if you could own a small commercial garage

Jaynen wrote:

Streetwiseguy wrote: Time for some parade rain here, I'm afraid. Every idea in this thread so far is either something you do on Saturday and in the evening when you are not at your paying job, something you do after the lottery hits, or something you do 60-70 hours a week while paying yourself less money than you could earn working a 9-5 for somebody else. Trust me. I survived in a 2 bay shop for 9 years, moved to a 5 bay, and after 20 years finally learned the lessons everybody learns. The first, and most important one involves letting cheap people find somebody else to whine at about how much it costs to fix their junk. I fixed a E36 M3load of junk for a E36 M3load of tightwads before I finally got rid of them by pricing myself out of their market.

So who now is your customer?

Customers who appreciate a professional, warranted repair, and are happy to pay for a quality product, which allows me to afford the required modern equipment and talented people so on the rare occasion that we berkeley something up, we apologise and make it right as quickly and painlessly as possible.

The basic thing to think about is who has a car or cars that need work, and who of those have the money and motivation to pay for the work you provide. My opinion: European cars. They need work and the owners typically have the money and motivation to have the work done, and done properly. Getting involved in the euro car racing community and developing a good reputation can also help, so that the guy who brings his 911 to th track will bring his wife's Cayanne and his M3 to you for service and repair

This is how one of our local shops with a great rep I think built their business. They do a lot of racing etc but specialize in BMW primarily and are the go to mechanic for most of the BMW CCA members in the area now

There's a one man / two bay shop around the corner from my house, and pretty much all he does is Saab repair (there is the odd Porsche or BMW parked there every once in a while, but 98% is old Saabs.) He's found a good niche for himself, working on a car brand that generally has very dedicated owners.

In reply to stuart in mn:

There are a couple of guys around here doing the same with Volvos. One shop almost exclusively (maybe Saabs), but the other is mostly Volvo's and other European stuff. When I had the ex's 850 there a couple of years ago, they had a E39 M5 on the lot to be serviced.

All businesses are about sales.

Can you sell? If not, fugetaboutit.

Nobody gives a rat's badonkadonk if you can fix a car.

Having said that, I wouldn't do anything posted in this thread.

I'd offer a product everyone needs, with better service than they can find anywhere else.

So, for example, you could do basic maintenance, but offer pickup and delivery service from their place of business, so the repairs can magically happen during work.

Regular maintenance and lube, brakes, AC service, etc.

Paint the place pink, and hire a woman to market it through social media.

Stay away from anything difficult, or with a limited market.

And don't listen to people who say "only take cash". That's ridiculous. Plan on some losses, budget for them, and do the best you can to minimize them.

I also wouldn't flip cars. You need a dealer's license for that.

Here's another idea...

Only do Hybrids. Nothing else.

Get a dealer's license, and specialize in fair priced Priuses. There are a million of them out there, and people who want to buy good ones.

Learn how to rebuild/ replace individual cells, and offer services around the country to ship in batteries for rebuilding.

You will be on the leading edge as the markets develop, and it will be easy to expand into whatever the next easy button is- used Teslas, rebuilding Leafs, EV's etc.

Paint the place green, and sell the eco-friendliness.

Still gotta have a woman to sell the services.

rcutclif wrote: Thanks for all the comments so far, quite interesting to read. I owned my own driving school for 2 years, so yes, I fully value and affirm not working for tightasses or spending 60-70 hours go barely scrape by. Really IF I were to do this, I think I'd be focusing on the low volume higher profit stuff, or at least NOT regular maintenance. For example: fix and flips, but only 50 y.o. cars. Do detailing and maintenance on the side (but only for same 50 y.o. cars, therefore your customers repeat both ways a bit more). Would certainly take longer to get going, but the small customer group might help keep out the most of the crap.

A small customer group is different than a small potential customer base.

Don't offer what you want to sell while minimizing the number of potential customers.

Offer what people want to buy, and maximize the potential number of customers, so you can choose which ones you want as clients.

Also, make it repeatable. If you are restoring old cars, you are dependent on finding old cars, and the skilled labor to work on them. Do something you can teach others to do.

