I'm a college student who paid my entire 4-year tuition in less than a year with a dorm business. AMA!

I made a similar amount selling weed, but seriously dude a major high-5 from me

Let's team up, we can call it something with "highPhone"!

DEAR NSA, I'M ONLY KIDDING.

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"FIX MY PHONE, IT WON'T TURN ON"

"Sir, this a hot pocket."

"Oh shit bro that's awesome, can you change all my electronic devices into microwavable snacks?"

Yes I can, bring me all the electronics in your house, I'll buy you anything you want at 711.

Are you familiar with /r/Entrepreneur? We would love to have your input over there.

I am not familiar with it, but I just checked it out and it looks awesome! I definitely will be internet chilling over there in the future.

How did you learn to fix the phones?

Really the only way there is, taking one apart and putting it back together over and over. It all started when I was in high school and somebody gave me a broken iPod! There's plenty of tutorials online, but many of them are TERRIBLE and skip crucial steps. However if you watch lots of them and have the phone in front of you, you'll get the hang of it

Very cool. To follow that up, can most of the phones be fixed without replacing parts, or do you have to find replacement parts?

I can usually fix buttons without replacing parts, but I need to find replacement parts for cracked screens and such. Finding reliable parts is terrible, by far the hardest part of the job. I have to stay up at like 3am to talk to suppliers in China who know English at a pre-school level. I got a Christmas card sent to me from a supplier in June.

-nods- That makes sense. Have you ever tried buying broken phones online or anything for salvage?

Yep, that's the plan with SellMyOldTech.com! The goal is to make it the easiest way to get money for old or broken devices by shipping pre-paid boxes with return labels. Buying phones on eBay to fix can be costly and unreliable since people lie a lot and there isn't much protection for people buying broken things

What would people lie about re: a broken device? Just wondering.

Any idea how hard a broken DSLR would be to fix, in general? Or is that question too open ended?

I was going to answer but oribia's answer is perfect! Sorry I don't know anything about repairing DSLRs, but I heard it's a good market.

Hey sounds like a fantastic way to get rid of your debt. What type of issues do you repair/what are your limitations? Do you offer any warranty on the work? Finally, what is your screening process for employees? Work that puts people near personal data can be risky. Keep up the great work.

Thanks!!!

-We repair absolutely everything that can be repaired. Believe it or not, even iPhones that have been run over (a surprisingly common occurrence) can be fixed most of the time. The biggest permanent killer is liquid damage where the phone had never been dried out.

-We offer a 30 day warranty against defects with any repair

-As far as screening, I've only hired friends so far who I really trust. It's been a blast training them. As for the future when I hire non-friends, I will have to screen because data safety is super important and I think it isn't emphasized enough these days

Any ideas of expanding your business after you graduate?

Yep! That is what the plan for SellMyOldTech.com is. If I expand just doing repairs to other campuses, I'd be afraid of hiring someone far away to do something that involves lots of room for error. So this way I can have the devices directly mailed to me and people don't need to wait to go without their phones, since they are old phones. Then we can do repairs all day!

What kind of prices did you charge? Did you experiment with pricing as your reputation increased or stay at a fixed cost the whole way through? How did you reach these prices?

Interesting story man!

Thanks :D I made sure to have the absolute lowest prices around, I could afford to since the business model is kids on bikes picking up/dropping off the phones instead of a store location. Experimented with changing prices for a week, but realized business is best when it's a no-brainer, aka being the cheapest with genuine parts

I live overseas, how can I buy one from you?

The plan is to sell directly to wholesalers, so you may not be able to get one from me directly, but it could be a phone I fixed!

Wow congrats! What sort of problems did the iPhones have? And when you first started out, was it hard to get people to trust you to fix their devices?

