Bilal Siddiqui

How did you get into the mobile repair business?

I failed my FSc exams in 2018 and my father was furious. He had a small electronics shop in Saddar - not phones, just old TV and radio repairs. Business was dying because nobody repairs TVs anymore. I started watching YouTube tutorials on phone repair - JerryRigEverything, iPad Rehab, those channels - and practiced on broken phones I bought for Rs 500-1,000 each from the chor bazaar in Raja Bazaar. My first paid repair was fixing a cracked Samsung J7 screen for a shopkeeper two doors down. Charged him Rs 1,500 when the screen cost me Rs 600. That Rs 900 profit on one hour of work was more than my father made in a day fixing TVs.

When did you realize this could be a real business?

About four months in, when a guy brought me an iPhone 7 with water damage that three other shops in Hafeez Centre had refused to touch. I spent four hours on it - opened it up, cleaned every connector with isopropyl alcohol, replaced the charging port flex cable, and it came back to life. He paid me Rs 5,000. More importantly, he told everyone in his office and I got six more iPhones that month. That's when I understood the real money isn't in screen replacements that any shop can do - it's in the repairs that require actual diagnostic skill. I became the guy people came to after other shops said 'yeh phone nahi hoga.'

Break down the economics of phone repair for me.

Screen replacements are the volume business: I do 8-12 a day. A Samsung A-series screen costs me Rs 1,800-2,500 depending on the model, and I charge Rs 3,500-5,000 for the replacement including labor. That's a 50-60% margin. iPhone screens are more lucrative - an iPhone 13 original screen costs me Rs 12,000 from my Shenzhen supplier and I charge Rs 18,000-20,000. Board-level repairs like water damage or dead phones are the highest margin: my cost is usually just Rs 200-500 in components but I charge Rs 3,000-8,000 based on the phone's value. The accessories shop is different - margins are thinner, maybe 25-30%, but volume is huge. I sell 200+ phone covers a day at Rs 250-800 each.

What's your monthly overhead look like?

The Saddar repair shop rent is Rs 45,000 - it's a tiny 10x12 foot space but the location is everything because of foot traffic. The Commercial Market accessories shop is Rs 75,000 because it's bigger and on the main road. Staff: I have two repair technicians at Rs 40,000 each, one helper at Rs 22,000, and two salespeople at the accessories shop at Rs 30,000 each. Electricity is Rs 25,000 combined because we run soldering stations, hot air rework stations, and display lighting. Total fixed monthly cost is about Rs 350,000. I need to make about Rs 15,000 per day just to break even, which I usually hit by 2 PM on a normal day.

Where do phone parts actually come from?

There are three tiers. Tier one: original parts from Shenzhen, China - I order through a contact I met on Alibaba who ships via cargo to Lahore's Allama Iqbal airport. Takes 15-20 days and I order in bulk every 6 weeks. These are for iPhone and Samsung flagship repairs where customers want original quality. Tier two: compatible parts from the Hall Road wholesale market in Lahore. I take the Daewoo bus to Lahore once a month and spend a full day buying from three specific shops in Hafeez Centre Lahore - not the Rawalpindi one, the Lahore one is much bigger. Tier three: local market in Saddar itself for cheap accessories and common spare parts. There's an entire underground floor in the Hafeez Centre here that most people don't even know exists - that's where the bulk accessories dealers sit.

How do you know if a part is genuine or fake?

This is the single most important skill in this business and nobody teaches it properly. For iPhone screens, I check three things: the flex cable printing - originals have a specific font and serial number pattern. The glass edge - originals have a smoother chamfer. And the display warmth - original OLED has a slightly warm tone, copies look bluish and harsh. For Samsung, it's the adhesive pattern on the back of the screen assembly. I've been burned exactly once: bought 20 'original' iPhone 11 screens from a new Lahore supplier at a great price. All 20 were high-quality copies. Lost Rs 120,000. Now I buy one piece as a test, install it in my own phone for three days, and only then place a bulk order. Trust takes months to build with any new supplier.

What types of customers come to you and how do they behave differently?

Four types. First: university students from NUML, FAST, and Arid University - they have cracked screens on budget phones, they want the cheapest fix possible, and they'll bargain for 20 minutes over Rs 200. But they come in huge numbers and they tell their friends. Second: working professionals who need their phone fixed fast - they'll pay premium for same-day service. Third: dealers from other shops who bring me the phones they can't fix. This is actually my most profitable segment because I charge other repair shops Rs 2,000-5,000 per phone and they handle the customer. Fourth: people selling used phones who need cosmetic repairs to increase resale value. I can make a beaten-up phone look almost new for Rs 2,000-3,000, and the seller makes Rs 5,000-10,000 more on the sale.

How do you handle the customers who argue about pricing?

I have a printed rate card laminated and stuck on the wall. That alone eliminated 50% of pricing arguments. For the rest, I explain the difference between original and copy parts with actual samples I keep at the counter - I show them side by side and let them touch the difference. Most people choose the original once they see the quality gap. The ones who still argue, I let them walk away. They almost always come back after getting quotes from other shops because my pricing is actually middle-of-market. The trick I learned early: never negotiate on labor charges, only on parts. I tell them 'I can put a cheaper screen for less, but my repair charge is the same because my skill is the same.' People respect that.

