As a resident of Lebanon for the last 10 years and also being an English expat and IT professional and specifically a computer enthusiast/nerd, I have noticed that the Lebanese people (many of them friends, and my wife is Lebanese) are at something of a disadvantage in terms of choice/service/competence and genuine honest advice when it come to PC's.

As a gaming enthusiast I am dismayed at what little choice there is in terms of gaming hardware available in Lebanon specifically CPU's, cases, cooling, overclocking, motherboards, video cards, joysticks, steering wheels, controllers etc. I am wondering what the market is for something better and hence my post as I am looking for some market feedback on the viability of setting up a shop specifically dealing in mid/high end PCs for gaming and video work/sound editing. I am thinking to have quality build PC's available of shelf for mid/high end PC's and offer a tailor made custom PC service with a lead time of three weeks.

All products would carry a 12 months warranty and I also hope hope to offer credit facilities in terms of credit card and financing.

Therefore please feel free to lend me your advise on what you feel is missing in the market here in Lebanon, (what would you like to see) and how it can be improved. I don't want to get involved in software and games consoles as I feel they are adequately served by other vendors.

Thanks
brams
The only high-end PC shop that I know in Lebanon is PCandParts.

If you are planing to start a business in this specific field, I suggest that you take online shopping into consideration (selling you products online), because any high-end user will like to see something like Newegg available in Lebanon!
Don't do that, many have tried before you and failed.

Lebanese people are cheap. (Myself included)
If you're planning to start your own business you need ALL the following:

1- A good website for your business: It should be easy to use with lot of features. Take a look at these websites: Sony Style, Alienware for additional ideas. This will attract customers.

2- Very competitive prices. Take a tour and check for offered prices for hardware. 10$ cheaper = 100 more customers.

3- Online Shopping is a MUST...

4- Good customer support: This will gets you a very good reputation in the market. (it takes time tho).

5- Location: It's an essential factor of success/failure of this business. Go out of the Zwerib and find a good location.

6- Hit Hard from the beginning and Stay Up-To-Date with the latest hardware.

7- Knowledge: this might seems funny to you because you're an IT professional, but having the knowledge in this field is the key. I say that because i've seen a "Biyye3 Khodra" working in a computer shop. And apparently, he knows more than i do. When a customer knows that he's dealing with an expert, he'll feel safe.

8- Honesty: Never ever cheat on a customer. Building up reputation takes forever. Ruining it takes a minute.

Hope this help my friend. Wish you the best of luck.
xterm wroteDon't do that, many have tried before you and failed.
Lebanese people are cheap. (Myself included)
Don't be that pessimistic. If he knows how to run such a business he'll succeed.
Thanks for your replies.

A web presence is a must, whether I am able to compete with NewEgg in the short term I honestly do not know given their purchasing power and level of investment they have thrown into the front end (web site), I've never actually dealt with NewEgg so I don't know how good they are, I'm certain they are very good however.

Unless you are very rich you have to like all business start small, throw money back into the businesses so long as you have the reputation and sustainability to support the growth.

I think it's a little bit harsh generalizing that all Lebanese are cheap, people on lower incomes may not be able to afford an i7 920 nVidia SLI/Crossfire set up with RAID 0, however that said though that would be a great gaming rig, games also play well on a C2Q or AMD Phenom set up with single VGA, no doubt there are customers who play poker online, want to do a bit of word processing and go on Facebook, and equally well a C2D will cope with that for a fraction of the cost on an i7. There are cheap English people as well.

Yorgi, you mentioned location, I was thinking Beirut, not sure exactly but Acrafieh, Sin El Fil, that kind of location.

Knowledge and Honesty are basic character traits of mine (my wife would probably say I am too honest) and something I have direct control over.

In terms of Pricing, Quality and Choice, if we there to rank them how would it turn out, would choice be number 1 and price number 2? or what do you think. I ask because I've looked at PC and Parts and the pricing looks OK, he seems to have a reasonably good business but he does not offer a great range (though OK) of say mother boards. For me it's nothing like what I am able to get (choice wise) when I go back to the UK, which is what I do for my own rig.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/

http://www.scan.co.uk/

He also builds the system and charges 10 bucks which I think is weird considering you just bought all the parts (and profit that goes with those parts), it takes 2 hours to build a rig, You'd ghost the hard drive which would have an image of more or less everything that is needed driver/software wise and them either add later or remove as needed. So total time to build about be 3 hours and then 24 hours burning/testing etc, but that's automated.

