A multimeter is an essential tool in appliance repair, so you’re going to have to learn to use one. The trouble is, if you don’t know ANYTHING about multimeters, you might not be able to even understand the books that tell you how to use them. Believe it or not, it’s really hard to find information on …
Appliance Repair – Good Business in a Bad Economy
Back when I first considered starting my appliance repair business not much more than a year ago, I couldn’t have accurately forecast what my experience would be. I only knew that it seemed like a good idea, although maybe a little daunting to get the proper training and compete with well established businesses for a …
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Paid Leads – Chasing the Dragon
I was nervous when I first moved my business to the big city. How was I going to compete with all the other appliance repair service companies here? I got some of my customers to write reviews for me and worked my way up to the first page of Google, but my website still hadn’t …
Indian Head Gasket Shellac Changed My Life
Sometimes I do a repair precisely by the book, leaving absolutely no possibility for error. Then, at the moment of truth (i.e. testing the machine after reassembly), my heart sinks straight into my belly as I stare in disbelief when the appliance behaves just as if I never touched it. This recently happened to me …
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Country to City – Moving My Appliance Repair Business
Just as things were building up a head of steam in the remote rural town of 18,000 people where I successfully started my appliance repair business, my wife landed a job in a city with a metro area of 1.3 million people. So, I moved my business. Here I am in a completely new business situation, cashing in on the up …
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My Ten Problem Call from Hell
Most of my posts are positive examples of overcoming challenges with victorious endings. I wish every call could go that way, but sometimes I get that call where nothing goes right, and in the interest of keeping it real, that’s just as important to write about as all the cool victories. The two-part customer complaint …
Six Month Review
I can’t believe it’s been six months since I successfully started my appliance repair business! I am surprised at some of the things I have learned along the way. Many things have been easier than I thought, and a few harder. Here are a few things I have observed so far: Overall I have surprised …
Getting Past the Fear of Running My First Service Calls
With a few service calls under my belt I am finally starting to get past my initial fear of going into other people’s homes and fixing some appliance that I have never seen before. Honestly, I have a long way to go before I feel totally comfortable, but I was surprised at just how nervous I …
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The Random Nature of Service Calls
OK, I admit it, I’m a bit of a control freak. I spend my life organizing and planning the events of my day. When studying appliance repair, I found myself choosing to study the appliances that I thought would be most in demand for repair FIRST and the least likely to get service calls LAST. …
The Customer So Nice, I Got Called Twice
Not only did I get my first repeat customer call, but it came from my first ever customer It was for the same appliance that I serviced just a few weeks earlier – the good news is the problem was unrelated to my first repair. After the first call this guy thought I was a genius, …
Ever Have That Feeling You’re Being Watched?
It was a conspiracy of ironic bad luck that sent me on my second ever service call. I had no idea when I rang the doorbell just how challenging fate was going to make my next experience. It was not because the customer was some terrible jerk that demanded unreasonable results with no intention of paying …
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My First Service Call (For Real) Part 2
The part came Fedex at around 1:00 PM the next day. I called the customer and arranged to come by at 2:00 PM. When I got there, the customer let me find my way to the laundry room – we were old pals by now. There was a load of unwashed laundry in the washer waiting …