HELP. Need advice on opening a Mechanic Shop from scratch

[Greg Z]

I want to open an Auto Repair shop. I own a small used car Dealership and know my way around cars but am not a mechanic by no means. I also need to do this on a tight budget but at the same time I want it to look as professional as possible to the customers. My questions are:

Where to get the software for quotes/job hours. Prefer used.

What equipment and and where to buy it. Prefer used.

What percentage do the mechanics make per job?

And any other advice anyone can offer.

 

[steveny]

I am a silent partner on a small dealership and repair facility. Right now is the right time to get in the repair business. Although our sales are way off our repair income in through the roof.

I don't know what software they use but I could ask the questions you did and see what the deal-e-o is.

I know buying used equipment is the way to go. We just set up a new location, moved from the old location and bought several used lifts from the person who sold us the new location. We paid less for several new lifts than we would have paid for two new ones.

Good help is hard to find. When you do find it pay what it's worth. Lot's of help will come and go. Don't burn any bridges.

 

[Greg Z]

I am a silent partner on a small dealership and repair facility. Right now is the right time to get in the repair business. Although our sales are way off our repair income in through the roof.

I don't know what software they use but I could ask the questions you did and see what the deal-e-o is.

I know buying used equipment is the way to go. We just set up a new location, moved from the old location and bought several used lifts from the person who sold us the new location. We paid less for several new lifts than we would have paid for two new ones.

Good help is hard to find. When you do find it pay what it's worth. Lot's of help will come and go. Don't burn any bridges.

Thank you Steve. For the good attitude and willingness to ask questions to help me. (You should see what the jackasses on the Corvette Forum posted to this same thread!) and yes PLZ ask what you can because I will be opening this shop and it would not be a waste of your time.

 

[Daedalus]

Both Autodata and Chilton's provide service info, including labor times. You will also need something for invoicing and keeping track of customers. There are a good number of independent packages out there. You can download trial versions for a lot of them. For shop equipment I would keep an eye on craigslist. There are always deals to be had in my area code. You may want to narrow down the scope of your shop to include or exclude certain types of cars. If you try to be the one-stop-shop for all cars, you will end up paying a lot of money for rare, brand-specific specialty equipment that will take a long time to pay for themselves, plus you have to find storage for any tools you buy. German cars come to mind.
Good techs should all have their own hand tools. As a rule of thumb techs get paid about 1/3 your labor rate on average. A good tech makes more partly because he spends a smaller percentage of book time for each job. When you interview the techs ask them if they want to get paid by book time or straight time (on the clock). Don't hire anyone who wants to get paid straight time.

 

[JohnJW]

Huh I'm a ASE cert and Honda Cert mechanic and I work for an independent shop that uses an hourly wage instead of the old flat rate which is garbage.

Flat rate jobbers are always rushed and do poor quality work because they want to make time on each job. I think this way is poor business. Both the customer and the employee lose. When I work on a customer car I am not worried about whether I'm doing the job fast enough, my only concern is doing the job right, therefor no comebacks ever. My other concern in while I"m doing the job, is there anything else that I can perform while I'm in the area. Where as a flat rate jobber will not look for other preventative maintance on hoping that it will come back for more customer pay work. For example, performing a timing belt job without replacing a water pump or crank and cam seals or checking idler bearings. -sorry to off topic

As far as the shop equipment I think its a good idea to maybe get ahold of some of the area tool guys. Our shop uses a program called Shop-Key. I like it. The tool guys (i.e. Snap-On, Mac Tools) will most likely have some used heavy equipment such a lifts or atleast have good leads on where to aquire them. I too am opening my own racecar repair shop around 2011.

Best of luck.. its a stressful venture/business, but can have great rewards.