It was fairly hard to get people to trust me the first month, I originally fixed the phones in front of them in my room, which also made it kind of nerve wracking haha. But after a few months I gained a reputation on campus. Most problems are broken screens, but I've seen lots of bizarre ones. Had one kid get drunk and pee his pants with the phone in his pocket. I've had an iPod traded in with a giant hammer mark on the back because the owner bought the wrong charger and thought it was broken. As you can see the iPod is new other than the massive hammer mark:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/163445_1530243175953_5963660_n.jpg

haha that does sound like a very nerve wracking way to gain people's trust but it's great to hear that it was worth it in the end! were there any mistakes that you made when you first started out and what did you learn from them?

Thank you! As far as mistakes, the biggest was trusting other people's opinions. People will always try to discourage you. I had so much self-doubt that slowed me down and should not have been there. You're not gonna accomplish anything until you believe that you can.

Also have receipts for selling things. Before I had receipts this one evil girl sold me a phone and then told me she was reporting it stolen so she could pay her sorority fees. I had to give it back and take a $100 hit because she her lawyer dad threatened to sue me and I would not have had time to deal with it.

Wait... So she had a LAWYER dad who would take you to court for a phone all because she couldn't pay for her sorority fees?! What a giant jerk!!!

Yep, I was really scared when it happened, hands down the biggest problem I've had with a customer. It really was a wake up call to me that not everyone is a good person.

I would record all future interactions with customers if something like this happened to me.

Probably a good idea, but I feel like it could creep out customers. We did record the interactions of me returning the phone to her

Dear god...Was it a UMBC sorority girl or UMD?

UMD. You know, this type: http://gawker.com/5994974/the-most-deranged-sorority-girl-email-you-will-ever-read

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I'm not familiar with Nexus 7, but there's always cheaper places if you look hard enough!

Yeah...most companies would refuse to work on the pee phone since its a potential biohazard.

gloves.

Still a biohazard. I just wouldnt do it. There's a reason why big companies like Dell dont.

To make $70 in 15 minutes one might reconsider. But yeah it is gross! It's also not common, unless people aren't telling me the whole story...

So where did you go to school and what was the value of the tuition? Did you have any scholarships, grants, etc.?

I go to University of Maryland. The only thing from classes that helped me was knowing basic math to make the algorithms on my site for pricing iPhones. Almost all other classes did not help at all. Intro marketing and Comm classes were the dumbest things I've ever seen.

UMD recently admitted me to their entrepreneurship program (it isn't a major, it's like extracurricular-ish) and it actually looks like it will be a great resource! UMD also published me in their official university publication for staff/alum, it was really cool to fix my professor's phones!

So what's the best way to dry out a wet phone?

NOT RICE. It has to be taken apart and submerged in alcohol immediately, then air dried. I cannot tell you how many people bring me phones they have had in rice for days, and then the inside is still soaking wet and corroded/destroyed. Especially bad when it is a sugary drink. Believe it or not if you powered off an iPhone, dropped it in water, then opened/dried it within an hour, it'll probably be fine and work for years to come. But don't try it haha

Would something like vodka or Everclear work in a pinch, or would you recommend sticking to a specific type (i.e. rubbing) alcohol?

RUBBING ALCOHOL! I should've clarified haha, do not use the kind that makes you drunk. I suppose it's kind of ironic most phones liquid damaged are beer/alcohol related, but it takes alcohol to fix them!

Did hot coeds ever flirt with you in hopes of getting a free phone fix?

Did coeds ever flirt with me in hopes of getting a free phone fix?

Yes.

Did hot coeds ever flirt with me in hopes of getting a free phone fix?

No.

how did you put your business out there? in other words how did you spread the word, using social media, print advertisement,craigslist,etc.

Originally Facebook and word of mouth! I then donated $500 to TerpThon, which went to kids with cancer, and this not only was an AWESOME cause, it brought a lot of publicity! Craigslist people are very hard to work with because many of them don't speak English well. I'm trying print ads soon!

When you say they don't speak English well: are they foreigners that don't speak English well, or just people who just suck at English even though it's their first language?

What is the most ambitious and/or difficult project (repair?) you've ever had to undertake? I'm also curious about what your most difficult customer has been, and why (genuine, not a scammer.)

