What's Stopping Me................

[Scorotron Wizard]

Thanks for that but it's not just the toners, its finding the different procedures to get into the service modes, I remember CROP codes for Sharp machines but what no does what (CROP 14 Fix all) 10871087 for the old Mita and some Nashua (& now the new Kyocera) stop 0 stop1 Minolta, Stick a spike in the hole for Cannon, Paper tray UP etc for Panasonic, these are just afew off the top of my head, but then what code does what, if you stick to a couple of brands you can get quite good at sorting the problems, ok take on any that come along but when you upgrade you can put in a mc that you know your way around. Anything you are not sure of ask here on the forum you can be assured of support here

[arriva1]

Good luck to you
I would recommend you stick to one or two brand as it takes a while to find your way round their service modes etc.

I agree. I put service contracts on Toshiba and Sharp mainly. Although I will service just about anything, it gets hard to carry that many different toners and supplies.

[Scorotron Wizard]

Good luck to you
I would recommend you stick to one or two brand as it takes a while to find your way round their service modes etc.

[Bill Monroe]

Going independent

I noticed that this thread hasn't had any activity in about a week but I thought that I'd ad my two cents.

I have been an independent for the better part of the past 20 years and I must admit there are times when I yearned for the security of a "job". But you know what? You can do pretty well for yourself if you're willing to go out and pound the pavement. You can talk to the customers that you are taking care of and ask them how they would feel about signing a service contract with a small insependent (YOU!) You can line up several dozen customers within a month. If you are personable and customers like you, you can get a leg up. As far as worrying about keeping up with technology, you can become a dealer or a retailer and have access to new machines, parts, supplies and technical support. Copystar is always looking for dealers, and I found out that you can become a dealer for NEC who market Kyocera and Konica-Minolta machines ans you don't even have to have a store front. You can do it out of your home. There are a multitude of resources that you can connect with for parts, supplies and machines. I deal with NuWorld down in Cerritos and I've been able to get machines, parts, and whatever else I need from them. They're good. I'm also a dealer for NEC but I work from home and best of all, I get to keep all the money!

Let me know how you make out. There are always options.

Aloha,
Mr. Bill (Oh Nooo!)



















'

[blackcat4866]

freedomtt:
I wonder the same thing. We are a Copystar dealer, and it would be nearly impossible to sell these machines as networkable MFPs without a whole raft of utilities:

KM-Net Viewer
Setup Utility
Current firmware
etc.

I simply beg off on models with this sort of software requirements, i.e. Xerox.

=^..^=

[freedomtt]

Good luck on what ever you decide to do!

As a little chime in, one thing I wonder about with indepedent techs is how you get the software tools for the machines, or do you just not work on machines that need it? I can't imagine sending my techs out to work on the newer Canon machines (we are a dealer) without the system support tool and NAVI. Maybe these things can be bought online? I'm sure someone is willing to sell them.

[arriva1]

Sorry for the delay guys, I've actually been busy looking into this more. Appearantly the owner is in trouble with his two Distributors and one had approached me about possibly taking over things.................All for the low low cost of a 150,000 dollar buy in Do these guys not know how little we get paid.

It's not the fact that I'm afraid of the machines, because lets be honest the only difference in the copy, print, fax concept is the name on the box and thats it. The theory is identical on all machines. I think my biggest worry and what I'm going to start researching this weekend (Wife and Kids are going out of town..........Bachelor weekend) is the whole getting my hands on the manuals. You guys were right on the suppliers part. Man I can't believe how many third party people there are out there. Well everything but boards.

Anywho, I did want to follow up with the fella's to let you know what was going on with this. If nothing else I'll use this as my diary on the trials and tribulations on this whole subject.

Later guys

Hytec for boards and board repair. They have good tech support too.

[cobiray]

You could always test the waters for better offers and then take those back to Scrooge in an attempt to get a raise. Seems like the going on your own route could be a little risky, but that's been stated. Sounds like a lot more leg work and head ache. Ultimately it depends how fed up you are with your current position and the lack of other options. Good luck!

