Over the course of 2022, I ran a cellphone repair business on a college campus. Today I break down how I started repairing Apple iPhones as a business, what I needed to invest in to begin repairs and the lessons I took away from this business venture.

🕤Time Stamps
0:43 - Why Start iPhone Repairs
1:45 - Where to Acquire Skills to Repair
3:00 - Marketing
5:34 - First Repair
7:20 - Operating the Business
8:38 - Encountering Roadblocks
13:35 - Where The Business is Today
15:52 - Take Away Lessons

🔧 Why did I start an iPhone Repair Business as a Side Hustle:
Starting an iPhone repair business seemed obvious to me at the time. For one I was really passionate about repairing electronics as a hobby so naturally being able to do a side hustle that involved a hobby was exciting to me. If I would be able to generate $50-$100 a repair I could scale this up and generate a few hundred dollars a week which would be comparable to a part time job and I would be doing something that I really enjoyed

1️⃣ Gaining the skills required to do repairs:
I started with fixing up cracked, dented and shattered iPhone SE's and other older iPhone that I purchased on eBay. I would take these broken screens and swap them with working, new screens and then relist them back on Facebook Marketplace and eBay. This was a great way to first off gain confidence in fixing iPhones as well as practicing on iPhones where there were no high stakes if you completely break the phone.

2️⃣ Essential Tools, Equipment and Start up costs:
There are a lot of tools and start up costs that you need to consider before taking the plunge into running a business. Some of them are nice to haves but there are other tools and costs that are must-haves to preform a repair efficiently and effectively all depending on what direction you want to take your business.

3️⃣ Marketing and Attracting Customers:
Marketing can be done both online and offline, leveraging social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube. But creating visuals like good posters, and presenting them to the community is also very important.

4️⃣ Pricing Strategies and Business Operations:
It's important to have a good setup/plan for where to meet up with your customers when it comes to repairs to ensure customer satisfaction. I wanted to market my services towards college students and wanted to offer cheap, fast, and reliable repairs. For that reason I wanted to meet up at a public location on campus like the library to do my repairs. I also tried to price my repairs in a way that college students would really be drawn to do business with me.

5️⃣ Lessons learned and working with customers:
When running a business you encounter many roadblocks and your will make mistakes. In the cell phone repair business that this is no different. You are sometimes forced to make stressful decisions in front of a customer and you need to resolve. These turn out to be lessons that last a lifetime.


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