Foreigners that don't speak English well. I'm not trying to be political or anything, but I can't work with someone I can't communicate with or understand emails. Most difficult project was is fixing an iPhone 1 screen. I haven't had any difficult customers that were not trying to scam me or rip me off

what is your opinion on this man Sung-Min Kim

he's a pretty chill dude, man.

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Thank you! I do not think the government encourages this kind of behavior. The amount I need to pay in permits and taxes is INSANE. Nor did my college initially. When I applied to the business school I had already repaired hundreds of iPhones and was making good money, yet the admissions people did not care AT ALL. It's all about GPA when you're in college. And it's hard to get straight A's when you're working all the time, so it's a double-edged sword. But I think society encourages small businesses. If I could thank anyone it would be my customers aka society, the people who trusted and supported me enough to make this happen. They helped pay my tuition and there's nothing I've ever been more grateful for.

What kinds of permits do you need?

Whom do you pay taxes to?

Postal service permits, pay taxes to the state and federal government

can you explain the postal permit? Why do you need it and what does it allow you to do?

It's a $835 permit that allows me to send a pre-paid label. It was HELL to acquire, took over a month to get. It's new so most post offices still don't know what it is

So this permit allows you to send prepaid labels all over the US and internationally? Is this $985 cost in addition to the cost of paying the postage for the labels? I don't understand why they make you pay for a permit.

Only US. It's actually $835, brain fart on my end, still super expensive though. It doesn't cover postage, it's just so you can send out return labels. Technically you can't without it since USPS requires you declare the day you ship something before you ship it. That won't work if you send someone a label in the mail.

When I was in college we had flip phones...

You must be 5-8 years older than this person!

By my calculations, he must be 27-30!

Wow, a business major who can do math?

You're gunna go far, son

Nah I'm not! I'm econ because I didn't get into my college's business school haha

Flip phones were the shit. They actually sounded good when you talked on them, something people don't use phones anymore for.

I still use a RAZR if I go out late on weekends because everyone around here gets mugged a lot. While it couldn't fend off a gun, I think if someone pulled a knife on me I could use the RAZR and put up a good fight.

Me too. We have something in common. Do you want to be my friend?

Sure! Message me because I'm definitely curious to hear what you did!

Congrats! Do you have any advice you can share on starting your own business either for college students or anyone who is interested in one day starting their own company? Did you do a lot of planning prior to getting your business off the ground or was this something you were doing on the side for friends that eventually turned itself into the business it is now?

Thanks :D Number 1 piece of advice, I cannot emphasize this enough:

DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT WHO DOESN'T BELIEVE IN YOU.

Hammer that into your head. I was devastated when I was rejected from my campus' business school. I applied for a business development program on campus, was rejected from that too and was even more depressed. I almost gave up entirely on business because nobody believed in me. Even my parents looked at me like I was nuts when I said I wanted to start one. So glad I did not give up, because now I have the highest grossing UMD student-run business of all time.

There wasn't much planning starting out, but when it started to take off it took A LOT of planning. It got to the point I was spending more time talking to customers and suppliers than fixing phones. Unfortunately I've had to pull all nighters working and then go to class many times.

Congratulations on your success, your post is very inspirational and I am not even a business related major ;-)

Thanks, I appreciate the kind words!

What's the best way to open an iphone/itouch/ipad without damaging the case? Also, I'm an econ major too!

It varies from generation to generation, so I can't really give a general answer besides just to be careful. Some open easy, but then there's the first gen iPhone, good luck opening that without leaving a mark. It would be hard to pry that sucker open even with a machete.

Thanks for the reply! Do you get your replacement parts off Ebay, or somewhere else? Do people ever say that it's official but it turns into a cheap knockoff?

I get them from China. A lot of people say their stuff is official but it is cheap knockoffs. I may have to start offering the choice between knock offs and genuine parts because as someone using only genuine parts my price can't compete with people using knockoffs, and the people using knock-offs don't advertise they are knockoffs. A real iPhone 4S screen is 960x480 and many knockoffs are 480x320. It's dumb but most customers don't even care and aren't willing to pay more for a genuine ones, which is why unfortunately I must offer both.

