shop or no??? the dilema

Really good points made by many concerning this subject, as I have a small shop and the ability to do mobile as well my opinion is unless you have consistant and growing clientele established presently, moving to a shop can ruin you..



My overhead almost tripled from a mobile to fixed(insurance/rent/CMA/utilities/city fees/alarm system) however having control of your detailing conditions(light/temp) is vital to high level correction work along with being spoiled using my lift(scissor) which in my opinion will add years to my career and allows the removal of wheels etc....



If you can do it, there is no better way to detail a car(not that correction cannot be done mobile, it is much more labor etensive) and allows for you to pull all nighters and work to a more flexible schedule at times.
 
Yeah, I remember asking you about the rise in costs last year at some point.



Its up in the air and I have talked to someone who really knows whats involved with a shop and all that stuff, and really took in a lot of what he had to say!



I might put it on hold until I get more in demand, or start doing ALL high level corrections (and get paid for them accordingly). I might try renting shop space from someone I am now working with in the future to give myself a taste of what it would be like! 1957 porsche 1600 right hand drive coming up next week as the first of many!



i would no doubt install a scissor lift and pull all nighters!!! That is one of the things I hate about being mobile - cant work as late as needed, dont want to be buzzing in someone else's house past 9pm!
 
eric, just because you have a shop doesnt mean you can work 24/7. some cities have zoning laws that prohibit work that creates loud noise past a certain hour. just be sure to check out the city codes, dont go by some ones elses word.



that and you have to be careful you dont get robbed! i have know a few auto customizing shops that got hit at night because every one knew they were there late. i'm a pretty big guy and kept my counter well stocked, if you know what i mean, because you never know
 
I'm in the same boat you're in Eric. Been training a buddy of mine for the last couple of years on detailing and with a recent change in his family business he's been thinking about going full time with it and looking into opening a shop with me. He's a trustworthy, hardworking guy with a lot of business integrity so all that doesn't worry me, it's the variables I can't control like what to do in Ohio winters when I know business will decline.
 
Eric ,



I would go with the old theory here. If it isn't broken don't fix it. You seem to be doing well for yourself right now. Why change? There is a lot involved that you don't see for people with a fixed location. The first part is cost. If you sign a lease you will need insurance. Your gonna need both liability and garage keepers. Its not a ?. Its a must. Second commercial property isn't cheap. Now you need to factor in some basic utilites. Electric and water. To give you an idea my eletric bill is roughly 700 a month. I'm fortunate that I run off well water. I know several shops in my area with outragous water bills. Now your lease. I'm not sure what the rate is where you at, but maybe Bob can help you with an Idea of what he pays for his shop. Its not cheap. Now you have to figure in oil and water seperator. These are not cheap. They are a must. I have all my water feeding to a septic tank and the township still made put one in. Luckily when I moved in here the property was already zoned commerical. A big save on me. I know for certain its illegal in my county to operate a detailing business out of your house with out having the house on commercial property. Plus if you were to wash a car out in front of your house and epa seen it. They would have a field day with you. Degreasing motors with out a water/oil seperator is a big no no. I seen it to so many of the shops in my location. High volume shops diminishing because of not being set up. Thats the problem. People set up these nice shops at there house and not realizing all the laws that are broken. Did you know that if you have an air compressor and its not mounted to the floor it's a 575.82 fine in my county. I know now:hairpull Mine is now mounted properly with the right space. When I just had my recent inspection in the middle of January. I past this year with flying colors. It was a relief. There are so many things that add up fast its insane. My advice to you would be is to save your money for a while and truely think if this is a want or a need. Best of luck and call me if you need anything.

Barry
 
Barry, I thank you for your input...but....I DID CALL YOU TODAY!!!! LOL



just messin dude! I am thinking more and more that its more of a want thing rather than a need thing! Just like John K pointed out, weather is not much of a problem 10 months out of the year here. I just get pretty down when I keep canceling on maintanence people and people keep rescheduling because its going to rain ONE day next week!!! I am staying busy for the overall month on average, but its a lot of 23-35 hour weeks followed by 60+ hour weeks. I would rather just have it constant! I know that with a shop it would be constant 60 hours weeks, but I "have a feeling" it would be higher income with higher expense, yet still higher NET profits overall.



i dont know what to do, I want to try it out while I dont have a mortgage payment. if I had a mortgage right now, a shop would be out of the question! But without a 2500 a month mortgage, plus the utilities, etc, I have more room...plus my roommate is buying a place soon, so with me moving with him, my rent will drop a couple hundred bucks a month! Beach life is nice, but its pretty expensive! but then again, I will finally have a garage to work in...so I might just have people bring me the cars!
 
D Tailor said:
I started out a long time ago with a shop, went completely mobile, and now do both. Recently, some zoning changes forced us to look at whether we would go fully mobile, or look for a new location to be fixed.



