Starting a auto repair business takes a certain vision, aptitude, and willingness to take risks. Not everyone is cut out for it. Still, there are those who either just can’t help themselves, or have what is known as ‘creative dissatisfaction’ – “I know I can fix cars better than those who are doing it now in this marketplace”.
When it comes to starting an auto repair shop, those most likely to try it are either technicians who work in the industry, or ‘serial entrepreneurs’, who are driven to start and build small businesses into profitability. Both of these budding business owners have an idea in their heads that they want to see move from the idea phase to the Opening Day phase, but both have different questions.
Technicians Starting a Repair Shop
For the technician who has a deep desire to start his or her own automotive shop, it may be time to take stock of what you know, what you think you know and what you know you don’t know.
You may well be the best mechanic in every shop you work at, you can diagnose any problem, you understand the latest diagnostic tools and you are the best wrench turner in town. Owning a car repair business is very different to spending your day under the hood fixing cars. Just some of the questions you should be asking yourself
- How Much Does It Cost to Start an Auto Repair Shop?
- How Will I Market my New Business?
- Who Will Manage my Book Keeping?
- How Will I Know I am Profitable?
- What Equipment do I Need?
- Can I repair cars when I am answering the phone and dealing with customers?
While some of these questions do not have a definitive answer your Shop Management Software will help relieve some of the stress and learning curve.
How much money does it take to start a auto repair shop?
It depends on so many factors, location being a big one. How much rent will you pay (you should look at buying a building as soon as you can but renting at first is fine), how much would it cost you to employ help and how much you can charge. Do not
Marketing is easy if you use one of our marketing partners – Kukui for example. They will take all your customer data from Profitboost and send emails, postcards and even text messages to help you keep in contact with your customers.
Book keeping for a repair shop should be kept as basic, but accurate as possible. Data quality is vital, junk in equals junk out. Make sure you record every customers name, address, and contact information. Then use a Quickbook conduit to push the payment data straight from our system into your Quickbooks.
Profitability is vital, but is ignored all too often, with our Profit Per Hour indicator you can see exactly what jobs are making you money and which are not.
One of the big things we hear about is technicians who open up a repair shop and just don’t realize how much time they will be spending on the phone with customers, or face to face in the front of the shop. Using software to manage your business will save you time and reduce your headaches.
Business Guy
The serial entrepreneur, who starts new businesses out of habit, may not have a strong background in auto repair, but can clearly see the profit potential in a properly run shop that has good word-of-mouth referrals, tight control of expenses, and a great team of employees who work together for their future.
This is the guy, or women, who will understand the concept of Profit Per Hour the minute they see it and will know all about ROI, GP and all the numbers, but will need management software to create repair orders.
Our paperless office allows the shop owner to see all the important KPI’s on their tablet no matter where they are and to be able to see how the shop is doing even when not there.
No matter where the aspiring business owner may come from, Profit Boost and its cloud-based approach to auto shop management can give this new business the head start it needs to move quickly to a profitable bottom line. That’s because this suite of tools for auto shop management takes care of the behind-the-scenes work, like bookkeeping integration, customer communications, and a host of other chores that can now be automated.
Overall
Those who came to this business as former technicians will love the easy-to-learn interface, which helps save time and eliminates errors which could happen if the new boss was ‘winging it’ or doing paperwork on actual paper. Also, the parts integration that Profit Boost offers makes ordering necessary parts a breeze.
Experienced entrepreneurs will truly appreciate the Profit per Hour system, which will show the owner how each job measures up to the profile of profitable operations. This is especially useful for the new owner who’s buying an existing business, and perhaps inheriting a staff that isn’t working according to best practices.
All business owners, no matter what their background, love the Quickbooks integration that Profit Boost offers every business owner. No one seems to like this ‘necessary evil’ part of the business, which is vital for staying on track to profitability.
The added value of Digital Vehicle Inspections means techs can be consistent with each inspection and can increase profitability by making sure that no potential repair opportunities get ignored. Just this one tool can add more to your bottom line than if you failed to use it.
The visual Workflow tool means every owner can see where every car is and what’s being done to it, in almost real time. Instead of guessing, the boss can know where the business is right now, and where it is headed.
Whether you are a technician with a dream, or a business owner who wants to add an auto repair shop to your portfolio, you give yourself a major boost to your future success by using Profit Boost auto repair software as your partner in profit.