Do knockoffs usually break more often than official parts, or are they just generally not as good? Also, do you go through a specific website or just pick and choose parts? I wanted to fix a 2nd gen touch, but finding a replacement 8gb hard drive is impossible.

Knockoffs break far more than original parts, there is actually no such thing as a 2nd gen iPod Touch hard drive

Thanks! So if the storage device on the 2nd gen isn't working, would I just replace the entire logic board?

That would work, but nobody ever does that because the logic board is the only thing in that device worth anything, so the cost of the board would be more than the cost of the device

Will you adopt my baby?

can he fight?

Ever have anyone come-a-knockin while you were makin the bed a rockin? Lol i would imagine you always were busy no?

Yeah I didn't have the social life everyone else did that year, but it was far from lacking. It's all about time management, you'd be surprised how much time you can make if you adhere to using a calendar religiously

Okay, I am so happy I saw this! I have been doing this for two years, I even paid for my laptop and my books for college with the money I made (I am going into my freshman year at Marquette). Any advice on how I can grow my business in college? Did you advertise? Did you keep a stock of parts? Just incase you are wondering, I have fixed a little over 80 iPhones

Congrats sir! That is very awesome, you did more than I did in high school. I didn't really advertise much other than Facebook at first, it's really a lot of word of mouth. As long as you do a good job and beat the competition in terms of price, people will come to you. I do have to keep parts in stock, this is very difficult, as you need to predict how many people will come if you are like me and didn't have a lot of money to stock parts. Doesn't hurt to get some sales experience. I did the Aflac internship, DESPISED the job, but it was very useful in dealing with customers. I'm sure you'll do great in college!

Thanks! I always undercut the competition and I tell my customers I'll price match and beat by 15%. My only issue is that I don't have any money right now to buy a stock of parts, that is making it harder to do business. Damn "takes money to make money" and all that.

Did you ever mess up a customers phone? If so, what did you do to rectify it?

A problem with price matching is there are people who use TERRIBLE counterfeit parts so can do it for what half you do. And they don't advertise they use counterfeits, so people will demand you match them because they don't understand. Only price match legitimate businesses.

One had a motherboard that started giving errors after a screen repair because it was liquid damaged and unplugging the connectors was enough to destroy it. I had to buy him a new iPhone the next day, it would have happened to whoever opened that phone, but it was my responsibility so I made right on it. Kinda sucked but it only happened once.

If you encountered a customer whose phone had similar damage (i.e. whoever opens it to fix it is gonna be the one who breaks it,) what would you do? Would you try to fix it anyway?

There's really know way to know how bad the inside of a phone is until it's opened. Most phones seem to have tripped water damage sensors anyway

Great work man! I am intrigued at your entrepreneurial spirit. So, I have this issue with my iPhone 4S and was wondering if theres an easy fix the guys over at the Apple store don't know and you might? My phone somehow I think got moisture damage to one of the pins maybe where you connect the iPhone to a dock or charger. And whenever I try to play music or anything audio related, it will systematically change from thinking its playing normally to playing through a dock and I have to consistently change it back to play through bluetooth or whatever I'm trying to play out of. Much love if you can figure this one out! haha

Thanks! That's a very common issue, how the hell does the Apple store not know about that?!!! Clean the dock connector with rubbing alcohol and a toothbrush, but if it's too far gone the dock connector needs to be replaced.

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Hey I used to go there!

Those would need to be soldered. I can fix the iPod and maybe the Nexus, pm me and I'll give you my info!

I'll try a trial, if it doesn't work do you do a service where I ship you my phone and fix it for a price and then ship it back? I mean you seem like a straight shooter from reddit from what it sounds like, not trying to just gain an iPhone I would hopefully presume.

I don't do repairs over the mail usually since the demand is low as people don't like going without phones, but PM me and I'll see what I can do!

