The television is one of the cheapest sources of entertainment and continues to serve its purpose wonderfully ever since it first became commercially available in the 1930’s. The telly is here to stay and the question of whether your TV repair skills can still earn anyone a decent income may be partly answered by sheer numbers. The latest figures I have found so far was a year 2005 Wall Street Journal report that pegged the number of television sets worldwide at around 1 to 2 billion. That’s a lot of TVs out there considering that was more than 3 years ago!
I would venture to guess that electronics repair should still be profitable if you know how to get a slice of the pie that the major manufacturers’ service centers are getting by offering better service at a lot more friendlier and affordable prices.
You should also learn to adapt to the modern times and be open to updating your skills by investing a little bit of your time and resources to learning new things.
Recent trends indicate that the traditional cathode ray tube (CRT) television is on the decline and that more and more growth is seen in the newer technologies of television. New statistics indicate that the liquid crystal display (LCD) and the plasma flat screen are well on their way to explosive growth! This is true even with the current financial turmoil (circa 2008-2009) that originated from the US housing bust. Now, everyone is starting to scrimp on expensive vacations and has started buying new televisions for their recreational needs. Stores offering discount LCD and plasma TVs don’t hurt either.
The decline of demand for CRTs means there will also be steady decline of prices and profitability in that area. People buying these types of televisions are seeing them more and more as disposables and would rather buy new ones instead of having malfunctioning ones repaired.
On the other hand, the increase in the demand for the newer LCD or Plasma screen televisions could mean there will also be an upcoming flood of second-hand units in the market that thrift-buyers should still prefer. This is seen especially in developing countries where most people still could not afford the newer technologies and second-hand markets are still thriving.
At any rate, it is my opinion that this business remains a viable venture for anyone who’s interested. The only keys to success are identifying the areas of opportunities and adapting to the times.
Hence, the acquisition of new repair skills is a pre-requisite to staying competitive in the business of electronics repair. This should not be as hard as it sounds as there are ways you can learn, for example, Plasma or LCD TV repair, without getting formal training or without attending any training schools. There are now online membership websites that offer step-by-step trainings for a really low fee that you can recoup in when you service just of one television unit! You can get TV repair tips online and study at your own pace but at the speed of the internet!
There is definitely going to be a huge demand for services relating to the huge number of flat screen televisions out there in people’s homes. Catch the wave before it happens and make your TV repair business flourish.
Update: You might also want to read this related television repair business post.
Update 03May09: A new related post about the TV repair business indicates that there is still some great demand out there for this service!
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