Hidden Gems: Meet Christopher Schroeder of Chris’s Clock Repair

Today we’d like to introduce you to Christopher Schroeder. 

Hi Christopher, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My Clock Repair Adventures really began about 13 years ago, but the journey I took to get there started long before. I have always had an entrepreneurial mindset and a burning desire to seek wisdom and be a professional in the business of living. I think I was destined to be an entrepreneur and to share what knowledge I have gathered to help others. 

My earliest venture was when I was about 8 years old when I started fundraising to buy a “community” computer for the kids in the neighborhood. That lasted until my friend’s mom found out I was taking his lunch money! Then I started a lawn care business that I ran from 14 years of age until I went to college. 

Not really knowing what I wanted to do in life, other than be successful, I took the advices of others to take up engineering. I went to the University of Toledo. I did a co-op, so I worked as an engineer while I went to school. Well, to my great surprise and disappointment engineering wasn’t my calling. I would continually get in bad with my superiors for “disappearing” into the lab and working with the technicians instead of “doing my job,” which was a lot of time spent in meetings and hours in front of a computer at a cubicle. 

At the close of my undergraduate degree, I really didn’t feel confident I could “do” anything. Sure, I knew a lot of math and physics, but what could I create with my bare hands? Not much. So, I stayed on for a Master’s degree thinking this would fill that gap. Well, that didn’t either, and I found myself mostly among professional students who made a career out of learning simply to turn around and teach others (a sort of silly circle to me). I think it was my charm and communication skills more than anything else that got me through. My grades alone certainly would not have cut it. 

I knew engineering wasn’t for me and days after graduating, I moved to Michigan to support my church while I searched for my calling in the world. I started a marketing company called Proven Solutions. I would go knocking on the doors of businesses offering my services, but it never really took off. At the same time, I would do side gigs for friends or associates to make ends meet. At that time, I was living in a rough neighborhood in Detroit and I was scraping by simply to eat and pay the rent. 

As fate would have it, I tried offering my marketing services to a clock repairman. He was not interested in these services at all, but said he was looking for someone to help around the shop. Two weeks later, after not having any sales and wondering where my next meal was coming from, I gave him a call. 

That was 13 years ago and that’s when the adventures of clock repair began. I would go over to my teacher’s house, Fred Bartholomew, almost every day on a part-time basis and I helped around the shop cleaning clocks, organizing things, etc. I became enamored with clock repair and how beautiful the whole process was. I had found my passion! And my engineering background fit perfectly with it. After a couple of years of helping out, I asked him to train me to be a professional clock repairman and to my surprise he said, “No!” After about two years of practically begging him to train me, he agreed and my unofficial apprenticeship began. In 2015, after successfully repairing 30 clocks for Fred, he certified me as a competent clock repairman. 

Chris’s Clock Repair was born 5 years later, in 2020 when the pandemic hit. The pandemic served me by forcing me to think outside the box because, at that time, I was repairing clocks for my teacher exclusively and all business had stopped. I knew that this problem could be turned into an opportunity! 

Starving for income, I started thinking of creative ways to make income myself maybe by selling clocks of my own. Additionally, in my spare time, I started making clock repair how-to videos on YouTube. And that’s when everything started to take off! 

Fast forward two years and now I have a thriving Clock Repair Business with an apprentice of my own, Brendan. We have a client waiting list of 6 to 8 months and my services are sought out from around the country and in some cases from the UK and Canada. I just monetized my YouTube channel and have about 1300 subscribers. My love and passion for clock repair, coupled with great customer service and top-notch professional quality clock repair, my business is extremely successful and my customers, per reports, have an excellent experience with me. I used the pandemic as my launchpad to create my own economy. But key to my success was not just expanding on a professional level, but also personally. I got married in 2020 and we had our first daughter in late 2021. I would not be here today without my the support of my wonderful wife. My success certainly wasn’t overnight. It was steady disciplined work every day with the promise of a better future driving me to overcome any of my hardships. 

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
The road was full of potholes like the ones you find in Michigan, but I never expected the road to success to be easy. If it was easy, there would be more successful people! And I think that’s a big part of the reason I ended up being successful. I had the promise of a better future in my mind every day and I was willing to pay the price by putting in the work to create it. I think patience is one of the most powerful weapons an entrepreneur needs in order to be successful. I had a burning passion to learn a trade so I could create my own economy and if I had to endure hardship to get there, well, I’d pay that price every day of the week. 

I wasn’t getting paid to learn clock repair, not really. I got paid $15 when I finished a clock and, in the beginning, it would take up to a month for me to repair one. And so, I was always running a side-hustle just to make enough to eat and pay the rent. I held a lot of random jobs and worked pretty much 10 to 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for over a decade. Probably the biggest challenge was overcoming the doubt and criticism my friends and family expressed about what I was doing because my situation was so dire at the time. My family couldn’t be more proud today! 

As you know, we’re big fans of Chris’s Clock Repair. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
I provide professional level clock repair for both modern and antique grandfather, mantle, wall, and cuckoo clocks. I pride myself in the quality of my work and attempt to “leave no trace” that a repairman was there. I also keep the clock original. I will repair rather than replace. And sometimes that means making a part from scratch. There is, in clock repair, like other crafts levels of craftsmanship and I strive to hold the highest standard while maintaining speed of service and excellent customer service. 

One of the things I like to do is take photos or videos of the repair process and send this to my clients while I work on their clocks. They really like this. And if I use their clock in a YouTube video, I will send them the link. 

If I had to choose a specialty, I would say cuckoo clocks. I really love to work on cuckoo clocks because they can be challenging. And for that reason, I get a lot of them. 

My brand of clock repair is unique because I am considered very young for my trade. Additionally, I am completely transparent in my work and take the time to answer questions and explain how my client’s clocks work. When I am in someone’s home, I will encourage them to watch what I am doing and show them what I find wrong and how I go about repairing it. 

I do photos and videos and have a large social media presence compared to other repairman. Most of my audience and clientele are 65 to 85 years old. So, I have put a modern spin on a very old profession that has been to a large degree dying. There aren’t a lot of competent repairman out there (at least in my area). And certainly not a lot my age. 

What makes you happy?
Helping others and the personal satisfaction of a job well done makes me truly happy. And I am so proud to be able to support my beautiful family with an activity that brings joy to others. What could be better? In order to be truly happy, you have to be productive. So, productivity is the basis for my happiness. 

When I restore a family heirloom that hasn’t worked for 5, 10, or even 20 years, I am thrilled to see the utter joy my customers display when they hear that familiar clock chime again. 

Pricing:

• costs for repairs can range from $100 to in some cases $3000

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: http://chrisclockrepair.com/
• Instagram: @chris_clock_repair
• Facebook: @chrisclockrepair
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/c/chrisclockrepair

Image Credits:
@yvettelynnmc