Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hello all.

This is my first post after many weeks of reading SuN.

I am in the process of writing my business plan and am at a point where I want to talk to other business people in the same or similar line of work but I am a bit apprehensive to just call `em up.

Do any SuN folks have suggestions or ways to learn about existing businesses?

My business will be dealing with IT equipment at the end of its useful life.  I have determined that there are no "established" businesses in my city doing what I plan to do.

Thanks for any help and suggestions.


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Steven Lewis
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“Do or do not... there is no try.” - Yoda

Well, having a discussion here in the forums is at least a place to start, right? :-) What do you plan to do with this equipment if it has no further useful life?

Try calling related businesses in other cities.  Tell them where you are located and they will be less likely to see you as competition because you do not share the same geographical market.  I bet for that reason, they will open up more with some advice.

Thank you CraigL for your reply and I agree these forums are great place to start.

The end of useful life is relative to each client. For instance we contract with manufacturing facility that will be replacing 200 desktop PCs, 75 laptops and 10 laser printers. The problem is that the client can not put this hardware into the landfill and the data that remains on the hard drives of the soon to be replaced equipment must be destroyed and their own IT staff is stretched to the limit . While this equipment is obsolete in the clients view the hardware may very well be valuable in another market and this is were my company enters the scene. This is a vastly simplified view of what we do but I hope it gets the idea across.

Our value proposition is that we free the clients staff to continue supporting their productive employees, we provide risk mitigation via effective data destruction and recycling thus providing disposal indemnification, and possible revenue sharing on items that are resold.






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Steven Lewis
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“Do or do not... there is no try.” - Yoda

Thank you CampSteve! Your suggestion is great.

I agree that if a person does not perceive me as a threat they are more willing to share industry information with me.

I am interested what others in my area of business are charging for similar services. This will help me in the financial areas of my business plan.

I suppose I could pose as a potential customer and request their fee structure etc.


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Steven Lewis
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“Do or do not... there is no try.” - Yoda

I worked a job for Tel Labs where they were doing a global replacement of early Macs, switching over to updated PCs. There were probably 300 machines, plus printers, monitors, keyboards, mice, etc., all of which needed to go away.

They had a contractor like yourself, who had only 1 requirement: We had to separate out the various pieces and offer a basic count of each type of unit. It didn`t have to be accurate, just a way to set a final price.

So I tore down the originals, made the switch, the carted the old system to a holding room on site. I split out the hardware into monitors, keyboards, boxes, cables, etc., and listed that count.

The contractor came and took it from there. Loaded the trucks, hauled it away, and that was the end of it. They too offered total data destruction, and it was a really nice synergy for everyone involved.

As a home individual, even with only 1 machine, I wondered what the heck to do with my old computer when I replaced it. I knew there were all sorts of bizarre chemicals and metals involved, but had no clue how to dispose of it all. It would`ve been really nice to open the Yellow Pages and look under "Computer Equipment Disposal."

Thanks CraigL!

I appreciate your sharing of experiences and your insight  into  your  needs as a home computer user with the need to dispose of a computer.

This is all very helpful.


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Steven Lewis
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“Do or do not... there is no try.” - Yoda

This is an extremely interesting discussion.

One word of warning - if you take used computer equipment, it may contain active or deleted data that can easily be retrieved or restored. I suggest you address this potential concern with clients, because when you take their old equipment you may also be taking some important (and expensive) data. 

You may need to wipe storage media clean before redeploying it.

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--
Mike Michalowicz
Author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur

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Steven Lewis
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“Do or do not... there is no try.” - Yoda

Realistically, all you`d have to do would be pour some muratic acid on the hard drive, it`s available at hardware stores for cleaning concrete. It`s a form of hydrochloric acid, and would immediately ruin the hard drive forevermore.