Location, location, location?

anson89

New member
Ok, I've narrowed down to two spots that I'm planning to open a really nice, BUT small detailing shop (1500 to 1800 sq ft or one wash bay, three detailing bays, lounge). I would like to start small first.



I understand that in this line of business - visibility is number one, but then again, it's also by word of mouth. So it really depends.. Internet marketing is everywhere now. I've found two spots, these two spots is where I will open/build right next to these reputable high end tuning, repair, maintenance and performance shops.



AGAIN, these shops here are REPUTABLE shops, that's why I choose to open next to them.



Shop A:

- Awesome location, right in the middle of the city

- Limited parking spaces, in fact, the owner wants my employees to park their cars at the Chick Fil A down the street

- They've got a good set of clientele, nice cars always rolling in and out

- Tunes and maintains lots of European cars

- Owners of the shops are kind of a hit or miss.. they can be nice one day or an *** one day

- Owners wants me to shove out 70% of the bill to lay asphalt for their parking space at the back, which is all stone and sand. Crazy dusty!

- Very limited renovation in what I can do

- Rent will be a little more expensive



Shop B:

- Not so great of a location

- LOTS of parking space, like Walmart sized parking space

- I will be sharing the same shop where he stores his customer's cars (6000 sq ft in total). There will be a Rolls Royce Phantom, 458 Italia, SLS AMG, 69' Camaro, Gallardo Superleggera stored in there.. perhaps until the owner sells them. Yes, the owners of these cars have no space in their garage so the owner of the shop decided to lease out his space for them.

- The owner and I are good friends, no problems there

- I have the freedom to do whatever renovation I want

- Cheaper rent = cheaper prices for my customers without having them pay a premium to cover my expenses



I'm leaning towards Shop B...



What do you guys think?
 
autoaesthetica said:
What kind of market? One that depends on visibility ?



All sorts of market.. Like these guys here! - NorthWest Auto Salon | Auto Detailing and Clear Bra in Seattle, WA .. I'm really hoping I can provide Houston with this type of shop. None so far..



Shiny Lil Detlr said:
What exactly makes B a "bad location"?



Other than whatever that reason is, shop B is a no-brainer.



Bad location as in not so great of roads (pot holes etc etc), not highly visible (I'm all the way at the back of the first row of the shops). Well, here's shop B's website - | EVS Motors Performance Online Houston Window Tint Houston Huper Optik Dealer - Houston ADV.1 Dealer - Houston VIP Modular Dealer
 
anson89 said:
Bad location as in not so great of roads (pot holes etc etc), not highly visible (I'm all the way at the back of the first row of the shops). Well, here's shop B's website - | EVS Motors Performance Online Houston Window Tint Houston Huper Optik Dealer - Houston ADV.1 Dealer - Houston VIP Modular Dealer



Hmm... well from what I see that shop looks pretty successful and gets some pretty nice cars; if you can put up good signage and/or enter into a strategic partnership with the shop to have them send all their detail work your way, it might not be a bad trade-off to start with. Once Pancroft goes out of business or gets driven out of Houston, you can move into his space as an upgrade :lol:
 
Question: How far away are dealerships to you in each location?



Why? Because if you're planning on having multiple employees, it can be a good idea to have a few dealer accounts to keep the shop busy (atleast at 1st) without having to be 100% dependant on retail work.



Shop B looks like it has some nice charactersitcs to do alot of volume. A sounds too sketchy. And small.
 
Shop B would be my choice all day long. The thought of entering into a lease with sketchy (hit and miss) owners is enough of a turn off for me to not even consider the first shop.
 
Shiny Lil Detlr said:
Hmm... well from what I see that shop looks pretty successful and gets some pretty nice cars; if you can put up good signage and/or enter into a strategic partnership with the shop to have them send all their detail work your way, it might not be a bad trade-off to start with. Once Pancroft goes out of business or gets driven out of Houston, you can move into his space as an upgrade :lol:



Pancroft's shop? No thanks.. it's just a POS located ... God knows where LOL



David Fermani said:
Question: How far away are dealerships to you in each location?



Why? Because if you're planning on having multiple employees, it can be a good idea to have a few dealer accounts to keep the shop busy (atleast at 1st) without having to be 100% dependant on retail work.



Shop B looks like it has some nice charactersitcs to do alot of volume. A sounds too sketchy. And small.



