There is always someone with a business idea on GRM and I generally enjoy the discussions.
One that pops up and is then shot down is DIY rental bays with lifts/tools.
(I personally agree that these are a bad idea.)
My 'spin' on this idea is to find Mechanics who want to start their own shops and lease them a bay, lift and some storage outside.
Shop would have common compressed air, power, hvac. Maybe a room with shop press and other less used tools.
Sort of like how hairdressers rent booth space at a salon.
Great benefit is you're not renting by the hour to amateurs. You're renting by the month to pros.
OK, shoot holes in this plan :)
A couple issues I see are that you'd probably want to have a separate office area for each client and definitely separate each bay to make sure clients don't accidentally borrow another clients tools. If bays are big enough, office could probably be in the bay. Zoning and state regs may be an issue depending on how the shop is set up and operated and how the clients are set up and operating as well.
Overall, I think it's a cool idea that could possibly work.
In reply to 90BuickCentury :
I don't think you'd need a separate office. Do it like barber shops, people ask for the barber, if they don't have a regular, it's round robin to the next open guy.
Easier to make more money by just running the shop like a traditional place. That way you can charge the customer $100 an hour while paying the mechanic significantly less.
Larger military bases I have been on have an "Auto Center", soldiers or sailors rent a bay and check out tooling for use, pay if you lose a tool. The military can afford a lawsuit easier than us. I like the idea but don't see a profit here, even less profit paying a mechanic AND the insurance that must be required when knowlingly renting to untrained clients.
Not sure what it's like in your state, but you would either have to have a massive umbrella/liability policy to cover all the things, or each individual mechanic would have to have his/her own liability. When you're talking about 4000-lb vehicles on lifts, every kind of flammable chemical, and dozens of ignition sources, I know that won't be cheap.
It may present a profit-killer for you, and will probably cost more than a mechanic can make doing it individually. It's up to you how you want to do it, but if you rent to a non-insured mechanic and a car falls off a lift paralyzing them, you would be completely liable for their medical expenses, pain/suffering, etc for the rest of their lives.
I'm just saying, figuring out how to cover your butt is your first research hurdle.
I had considered this when a DIY garage near my house went under recently. I decided it was not worth the risk unless I could own the building and hopefully get some appreciation on the property, while just doing a little over breaking even on renting to mechanics.
How many days/tenants are you thinking of having.
I kinda see having your competition next door and 5 more besides to be a downside for any mechanic wanting to start a business. A person could just literally shop around in the same area for the best deal and all it takes is one asshat to destroy it by charging very little
The kind of guys who would work at a shop like this fall in to one of two categories:
- Consummate professionals, neat freaks, and marque specialists who want to move on from an indy shop or dealer and potentially work fewer hours or just on interesting projects but lack the space or resources to do it at their own house and don't want to take on the challenge of finding or building a shop. These guys will be quirky, difficult, and neurotic, and just a slight shift in shop dynamics will cause untold stress on you.
- Absolute bottom of the heap "mechanics" who can't maintain steady employment at dealerships or garages. The guys who have been fired or walked from every shop in town and think they can go out on their own but lack any sort of funds or credit to allow them to do so. These guys will do bad work for cash using stolen parts, leave your bays a mess, and will at some point skip town in the middle of the night, owing you a bunch of money, taking half your community tools, and leaving a half-disassembled 15 year old S55 AMG on your lift.
Basically the only people who would need this sort of situation are the techs who are so far off the bell curve of "honest/professional/neat/competent" they can't get steady work anywhere else.
Run, don't walk, away from this idea.
IF (and it might be a really BIG if) you can carefully select your renters, you could create a community of automotive related businesses - eg. engine shop, body shop, upholstery, chassis/welder, tires & alignment, oil change, parts store, etc. - all independently leased from you. One stop shopping for all car related issues all in one area. Would need to know a lot of good people and "invite" them in order to avoid the issues that 93gsxturbo raised.
