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splumer
Location: Cleveland, Ohio Gender: Male Total Likes: 201 likes
| | | Re: Thinking of starting my own auto repair business < Reply # 3 on 1/17/2014 2:25 PM > | Reply with Quote
| | | Posted by jeepdave Moral? Don't trust anyone but yourself when you start out. I should have just waited or declined jobs till I was able to hire better help. Never saw that fuck again either. Never even picked up his last check.
| And I was going to suggest he start it with someone! On the mobile vs. shop thing, with a shop, you have much more of an investment: building, tools (e.g. compressor, lift), etc., so you have much more to lose. BUT, you also have that as assets. If the business tanks, you can sell the building and all the other stuff. Being mobile this time of year would suck. I don't think there's an easy answer. Maybe start out mobile, then once you've built a customer base, open a shop somewhere, and maybe keep the mobile unit. One more thing I just thought of: when I worked for an AV company, I serviced several hotels near me, and I had a work-owned van that I took home at night. It ended up feeling like I never left work. When you have a shop you go to, once you leave, you're done for the day. One more piece of advice, this time from a customer standpoint: don't rip off your customers (doing unnecessary repairs, etc.) and give them options, especially on big repairs.
| “We are not going to have the kind of cooperation we need if everyone insists on their own narrow version of reality. … the great divide in the world today … is between people who have the courage to listen and those who are convinced that they already know it all.” -Madeline Albright |
| Samurai Vehicular Lord Rick
Location: northeastern New York Total Likes: 1900 likes
No matter where you go, there you are...
| | | Re: Thinking of starting my own auto repair business < Reply # 4 on 1/17/2014 4:07 PM > | Reply with Quote
| | | words of advice... my brother was thinking about going into business for himself as he has a hell of a reputation as a top notch mechanic. He instead walked away from the whole thing and works in the same mill i do now. But when he was thinking of it, there was some items i thought of. start small... brakes, oil changes, tire rotations, basic stuff. As much as the big ticket items bring in big dollars, they tie up lift space and tech time. Undercut your competition, but not by so much that someone will set fire to your shop. I've seen this happen. A good racket to get into for a smaller shop is tires... you can make a MINT off tires if you have a good volume of business. Also, if you hook up with a tire supplier/warehouse, there's a good chance you can get a good wholesale price. If you want to draw in a clientele, specialize. Specialize in imports or domestics, but make damn sure you're good in either one. As you know, if you're going to work on GM's you're probably going to need a TechII. Not sure if Ford has their own specialized diagnostic tool. Another good racket to run in your first six months is run 'specials'... say in the winter, you run a special on winterization, you know the drill. You cut a few bucks off the price of this that or the other thing. Now with your parts suppliers, you're going to have to make damn sure you tell your customers WHO'S parts you're putting in their cars and make damn sure that you and them are clear on the warranty situation. I know half a dozen shops here that have accounts with NAPA, Bond Auto (from Vermont), Advance Auto, one of the import specialty house in Vermont so you never know what's going where in what? Add dealer only items into the mix, it can be a headache. And lastly, as much as I hate to say this, but one chunk of overhead might be a secretary... before you get that look on your head, someone's gotta answer the phone and send the damn bills out while someone is twisting the wrenches. And as you get bigger, which if you're half as good as you say you are will probably happen, you're going to need a shop boy... someone to do the dumb work, go get this go get that, pick this car up, drop that car off. Delivery and courtesy vehicles are a big deal here. I was actually reading all this ^ off a paper my brother and I were working from before he got done at the dealership. Oh and there are tons of small business grants and loans still out there for a start-up business, too. Something to think about. Hope this was a little helpful. EDIT: one more thing... if you can diversify, that rocks too. Not only do you work on cars and trucks, but say snowmobiles, ATV's, lawn tractors... anything to keep a bay full and you busy. Take for instance here; the nearest ATV dealers of any repute are over an hour away in any direction. If there was a shop that had a rep for doing good work on those types of machines, it would be worth it's weight in unleaded just to not have to travel... to be honest, when you're doing this kind of work, the sky really is the limit if you've got the business sense, personality and moxy to pull it off. Oh and yeah, personality is a huge part of the game, too. If you're too friendly, people think you've got dead cats in the basement. If you're a gruff son of a bitch no one wants to deal with you.
[last edit 1/17/2014 4:12 PM by Samurai - edited 1 times]
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