Introduction – This article is about steps to creating a profitable auto business.
Do you love cars and working with your hands? Then opening up a car repair business might be perfect for you. The good thing about an auto business is that it can be incredibly profitable if you play your cards right. There are almost 300 million cars and light trucks in the United States, and they will need maintenance and repairs at some point. No matter where you live, there is a market for auto services.
The best part is, you can have fun doing it. People will pay you to learn more about cars, take them apart and put them back together, and get them back on the road again. If cars are your thing, then why not spend your days making money off them? That said, a love of cars alone won’t get you far. To make good money, there are things you need to do and consider. Here are some steps to creating a profitable auto business.
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First, Have a Plan
No matter what type of business you want to run, you must have a plan. Auto repair is no different. Your plan should include how you will market yourself, how many customers you will handle efficiently, and what your financial projections will be. As you do the groundwork for your business, this plan can change. However, your initial plan should serve as a guidepost for everything you do. Without a plan, you may overshoot your spending if you aren’t bringing in enough profit, or you might realize that you don’t have enough customers because you didn’t think through your marketing. Create a plan, figure out what is realistic, and follow it as best you can as you move forward.
Find the Right Location
If you want a profitable auto business, then you need the right location. For one, it has to be a sufficient size to have all of your equipment plus vehicles in there at one time. There should be room for a reception desk and a point-of-sale machine as well. Not only must the nature of the building work for you, but you need the right location. Your shop must be accessible to a large proportion of the population. People who need to get their cars towed will often choose somewhere close by, so a central location works best. If you are out of the way or hard to get to, you will risk cutting off a large number of customers.
Hire the Right Team
To be successful with an auto repair business, you need loyal customers who keep coming back every year with their vehicle issues. For this to happen, you need to provide them with exceptional services and workmanship at every visit. Your staff needs to be excellent at what they do, with little capacity for making mistakes or being rude to customers. If you are going to go solo, you must provide friendly client service to go with your repair work. Customers will go somewhere else if they feel that you have been rude, lied to them, or did not provide good enough repair work for their vehicle.
CREATE A SYSTEM FOR MANAGING FINANCES
An auto repair shop is a business, and like any business, the number one priority is to generate a profit. However, most profit is seldom had without encountering expenses. That is the way of business. As long as your incoming revenue outweighs the outgoing expenses, you are making a profit. Therefore, you need a system in place to track and manage your finances unless you’re going to hire a professional. Doing it yourself isn’t the hardest task, though, as long as you fully acquaint yourself with using financial tools such as tax calculators, spreadsheets, and expense-tracking software or apps, among other tools. A lot of these can be found online for free, but even the paid versions are worth it if they create value for you and your business.
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Get Your Insurance In Place
While having the right auto repair service insurance won’t affect how much profit you bring in, not having it can certainly cut into them, if not obliterate them entirely. Working at an auto repair shop comes with significant safety concerns. Your employees and clients could get hurt, and you may be held liable. Plus, there is always the chance of a lawsuit relayed to repair work if a client suffers a loss. When you have potentially millions of dollars worth of vehicles on your property, you are a target for theft, and natural disasters can cause a lot of damage. The right coverage will protect you against the costs associated with negative incidents that could end up costing you hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Acquire Certifications
When drivers take their vehicles in for servicing and repairs, they want to trust the person who is providing them service. Having your Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) certification posted on the wall can do just that. It shows that you have the required training and knowledge to provide good auto services while acting ethically as a business. It immediately puts you in a place of trust, and many customers simply will not deal with a shop or mechanic that does not have that certification.
To Specialize Or Not To Specialize
One of the biggest choices you will make is what kind of auto business you want to be. This choice may depend on the location of your business. For example, if there are a lot of general repair shops, you might want to consider specializing. This can mean dealing with a certain make of cars, or working only on luxury vehicles, for example. Many choose to go into providing body shop services and doing it well instead of repair services. If you specialize, make sure that there aren’t too many other similar specialists close by. Otherwise, you will be giving yourself competition unnecessarily.
Market Yourself
The thing about marketing is not just that it gets the word out about a business. That’s important for sure, and you can’t run a business without people knowing about you. However, what good marketing does is that it gives you an immediate air of legitimacy if it is done correctly. In a trust-based industry like auto repair, this can be the difference between success and failure.
Use SEO tactics to get your website ranking on search engine pages. Instead of only posting marketing materials, provide informative and authoritative content your clients will use for their car maintenance and troubleshooting. You won’t be preventing customers from coming to you by doing this, you will be building their trust so that when they have a big problem you will be the first place they turn. So your marketing efforts will get you in front of more eyeballs, and then also help to keep them coming back every time.
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If you dream of opening up a car repair business, then there is a good chance you can make it happen. Cars will remain for the foreseeable future the preferred way of transportation for millions of people. However, to truly find success, you must go about starting your business responsibly and effectively. By following these tips, you can make sure that your car repair business brings in the revenues you need and remains profitable for years to come.
