Anika Sharma came to Christchurch in 2022 on a New Zealand Skilled Migrant visa with a computer engineering degree from Pune and a strong background in hardware maintenance. She applied for IT roles and found a market that was competitive and slower to hire immigrants than she had expected.
After 8 months of applications, a part-time Christchurch tech recruiter said something she took seriously: "You understand devices better than most people I place. Have you thought about running a repair business?"
Anika had not. She spent 3 months researching — market size, pricing, competition, startup costs — and discovered that Christchurch had almost no professional independent repair shops.
The Investment
NZD $20,000 — tools, parts, shop deposit on a unit in the central city — and RepairCoreX on the free plan from day one.
"My engineering background meant I immediately understood what a job management system needed to do," she says. "RepairCoreX handled customer tracking, job ticketing, inventory, and invoicing. It was the business infrastructure I needed to focus on the technical work."
The First Customers
Christchurch's post-earthquake rebuild had brought a wave of professionals — builders, engineers, IT workers, government staff — who owned premium devices and had nowhere reliable to repair them.
Anika's first Google Maps listing said: "Professional phone and laptop repair — digital job tracking, warranty on all repairs." Within two weeks, she had 18 five-star reviews.
"Christchurch customers are practical people," she says. "They want quality, they want documentation, and they want to be told when their device is ready without having to call. RepairCoreX delivers all three."
Month by Month
Her Life Today
Anika earns NZD $22,000–$25,000 monthly net. She has permanent residency and is processing her New Zealand citizenship application. Her shop is Christchurch's highest-rated independent repair business on Google Maps.
"New Zealand gave me the opportunity to build something," she says. "RepairCoreX gave me the system to build it professionally. The rest was my skill and my effort."