How we make money from mobile phone repair’
How we make money from mobile phone repair’
The coming of mobile phones has opened up avenues of business opportunities that were non-existent before their introduction into the Nigerian market. The new businesses include mobile phone repair, retail and wholesale outlets, including mobile phone accessories and other related wireless products and services.
Mobile phones being electronic devices are prone to different faults due to hardware and software issues which necessitate rectification thereby making some young, wise men to grab the opportunity by opening up the mobile phone repair shops and they have since experienced a certain level of growth in their endeavour.
The business is seen as very lucrative because one problem or the other must exist due to refurbished phones sold and new ones developing one problem or the other, forcing people to always come to us for repair purposes instead of going for another one.
Bobo Princewill Chukwudi, owner of Unique Venture limited in Dutse Alhaji, Abuja, attested to this. He said phone repair business is lucrative and that he makes about N30,000 monthly.
“After my diploma programme in Law at the University of Abuja in 2000, I tried as much as I could to get a job with it but the job was not forthcoming hence I decided to go into phone repair, though it was just coming into the country then.
“I was thinking of what to do since I could not get a job with my diploma certificate, when I heard an announcement from the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), asking those that are interested in phone repairs’ training to come and register with them, I quickly went there and enrolled,” he said.
The training, according to him, lasted for three months before they were certified and given certificate.
“While we were on the training, the government promised to assist us with tools and empower us to open our workshop but after the training they reneged on their promises and we were left to cater for ourselves,” he added.
Chukwudi who has been in the business of repairing phone for about five years, said: “One cannot do the job effectively without getting the basic tools, for instance, if you want to go into hardware repair, at least you must have a rework station and other tools. I bought my own at the cost of N38,000 in 2006 but the price has come down now.
“When the government could not fulfil its promise, I decided to source for fund to start on my own since I already have the skill and knowledge about the repairs. At the end, I was able to raise N50,000 to buy the basic tools for the job and thank God I am in the business today.”
On the service charge, he said the charge depends on the fault discovered in the phone. “There are some we charge N500 while the complex ones we charge between N1000 and N2,500,” he said.
According to him, there is no stable profit in the business. “The greater the patronage the higher the profit but in a day I make an average of between N4, 000 and N5,000,” he said, adding that he is also into daily and weekly contribution of N400 and N5,000 and that he smiles home with N30,000 after deducting all the expenses incurred in the course of doing the job in a month. “But there are months I earn more than that too,” he revealed.
Chukwudi said: “I am not into software repair because I don’t have the tools for it but I have the knowledge. For me to have the complete tools for software repair, it would cost nothing less than N150,000. This enables you to fix phone through the computer system.”
According to him, if one wants to go into software repair, one must have a computer and software package that contain information about the different brands of phones while, in hardware, you must have a rework station, a set of tools for loosening and tightening and meter among others.
On the level of patronage, he said, “it depends on the area the business is located. Someone in Wuse market or GSM village would have more patronage than me. But as for me, the patronage here is good and it is on the average.”
Meanwhile, he said, he was discouraged from approaching any of the Micro-finance banks for loan because those who had approached them were asked to produce collateral security which he does not have.
He called on government to empower the youths and make the environment conducive for business to thrive, saying that “Nigerian youths are willing to be self-employed.”
Another phone repairer, Abel Agha, owner of Mega Solutions said the business of phone repair is very lucrative and that he has been in it for over six years.
He said: “I started the business in a very low form but God has been helping me. With this business I am married with two children and have been able to build my own house too.”
According to him, he learnt the repair of handsets for six months in Port Harcourt in 2004 before relocating to Abuja, saying that he was into computer repair but was not moving well so when GSM came into the country he decided to learn phone repair and that it is more lucrative compared with computer repair.
Agha said the business of handsets repair is lucrative and there is high level of patronage. “But the most important thing is that whatever you are doing try and do it well so that people will look for you to give you job, if you don’t do it well you will lack patronage, doing my work very well has been helping me excel in this business.”
“With just N4000 Agha started the business by buying some tools for the work and now he makes an average of N4000 daily while in a month he smiles home with N30, 000 and N40, 000 on a good month.
“The service charge varies and it is dependent on the problem that the handset has. The service charge ranges from N300 to N2000” he said.
He said he had approached one of the commercial banks for loan but was frustrated with the demand of collateral security by the bank which he could not afford.
