I was recently asked the following question on our discussion forum.

Q. "I am looking to quit my job working for a major PC company to start my own PC repair and video company. But it seems that there are so many people doing this.

Is there really any room for another PC repair and video company out there? I want to make this my career. Any advice?"

Here is my reply.

Don't get into a business where you sell your time and services by the hour.

And don't give up your real job until you have reliable and sufficient income from another source.

And don't get into the PC repair business. Doing so means you will be competing with everything from small 'mom and pop' businesses to giants like Best Buy and Circuit City, for repairing what are quickly becoming 'throw away' devices.

Instead, choose a business model where:

1. you are not competing with well established national businesses
2. you don't sell your time by the hour
3. you do create a product once and sell it many times
4. you can automate order taking and fulfillment of your sales.
5. you don't need employees
6. you don't have to deal with customers face-to-face
7. you don't have to have a physical retail location and
8. where the price of the product you sell is at least ten times the cost

By following the above guidelines, you stack the deck in your favor, and you significantly increase your chances of success, while reducing the problems that cause many businesses to fail.

You can find the rest of this discussion, along with many other interesting posts in our forum at http://www.bmyers.com/members/forum/openforum.cfm?forum=1