How to start a SFF pc building business?

Hi guys, I was wondering how hard it would be to create a custom PC building business? Especially if I design my own case using cad software and my own website using Dreamweaver? I have a lot of design knowledge, and am very meticulous when building pc's, but it has become very costly and the part I enjoy most is the building aspect. My model would be to charge $75 or less for labor, and buy the parts for the cheapest price possible using PC part picker, using boutique cabling and water-cooling brands like cable-mods and EKWB, while still keeping the price and quality as fair and high as possible. I would mainly focus on ITX systems to start with, and try and design my own case, and as time goes on I can decide if I want to branch out. I understand for a lot of people the appeal of a PC is building it yourself, but for some people it can be hard to do hard-line and custom loop builds without a lot of knowledge, and the entryway price to custom loop systems from digital storm and origin PC for example are very high. I would also do upgrades free of charge(excluding part cost). Lastly, what type of systems should I use to showcase my abilities? Thanks a lot guys and your help with this would be appreciated.

It has been done and you wont survive right now i don't think...the custom PC market is so small and many people just do it themselves, search through the threads here you can see many people have designed their own small SFF or smaller cases.

Question always comes down to, what can you do, that someone else is already not doing?

Designing your own case with a CAD problem is nice and dandy but from CAD file to product, well, how do you plan that step? Check MountainMods.com-Custom Fabrication-Custom Computer Case for an example of how much a single case can cost. Or here's a quote from someone who prototyped an mATX case:

It cost about $2600 for one prototype though about $500 of that was the engineering services since I didn't have a proper CAD model to give them at the time.

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If you want to get to production, then you need to sell hundreds of units to make it profitable. There are indeed some people who did in on this forum but not many.

We haven't started selling yet but we've been there with design and prototyping. It doesn't really have to cost as much as $2000 or $3000 per prototype but the prototyping itself takes time and you'll make quite a few prototype units before making the final design.

If you're going for something like we're doing or dondan did then prototyping will have its cost. If you're going for something simpler in concept like NFC's S4 it should be cheaper unless you go for some quality finish at some point like NFC did.

And that's just for the case part.

As for the whole business idea it depends really on your location. I think there's a market for that in the US but I'm not sure how would it work anywhere else. Also think of how would you handle the warranty - will you be able to be the man in the middle between your supplier and the client or will you straight forward give your client warranty from your parts supplier?

Will you be able to promote yourself and reach the target clients who want to buy pre-built units? It's quite different than what dondan did because his target are people building their own rigs so using forums worked for him well. NFC spent a lot time in competitive rig building and got in touch with Sapphire by chance.

I've got contacts throughout game developers industry so I'll try to use that and I'll send out sample units to media for reviews. That also costs quite a lot of time and money.

If I weren't treating this as a hobby and didn't have the money I get from my day job to spare for it like I do, then probably Sentry wouldn't happen and I'd just be sitting there waiting something like it to appear.

Finally there's a lot of stuff you won't know now until you show your product to the world. Most likely people interested in your product will want more of it then you've decided for your business model and you'll have to adjust.

Why not specialize in SFF PCs, but build anything your customers want? SFF alone is too small a market, even if you have a unique and special product.

Are you just looking to do this in your spare time as more of a hobby, or do you envision making a living off this? Your business model as described points towards the former.

How are you going to deal with payment? With shipping? People ripping you off by disputing credit card bills? How many systems a day do you want to build, and how are you going to get that many orders?

People that don't build their own also won't want to deal with the warranty on parts, or of fixing it when it breaks. How will you handle warranty/repairs?

You're going to need much bigger margins than that for custom CNC production.

It's also much harder than you think to just go from CAD > finished product. So many pitfalls and mistakes can be made. E.g. have you considered the finish you'll use and the thickness and impact it has on fit and finish?

I work closely with a company that makes high end cases as part of manufacturing high end touring/entertainment equipment, we've considered the PC market a few times but it's just yeah.. you'd be looking at 2-4k for a custom case.
Few people will pay that.

If anyone does, let me know, I'll happily build you something from scratch. If you're unsure of the quality and pedigree on offer, products by this company are used by people like Madonna, Roger Waters, Black Eyed Peas, Kanye, Metallica etc etc..

That's basically what you're up against. Larger, experienced and entrenched companies with nearly a million bucks in CNC machines.

Very, very very tough market to compete in.

I remember like 2 years ago, in August 2014 i had a little talk with my little bro about the time when we will finish our Sentry project, and when we'll be ready for shipment. He said, we have to hurry up to make it before this Xmas (2014). I remember i said "On Xmas...ok, but maybe 2015". Then he asked: "What could take so long" ?



Now we have June 2016, so we're almost 2 years after launch of our project, we've tested 4 different manufacturers, made 10 or more different prototypes (with 5 main prototypes), made first test batch of product, spend thousends of $$$, and... we still didn't have time to start marketing actions. What is more, we're still making little improvements, because we are uber pedantic. So after 2 years of development we still didn't release our pc case. Looking from the side, it is maybe easy, but believe me... at first Saper thought the same

My advice: If this is not going to be Your day-time job, then better be prepared to spend every evening and every free time working on the project. It really needs time, and if You are working as 1 person, and You don't have help from some manufacturer in technical issues (like we didn't have), then You will need even more time and money to finish and release Your product.

But don't worry: we're all here to help