I like the hybrids idea especially with how scared everyone is of them kind of like how people were scared of fuel injection.

I also really like the pickup/dropoff service if it was feasible. Heck I might pay a service like that just if it topped off my tank of gas too.

SVreX wrote: Nobody gives a rat's badonkadonk if you can fix a car.

If you are saying that in relation to an automotive repair business, its quite likely the dumbest thing I've ever read.

SVreX has had a billion jobs in a billion industries.

While this leads me to believe he has a little wisdom in everything, it makes me question if he is an expert at anything ;)

Of course, this is the internet, the only reason you can be reasonably sure who he is is because he's been in the magazine.

In reply to HiTempguy:

You are right to question me.

I have had a lot of failures, and now am at a stage of life where I can not benefit from my own experiences. So truthfully, I am not a success story like some guys here.

But I have learned a lot, and am absolutely convinced about a few things related to small business, and would honestly like to see others benefit from my experiences.

I used to think I could offer good professional services and the product would speak for itself. That is no longer the world we live in.

People want to feel special. They want to believe they are different and unique. Successful businesses are about driving an emotional desire, not about providing a good product or service.

That's what people enjoy about businesses like Mac, Tesla, Starbucks, and Facebook. Same holds true for GRM. It's also the experience they seek from their corner store.

If a business can not develop that emotional connection, it will probably not get past being a hobby, scraping by, or failing.

Streetwiseguy wrote:

SVreX wrote: Nobody gives a rat's badonkadonk if you can fix a car.

If you are saying that in relation to an automotive repair business, its quite likely the dumbest thing I've ever read.

Then you don't understand your own business:

Streetwiseguy wrote: Customers who appreciate a professional, warranted repair, and are happy to pay for a quality product, which allows me to afford the required modern equipment and talented people so on the rare occasion that we berkeley something up, we apologise and make it right as quickly and painlessly as possible.

You are not in the business of automotive repair. As you have already shared, your business is about meeting the emotional needs of the customer and making them feel special. You offer them better service.

I find your post funny. You were the only guy in this thread that I agreed with.

Anyone can fix a car.

A guy who can fix a car but can not make his customers feel good about the experience will fail, regardless of his skill level.

A guy who is only mediocre at fixing a car, but can offer the customer an exceptional experience has an excellent chance of succeeding, even if he makes mistakes, or is not as technically proficient.

HiTempguy wrote: SVreX has had a billion jobs in a billion industries.

That's not really true, but I understand how you could have gotten that impression.

It has been largely 1 path, with a few related ancillary things.

I build stuff. I have built houses for 38 years. Most of that time self-employed. For profit, and non-profit, various locations and countries. Many varied techniques.

When the industry changed to where I could no longer survive, I attempted to apply my skills building stuff in different ways. I started building businesses, and tried to shift to a different industry which wasn't doomed.

I passed through building a chemical plant, building a coffee business, building a farming business, building a few challengers, building my family, and building a home schooling community. I have also tried building a few other businesses (which did not succeed) in the quest for survival and applying my talents in a sustainable industry.

Now I build commercial buildings. I am pretty content.

I am actually a pretty simple guy. But this thread is not about me...

I don't know if he is aware of it or not, but SVreX (and a few others) are essentially talking about the "golden circles of marketing"

Classic business' have gone from the outside to the inside. Example: we have a repair garage and we make quality, warrantied work because we want to keep your business.

Everyone says the same thing, so why should they beleive you instead of the other guys across town?

When you go inside out, it creates a lot of loyalty in your customers because they understand what makes your business special and they want to be associated with that. Example: I am a car enthusiast who always struggled to find places where I could get some specialized services like corner weighting for my car. So I decided to open a garage that did all those speciality jobs like performance alignment, and rollcage installs, etc...for all the enthusiast in my region.

It gives a people a reason why they chose you instead of the other guys.

This marketing strategy has been proven to work again and again. And people will forgive a lot of sins if they understand your why.

With that said, if your market is too small, or you have poor management skills you'll still be screwed.

SVreX wrote:

Streetwiseguy wrote:

SVreX wrote: Nobody gives a rat's badonkadonk if you can fix a car.