On the challenges faced on the Job, Chukwudi said, customers’ overbearing attitude is a major challenge in the business, saying that clients would insult you whenever there is delay in fixing their phones and that some customers do call police to arrest them for failing to deliver on time.
Also change in weather is a challenge to us because our profit declines during dry season while during raining season the business is booming for us.
According to him, electricity is also a challenge on the job because we don’t have regular supply of electricity here, hence; we resort to generator to do our business, saying that he spent N12, 000 on both fuelling and servicing of generator in month.The Hammer Phone was part experiment, part product of bordom gone out of control, part imitation.
The experimentation part is with Rust-Oleum Hammered Black Spray Paint that my brother had been using for one of his refinishing projectm and it so happened that he had some left over when he was finished. The part of boredom gone bad is a few weeks when saying I had nothing to do would be an understatement. I've been living in a painfuly small, overpriced rental house in a fairly crumby part of town after my move (that will be remedied soon after I post this). The miitation is because of one of Dr. Bob's superhuman like mods, a Nokia Cell Phone (usualy a fellow Mac Hacker like myself). In the mod he takes his phone and swaps out every one of the SMT LEDs, which he said is like "soldering grains of sand", that mod can be found here. Unfortunatly I haven't gotten around to ordering any 0603 packege LEDs to put into this mod (they will be blue, what else goes well with techno black?)
As is needed for any truly good paint job, I opted for a total dissesembly, which was supprisingly easy. I shouldn't even bother with illustraiting the take apart for such an old phone (Nokia 918p) but since I shot the film I'll go ahead and post it.
First off is remove the battery. If you can't do this, put down the phone and never touch a cell phone again, better yet don't touch any electronics with a battery again. But if your like me and that just inspired you push down on the button and slid it out.
Now that the battery is out you're going to have to remove 6 screws, all of them a with a small torx head (6 I think, maybe 8) I got a set of small plastic handled screw drivers from wallmart with small torx heads and it works fine for these small electronics. But anyways, 2 are holding the small piece of plastic with "nokia" engraved on it the other 4 are holding the electronics in place. To paint the phone plastics these are the only screws you have to remove so put them aside, perferably somewhere where you won't loose them.
Now remove the electronics. They are attached to the speaker, so you need to fold it out to the right (looking from the battery side of the phone). Then pry the connector out carefuly. This will free the electronics and you can set them aside. You'll also want to remove the plastic buttons, the white sheet that are the numerical pad and the power button. Again set these aside unless you want to paint them.
Remember that these are delicate electronics, with ICs. So make sure you store them in an antistatic materal, I just used a memory storage bag I had laying around.
Now you've finished take apart, and you should have a thin faceplate, the battery, and a small piece with "NOKIA" engraved on it that you want to paint. Some people won't want to paint the battery but I'll deal with this in a moment.
Unless you have x-ray vision you don't want that screen being painted, and to be brutaly honest with you I don't have xray vision. I also did this at the spur of the moment and didn't have a ton of painting supplies on me. No problem, I just used some clear tape. two or three strips on the screen and a little egding with a sharp knife and I was ready to paint the main part, how ever this still left the battery, and I wasn't in the mood to do a partial mod.
This wasn't even needed, but to quoite a wise individual "better safe than sorry" and if the paint did slip down to the contacts I didn't want to deal with it. A couple pieces of clear tape worked fine here as well.
I don't have any painting photos, but what ever you use make sure it works with plastics and RTFM. Easy enough, and cheaper, to do it right rather than twice. I laid down two coats if I remember right, and then let it sit overnight. Then I came back to reassemble, but first I had to take off the masking.
I used a thin, nearly knife like flat head screw drive to probe for the tape edges then just pealed it off. And it looked fine.
With the masking removed, and the paint dried all I had to do was reassemble, basicaly take apart in revece, just make sure the keys are in. The power button is small and doesn't attach to anything and the key pad can come up on its own. Nothing major tho'. Also make sure you reconnect the speaker. Just as a side note I did come back later and hit it with a glossy clear coat for extra protection, but I didn't mask anything off. The plus to this is that it got rid of a few of the nasty scratches the phone had in the beginning.
Now that its reassembled and looking great make sure you didn't kill it. I didn't care about the phone in the first place as it was from an old service and most places probably won't service it anyways.
The next step for this phone is changing the LEDs to blue, and then seeing about service for it. Still its a fun little project that helped save my sanity.
