New business (fixed location)
- Thread starter Flexin
- Start date
jimmybuffit
That'll buff right out!
Make no doubt about it, tunes are important - did you find out if Satellite Radio reaches your area? As you remember, we love it!
I gotta get those clips...
April is almost here, looks like you are right on target!
Good Luck!
Jim
I gotta get those clips...
April is almost here, looks like you are right on target!
Good Luck!
Jim
Jimmy Buffit said:
After looking around it doesn't look like satellite radio is available in Canada yet. So what I'm doing is running the speakers off of my computer and playing internet radio.
April is right around the corner. :up I can't wait to open. And this year is warming up nice so I'm hoping for a good first year. We are getting a lot of people that are getting excited about us opening so things look go so far. We will see what happens when we open.
BTW those clips are great. Same ones used at the self serve car washes I believe. They seem to be built well and should last me years. :up
James
PerfectFinish1
New member
Very nice shop... nice turn-around for sure... clean! I know this varies greatly by location, and you're in canada so it really will, but just curious what you are paying for rent? I can't find any smaller sized shops around here, all are over $1700USD/MO
safetyman2010
New member
Flexin said:After looking around it doesn't look like satellite radio is available in Canada yet. So what I'm doing is running the speakers off of my computer and playing internet radio.
April is right around the corner. :up I can't wait to open. And this year is warming up nice so I'm hoping for a good first year. We are getting a lot of people that are getting excited about us opening so things look go so far. We will see what happens when we open.
BTW those clips are great. Same ones used at the self serve car washes I believe. They seem to be built well and should last me years. :up
James
Hey James, I live in London, Ontario and you can get satellite radio up here (not supposed to but you can). I have had Sirius (www.sirius.com) in my truck and at the house for the last 2 years and it is killer. I prefer Sirius to XM because the satellites are in higher orbit and are more powerful so we get better reception up here in the great white north. What I have also done is hooked my computer to the stereo and we can stream internet radio into the shop which is almost as good. Good luck with the new shop.
Well last weekend we had the sink installed. :up Things are moving along. Somethings are moving fast, others are just crawling. No matter what we are going to open up on Monday. We haven't placed an ad yet (we are getting to it) so its kind of like a soft opening. So I figured we were not going to have any cars for the first few days. Well my cell started ringing today. We have a truck that needs to be done (this is one of the partners fathers truck. He was thinking about getting a paint job at Macco 
but his son talked him into letting me work on it then just get the lower part of the truck painted because that is all that needs it. It has paint missing from rocks coming up out of the tires. ) and I also have a van coming in that is owned by the father of a guy I used to work with. :xyxthumbs So we now have two cars to do for our opening day. :bounce I can't wait.
James
but his son talked him into letting me work on it then just get the lower part of the truck painted because that is all that needs it. It has paint missing from rocks coming up out of the tires. ) and I also have a van coming in that is owned by the father of a guy I used to work with. :xyxthumbs So we now have two cars to do for our opening day. :bounce I can't wait.James
imported_ajbarnes
New member
Good luck with your new shop!:xyxthumbs Looks like it is coming along very well.
When you don't have business I would suggest handing out flyers in local nice neighborhoods. When I did that last year I got calls all summer from it. Not every day but once in a while.
How are you planning on advertising?
I would also like to know how much business you get from just having a fixed location.
Have fun, it'll be a challenge but worth it.
How are you planning on advertising?
I would also like to know how much business you get from just having a fixed location.
Have fun, it'll be a challenge but worth it.
joburnet said:
We plan on advertising in a newspaper that is printed for the business park we are in.
We also plan on placing an ad in the main used car mag that is around here. And we are also looking at placing one on their website. It is one of the highest hit sites in the area. Or for cars anyway.
We also have family that has been putting the word out. Ones a banker, one works at hospital (I hear there are now 6 doctors that want to use our company now) and a goverment worker and so on.
