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Post by nathan123c on Apr 18, 2018 21:06:06 GMT 1
Good evening people, I am thinking about setting up my own mobile mechanics business as I have been toying with people idea for a while. I was wondering if anyone knows or has advice for labour rate travel time costs or knows of good business apps. Any advice welcome thanks all 😊
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Post by Rhubarb on Apr 18, 2018 22:56:37 GMT 1
Hi and welcome It depends how young, fit and keen you are? And also how experienced too.. Do you like rolling around in the rain and ice? I worked Mobile for 11 years, the first 7 weren't too bad, the last 3 or 4 were more like a hobby due to various things including: A lot of people want cheap clutch replacements done...On a lot of late/modern cars forget it. A lot of people want to supply their own shonky cheap parts. A lot of people expect you to drive to them with 3 and a half grands worth of diagnostic scanner and only charge them a tenner. You will attract all the dregs, dead cars in gardens and people with no money.. If all this sounds negative, it is, but it's reality.
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remmington
Apprentice
Owns Spark Eroder
Posts: 4,974
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Post by remmington on Apr 19, 2018 19:41:09 GMT 1
Several lads have tried this local to me! All have failed and never lasted.
You just can't do the volume of work required on the floor down peoples drives - you just can't.
Too much running about fetching parts.
Put this another way... In a workshop we may start ten car repairs in the morning - move from one to the other as the parts arrive and the jobs progress. Down someone's drive you have only one car "on the go".
Mobile tyre fitters fail...
Customer's are only willing to pay the "rate" when they arrive at a smart sign written workshop on an industrial estate (even then it is struggle to make them pay).
Forget it as a bad-cold-wet-job.
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Post by valhalla on Apr 19, 2018 22:37:29 GMT 1
Totally agree with Remmington and Rhubarb.
It sounds great, until you realise that all of your tools have just been soaked in the rain, some of them get left-behind under bonnets (more so than in the workshop) and people expect you to be working for a fraction of a workshop-rate! I've had it myself - "I would have used a proper garage, if I realised you were going to be expensive....."
If I were you, don't plan on being mobile any longer than it takes to find a proper premises. And once you realise what the overheads are like on a proper premises (even as a one-man band) you will soon realise that it's a total waste of your efforts, you will be left on the breadline for the next 10years.
Modern cars are requiring more and more specialised tooling, and that includes good electrical support - not just diagnostic machines, but also proper battery support units for keeping the voltage up on some jobs, keeping the car happy whilst the battery is disconnected, helping to get the car running again after the fuel system has been apart, etc. etc. You will need to price that into your mobile van, and if your van gives up the ghost, you are not going to have any income.....
We are at the point in time where small-time repair of cars is becoming unviable as a business, so it's not a great time to be setting-out on this as a career. You would be far better off plumbing, drain-clearing, or wiring peoples houses. These are all "high-return, low-effort" businesses, where the customer is not going to complain (much) about your call-out costs when the s**t is belching-up out of the drains!
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Post by Noberator on Apr 20, 2018 14:57:40 GMT 1
I agree with all the posted comments from the Forum members. Why not try another Trade where you can train and earn far better money ie Plumber Electrician Plasterer.
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rpm
Apprentice
Posts: 1,504
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Post by rpm on Apr 20, 2018 16:21:38 GMT 1
Hi, I am mobile, been doing it a few years now.
Everything that has been said above is true. Don't do it, best of all, have a cold hard look at the future of the trade. Ask around a few local garages, see what they think to the direction of the trade.
The only decent jobs to do as mobile, are basic services, or brake work (as long as brake pipe replacement is not needed). If you were thd customer why would you choose a mobile mech, the price difference will be peanuts. The work you will get is what other garages dont want, or diy gone wrong, or no money type customers.
The only reason I keep doing it is because I don't need to work full time, so can pick and choose work, plus I have a big list of regular customers I have built up over the years. Would I start again now? Absoloutely not.
The only plus point for it, are overheads. Most garages I know say that 4 days of the week is spent covering costs, 1 day is earning money.
Then there is the weather. Fancy changing an engine mount, or an exhaust when it is raining? Or snowing? Or even in direct baking sun?
Don't do it.
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remmington
Apprentice
Owns Spark Eroder
Posts: 4,974
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Post by remmington on Apr 20, 2018 19:08:58 GMT 1
The concept seems so right on paper... (mobile mechanic).
Chuck a few hand tools in a van. Couple of trolley jacks. Go earn some money with low over heads.
Today... I have used an 1" airgun to get a crank bolt out of BMW. An air-con machine. Tyre changer and wheel balancer. A drill press to drill a broken bolt out.
I have searched thru endless racks of parts trays to find a fine metric bolt and an obscure bulb holder.
You just are not gonna get it all in van.
You wanna see the pile of gear we have to do any job that is thrown at us.
To service your customers you need to complete any repair they offer you. You cannot pick and choose. They have no control over what is going to go wrong with the vehicle they are using.
You just are not gonna be cheap enough compared to an equipped garage. We can rinse thru servicing and brakes, quicker than you can get the bits.
The real repairs - you just are not gonna do on the floor. Clutches for instance. Most modern cars, we can have the subframe and the gearbox on the floor in an hour. You just are not gonna match the productivity lying on shingle on your back in the rain.
If you only "cherry pick" the easy work you can do. When your customer has to use a garage - they will keep using the garage you have forced them to use. By not being able to speedily solve their problem.
In times gone past... Mobile agricultural fitters and fork lift repairers did make a living. This is how my Father started in the 60s and 70s. Tools in a van going out to tractors and plant on farms. He did make a living - but he also moved on very quickly to buying a lorry and taking things back to his workshop.
Because most of all...
TRYING TO REPAIR SOMETHING WITH THE CUSTOMER LOOKING OVER YOUR SHOULDER - MAKES FOR A LONG DAY I CAN TELL YOU!
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2018 19:47:52 GMT 1
That's a very fine line when the customer is stood next to you watching you doing a job on their car, I've heard it a few times myself, Oh, now I have seen it done I can do it myself next time its needed, and you never see the customer again.
The best defense a technician has in this day and age to keeping the wolf away from the door is to be in a position whereby the customer gets the job done right first time, but even when present, don't understand how you did what you did!
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Post by valhalla on Apr 20, 2018 22:31:53 GMT 1
That's a very fine line when the customer is stood next to you watching you doing a job on their car, I've heard it a few times myself, Oh, now I have seen it done I can do it myself next time its needed, and you never see the customer again. The best defense a technician has in this day and age to keeping the wolf away from the door is to be in a position whereby the customer gets the job done right first time, but even when present, don't understand how you did what you did! Oh boy....yes, are you and Remmington correct here. Guess what I have just had for a few days, on and off, over the last week? Yes, it's a "can you just fit a quickie diagnostic in?" which has had to happen out on the spread in front of the workshop, on every occasion. And yes, it has been backwards and forwards as different things are tried. And yes, the owner has been standing there drumming his fingers, telling jokes, looking at his watch, making suggestions, offering help..........Right up to the point where I tell him, finally, "It's f***ed". All whilst I'm trying to get the "last proper job" moving through and out of the workshop so that I can get on with the building-works that I need to complete before the weather turns back to "normal" this Summer!
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