The coming of mobile phones has opened up avenues of business opportunities that were non-existent before their introduction into the Nigerian market. The new businesses include mobile phone repair, retail and wholesale outlets, including mobile phone accessories and other related wireless products and services.
Mobile phones being electronic devices are prone to different faults due to hardware and software issues which necessitate rectification thereby making some young, wise men to grab the opportunity by opening up the mobile phone repair shops and they have since experienced a certain level of growth in their endeavour.
The business is seen as very lucrative because one problem or the other must exist due to refurbished phones sold and new ones developing one problem or the other, forcing people to always come to us for repair purposes instead of going for another one.
Bobo Princewill Chukwudi, owner of Unique Venture limited in Dutse Alhaji, Abuja, attested to this. He said phone repair business is lucrative and that he makes about N30,000 monthly.
“After my diploma programme in Law at the University of Abuja in 2000, I tried as much as I could to get a job with it but the job was not forthcoming hence I decided to go into phone repair, though it was just coming into the country then.
“I was thinking of what to do since I could not get a job with my diploma certificate, when I heard an announcement from the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), asking those that are interested in phone repairs’ training to come and register with them, I quickly went there and enrolled,” he said.
The training, according to him, lasted for three months before they were certified and given certificate.
“While we were on the training, the government promised to assist us with tools and empower us to open our workshop but after the training they reneged on their promises and we were left to cater for ourselves,” he added.
Chukwudi who has been in the business of repairing phone for about five years, said: “One cannot do the job effectively without getting the basic tools, for instance, if you want to go into hardware repair, at least you must have a rework station and other tools. I bought my own at the cost of N38,000 in 2006 but the price has come down now.
“When the government could not fulfil its promise, I decided to source for fund to start on my own since I already have the skill and knowledge about the repairs. At the end, I was able to raise N50,000 to buy the basic tools for the job and thank God I am in the business today.”
On the service charge, he said the charge depends on the fault discovered in the phone. “There are some we charge N500 while the complex ones we charge between N1000 and N2,500,” he said.
According to him, there is no stable profit in the business. “The greater the patronage the higher the profit but in a day I make an average of between N4, 000 and N5,000,” he said, adding that he is also into daily and weekly contribution of N400 and N5,000 and that he smiles home with N30,000 after deducting all the expenses incurred in the course of doing the job in a month. “But there are months I earn more than that too,” he revealed.
Chukwudi said: “I am not into software repair because I don’t have the tools for it but I have the knowledge. For me to have the complete tools for software repair, it would cost nothing less than N150,000. This enables you to fix phone through the computer system.”
According to him, if one wants to go into software repair, one must have a computer and software package that contain information about the different brands of phones while, in hardware, you must have a rework station, a set of tools for loosening and tightening and meter among others.
On the level of patronage, he said, “it depends on the area the business is located. Someone in Wuse market or GSM village would have more patronage than me. But as for me, the patronage here is good and it is on the average.”
Meanwhile, he said, he was discouraged from approaching any of the Micro-finance banks for loan because those who had approached them were asked to produce collateral security which he does not have.
He called on government to empower the youths and make the environment conducive for business to thrive, saying that “Nigerian youths are willing to be self-employed.”
Another phone repairer, Abel Agha, owner of Mega Solutions said the business of phone repair is very lucrative and that he has been in it for over six years.
He said: “I started the business in a very low form but God has been helping me. With this business I am married with two children and have been able to build my own house too.”
According to him, he learnt the repair of handsets for six months in Port Harcourt in 2004 before relocating to Abuja, saying that he was into computer repair but was not moving well so when GSM came into the country he decided to learn phone repair and that it is more lucrative compared with computer repair.
Agha said the business of handsets repair is lucrative and there is high level of patronage. “But the most important thing is that whatever you are doing try and do it well so that people will look for you to give you job, if you don’t do it well you will lack patronage, doing my work very well has been helping me excel in this business.”
“With just N4000 Agha started the business by buying some tools for the work and now he makes an average of N4000 daily while in a month he smiles home with N30, 000 and N40, 000 on a good month.
“The service charge varies and it is dependent on the problem that the handset has. The service charge ranges from N300 to N2000” he said.
He said he had approached one of the commercial banks for loan but was frustrated with the demand of collateral security by the bank which he could not afford.
