I had the strangest thought today that opening up my own shop would be a better idea than working my cushy dealership job... someone, please... make this thought go away!
Hopefully sleep will help.
- Thread starter Killa_CiViC
- Start date
Do it
what kind of "shop"
if you mean a shop that sells performance parts for cars... don't even waste any thought on it...
here's how it will go...
* you will talk it up.. and everyone will tell you how awesome it will be.. they will tell you about how they will buy everything from you.... and you will see money signs floating in the air..
* you will then actually go to open the shop... you will first need all that money for all the standard BS.. fixtures.. rent for the shop.. insurance... all the legal paperwork.. etc...
* OK so now you have your shop all setup... so you are like where the hell am I gonna get stuff to sell.. people are going to want to buy things.. so you make a list of the most popular s**t you think you can sell and you start to call around... you instantly realize that for most decent wholesale companies you will need an initial buy in that costs more than everything you have purchased in your lifetime times two..
(this is where your dream starts to shatter)
* so you realize you absolutely do not have the capital to buy wholesale from the large distributor... so you keep looking and settle for what you can afford... which is like a 3rd rate wholesaler... keep in mind wholesale at that level BLOWS.. and you are basically buying things at "wholesale" for almost what the general public can purchase the products for online...
so just to recap...
* you have the overhead of a storefront
* you are paying almost online prices for inventory..
* so you suck it up.. make your first order.. and get ready for the big grand opening... at this point you are god only knows how much in the hole... you have your grand opening... and every ricer in a 20 mile radius shows up... does burn outs in the parking lot... acts obnoxious... making the community hate you... but worst of all.. they notice that your prices are a little higher than they pay online.... they tell you how rad the shop is.. if you are like most shops that fail you make it really cool.. I am thinking couch.. and Xbox... all your new clients LOVE your shop... they come there all the time.. they just dont buy s**t.... they are "waiting for pay day" and they will "hit you up then"... they will constantly ask for quotes on things you don't stock.... some will likely put down deposits... have you order s**t.. then never pick it up... it will likely be the most awful experience of your life...
a handful of speed shops work..
they work because they were there for a long time or the owner has a TON of cash and has strong distributors..
OR
they work because they are legit tuning shops that have YEARS of rep building FAST race cars..
opening a speed shop with the creation of the internet is virtually impossible..
if you mean a shop that sells performance parts for cars... don't even waste any thought on it...
here's how it will go...
* you will talk it up.. and everyone will tell you how awesome it will be.. they will tell you about how they will buy everything from you.... and you will see money signs floating in the air..
* you will then actually go to open the shop... you will first need all that money for all the standard BS.. fixtures.. rent for the shop.. insurance... all the legal paperwork.. etc...
* OK so now you have your shop all setup... so you are like where the hell am I gonna get stuff to sell.. people are going to want to buy things.. so you make a list of the most popular s**t you think you can sell and you start to call around... you instantly realize that for most decent wholesale companies you will need an initial buy in that costs more than everything you have purchased in your lifetime times two..
(this is where your dream starts to shatter)
* so you realize you absolutely do not have the capital to buy wholesale from the large distributor... so you keep looking and settle for what you can afford... which is like a 3rd rate wholesaler... keep in mind wholesale at that level BLOWS.. and you are basically buying things at "wholesale" for almost what the general public can purchase the products for online...
so just to recap...
* you have the overhead of a storefront
* you are paying almost online prices for inventory..
* so you suck it up.. make your first order.. and get ready for the big grand opening... at this point you are god only knows how much in the hole... you have your grand opening... and every ricer in a 20 mile radius shows up... does burn outs in the parking lot... acts obnoxious... making the community hate you... but worst of all.. they notice that your prices are a little higher than they pay online.... they tell you how rad the shop is.. if you are like most shops that fail you make it really cool.. I am thinking couch.. and Xbox... all your new clients LOVE your shop... they come there all the time.. they just dont buy s**t.... they are "waiting for pay day" and they will "hit you up then"... they will constantly ask for quotes on things you don't stock.... some will likely put down deposits... have you order s**t.. then never pick it up... it will likely be the most awful experience of your life...
a handful of speed shops work..
they work because they were there for a long time or the owner has a TON of cash and has strong distributors..
OR
they work because they are legit tuning shops that have YEARS of rep building FAST race cars..
opening a speed shop with the creation of the internet is virtually impossible..
Import maintenance/repair/performance.what kind of "shop"
There's a gaping void in my old home town for a good, honest, clean technician to work on imports... I just don't often have the desire to spend every ounce of my time working on cars. And, regardless of how many tools I already have, the start-up cost is still staggering.
