Review of Uncle Harry’s Appliance Repair Training

Start An Appliance Repair BusinessI bought Uncle Harry’s appliance repair technician home study course and used it to successfully start my appliance repair business, which I write about in my startup blog.  In retrospect, this is how I feel about the value of Uncle Harry’s materials and support.

When I started out, I knew absolutely NOTHING about the appliance repair business, and I had no relatives, neighbors or buddies who could mentor me and teach me the business.

All I had when I started was “Electronics for Dummies” and a book on appliance repair called Troubleshooting and Repairing Major Appliances, 2nd Ed.  I had watched all the free YouTube videos I could find, and I had studied DIY forums for all they were worth, but I just couldn’t bridge the gap between being an amateur and becoming a professional without SOMETHING else.

I looked at Penn-Foster pretty closely, but I was concerned that it would be too theoretical; also they seemed to teach fixing lots of small appliances.  My gut feeling was that there was no money in that area. It seemed like a waste of time to learn that stuff.   I wanted something practical that taught me what I would encounter in the real world and make a tidy profit. The other schools that I looked at seemed aimed more at training me to be a technician rather than a businessman. Going away to school for 2-3 weeks was not practical for me and I really questioned how much I could absorb is a few weeks.

With all the manufacturers, models, types of appliances and years of technology changes that I would need to become an expert on, how was I going to go from knowing nothing to taking appliance repair calls?

Uncle Harry had a very valuable solution.  First, he taught me the hands-on fundamentals using videos of repairs being done on actual machines, and technical manuals with step-by-step instructions.  He was very wise when he advised turning down known troublesome jobs.  (I found that out the hard way a few times.) Next, what was really important is he taught me the business itself,  including advertising/web marketing, parts inventory, customer service, and pricing.  After all that, he had an extensive support system as I started going out on my calls.

Before I ever started taking service calls, I studied Harry’s materials thoroughly.  Once I started taking calls, I would research specific problems I was trying to solve by reviewing them in Uncle Harry’s course materials.

Harry personally answered my emails and phone calls and helped me through my stumpers, which was critical for me in the early stages of a startup.

Not sure how I would have started my appliance repair business from scratch without using Uncle Harry as an intermediate stepping stone between being a DIY guy and a professional.

For more about how I started my appliance repair business, read my startup blog, and for more about my ongoing business read my business blog.