However, we decided to maintain a fixed location in addition to being mobile (the original way we started). This way we have a fixed point for sales, storage of vehicles and equipment/product, and long term projects. At the same time it allows us to have one of us work the shop while someone else goes to do a mobile detail.



We went with a shop first and mobility second. We were able to increase our mobile detailing presence as we made more money at the shop and now they work together.
Click to expand...





I didn’t know you had this type of operation David? With all the we’s & us’s it makes one think you have a large operation. I was always under the impression you were a 1 man weekend warrior? How many employees do you have and at what capacity are you detailing these days?







Eric – My suggestion is limited to my own real life experiences and can vary based on geographic location. I’m not that fluent on the California market so this may not be exactly what may be possible.



It comes down to where you envision yourself being in the future. Do you want to run a 1 man mobile army breaking your back day in, day out? Do you have the desire to have people working for you as you supervise them based on your SOPs? With mobile detailing you limit not only your exposure, but your income. I know you’re passionate about detailing, but do you expect this business to support you the rest of your life at the pace your running? If so, are you focused on a game plan to expand into the future? It’s difficult to grow a business when you’re “hands on” laboring at it. (i.e. work smarter, not harder) With a fixed location, once you have employees in place you’re able to concentrate on expanding your business w/o all the interruptions that you may be seeing currently. I’d take a long hard look at the real life potential of bringing in some wholesale accounts to keep the cash flowing for your weekly/monthly expenses before you enter into a specific location. Once it’s within your grasp, I’d move in and I’d bet you’ll never look back. Good luck with whatever option you choose.
 
toyotaguy said:
Yeah, I remember asking you about the rise in costs last year at some point.



Its up in the air and I have talked to someone who really knows whats involved with a shop and all that stuff, and really took in a lot of what he had to say!



I might put it on hold until I get more in demand, or start doing ALL high level corrections (and get paid for them accordingly). I might try renting shop space from someone I am now working with in the future to give myself a taste of what it would be like! 1957 porsche 1600 right hand drive coming up next week as the first of many!



i would no doubt install a scissor lift and pull all nighters!!! That is one of the things I hate about being mobile - cant work as late as needed, dont want to be buzzing in someone else's house past 9pm!
Click to expand...





Eric,



I am familiar with the area you talking about(costa mesa) and there is ton's of automotive in that area, on one street alone you have Stillen/DPE wheels/TRD/Mc Cormicks auto body adjacent to the John Wayne airport so quite a bit of company's needing someone with correction skills.



As you said maybe you can sublet in an existing automotive shop ie: private Porsche service and repair etc..... and can sublet 750-1000 sqft @ .60-.70 cents a sqft which is affordable if you are not covering all the costs of the building. Food for thought.
 
Nothing wrong with sharing a larger building with someone else if that's an option !



PM returned Eric
 
Only read about 3 pages, and not meaning to hi-jack. I am looking into getting into a fixed location next month. One performance shop I contract for is moving to a larger location and the owner approached me about possibly me and him going into together on a new building. His name on the lease and I will just rent maybe a 25x25(625sq ft) section of the shop as my own area. Figured that would be big enough for 2-3 cars and one area a wash bay inside. It will mean I am not in a lease if things where to ever go real south on me, I get the foot traffic of his shop customers, I will have my own business location there, and have foot traffic stopping by for me. Then another big thing is with this he will no longer take a cut of any sales through his business since I would be helping him with the rent.



Anyone ever done something like this?
 
I am also about to have that talk with a shop owner this week! He has a super busy restoration shop and I definitely wouldnt mind obtaining his clients based on the cars that roll through there! My first car to do: 1957 porsche 1600 right hand drive!!! The thing is hammered and the owner doesnt know about the detail so its going to be a huge WOW factor for the type of work that I put out to the shop owner, and the WOW factor for the owner of the car to the shop owner...its a win win situation!
 
MachNU said:
I will just rent maybe a 25x25(625sq ft) section of the shop as my own area. Figured that would be big enough for 2-3 cars and one area a wash bay inside.
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That's big enough for MAYBE 2 cars... you're really pushing it if you want those cars to have their doors open.... Just some food for thought from someone who just built a 1 bay shop.
 
WAS said:
That's big enough for MAYBE 2 cars... you're really pushing it if you want those cars to have their doors open.... Just some food for thought from someone who just built a 1 bay shop.
Click to expand...



I have 1,010 total square feet and two cars are the limit, but of course how it is configured makes a big difference.



VisbeckCayenneGTS3-7-10009.jpg




In this pic you can see two is the limit.



GillPorscheEinstein4302-25-10016.jpg
 
Thats a good point. Maybe I need to do some current measuring of the shop I help them out at and see what the sq ft is of the section I already use. Will give me an idea of what size area I am after. But from what you guys posted seems 1000 sq ft is a minimum.
 
Auto Concierge said:
I have 1,010 total square feet and two cars are the limit, but of course how it is configured makes a big difference.
Click to expand...

Very true, configuration does play a big role. BTW, you have a very nice shop, very clean look, I like it !
 
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