The only real tempting thing is, the few mechanics around town have more work than they can handle and none of them do import stuff even remotely well... and the only other option is a Toyota dealership run by criminals and staffed by idiots and hacks.
as you stated... start up cost is a nightmare...Import maintenance/repair/performance.
There's a gaping void in my old home town for a good, honest, clean technician to work on imports... I just don't often have the desire to spend every ounce of my time working on cars. And, regardless of how many tools I already have, the start-up cost is still staggering.
The only real tempting thing is, the few mechanics around town have more work than they can handle and none of them do import stuff even remotely well... and the only other option is a Toyota dealership run by criminals and staffed by idiots and hacks.
the whole performance thing is tough.... are you going to get hardware and software to modify ECUs? a dyno to test cars as you are tuning them? "performance" is everything that the backyard enthusiast can't do...
for example
I had a swapped GSR motor in my EK with nitrous... never had the car to a shop once... I would have tuned to a shop for a piggy back or stand alone ECU to tune the car for a larger shot of nitrous... and that is not something you can guess at... you would need to be able to measure the burn while on juice and make adjustments accordingly...
this is why I say a "performance" shop is cost prohibitive.. all the equipment to properly tune modern imports is going to be really expensive..
I want to buy a dyno and rent out time. Closest one is over 2 hrs away. I just figured I could have it bought and refunded for money put on it in a matter of a year or less.
I am no expert but pretty sure a dyno is 40k to 100k and up....I want to buy a dyno and rent out time. Closest one is over 2 hrs away. I just figured I could have it bought and refunded for money put on it in a matter of a year or less.
lethal6
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You are right.I am no expert but pretty sure a dyno is 40k to 100k and up....
They average $35k to $70k for just the dyno. That isn't counting software, set up, safety harnesses, install, or a place to put it.
Best friend and I looked into it a couple years ago thinking that we could do it on the side for cash.
You're right. Engine tuning is a very cost prohibitive area for someone to break into... hell, just seeing how much a dealership has to spend on keeping up with the changes in vehicles and engine management systems is scary. I don't have any interest in that.as you stated... start up cost is a nightmare...
the whole performance thing is tough.... are you going to get hardware and software to modify ECUs? a dyno to test cars as you are tuning them? "performance" is everything that the backyard enthusiast can't do...
for example
I had a swapped GSR motor in my EK with nitrous... never had the car to a shop once... I would have tuned to a shop for a piggy back or stand alone ECU to tune the car for a larger shot of nitrous... and that is not something you can guess at... you would need to be able to measure the burn while on juice and make adjustments accordingly...
this is why I say a "performance" shop is cost prohibitive.. all the equipment to properly tune modern imports is going to be really expensive..
Anything I did would be more on the maintenance and repair side of things on regular cars, which still requires expensive and frequent investment. I would probably have only so much performance stuff going on as to keep my own projects going.
And I don't want to buy, market or sell performance parts, because I already see how I scour the internet for the lowest prices and best deals... that just doesn't seem very lucrative.
You are doing a dandy job of talking me out of opening a shop though!
It's a really tough gig man.... If you want to do it and your hearts in it... Go for it.... But it's not something as a business proposal I would get involved in unless I had a ton of cash to invest... And even then return on investment would be tough...You're right. Engine tuning is a very cost prohibitive area for someone to break into... hell, just seeing how much a dealership has to spend on keeping up with the changes in vehicles and engine management systems is scary. I don't have any interest in that.
Anything I did would be more on the maintenance and repair side of things on regular cars, which still requires expensive and frequent investment. I would probably have only so much performance stuff going on as to keep my own projects going.
And I don't want to buy, market or sell performance parts, because I already see how I scour the internet for the lowest prices and best deals... that just doesn't seem very lucrative.
You are doing a dandy job of talking me out of opening a shop though!
Yeah, I hear ya.... just every once in a while, even in the best company, sometimes you just think about doing something else or going somewhere else.It's a really tough gig man.... If you want to do it and your hearts in it... Go for it.... But it's not something as a business proposal I would get involved in unless I had a ton of cash to invest... And even then return on investment would be tough...
To be honest, the rate at which automotive technology is progressing, as well as other tech, I don't think people will be driving themselves anywhere within the next 15 to 20 years.... Once cars start driving themselves, older cars will be priced off the road by ridiculously high insurance rates and self driving cars will either be leased or rented with built in service contracts and trade in periods through dealerships....... that last part is almost already happening now.
Wont be much left for the independent mechanic at that point.