Re: How do I start a new car shop (tuner) business? -- Small Businesses Discussion Forum

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, [6] ]

Subject: Re: How do I start a new car shop (tuner) business?

Author:
Dennis S. Vogel

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 13:31:44 06/26/03 Thu
In reply to: John P. Davis 's message, "How do I start a new car shop (tuner) business?" on 12:40:58 06/23/03 Mon

Hi John,

I'll leave it up to a laywer to advise the 2 of you about partnerships.

Since start-up costs can sink a business before it gets a strong start, please consider these things-

If your potential partner has connections or access to facilities for a low price, you could use somebody else's place on Saturdays, Sundays & at night when the regular business would be closed.

Example- Bob's Garage open Monday through Friday 8AM-5PM.
If Bob is willing to let people bring their cars in for your partner (let's call him "Paul") to work on, Bob could get the car keys & confirm customer's contact information like he does for his customers. At 5:00, Paul could get the keys & customer information from Bob, then start working on customizing cars.

This would give you & Paul a temporary place to do business without having pay full-price for facilities. Bob would get some money for his facilities even while he's enjoying his time off from work.

You & Bob could cooperate in marketing or do separate marketing.

You can supplement his marketing budget a few ways. 1) You could pay a portion of the marketingcosts upfront. 2) You could pay him a percentage of the sales revenue you get from the joint marketing. 3) You could contribute a fixed amount every month for Bob to invest in marketing.

If you, Paul & Bob agree about marketing methods, it'll be easier to set up a cooperative arrangement. If you pay him a fixed amount (possibly as part of your rent payments), he may not market your part of the business in a way you feel is best.

Bob could offer Paul's customization work to his (Bob's) customers. Paul cold recommend Bob's services to his (Paul's) customers. Whether these would be done as part of a quid pro quo or paid referral arrangement depends on the 3 of you would like it to be.

You'd probably want to be sure Bob doesn't compete with you after you set up your business somewhere else. He may be tempted to do that if many people call him about customization work.

Or, if your business does well, he may evict you, so he can add more to his business revenue.

A lawyer can help you with contracts & non-compete arrangements.

If a car oriented business owner is about to retire, you could rent/lease or lease/purchase the building (& possibly tools & supplies). The retiree wouldn't get a lump sum payment, but it could be like an annuity. If the retiree is successful/popular, s/he may endorse your business to make success more possible & quicker.

Dennis S. Vogel
thrivingbusiness@email.com
When you compete against big businesses with
big budgets you need powerful marketing
strategies and tactics. You'll find them here-
http://www.thrivingbusiness.homestead.com

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]