What nearly killed your business?

The PTA device registration policy in 2019-2020. Suddenly, a huge percentage of phones in the market were 'non-approved' and people stopped buying accessories and getting repairs for phones that might get blocked. My revenue dropped 35% in two months. People were panicking, and the shops around me were closing - three shops in my building shut down permanently. I survived because I quickly learned the PTA registration process and started offering it as a service. I'd charge Rs 1,000-2,000 to help customers register their devices through the DIRBS system. It wasn't huge money but it kept people walking into my shop, and while they were there, they'd get a screen protector or a case. Sometimes the add-on sales from PTA registration customers were worth more than the registration fee itself.

Have you ever had a theft or security issue?

Yes, and it was an inside job. In 2022, I noticed inventory shrinking - phone covers and charging cables disappearing in small quantities. Over two months I estimated Rs 70,000 worth of stock went missing. I installed a hidden camera - bought it from a security shop in Aabpara for Rs 8,000 - and caught one of my salespeople pocketing items during closing time. Firing him was awful because he was my neighbor's son. That experience changed how I run the business: now I do daily inventory counts on high-value items, all stock is logged in a register when it arrives, and the closing cash count is done by two people together, never one person alone. The camera system cost Rs 35,000 total for four cameras and has been the best investment after my microscope.

What are the unwritten rules of doing business in Saddar?

First: your immediate neighbors are not your competitors, they're your referral network. When someone comes to my accessories shop asking for a repair, I send them to my repair shop two streets away. The guy next to my accessories shop sells SIM cards - he sends phone case customers to me. We look out for each other. Second: the market association secretary is the most important person to know. He mediates disputes, coordinates with the police when there's a theft, and his word determines your rent negotiation leverage. Third: never undercut the shop next to you publicly. If you want to offer lower prices, do it quietly through WhatsApp or with loyal customers. Public price wars in Saddar get ugly fast - I've seen shops vandalized over it.

What's the one piece of advice you'd give someone starting a repair shop today?

Learn micro-soldering before you open your shop. Not just screen replacements - actual board-level repair with a microscope and soldering iron. A decent microscope costs Rs 25,000 and a good soldering station is Rs 15,000. That Rs 40,000 investment separates you from the 500 other shops that can only do basic repairs. I make Rs 150,000-200,000 a month purely from board-level repairs that other shops turn away. There's a guy in Lahore, Ustad Jameel on Hall Road, who teaches a two-week micro-soldering course for Rs 30,000. Best money I ever spent. Half the repair shop owners in Rawalpindi learned from him. The other half are stuck doing Rs 1,500 screen jobs and wondering why they can't grow.

How does a typical day flow in the repair shop?

Shop opens at 10 AM - Saddar doesn't really wake up before that. First hour is usually slow, so I use it to finish repairs from the previous day. By 11, walk-in customers start coming. I personally diagnose every phone that comes in: I open it, check the board under the microscope, and give a quote within 15 minutes. Simple repairs like screen and battery replacements go to my technicians. Anything involving the motherboard, I do myself. Peak hours are 1-4 PM - that's when the office workers come during lunch breaks. By 5 PM, walk-ins slow down but I'm still working on board-level repairs. I close at 9 PM during summer, 8 PM in winter. Thursdays are my busiest day because it's the last working day before Friday - everyone wants their phone fixed before the weekend.

How do you keep track of customer phones and repairs?

Every phone gets a paper token with a serial number, customer name, phone number, issue description, and quoted price. The customer keeps the duplicate. I also take a photo of every phone's condition when it comes in - front, back, and any existing damage - and save it in a dated folder on my laptop. This saved me twice when customers claimed I damaged their phone during repair. I showed them the intake photos and the argument ended immediately. For parts inventory, I use a notebook - yes, a physical notebook - where I log every part used against each token number. My accountant brother keeps telling me to use software but the notebook works and I can hand it to any worker without training them on an app.

What can you diagnose just by looking at or holding a phone?

A lot. If someone hands me a phone and the screen flickers when I press near the top-left corner, that's a display connector issue, not a screen problem - a Rs 500 fix, not a Rs 5,000 screen replacement. If the phone gets hot near the camera module, it's usually a short on the power management IC. If it charges slowly, I press my thumb on the charging port - if it feels loose, it's a port replacement; if it feels solid, it's a board-level charging IC issue that's 10x harder to fix. Water damage phones have a specific smell that I can detect before even opening them - it's a faint metallic-sour smell near the SIM tray. I've literally told customers 'this phone has been in water' and they're shocked because there's no visible damage.

How do you decide which new phone models or accessories to stock?

I watch what phones come in for repair - that tells me what people in Rawalpindi are actually using, which is completely different from what the tech blogs say is popular. Right now, 40% of my repairs are Samsung A-series: A14, A15, A34. Not flagships. The Tecno and Infinix phones are growing fast - mostly Camon series. So I stock accessories for those specific models heavily. I also track what's selling on OLX and Facebook Marketplace in the Rawalpindi-Islamabad section. If I see a lot of people selling iPhone 12s, I know in three months those phones will need battery replacements and screen repairs, so I pre-order parts. The biggest mistake new shop owners make is stocking accessories for premium phones because the margins look good on paper - but in Saddar, your customer base is 80% mid-range Android users.