I don't see any of the fancy stuff either like liquid cooling, fancy air cooler/fans etc.

There are a lot of quality items not being represented in Lebanon for example Seasonic and PC Power and Cooling PSU. Tagan PSU.

Is there actually a showroom in Lebanon you can walk into, bring your own game load it up and play it for an hour to make sure the rig does what you expect it to. I'm not intending running a gaming cafe however I think anybody whose a serious gamer should want to see that their game of choice plays as they expect on their rig of choice.

Don't get me wrong I am not pulling PC and Parts apart or bad mouthing, it just they don't not seem to be what I would call "complete"

You see above all, though it's a business opportunity first and foremost I am a computer enthusiast (I actually collect weird and wonder unix workstations), I think it make all the difference being into it (sure you can be certified/work in the industry etc) but being a nerd also helps.
Yorgi wroteDon't be that pessimistic. If he knows how to run such a business he'll succeed.
Pessimism has nothing to do with it. I've know a large number of people that have tried setting up stores with a showroom with high end machinery and laptops as well as keeping in stock an abundance of Alienware machines and end up selling very few.

I'm not here to judge whether he's capable to run such a business or not, I'm here to warn him that what he's aiming for, as appealing as it is to yourself and I and perhaps others, it's not targeting the actual market where the money is. He's targeting a selective group of people that would be interested in such things.
Actually this is a good idea for a business startup especially if you are into hardware and an enthusiast, as this will let you love your work and work more. But still I am not sure about the Lebanese market and how many people would be interested in your product, because as xterm said, many Lebanese people are cheap including me. So good statistics about the market is extremely important for you before starting up. Market segmentation and focus on a certain group in the Lebanese market (gamers and geeks for example) also is an option yet you also have to study how many of these people actually exist in Lebanon, and how many are willing to buy, as xterm noted.

So IMO before anything and once you are serious about it is to have a solid business plan, right down the following about your future business, in order to know your way, and what are your goals so basically you will need an executive summary regardless of how large or how small you start up is.
1.0 Executive Summary
1.1 Objectives
1.2 Mission
1.3 Keys to Success

2.0 Company Summary
2.1 Company Ownership
2.2 Start-up Plan
2.3 Company Locations and Facilities

3.0 Products and Services
3.1 Products and Service Description
3.2 Competitive Comparison
3.3 Sales Literature
3.4 Sourcing and Fulfillment
3.5 Technology
3.6 Future Products and Services

4.0 Market Analysis Summary
4.1 Market Segmentation
4.2 Target Market Segment Strategy
4.2.1 Market Needs
4.2.2 Market Trends
4.2.3 Market Growth
4.3 Industry Analysis
4.3.1 Industry Participants
4.3.2 Distribution Patterns
4.3.3 Competition and Buying Patterns
4.3.4 Main Competitors

5.0 Strategy and Implementation Summary
5.1 Strategy Pyramids
5.2 Value Proposition
5.3 Competitive Edge
5.4 Marketing Strategy
5.4.1 Positioning Statements
5.4.2 Pricing Strategy
5.4.3 Promotion Strategy
5.4.4 Marketing Programs
5.5 Sales Strategy
5.5.1 Sales Forecast
5.6 Strategic Alliances
5.7 Milestones

6.0 Web Plan Summary
6.1 Website Marketing Strategy
6.2 Development Requirements

7.0 Management Summary
7.1 Organizational Structure
7.2 Management Team
7.3 Management Team Gaps
7.4 Personnel Plan

8.0 Financial Plan
8.1 Important Assumptions
8.2 Key Financial Indicators
8.3 Break-even Analysis
8.4 Projected Profit and Loss
8.5 Projected Cash Flow
8.6 Projected Balance Sheet
8.7 Business Ratios
8.8 Long-term Plan
You don't have to follow each point exactly but still most of these points are extremely important for you as a future owner and entrepreneur to always have a guide next to you and follow your plans in order to achieve your goals.

This outline is actually the one I developed for my IT planning course (I had a project for developing a complete plan for starting up an IT planning and consulting organization in Lebanon) but it should apply for basically many other kinds of plans with some tweaking.

If you need help you can ask, have a good day and good luck in your startup :)
@ brams: I'm not a gamer but I do know what you're planning to do would be so much appealing to serious gamers. The problem is, though, if a gamer is not willing to pay $50-$70 to buy a legal copy of the game, I strongly doubt he's going to pay around $1500-$2500 to buy a high quality gaming rig.