[arriva1]

I work for myself and my wife stays home and does the office work. I'm not getting rich yet but i'm not starving either. Its hard to take time off, but I'm not punching a clock.
There is plenty of tech support out there if you run into trouble. I have never been factory trained on any machine and run a good business (15 years).
I'm also looking for a good tech that wants to go out on there own (in florida). I have a great base of 80-90 contracts and hundreds of per call and supply order customers. Lots of room for more business but theres only so many hours in the day.

[nhatthuc0000]

o

good luck to u!!!!!!!!

[blackcat4866]

I've been rolling in the cost of the manual purchase into the service call. After all, I don't want to walk in looking like an imdecile. Most manuals can be downloaded in 5 minutes if you have an internet connection and a credit card.

Sorry for the delay guys, I've actually been busy looking into this more. Appearantly the owner is in trouble with his two Distributors and one had approached me about possibly taking over things.................All for the low low cost of a 150,000 dollar buy in Do these guys not know how little we get paid.

It's not the fact that I'm afraid of the machines, because lets be honest the only difference in the copy, print, fax concept is the name on the box and thats it. The theory is identical on all machines. I think my biggest worry and what I'm going to start researching this weekend (Wife and Kids are going out of town..........Bachelor weekend) is the whole getting my hands on the manuals. You guys were right on the suppliers part. Man I can't believe how many third party people there are out there. Well everything but boards.

Anywho, I did want to follow up with the fella's to let you know what was going on with this. If nothing else I'll use this as my diary on the trials and tribulations on this whole subject.

Later guys

[CanonHPTech]

What's stopping me?... well, I have brass ones... but I still have to pay the bills... its that being able to not look before you leap... trust me, I have had offers to go into biz for myself, but I have to eat... if you can sell your self... then your half way there my friend! I have worked for many of small biz owners who were very good salesman,and found oppurtunities where other saw problems, and other sold themselves and their companies... where these men falter was to hire the right people (not their nephews with A+) to run the day to day operations (such as accounting) and tech support (including continious training)... good luck sir. Maybe at some point we can meet and who knows.

[blackcat4866]

A few general purpose copier suppliers are www.ued.com, Printer Toner Cartridges - Copier Toner Cartridges - Printer Parts & Copier Parts, Copier parts, imaging supplies, photoreceptors, service accessories and printer products from Katun.

For printer parts try yeah.com - Only the best links ..., HP LaserJet Printers & Accessories - Genuine HP Parts & Fusers, LaserJet Repair Kits - The Printer Works!, Feedroller: hp feed rollers, printer parts, hp rollers , feed roller repair kits, feed roller parts, laser jet rollers, separation rollers, hp feed rollers, pick up roller, mp roller, paper jam, printer part rollers, fusing assembly, roller parts fee, Lake Erie Systems provides Genicom printers, Lexmark printer, TI ribbons, OKI Okidata printers, Genicom printer repairs, lexmark printer repair parts, lexmark maintenance kits, oki printheads, maintenance manuals.

Once you have a part number, just punch it into a Google search engine, and away you go. You'll start to see the same names again and again.

I had no intention of discouraging you. It's just not an easy path. And you won't get much help from the dealers (but we'll always help...).

[Copier_Guy]

Thanks for the advice guys, keep the idea's, fears and so on coming. Another thing that I was thinking of was who would I go to for supplies? Drums, Developer, Toner, Masters, Inks. Everyone I have worked for used manufactures for supplies, are there third party suppliers?

All over the place. Get real familiar with your computer and search engines, because you will spend many hours developing contacts and reliable vendors for parts and supplies. Who knows, you may have sales so high that the OEMs come knocking at YOUR door. We could hope, can't we.

That's what it's all about. Hoping and dreaming and the tenacity to turn those dreams and hopes into reality.