mccannable

Talk to Brian Boland at 216-325-9060. They do all of the shop insurance for the Certified Auto Repair insurance program. Brian is a good guy and may be able to help.

thanks I will reach out.

Thanks Sean, that will aid in my knowledge when speaking with agents.

I am planning a soft opening in mid to late January and have started looking for insurance quotes. I did not realize how difficult this may end up being. I have only spoken with two offices so far. The first could not cover a new venture(without previous experience) and the other wants all the info of all the employees up front before they can quote(we are hiring one mechanic and do not have that info yet). I understand cost will be higher fora new business but am having a hard time budgeting for this expense. I know there are many factors involved but if anyone that has started in the recent path could shed some light on this topic I would appreciate it. I did search here and did not find alot but online i found quite a few quotes for detail shops that seemed very reasonable(under 200/month). In my business plan I budgeted for $900 for Liability and Garage keepers.

any advice is always appreciated.

Location?

a few miles from the other place on Main st. One of the few main roads coming through our town and the only one that leads to the interstate. Not as much traffic but 150ft of road frontage and a huge landmark (bowling ally) next door. Still a high traffic road. We are deep in negations and are closing in on a price. He is very quick in responding(actually in person with my realtor). Should hopefully have "contract to lease" agreed to tomorrow.

I am writing one from online examples. I believe they are very important for many reasons. As example when my wife sold jewelry at a small few store company they had no official rules. No dress code no anything. It caused a lot of headache for both sides and let the "rules" up to the mood of the owners.

Update: Over a month later the bank finally got back with us on our offer (I am glad they work so quickly and diligently). They want $4 a foot plus CAM fee ($1.55) so about a %38 increase over my offer and what the listing agent "claims" another unit was approved for. I am been put off by the lack of respect for time from the bank and CAM association, which is no surprise coming from a bank.

Now since the price is in another category we are going to make an offer on a 6 bay shop that includes a bit of equipment. This time we are dealing with a private owner and no corporations. Still a stubborn old man but he cannot be worse than two large corporations. He is asking $2000/gross a month with 2 lifts, bulk oil drum, waste oil drum, trans jack, compressor.

I get the benefits of flat rate pay, mainly increased productivity, but the downside seems to be rushing or cutting corners. I compare this to commission based sales people where the sale may be worth more than doing what's right.

Has anyone used any other pay structures for techs? I was thinking a salary plus bonus structure that mirrors goals/profits of the business. In the end of the day if they are billing a lot if hours but quality is compromised profits may be as well.

I am open to opinions as I am not in the field yet but I currently work for a company that this structure works well for

Seems like I may be giving this a try at 1/2 the cost of autoingenuity

 

Great work on the low lease rate! Sorry we jumped to conclusions early on.

 

If you are going to put any "lessee improvements" into the building, I would recommend stating it up front and asking for the lessors to place either a no-sale time period in the contract (ie 3-5 years) or a right of first refusal should they decide to sell. You do not want to spend a lot of money installing lighting, signage, oil collection, etc. on site on the vague hope that the building does not sell for awhile. It needs to be in writing that they either cannot sell the building for a period of time or you get first dibs when they do decide to sell it.

 

Your town is fairly small (assuming Leesburg here) at 15k residents, so word-of-mouth typically means more than in a larger city where location reigns king. With that said, your location and price sound like a great deal!!

 

No worries. we included in the intent to lease for us to have first right of refusal. and a 2 year lease(realtors suggestion) with 2 year option to resign at same rate. I am not sure they will accept such a short lease but it limits my personal liability.

 

We looked up the tax records when we put in the offer and the listing agent was off base on square footage. It looks like its about 3300 sq ft which is actually better for us. We will measure ourselves during inspection and iron out the final before official lease is drafted.

 

Town is about 20,000 residents many retired. We are located near The Villages, largest retirement town in the word. A lot of the residents live in communities that mimic The Villages without the large cost. Seems many seniors take better care of their cars than average.

 

 

Again, everyones advice is welcomed.

 

It's about %10 less the other cost i would be responsible for. Mainly 1.5 sq ft cam and other random assessments. I do want to purchase but I need my cash for startup cost. The listing agent has done a very poor job on the listing and it's very hard to get info about purchasing. This should work to my favor and I don't foresee then building selling in the near future.

It's $4 sq ft annually. Lease would be 2500x4/12= $833 month. Very low cost.

Building cost to buy is 91k but i would have to pay cam fees and insurance. For now this is my best choice I will have first right of refusal if sale is offered.

Fl is working on eliminating sales tax on commercial/short term leasing. $4 is a pretty fair price for location. This unit has been vacant for years and there is successful transmission place next unit over. Business plan has even written for over a year. And we are working with some mentors from other areas that have been a great help. Just looking for some advice from within the industry for any "I wish I did this" type situations .

I'm going to start negotiations this week on lease. It's a 2500 sq ft warehouse style building. Has office and 2 big bay doors with good high traffic road frontage(top 2 in town). The listing agent told my agent and I one of the other units in the complex got approved for $4 sq ft gross plus sales tax so that is my target price. Does anyone have any suggestions they wish they negotiated when the signed their first lease.

I'm looking for:

-3-5 year with option to renew

- I would love to limit my personal guarantee to the least amount of time though my hopes aren't that high(bank owned)

-CAM fee is included as well as waste

Any advise is always appreciate.

a great mechanic is our biggest concern.

cutting rotors for other shops and diy'ers sounds like a great idea.

-floor fans, i see your point

-cutting torch

-drum micrometer, seems pricey. do you guy still see alot of drum brakes?

-battery charger(fortunately i already own one)

-jump box

pos system we have decided on garage partner per our mentors recommendation.

thanks for all the advice. my list, which should have been included in first post, included:

-2 lifts

-trans jack

-press

-tanks for waste oil

-compressor

-oil catch

-floor jacks

this list is the hold off until after first few months or as needed

- brake lathe (main mentor recommend against)

- fluid exchangers

- ac diagnostic equipment(what i now the least about)

- tire chaning/wheel balancing (do not, at this time, plan on tires)

also planned on subscriptions to all data/identifix and a plethora of scan tools/factory clone tools. This is a big area of opportunity as there are many options. Besides my GT1 tool I will probably start with autoenginuity as it looks for the start up.

and then from the suggestions:

- digital storage oscilloscope

- evap smoke machine

- specialty suspension tools

- alignment machine - alot of shops around sub out alignments, not sure if they are missing out or are being wise.

I am probably a bit different than most folks here. I am not a professional mechanic and do not intend to be. I have been planning opening my garage heavily for about a year. Few years ago went back to school to take as many business and accounting classes and have learned alot. I am currently working with some successful mentors which have been a great help but wanted to ask this community(which seems very respectable) that I have been following for some time.

What is the must have equipment for general repair shop start up? We plan on focusing on european makes because of lack of local support but I know a lot of the major (non diagnostic) equipment is universal. A list of the core required equipment that “you” see necessary would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.