On the challenges faced on the Job, Chukwudi said, customers’ overbearing attitude is a major challenge in the business, saying that clients would insult you whenever there is delay in fixing their phones and that some customers do call police to arrest them for failing to deliver on time.
Also change in weather is a challenge to us because our profit declines during dry season while during raining season the business is booming for us.
According to him, electricity is also a challenge on the job because we don’t have regular supply of electricity here, hence; we resort to generator to do our business, saying that he spent N12, 000 on both fuelling and servicing of generator in month.The Hammer Phone was part experiment, part product of bordom gone out of control, part imitation.
The experimentation part is with Rust-Oleum Hammered Black Spray Paint that my brother had been using for one of his refinishing projectm and it so happened that he had some left over when he was finished. The part of boredom gone bad is a few weeks when saying I had nothing to do would be an understatement. I've been living in a painfuly small, overpriced rental house in a fairly crumby part of town after my move (that will be remedied soon after I post this). The miitation is because of one of Dr. Bob's superhuman like mods, a Nokia Cell Phone (usualy a fellow Mac Hacker like myself). In the mod he takes his phone and swaps out every one of the SMT LEDs, which he said is like "soldering grains of sand", that mod can be found here. Unfortunatly I haven't gotten around to ordering any 0603 packege LEDs to put into this mod (they will be blue, what else goes well with techno black?)
As is needed for any truly good paint job, I opted for a total dissesembly, which was supprisingly easy. I shouldn't even bother with illustraiting the take apart for such an old phone (Nokia 918p) but since I shot the film I'll go ahead and post it.
First off is remove the battery. If you can't do this, put down the phone and never touch a cell phone again, better yet don't touch any electronics with a battery again. But if your like me and that just inspired you push down on the button and slid it out.
Now that the battery is out you're going to have to remove 6 screws, all of them a with a small torx head (6 I think, maybe 8) I got a set of small plastic handled screw drivers from wallmart with small torx heads and it works fine for these small electronics. But anyways, 2 are holding the small piece of plastic with "nokia" engraved on it the other 4 are holding the electronics in place. To paint the phone plastics these are the only screws you have to remove so put them aside, perferably somewhere where you won't loose them.
Now remove the electronics. They are attached to the speaker, so you need to fold it out to the right (looking from the battery side of the phone). Then pry the connector out carefuly. This will free the electronics and you can set them aside. You'll also want to remove the plastic buttons, the white sheet that are the numerical pad and the power button. Again set these aside unless you want to paint them.
Remember that these are delicate electronics, with ICs. So make sure you store them in an antistatic materal, I just used a memory storage bag I had laying around.
Now you've finished take apart, and you should have a thin faceplate, the battery, and a small piece with "NOKIA" engraved on it that you want to paint. Some people won't want to paint the battery but I'll deal with this in a moment.
Unless you have x-ray vision you don't want that screen being painted, and to be brutaly honest with you I don't have xray vision. I also did this at the spur of the moment and didn't have a ton of painting supplies on me. No problem, I just used some clear tape. two or three strips on the screen and a little egding with a sharp knife and I was ready to paint the main part, how ever this still left the battery, and I wasn't in the mood to do a partial mod.
This wasn't even needed, but to quoite a wise individual "better safe than sorry" and if the paint did slip down to the contacts I didn't want to deal with it. A couple pieces of clear tape worked fine here as well.
I don't have any painting photos, but what ever you use make sure it works with plastics and RTFM. Easy enough, and cheaper, to do it right rather than twice. I laid down two coats if I remember right, and then let it sit overnight. Then I came back to reassemble, but first I had to take off the masking.
I used a thin, nearly knife like flat head screw drive to probe for the tape edges then just pealed it off. And it looked fine.
With the masking removed, and the paint dried all I had to do was reassemble, basicaly take apart in revece, just make sure the keys are in. The power button is small and doesn't attach to anything and the key pad can come up on its own. Nothing major tho'. Also make sure you reconnect the speaker. Just as a side note I did come back later and hit it with a glossy clear coat for extra protection, but I didn't mask anything off. The plus to this is that it got rid of a few of the nasty scratches the phone had in the beginning.
Now that its reassembled and looking great make sure you didn't kill it. I didn't care about the phone in the first place as it was from an old service and most places probably won't service it anyways.
The next step for this phone is changing the LEDs to blue, and then seeing about service for it. Still its a fun little project that helped save my sanity.
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