First I'll try it at home. But a question before I go drenching my connector in alcohol. How should I do it so that the alcohol doesn't get to deep into the phone and mess other parts up? And then how do I dry the alcohol out after soaking?

Turn off the phone and use a toothbrush on the connector. I'd use canned air to dry it out. Try not to use too much alcohol, just enough to clean the connector. And if you're feeling brave, you can use an exacto knife to try to scrape grunge off the contacts

Well done, sounds like you things worked out pretty well for you! But did this not take up a lot of your time? Where you still able to go out and do things with other college students?

Thanks! It took up ALOT of time, but you'll adapt to using a calendar religiously. I was never an organized person but it forced me to be. It's not hard to spare a few hours on friday and saturday night if you stick to a calendar. But there were many times I pulled all nighters fixing phones/doing management work and had to go to classes the next day.

Even though I was a national finalist in the most recent TBS National College Comedy Competition, I pretty much had to give up on stand-up after the competition ended. Only a few shows a year now, but I love it.

EDIT: Here is a video if anyone is curious!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1kyPLxt9uU

He fixed my iphone 4s when the on/off/lock button got stuck. It still works about 3 months later.

This kind of service is awesome when you don't want to spend a lot of money fixing/replacing a phone that you plan to upgrade when your contract is up.

Good to hear! I actually use superglue on the buttons while Apple has a machine that crappily dabs a very small amount of glue, so it will be much more durable than the original.

Thanks for the kind words! If you ever break something again then show me this post and I'll give you $10 off.

The Baltimore Sun? What school do you go to, if I may ask?

No problem, I go to UMD! Transferred from UMBC

Did you end put creating an LLC or something like that? How much of a pain in the ass was that?

I'm a sole proprietor currently because I haven't turned in the LLC forms yet, but I will soon. It's pretty annoying, I know other small business owners use legal zoom but I have been told it's not worth it since there aren't THAT many forms.

hey man, i think you are doing something awesome! just wondering,has it ever occured to you to make a youtube channel for fixing iphones,androids,etc?

EDIT: I also have a psp with a messed up screen. do you fix them too? I would love to do buisiness with you sir

Thanks! I don't really encourage people to fix their phones themselves, a lot of people bring me iPhones they tried to repair and have permanently damaged things. Or they tear cables, lose screws, etc. and it makes my job a lot harder. I suppose I wouldn't know if they have repaired them successfully though because they wouldn't come to me.

And sorry but I do not do PSP's currently, as they can't really be repaired cheaper than it is worth. We do buy broken ones though!

woahhhh i grew up in the same city that as you, and almost went to UMD. im starting a biotech company, and i was wondering how you started all the technical/legal aspects of your company (the website and LLC). im assuming that you got a lawyer?

Nice, congrats on starting a company! As far as the website, I did 99% of it myself. Had to learn a little CSS, html, etc but there were also plugins that made it a bit easier. As far as the legal stuff, since law is based on precedent I can just use the legal section that all the other repair sites use. I'm no legal expert but I then ran it by one of the UMD legal advisors and they said it looked good. Currently a sole proprietor until my LLC form goes through.

The biggest legal worry I have is people trading in stolen phones, which I am using CheckMEND for (that is the gold standard currently). No stolen phones yet, but if one ever does come up as stolen, the customer won't get their money and it will either be returned to them or given to authorities, as per our legal section.

who do you host your site with, and why did you pick them?

Hostgator, as I had a friend who had pretty good luck with them

How hard is it to replace a touch screen? I have two broken devices: one, an iPod that went through the wash and destroyed the screen, and two, one that swam with me in a river.

The one that swam seems beyond repair because it gives 0 signs of life, but I got the first one to restore and has a functional battery/display, just no touch screen. File system seems intact too, wifi I can't speak for.

TL;DR: what goes into fixing a touch screen?

It is more likely a motherboard problem than a touch screen, and either way the cost of repairing an iPod usually exceeds what it is worth:( If you PM me the details of the generation of each iPod then I can try to help. We do buy them for parts though!

