If you want to start an appliance repair business on your own, there is really no way around the hands-on experience learning curve. I armed myself with good training to start with from Uncle Harry and relied heavily on his support system, but at the end of the day I still had to do the repairs …
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 …
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Looking Back at My Appliance Business Startup
Business has been very good for me. In fact, it is growing much faster than I originally predicted it would be at this time in my first year. I have gotten so busy that I really haven’t had time to blog, and that’s the simple answer as to where I’ve been. I have been astonished …
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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 …
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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. …
It’s Not What You Study, It’s What the Customer Needs Fixed
Another service call came in, but this one threw me way off! Customer says she has a GE microwave that is dead and wants to know if I can come to take a look at it. I kept a cool tone, but my stomach was in a spin. I knew I hadn’t touched ANY of …
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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 to 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 …
My First Service Call (For Real) Part 1
Today I got my first real service call. (Thanks to the “dress rehearsal” last Thursday, I wasn’t half as nervous taking this one. ) It was a straightforward call. The customer said his wife had broken the door latch on their Whirlpool Duet washer (GHW9200LW). I told the customer I’d come by at 1:00 PM, and actually got …
Who the Heck is Uncle Harry?
I had been reading the appliance repair bible Troubleshooting and Repairing Major Appliances, by Eric Kleinert) for about a week, and I realized I needed more practical training. I needed to see a real appliance being worked on, how they figure out what’s wrong with it, get the dang thing open and what they do once they’re inside. More …
Appliance Repair Makes the Cut
After realizing that appliance repair might be a good option, I started to look at it more closely. First, it’s not regulated, so you don’t need a license or a 4-year apprenticeship or anything like that. Second, you can make some good money doing it. So far, so good. How do I start? First thing …