What xterm and AymanFarhat pointed out is extremely important. You have to study the market and your target audience very carefully before you get into this business. The outline Ayman provided is very comprehensive, and I would suggest you follow it point by point. Take the time to plan your business well before you even think of taking action.

Good luck though, wish you all the best :)
brams wroteThanks for your replies.

A web presence is a must, whether I am able to compete with NewEgg in the short term I honestly do not know given their purchasing power and level of investment they have thrown into the front end (web site), I've never actually dealt with NewEgg so I don't know how good they are, I'm certain they are very good however.
It seams that you are from the UK (where Newegg is not available, they only ship to the US).

I suggest that you do not use any showroom, save you money (renting or buying a showroom is very expensive these days, especially in Beirut area...).

I suggest that you start a solely online business! Showrooms are pretty useless, uncomfortable, and they will eventually disappear in the future, a website is sufficient and can do all the tasks of the showrooms and much more, especially if the business is targeting geeks and enthusiasts who spend most of their lives online (they know how to search for reviews, benchmarks, and feedback, and they do not need a stupid salesman standing behind them all the time...).

A solely online business will not need a huge number of employees (less than 4 people would be able to do all the job), and most of us have credit cards... the costumer buy online, and you ship the product to him...
If you require an online product builder, feel free to get in touch with me. I am currently developing one (but not for computers). We can probably easily adapt that to your products.
Kassem wrote@ brams: I'm not a gamer but I do know what you're planning to do would be so much appealing to serious gamers. The problem is, though, if a gamer is not willing to pay $50-$70 to buy a legal copy of the game, I strongly doubt he's going to pay around $1500-$2500 to buy a high quality gaming rig.

What xterm and AymanFarhat pointed out is extremely important. You have to study the market and your target audience very carefully before you get into this business. The outline Ayman provided is very comprehensive, and I would suggest you follow it point by point. Take the time to plan your business well before you even think of taking action.

Good luck though, wish you all the best :)
I think fundamentally (and I am not condoning it just remarking on what actually happens in the real world) that because it's so easy to buy pirated games for a couple of bucks and crack them that people don't go and buy it in a store or buy it online (and maybe this is part of the reason why the trend is nowadays games are online where you buy a sub or it's included in the serial number, this gives the game publisher more control over the end user as there is two way interaction between the gamer and the game server, thus cracks and pirate serial numbers can be crippled by an online patch)

The hardware is a different ballgame, because you can't pirate it and if you want to play the latest and greatest game title pirated or not (Crysis 2 or whatever) then you need plenty of horse power to play. I agree completely that selling games/software or at least original titles is a complete waste of time.

I'd be looking to sell a good gaming PC for about 1100-1800 (based on spec) bucks something less capable between 750-1000. Anything beyond that would be built to order. I'd not be stocking anything like Alienware etc as they there is nothing special about them except for a fancy case which I think you pay dearly for. Maybe alright for kids but anybody with any sense would probably either like to save the money or spend it on higher spec internal parts.

What are opinions on AMD vs Intel, 5 years ago when I tried to buy an AMD 64 I was told you could not buy them in Lebanon because Lebanese people did not like AMD, I thought it was an odd thing to say as at the time the AMD 64 was killing the PIV Prescott and Northwood. I know the i7 920 is the gaming CPU of choice today but that could all change tomorrow.

Thanks for all the input it's giving me a lot of food for thought.
A major problem here brams is the lack of real gaming and pc enthusiasts, they are rare people here. I myself would definitely buy a gaming rig from a business like yours because i understand what you sell and what you are trying to sell. But other people who are just looking to play a game once or twice a week dont need hardcore gaming rigs, just a 500$ rig would be enough to last them a couple of years.

But other than that really want to see a store like that in Lebanon one day though.
Flakk wroteA major problem here brams is the lack of real gaming and pc enthusiasts, they are rare people here. I myself would definitely buy a gaming rig from a business like yours because i understand what you sell and what you are trying to sell. But other people who are just looking to play a game once or twice a week dont need hardcore gaming rigs, just a 500$ rig would be enough to last them a couple of years.

But other than that really want to see a store like that in Lebanon one day though.
bringing http://www.tigerdirect.com/ to lebanon is enough for me :P