Was this allowed at your school? Where I went, it was strictly against school policy to operate any sort of business out of your dorm room.

If I wasn't allowed then that is news to me haha. But to be honest I totally would've just ignored that rule and done it anyway.

Where I went to school the dorms had explicit rules against running businesses from them. How'd you get around that?

If I wasn't allowed then that is news to me haha. But to be honest I totally would've just ignored that rule and done it anyway.

I've heard that if you have someone that isn't where you bought your ipod touch/phone from to fix your screen you lose your warranty. Do you lose any business from this ?

Apple doesn't check the warranty well, I've never done it but I have had a lot of customers who I've fixed there screens say their Apple warranty still worked. I also fix them at like 1/3 the price of Apple, so people don't seem to mind.

Have you ever heard of the company Gophermods? They had a similar start as you, one kid fixed PS3's in his dorm, now they have two locations and repair smartphones, tablets, consoles and laptops. You should check then out.

I have! I'm thinking of moving away from repairs. The new MacBook Pro's are superglued together on the inside and are near impossible to repair. Same with the HTC One, my current device. Not a good sign. Devices can be made cheaper and more durable if unrepairable, so that's my prediction of where the industry is going.

What else are you planning on doing if you're moving away from repairs?

I'm looking to go into selling them overseas, and if that doesn't work well I would love to start an elderly care home someday

Selling repaired phones or manufacturing new ones? (I assume repaired) And good luck to you. either way, I'm sure you'll be a success!

Yep repaired phones!

Do you need any specific tools to do this job? I'm curious about your expenses going into this.

Not too many expensive tools actually, I've been using a dollar store screwdriver for years. The expenses are essentially parts, permits, taxes. Parts are a lot, when you're doing several a day you need to have thousands of dollars in parts on hand, especially because it can take awhile to get them. You'd need several of every iPhone component from every current model, it's like a worst nightmare of a grocery list:/ Soon I'll probably have someone build a database to make it easier

I just submitted the info about my PSP for consideration! Very cool site, can't wait to hear back from you guys. How many employees do you have?

Thanks! Mostly just me right now, but I have a marketing intern and people I trained who will be helping me repair them during the school year.

Have you had any problems with Apple? I assume you are not in any way authorized by them. Do you tell your customers that any warranty they have/had will be void once you finish working on their phone?

Nope, no problems with Apple. I tell customers the warranty is void, but they don't care usually because that's why they are coming to me in the first place. But I've been told by many people Apple still takes them even after I repair them

What are your suggestions for advertising on Facebook? Did you actually buy ads or just get your friends to share your posts?

Friends liking posts. paid Facebook ads were sooooooo bad, literally drained money faster than my ex-girlfriend. It ended up being like $4 per click or something insane like that

facebook ads are even worse than google ads. just so expensive for nothing

yessir, unfortunately I learned that the hard way...

How much would it cost to get all the tools to do this?

Very little, perhaps under $100. Unfortunately the cost of parts is where the risk is, as the parts are both hard to acquire reliably and fragile, plus need to be stocked in advance because of how long they take to get here from China

I'm tempted to just buy the tools. Then when it comes to replacement parts just make people wait for them to come in. Then just not charge extra for the parts until I start to get a decent profit/reputation. Your thoughts?

I tried that originally, but the issue was how high an amount of defective parts there are. The parts are pretty reliable assuming they come working, but you'll find yourself in lots of scenarios where the person will wait a week for the part to come and then you'll install it but it won't work. The older the iPhone, the harder it is to get the parts, as the real Apple ones are drying up and the counterfeits come defective a lot.

Isn't there a bunch of dangerous chemicals inside of an Iphone? I have always wanted to learn how they work, I just don't want to poison my self with chemical x or something.

I'm pretty sure that you should be fine as long as you don't touch any broken LCD liquid or anything leaking from a battery, but I'm not a scientist so who knows what kind of crap I exposed myself to:/