking of entering the computer business you owe it too yourself (and your wallet) to read this book!

Whether you are planning to start a computer repair business, have already started one, have doubts about how you run business, or need to view your business from a fresh perspective to improve it, this book will be well worth your time and money. Questions about how to get started, how to market, what works and what doesn't work as well, to rent or not, to hire or not, to build or to buy, to upgrade or to replace, etc are all covered. The answers to these questions are not dictated, but the issues surrounding them are brought out by the author's opinions and experience, giving enough reasons to make your own conclusions.
I read this book after being in business for 3.5 years. I wish I had this resource before I started, if so, I would be much further along. The book seems to cover almost every topic that I have struggled with to date. In almost every case, through trial and error I have come to the same conclusions as those voiced by the author. In other areas, I was still trying to decide an approach regarding aspects of the business, and the book's content was useful in coming to a conclusion. Despite having been in business for a time, I still have much to learn. With some aspsects of the business I had concluded foggily that something did or did not work, but had not pinpointed the reasons, and reading the book made it more clear.

With many topics it was reassuring to read that someone with more experience than myself had arrived at the same conclusion using similar logic. If you find yourself working hard, and making too little money for your efforts, reading this book will help you start charging what you should be making.

I can safely say that before reading this book, I did not feel capable of taking on my own computer business. But, it was a quick and easy read- down and dirty with all the details. The business forum on yahoo that is recommended several times in this book has proven invaluable. Don't give it a second thought! Buy it today!!! You have nothing to lose.

I was looking for a book for my profession, i did a lot of research and deciding on Start your own computer business, the book is really good,the book is well detail and very informative you don't want to put it down, your thinking will i miss anything, My computer business is very succeessful, Thanks to Godly priniciple in business and good information like Start your own computer business. Thanks Amazon!!

I have a couple of friends who have tried the "computer business" and I've also worked at couple of computer stores, so I've always been interested in this topic...When I got my hands on this book, I was a little skeptical. I figured it would be mostly technical, and that it wouldn't have the "business" side of the computer business covered. Most people I know who have gone into this business have been technical geniuses, but light on business know-how, and they have all failed. Well, if they had read this book, they might still be in business today! Morris really tackles the business issues head on, from cold calling to number crunching. This one of the most entertaining, compact, and insightful business books I have read. Morris doesn't pull any punches here, such as his criticism of spending money and time on credentials: "You're going to need all the cash you can get your hands on. Don't waste it on pieces of paper nobody will read to frame and stick on the wall. That's a game for people who want to be somebody else's employee." Probably the best material in this book are Morris' real life examples about how to make sure your profit margins are enough to support your sales. Too often, new business owners don't factor in all the costs and Morris has learned this the hard way. I would have liked to have seen a little more info on the pros and cons of incorporation, but there are books on that subject already. This is a must read for anyone who is involved (or about to be involved) in the computer business!

I highly recommend this book to anybody who is starting a computer business.

This book has detailed information about everything from Buying and selling PCs to Accounting. Nothing is left out. One of my favorite chapters is Selling your first PC which starts like this:
You've sold your first PC to your mother's friend Doris, and then find out that whether you order it assembled or in pieces, there's not going to be any profit because you included Windows XP in the price but forgot to add in the cost.

He covers aspects of the business that you could easily forget and cost you money later. Buy this book and avoid making costly mistakes in the future.

This Book is written in a way that you can't lay it down, informative and realistic.
Don't judge this book by its ugly cover. This book is definitely worth 3 times the price.

Morris Book is one of the best books I've ever read, maybe because I am starting my own computer business.