Hands On

If you can get away with charging $200.00 per oil change you would make some money. These guys are right too, what happens when you miss the coolant bucket and drop coolant or any other hazard chemical in the street, on their drive way, at the parking lot where they work? Also can you get insured being mobile? What would your garage keepers policy look like? My policy replaces the car if we cause a total loss, and covers their medical up to 2 million.

I tried a partnership once and it did not work out well. One person will want more of something, control, money, time off ect. Buy them both out. If you can not afford that move on.

What I can tell you is, you might make more money doing uber or lyft. I occasionally get a call from someone looking for a mobile mechanic. I tell them I can tow the car to my shop for $60 and guarantee a fix here, or I can drive to them for $114.79 an hour and maybe be able to fix it there. The clock starts when I leave and continues to run as I obtain parts. I get one of two responses, they go for the tow, or they call around for a cheaper mobile mechanic. The people seeking a mobile mechanic are looking for a deal. They want the oil changed for less then 50, the starter or fuel pump replaced for half of what it should cost. They want to supply you the parts. Assuming 100 hour labor rate. What if your lucky, and you score 3 oil changes and two starters in one day. The starters pay .8, the oil changes you make 10 each on. You spent all day driving around but made out with $180 for the day. Let's say you get this lucky every day and at the end of the week you have $900 in your pocket. Let's say you score this big all month and made, let's be generous, let's say you got a few extras sold and made like $6500 at the end of the month. Insurance 600 = 5900 Fuel 700 = 5200 Truck payment 300 = 4900 Tools 100 = 4800 Income tax ?1000? = 3800 Misc 100 = 3700 Truck maintenance 100 = 3600 If your hustling, have a steady amount of gravy work, maybe you can make a living depending on where you live. Am I missing expenses? Being to generous with the amount of gravy work you might lend? What happens when that 2 hour fuel pump becomes 6 hours on the ground? Or you do oil changes all day every day for a month? You can make over $6,000 a month driving Uber BlackSUV in Denver 40 hours a week. https://www.ridester.com/driver-income-calculator/

Your webinar has ended, want to update your post with a new link?

I agree with Carolina. That being said, with 5 lifts I would suggest two techs and one tire/lube guy. Buy lifts for the other three bays as you go and try to grow into three techs and two tire lube guys. The problem is we don't know your expenses. The amount of labor you 'need' should be based off of how much money you need to produce to survive AND make a profit. If it costs you $60,000 a month to stay open you will fail first month using bantar's suggestion of one tech to start, and you would struggle real hard with my suggestion of waiting to get those extra lifts. Further more you should have a .marketing plan in place that will fill bays from day one. Promote a big grand opening, hit local chamber of commerce, ect. The question is not how many techs you need to start, it is how much money you need to generate to make it. Then divide that number by how much you think the techs can produce to get total techs needed. Money needed/money tech produces=techs needed.

You have to be as smart as an electrical engineer, with the knowledge base of a doctor, working in conditions similar to a garbage man, for the same salary as a garbage man.

I worried about the disconnect a service writer would create between my customers and myself. What I do is still remain at the shop to greet customers and discuss repairs. As soon as the conversation turns to price I say "I will have (service writer name) work you up an estimate." This immediately takes me out of the equation for pricing and I avoid that situation where I might want to discount something for someone I have made an emotional connection with. If my write is not available I will say "Let me see what the computer says that costs." This again takes me personally out of the pricing equation and puts the blame for the "mean high price" on the computer. These are just ways I make it easier for me to live with charging what I need to in order for the shop to survive.

After they get the first repair bill they will learn how to program our shop address into the computer.

What happened? What's TireHub?

I would start off with at least one helper of some sort. I thought the same way when I started out, but you can not support big boy shop expenses with one person, and it is not safe to work alone all day. Bottom line you will not make any money unless at least two people are producing repairs; unless you plan on living in the shop, taking cash only, and paying no taxes.

Can not beat that for rent. There have been other posts about specializing in a make or model. General consensus has been why start off limiting your customer base.

Will you owe when it is done? Any idea what your monthly rent/mortgage ect would be when all said and done?

I don't have any research to back this up but I think you will need more then 3 bays to break even on new construction.