xrac

Joe, welcome! I am in the minority here because I am not a guy who loves cars. To me a car is only a tool to get from one place to another. I didn't get into this business because I love cars but as a business investment. Ten years ago I didn't know anything about cars. It hasn't been easy but I have succeeded because I am a good businessman. The business side will make or break your success.

Looks like we finish April down about 14% below last year. It was also ridiculously slow here. We had a $500 day when our average is over $3,000. Business finally came back alive the last week.

I noticed where you are from. My youngest daughter lives in Cleveland, TN, and I am wrtiting this from the computer at her house.

How has business been during the first months of 2009? Our January-February was strong March was o.k. April has fallen off the cliff. So you will know where I am coming from we had not had a down month to month in 4 years until March. Can we compare notes?

We are a Car-X franchise (http://www.carx.com/). I came into this industry with no automotive background at all. The franchise gave me tools to succeed although it was a long hard pull. It would have been very, very difficult to do what we did without the guidance the franchise gave. However, once we were successfully operating the franchise does little for me. The Car-X name is not a strong brand in this part of the country. Based upon what I NOW KNOW if I were opening a new shop today would I be a franchise? Probably not! I would think long and hard about it because of the fees. But with that said I have also gained a BUSINESS perspective of what it takes to succeed by being a franchisee that some independents lack.

Please post your shop's monthly average car counts.We had 379 cars in March. Average monthly count: 350 How many bays: 7 Hours of operation: M-F 7-5:30 Sat 7-3