Porsche, Lexus, BMW, Jaguar, Nissan, Ford, Hyundai, Mercedes Benz, Toyota, Texas Direct Auto.. all these dealerships are about 15 mins away from me. As much as I want work from there, they're going to low ball.. Like all dealerships!



autoaesthetica said:
B sounds great. A sounds like the owners, could nickle and dime you periodically.



JPostal said:
Shop B would be my choice all day long. The thought of entering into a lease with sketchy (hit and miss) owners is enough of a turn off for me to not even consider the first shop.



Gotta agree. I've had multiple problems with Shop A already. Their main problem - they tend to OVERSELL and OVERPROMISE to their customers on what I can do for X amount of price, tells me to do for example "a single step paint correction will remove 100% of the swirls". And that's where the problem arises.. customers don't get their 100% correction, I get the blame for it.
 
anson89 said:
Pancroft's shop? No thanks.. it's just a POS located ... God knows where LOL



I was just kidding about that part... the rest still stands. ;)



Porsche, Lexus, BMW, Jaguar, Nissan, Ford, Hyundai, Mercedes Benz, Toyota, Texas Direct Auto.. all these dealerships are about 15 mins away from me. As much as I want work from there, they're going to low ball.. Like all dealerships!



Isn't Texas Direct that place that sells a ton of cars on eBay, always posting pics of interiors covered in a gallon of slime? Yeah, doubt they'd be interested in your level of work.



Gotta agree. I've had multiple problems with Shop A already. Their main problem - they tend to OVERSELL and OVERPROMISE to their customers on what I can do for X amount of price, tells me to do for example "a single step paint correction will remove 100% of the swirls". And that's where the problem arises.. customers don't get their 100% correction, I get the blame for it.



Sounds like to me you've already answered your question!
 
I have realized how important location is after we moved our shop. We moved from a street front, great location, lots of traffic area to our current location, in a much more a fluent city, with not as much traffic driving by, and kind of hidden in the back of a complex, and yet our sales have nearly doubled from last year. Be sure to pick the best city in your area, don't worry too much about being right on the front of the highway.
 
Agreed 100%, which is why I asked about market. Tons of people looking for quick and cheap, probably would like some sort of "easy" attached to it so if you were a volume(ish) type of establishment(which we all know youre not, but some like doing many AIO details) visibility would be more important.
 
My shop is hidden in the back of the building with no signs out front and we are slammed with work right now and only opened the shop this past January. It was tough for about the first 6 months and then it got very busy. If I had signs out front it would have probably taken off much faster.



I would def go with B, you don't want to be dealing with shady people like A. And parking is very important, my shop has limited parking and we are always shuffling cars around, which wastes alot of time and is a huge pita.
 
JohnKleven said:
I have realized how important location is after we moved our shop. We moved from a street front, great location, lots of traffic area to our current location, in a much more a fluent city, with not as much traffic driving by, and kind of hidden in the back of a complex, and yet our sales have nearly doubled from last year. Be sure to pick the best city in your area, don't worry too much about being right on the front of the highway.



Shop B's location is not TOO bad. It's about 15-20 minutes away from nicer neighborhoods. I'm just hidden behind a complex. Again, a big nice sign right next to the street would help a lot. I'm thinking of a huge sign with of course, a nice car as my main attention.



I really like your shop! More pictures please!



ExplicitDetails said:
My shop is hidden in the back of the building with no signs out front and we are slammed with work right now and only opened the shop this past January. It was tough for about the first 6 months and then it got very busy. If I had signs out front it would have probably taken off much faster.



I would def go with B, you don't want to be dealing with shady people like A. And parking is very important, my shop has limited parking and we are always shuffling cars around, which wastes alot of time and is a huge pita.



True with the parking, maneuvering cars would be a lot easier. I've already built up my clientele so I'm not too worried about people not knowing where my shop is. I'm planning on starting small anyways - 1 wash bay, 3 detailing bays and a lounge/office up front. Keeping the cost low, the shop nice and clean at the same time.



How did business pick up without having a sign up front? Internet? Word of mouth?
 
anson89 said:
How did business pick up without having a sign up front? Internet? Word of mouth?



I did some newspaper advertising, an ad on the big screens at a local gym, an ad in a recommended services publication that's sent to all the country clubs in the area, put up flyers at a bunch of stores and speed shops and listed my self on Google Places, Yelp and as many online directories I could find. I also did a livingsocial deal which is generating tons of word of mouth customers. And I was on that Better Connecticut show, which I have a link to in another thread. All of that is now snowballing and things are getting really good.
 
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