Today I present another written interview with Nick Sutherland, Nick decided to start fixing cell phones through his online site CellFurb. In this interview I asked various questions about running this type of business and some challenges he faces with this model.
Check out the interview:
1. What got you interested in fixing cell phones for a business? Share your story.
In the summer of 2013 I had a very nice Motorola xt 910. One day I was mowing my lawn and it was really hot so i jumped into the pool. I felt for my pocket and there my phone was. I was really upset and decided to try and fix it and i was successful. This kicked off my business. I started taking my friends phones and fixing them and charging them a low price. In November of 2013 I built a website and started fixing phones Ontario wide. In the New Year I got a distributor that sold parts at a very reasonable price. I then started selling and fixing phones. CellFurb (My cell phone fixing company) had over 10 000 views per month and about $1000 sales per month. So I decided to add a parts section to my website. This really kicked off and I got about $2000-$5000 sales the first month. After a month I started up HQCParts.com and then removed the parts section from CellFurb
2. Do you ever find occasions where specific parts are hard to come by or issues are difficult to resolve when it comes to fixing cell phones?
Since technology is advancing and so many cellphones are coming out it is hard for me to know all the parts of a phone and how they work. Fixing a new cellphone is really difficult and stressful. If anything goes wrong I have to resolve the issue in under 2 hours so I have to find suitable parts and repair it. It is really difficult and stressful to resolve these issues.
3. I noticed you currently fix iPhones, how do you plan to adapt to fix upcoming cell phones that hit the market as the industry changes each year? Do you plan to eventually cater to Android based cell phones?
I mainly fix iPhones because the parts are much easier to come by and I get a lot more iPhone repairs then android. I do currently fix Android phones but it is uncommon for me to fix more than one a day. Phones come out every week. I learn how they work as I fix the phone and I be extra cautious. For manufacturing the parts, I stay on top of the current phones and make sure I can create and sell the parts as needed. Currently I only carry iPhone parts but in late May I will be releasing my Android, Windows, iPod, iPad and tablet parts on http://HQCParts.com
4. How have you gone about promoting your business? Do you do any SEO, paid advertising, social media or any other means of promotion?
For CellFurb I advertise on Facebook and Youtube. Advertising brings me about 30-40 customer’s per day for http://CellFurb.com For http://HQCParts.com It is purely word of mouth. Since I currently sell on ebay, I ship everything with a HQCParts label so people see this and go to my site! I get 20-60 orders per day.
5. What are your future plans for 2014 and beyond? Where do you see the business going?
I am hopefully going to get at least 40% of the Canadian CellPhone Parts business and 10% of the cellphone repair business. I hope that sales will stay up and that I will break my $500 000 sales mark. I am about to release my Android Windows iPod iPad Tablet line of parts so that a huge step. CellFurb will have cellphone rental services coming out in June of 2014 and this should attract tourists and people who need phones for a short period!