You make a call on your cell phone as you pull up in front of a business. The person you called walks out in the parking lot to your car. They hand you a broken iPhone. 10 minutes later, you give it back, repaired. They hand you three $20 bills. They are HAPPY! You just made $40 or more.
The iPhone was introduced in 2007. Was it an instant hit? Yes. Did everyone who wanted one get one? No. Why? Only AT&T could sell it. It was expensive. What has changed? As the iPhone was used by owners, they sold millions of other people around the world on the iPhone. Right along side it, the same thing happened with the iPod. Apple is now HUGE and exploding. Is the market for repairing small, expensive, touch screen devices is going grow – ya think? Beyond Apple, the iPhone, iPod and iPad, other manufacturers will produce touch screen products we will love, and they all have something in common.
The touch screen glass gets broken. Any way you toss it, if they come down on a hard surface, the glass will either crack, or shatter. When people hear that you repair iPhones, the first thing that comes to mind? You must be an electronic genius. They think “geek”! Well, it takes a bit of the geek to repair these tiny devices, because they have tiny parts. However, the majority (probably 90%) of the repairs are for broken glass. Because of the way the iPhone is constructed, the glass and digitizer just below it, must be replaced. If you have a reliable supplier of OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) parts, you’ll pay about $14 for both the glass, the digitizer and the 3M sealant pad. When you’re getting $60 or even $45 for a 10 minute repair, that leaves you a sweet cash profit to report to the IRS.
How big is the demand? We placed free advertising on a Saturday, and by Tuesday, we had orders for $2,000 in repairs. Demand is huge now and exploding. It’s not just the iPhone, the iPod and the iPad. Soon, Motorola or somebody is going to make a phone that people will want to keep and fix, like the iPhone. We’re headed toward an endless sea of small devices with touch pads, with broken glass.
Can you do this? Who knows. Not everyone can. You have to have be calm under pressure. Pressure? Customers love to watch you do it! You have to know enough about marketing to know how to cheaply tell people you are available to fix their iPhone. You have to have the discipline any business requires.