bring that money to a Smoothie King franchise.

 

I am getting tidbits of information here and there about the status of the economy down there. Its no different where I am at. Right now its tight everywhere, especially with the holidays here. The idea is to get a feel for the market now, so I know what I need to be looking for before I get there. Right now I am looking at this time next year coming in with a family, setting up a house, getting used to the area, and then getting a shop ready. In the 12-14 months until I get there things are gonna start settling down as far as the economy. Right now you also have to look at how everything is in a freeze, most areas are at zero growth, and some going into negatives, because everyone is pinching pennies early, worried that they may not have a job next week. Corporate america got greedy, and now its starting to show. Let the dust settle and you will see by next summer this stuff will start to settle down. Gas prices are dropping, the housing market will rise again, and we will see growth.

But what a lot of folks are gonna be looking for in the next 2-3 years is someone other than the dealership that can fix their car. If you do not have the technical knowledge in the electrical, and troubleshooting fields, then your business will fail. The days of the backyard mechanic are starting to die slowly.

The hardest part is telling the consumer with the Mercedes that they have to replace their windshield to fix the wiper that will no longer work is the tough part ($1000 repair vs the $50 repair they were expecting. Or telling the consumer that their door window switch went bad, but you have to keep the car 2 days to replace it because the computer has to be reflashed to accept the new part (17 hrs)

This may be the high end of the spectrum, but start looking at what is in your car, and what all is tied into the systems you have. GM's MDI system (Tech II replacement)will make most of the scan tools obsolete by 2010 on all their new models coming out. Most diagnostic work is done off a laptop now. But without access to the software, the backyard mechanics are gonna be out of luck.

But the point of this thread has turned from what is needed in the area, to do not open a shop in the area, we do not want you...

By the amount of complaint threads I am reading on here, apparently some of the shops never did this. They just opened the doors with huge dreams, and scammed what they could, rather than listen to the people's wants. I hope to change some of that, as any businessman would. And believe me the other shop owners are looking through this thread to see if anything pops up that they can use...

 

+1

 

not to flame on you again but just a little advice

do badass engine work especially head work and valve trains but for a good and very fair price

and dont tell someone you can do something especially when you either never done it or if you ify about it thatll get u in a lot of trouble

also if a customer brings you something new that you've never worked on be honest and tell them about 80% of the time they'll let you have a go at it anyways

and beyond all dont turn in to a 16 year old kid that thinks their a pro mechanic cus you've done a head swap and some bolt ons cus everyone hates those bitchs

 

Sounds like he wants to open a general mechanic shop, in which case, this is the wrong place to ask, as most here do not visit them. They visit the performance oriented shops only.

 

I see your point here Craig but I disagree. Look at all those "specialty" shops that specialized in S chassis (DC, XAT) - once people figured out they weren't tough to work on, the market went backyard and the shops belly up.

I think the key is flexibility. Cars are cars, and if you want to be here for the long term, you have to be able to adapt to a changing market. The last shop I worked for, worked on Evos, Vipers, WRX's, S2000's, Mustangs and just about anything else that came through the door.

This aint the same market it was 4 years ago. You don't refuse business in this economy. Hopefully, this market correction will teach people how to earn a dollar again

 

i say open a Honda shop, all you need in a 10mm - 19mm and your good to go.

 

Have you ever bought one of those "all in wonder" kind of devices? Something akin to a microwave that is also a refrigerator, can opener, autoclave and pressure washer? Ever notice how a device like that doesn't do anything particularly well? Sure, cars are cars like beers are beers; to the layman, it is all the same. To us, it's different.

Yes, one should be flexible within your realm of expertise. However, accepting any old thing that comes through the door is asinine, even if it is money. So what if some dude wants a turbo on his Taurus and pays cash up front. It's not worth the R&D time to do it, it really pays to be selective as you can get more volume out the door when you stick to what you know.

I worked for a guy who would just let anything in the door. It cost us time and money again and again. It's not like we were a convertible top shop doing tube-frame race car builds but it might as well have been that way. As an import performance shop, we had no business doing Lumina, Taurus and Blazer transmission rebuilds. That was a job for specialists within the field: a transmission shop. When I worked for a transmission shop, sometimes we'd get roped into these custom motor builds and whatnot instead of doing our bread and butter.

Excel at several things instead of being mediocre at everything.

 

I know little about the industry, but here's my opinion for what its worth: I think profitability lies in the customer demographics. You have to move more upmarket than the average honda or s chassis TR troll. I'm not referring to lux, but rather to race. Get together with some experienced racers and builders, put together a competitive shop race car for promotion. Get involved in publicity events like the $2009 challenge. Have the knowledge of the specific classes and rules and be able to build cars toward that end for customers. Race customers have money and will pay to be competitive.

 

In my opinion, this point in time (economy-wise) is perfect for starting your own business. Lower overhead = cheaper cost, which in turn should yield more customers, as long as your labor and work are spot on of course. That is how my step-dad started his company over 10 years ago. Now it is a multi-million dollar a year corporation.