If you are saying that in relation to an automotive repair business, its quite likely the dumbest thing I've ever read.

Then you don't understand your own business:

Streetwiseguy wrote: Customers who appreciate a professional, warranted repair, and are happy to pay for a quality product, which allows me to afford the required modern equipment and talented people so on the rare occasion that we berkeley something up, we apologise and make it right as quickly and painlessly as possible.

You are not in the business of automotive repair. As you have already shared, your business is about meeting the emotional needs of the customer and making them feel special. You offer them better service. I find your post funny. You were the only guy in this thread that I agreed with. Anyone can fix a car. A guy who can fix a car but can not make his customers feel good about the experience will fail, regardless of his skill level. A guy who is only mediocre at fixing a car, but can offer the customer an exceptional experience has an excellent chance of succeeding, even if he makes mistakes, or is not as technically proficient.

I get your point and I pretty much agree with this though it really depends on the level of mistake making. If I get a good feeling from the place that gets things right 80% of the time I would go to them instead of the place that acts like they are doing me a favor and gets it right 90% of the time, but if the feel good place only gets it right 50% of the time then I'm not going back there.

In reply to Harvey:

I agree, and I find a business that gets it right 50% of the time unacceptable in all circumstances. I don't think they'd be around very long.

I think the more realistic numbers are 80% and 95+%. And in that case, I think the average uninformed buyer (most) would go with the 80% shop that treats you right.

It's a big deal, because most businesses are not playing in a wider range than that. They are battling for the customers in the 80-95% range.

Kind of like politics. They are not fighting for a majority win. They are fighting over the 2-3% in the middle- the rest are already decided.

It's a shame to have a shop capable of 95+% work that can't keep customers because they haven't figured out how to treat them.

Therefore, I am suggesting that a target of 80-90% with an emphasis on meeting the needs of the customer is an easier target than a running a shop capable of extreme excellence (and the prima dona attitudes of techs, customers, etc)

To the OP, have you ever worked in the automotive service field professionally?

My personal experience...

I am one of the rare 99% contractors. I am capable of work that exceeds the vast majority of my competitors.

I tried to build the stuff I was capable of (great stuff) for most of my career, and find the customers who could afford it. This went pretty well when times were good.

My closest competitor is a builder who offers product that is 70% at best. But he knew the market. He built what people wanted to buy ($130- 150K homes), while I was building the "nice" stuff.

He could crank out 20-30 homes annually, and always had them sold before finished. He was building what people wanted.

I was building what I wanted. I could only serve 3-4 customers annually, and had a great reputation, but it had an edge. Basically, everyone said about me, "He's terrific, but a little pricey". That wasn't actually true, but it became my reputation, and limited my sales. It also made it hard to hire help. If there were 20 men to choose from, only 1 or 2 had sufficient skills to service my customers. My competitor, could hire any of them.

It also left him making more ancillary contacts. So, for example, he knew more bankers than I did, because his customers used them. He developed relationships with them because he had a broader contact with them. When they had foreclosures or deals they wanted to unload, they would call him because they knew him better (and he brought them more customers).

When times got tough, he had a business model that could survive. I did not.

YMMV

In reply to fanfoy:

That's good stuff. Thanks!

gearheadmb wrote: To the OP, have you ever worked in the automotive service field professionally?

No, I have not. I work in Healthcare IT, doing mostly sales. My old roommate did work auto service for about 10 years, and my lemon's teammates own multiple tire shops and towing companies. I owned my own driving school for a couple years as well. So I know a bit about it, but not a lot.

However I started this thread a little bit because I was intrigued in my own prospect, but mostly because I wanted to pose the hypothetical to the group. And, so far, you all did not disappoint! Keep the answers coming!

Make sure you check all the rules, regulations and licensing required by your state and local municipalities. Also, investigate insurance costs. Some states are pretty sticky about requirements for car dealers. Don't assume you can rent a shop and do whatever you feel like once you are in. Don't rely on what the seller/landlord says you can do. Don't buy a repair shop and assume you can run an auto retail business out of there. I looked into the requirements in Florida and the State requirements as well as the local zoning requirements were a PITA.