August 8, 2005
Dirty work | A chat with Dean Barron, owner of PC Klean.
By Richard Smart
Founded:Februrary 2004
Employees: Eight
Startup costs: $300
Revenues, 2004: $22,000
Projected revenues, 2005: $45,000
Contact: 671-9087
480 Congress St., Portland
www.pcklean.com
How did you get the idea to start a computer cleaning company?
I lived in Vancouver for a couple of years and I noticed somebody up there doing it. When I moved back [to Maine] I noticed there was nobody really doing it here. There are a lot of people fixing computers, but they don't really go into an office and clean [the computers].
Why would someone want to get a computer cleaned?
Just the germs on the keyboard alone [make it] dirtier than a toilet. You figure all the bacteria and whatnot collects on your hands, and once you touch your phones, your keyboard and your mouse, those three items collect 400 times more germs than a toilet seat. Basically, the computer cleaning prevents viruses and germs from being passed between people in the office, which as an end result keeps people at work instead of home sick.
What exactly does a computer cleaning entail?
Basically what we do when we go in is look at the computer as far as the operating system ˆ whether it needs to be defragged [unfragmenting computer files] or not, whether there are viruses or not. We run an antivirus program, and then once that stuff's all cleaned out we do a disk scan to make sure there's no bad [file] clusters or anything like that. Then we do a defrag to compile all the stuff that's scattered all over the computer so it will run faster.
After that, we take the cover off the computer and blow it out with air, get all the dust and dirt out of the inside of the box. We have special chemical sprays we use on the monitor, keyboard and the mouse. We clean other things as well, like calculators, phones, fax machines, photocopiers ˆ anything somebody actually touches.
Who are your clients?
I've done quite a few [computers] for American Express travel advisors, Dunkin Donuts, 7-11. Local people don't really get into it. They just let their stuff go.
What kind of marketing have you done?
I'll send out an e-mail once a month to people that are in my e-mail database, people that I've dealt with before or [names] that have been given to us by companies that we've already cleaned.
The techs that I've got out there, they sometimes do things on their own because it makes them more money. They'll go into a business and say, "You know what? Your computers look dirty, you should have them cleaned." And then they leave and it puts the seed in somebody's mind: "Wow, they really are dirty. I should get them cleaned." And then they look up Maine computer cleaning on Google and we're right there.
Is there much competition in the area?
None that I know of. There are a lot of computer repair people that claim to clean computers. Basically all they'll do is blow it out with a can of air and be done. They don't use the chemicals and whatnot to clean the keyboard and mouse, [so] they don't get the bacteria.
Why did you decide to do computer cleaning instead of repair?
There are so many repair shops around here. There's probably about a dozen people in the area who do real good repair work, and I don't want to take the business away from them. Some of them are having a hard enough time surviving.
What are your plans for PC Klean?
I figured I'd let it run for another year or two, see what the future holds for that time period, and then I'll possibly sell it off. That's usually what I do, get something going, put somebody in there to manage it and a few years down the road turn around and sell it to start something new.
Why not keep a profitable business?
I suppose because of the effort. Being an entrepreneur and having a whole bunch of businesses running, it can sometimes get very confusing as to what business is doing what and where they're going. Instead of operating that way all the time, it's better to just let one go that's doing something rather than keep it.
New Entrepreneurs profiles young businesses, 6-18 months old. Send your suggestions and contact information to sdonahue@mainebiz.biz.
Employees: Eight
Startup costs: $300
Revenues, 2004: $22,000
Projected revenues, 2005: $45,000
Contact: 671-9087
480 Congress St., Portland
www.pcklean.com
How did you get the idea to start a computer cleaning company?
I lived in Vancouver for a couple of years and I noticed somebody up there doing it. When I moved back [to Maine] I noticed there was nobody really doing it here. There are a lot of people fixing computers, but they don't really go into an office and clean [the computers].
Why would someone want to get a computer cleaned?
Just the germs on the keyboard alone [make it] dirtier than a toilet. You figure all the bacteria and whatnot collects on your hands, and once you touch your phones, your keyboard and your mouse, those three items collect 400 times more germs than a toilet seat. Basically, the computer cleaning prevents viruses and germs from being passed between people in the office, which as an end result keeps people at work instead of home sick.
What exactly does a computer cleaning entail?
Basically what we do when we go in is look at the computer as far as the operating system ˆ whether it needs to be defragged [unfragmenting computer files] or not, whether there are viruses or not. We run an antivirus program, and then once that stuff's all cleaned out we do a disk scan to make sure there's no bad [file] clusters or anything like that. Then we do a defrag to compile all the stuff that's scattered all over the computer so it will run faster.
After that, we take the cover off the computer and blow it out with air, get all the dust and dirt out of the inside of the box. We have special chemical sprays we use on the monitor, keyboard and the mouse. We clean other things as well, like calculators, phones, fax machines, photocopiers ˆ anything somebody actually touches.
Who are your clients?
I've done quite a few [computers] for American Express travel advisors, Dunkin Donuts, 7-11. Local people don't really get into it. They just let their stuff go.
What kind of marketing have you done?
I'll send out an e-mail once a month to people that are in my e-mail database, people that I've dealt with before or [names] that have been given to us by companies that we've already cleaned.
The techs that I've got out there, they sometimes do things on their own because it makes them more money. They'll go into a business and say, "You know what? Your computers look dirty, you should have them cleaned." And then they leave and it puts the seed in somebody's mind: "Wow, they really are dirty. I should get them cleaned." And then they look up Maine computer cleaning on Google and we're right there.
Is there much competition in the area?
None that I know of. There are a lot of computer repair people that claim to clean computers. Basically all they'll do is blow it out with a can of air and be done. They don't use the chemicals and whatnot to clean the keyboard and mouse, [so] they don't get the bacteria.
Why did you decide to do computer cleaning instead of repair?
There are so many repair shops around here. There's probably about a dozen people in the area who do real good repair work, and I don't want to take the business away from them. Some of them are having a hard enough time surviving.
What are your plans for PC Klean?
I figured I'd let it run for another year or two, see what the future holds for that time period, and then I'll possibly sell it off. That's usually what I do, get something going, put somebody in there to manage it and a few years down the road turn around and sell it to start something new.
Why not keep a profitable business?
I suppose because of the effort. Being an entrepreneur and having a whole bunch of businesses running, it can sometimes get very confusing as to what business is doing what and where they're going. Instead of operating that way all the time, it's better to just let one go that's doing something rather than keep it.
New Entrepreneurs profiles young businesses, 6-18 months old. Send your suggestions and contact information to sdonahue@mainebiz.biz.
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