We did a car for a family member (free) and then they went on a 3 week trip to Florida in the car. Well from wha t I here it is a mess now. So they want it done again and will pay this time. :xyxthumbs
And fixed locations seem to do fine around here. I'll keep posting up about how we are doing. I think if we bust our butts and do great work we will have no problem at all. The van owner is an older gentleman and he said if you do a good job I will tell everybody, if you do a bad job I will tell nobody. :xyxthumbs We will do our best to make sure he and any other customer is very happy.
James
joburnet said:
Well now that we have been open for 5 days now I can answer a few questions.
Advertising. There is a newspaper that done up for the business park we are in and its monthly. We talked to them on Wednesday (and 4 or 5 others) and we are going to be placing a add in that. This thing is handed out to all the business parks in the area. And its free I believe. They are thinking of making us park people. Its a full page thing with two people on it. They just say were you work and what things you like and so on. So we should get seen with that and a ad in that paper. She said she will try to get us in for May which comes out in June I think. Anyway our ad will be in that for next month.
We also meet with the guy from the Autotrader and he is working hard at getting us a great deal. We will be placeing an ad there which will come out a week from next Thrusday. We will also put one on thier website if the spot is still availble when we have our website fully running.
There is also a free double sided one page paper that hits about 40000 people in total. They have 4 areas. You can pick which area you want you ad to be in. And if we put our ad in that then no other shop like ours can be in that while we are in there. :xyxthumbs They price seems right so I think we will try that as well.
So you haven't read wrong. We haven't done much advertising yet. But we did hand out business card to a lot of people we know. We also gave smoking deals to some people just to get some cars in the first week.
A 98 Chev truck (Burgundy) we did gets talked about a lot. He was going to get it painted but now will just get touch ups.
We did a 98 Maxima (Black) (I need to finish it but its coming)
We did a interior for a friend of one of my business partners. He is using a frined SUV while he is away teaching for a year. Well his girlfriend got make up on the seats. There were other stains as well. I got them all out. :xyxthumbs He will be back and will tell others.
We did a van (green) for a guy that I used to work with. He was coming in to get is fathers van done but his father had something to do that day so he got his done. The van was a 97 and the interior was a mess. I spent a lot of time on the paint while my partner attacked the interior. The guy was very happy. He went to his machanic the next day and he asked what he did to the van. Long story short. Two people there loved the job we did on the van so much that they got cards from him and they are going to call us. One guy is a local business man that owns a 3 month old Lexus I'm told. And his father is sorry he didn't trade vans that day so he could have had his done. He will be in next week. :xyxthumbs
Now our latest is a 02 Audi A4. Black on Black. He wanted the exterior done. He told my partner that he just wanted us to do the best we could. He plans on getting it painted in a month. He works at the hospital (so does my partners mother, who has been handing out cards for us
) and said that everybody is taling about us there. So this is/was a big one. If we do good who knows how many doctor we could get. BTW (I heard all of this second hand because I wasn't talking to the guy. I was getting supplies for the shop and pricing a Caddy job) this guy loves the fact we are fixed. He likes it better and said we have a clean shop and he loves that.I got a call from a woman today that wants us to do an interior for her. Its a Ford Taurus which she just bought and the interior is wrecked. She said she got the card from some guy. She said his name but I can't think of who it is. Who ever he is I want to thank him.
We have another doctor that wants a car done. He is going to try us with his wifes car first. I little treat for her. And if he likes the job he will get his car done as well.
So things are looking good. We are getting good feedback from people. Everyone that comes in (men or woman) say they love how clean the place is. Thats just what we were going for so its nice to hear.
One last thing. I took my motorcycle the other day and started to detail it while waiting for someone to come for a meeting at 3:30. Well we had a quick job come in just before I could start attacking the light swirls on my bike so I decided to pull it in the showroom rather then put it out side. Well everyone that came in for the rest of the day went on about how much the loved the bike in the showroom.
Guess where I will be parking my bike from now on? :xyxthumbs James
