Hello everyone, I wanted to share a bit about my new business and also get your thoughts on improvement. I am an ex automotive tech, I worked at a dealership for several years before branching off on my own.
I started off by doing fix and flips but the margins can be thin if you try and do any amount of volume, as well as being capped at what one person can do by themselves. This was my experience at least. Hiring help is out of the question as I don’t have a shop nor could I afford to offer the pay or benefits a real shop would offer. I would not want to be working for myself under this conditions, so certainly don’t expect anyone else to either.
I’ve also looked into starting my own mini-shop but the capital investment needed was high, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to buy myself a job having to work on cars 24/7 again.
A couple of months ago, I decided to put a couple of my vehicles on a popular car-sharing platform and to my surprise they were rented out almost instantly. I currently have three cars being rented out, and I’m repairing a 4th one to get onto the platform as well. These are all fully depreciated economy cars that I’ve repaired and brought up to shape. They’re well under market value so even a wreck should put me a bit ahead if insurance pays out.
Being able to get these cars under market as well as my mechanical skills is really the only thing making me profitable, I see many others on this car sharing platform and unfortunately I don’t really see how they are making a whole lot after depreciation and maintenance, especially those that rent out luxury cars. But hey, what do I know I have no idea what their numbers are just my observations knowing cars a little.
Now from here, I’d like to scale up to 8-10 cars at minimum. I’ve used up most of my cash buying these last 4 cars, how should I approach a bank with this? Do I make a business plan and try and acquire a business loan? The cars are making money and I’m getting a great return on investment as I am able to acquire the cars for a good price, and reconditioning and maintenance costs are low as I do the work myself and get most parts at wholesale pricing. I think the business is solid, just need to start scaling. Any advice?
My goal is to net at least 100k a year. I think I can do it, I just need to add more cars to my fleet. My only sticking point at the moment is lack of money. Would appreciate anything from some more business minded folk here.
I started off by doing fix and flips but the margins can be thin if you try and do any amount of volume, as well as being capped at what one person can do by themselves. This was my experience at least. Hiring help is out of the question as I don’t have a shop nor could I afford to offer the pay or benefits a real shop would offer. I would not want to be working for myself under this conditions, so certainly don’t expect anyone else to either.
I’ve also looked into starting my own mini-shop but the capital investment needed was high, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to buy myself a job having to work on cars 24/7 again.
A couple of months ago, I decided to put a couple of my vehicles on a popular car-sharing platform and to my surprise they were rented out almost instantly. I currently have three cars being rented out, and I’m repairing a 4th one to get onto the platform as well. These are all fully depreciated economy cars that I’ve repaired and brought up to shape. They’re well under market value so even a wreck should put me a bit ahead if insurance pays out.
Being able to get these cars under market as well as my mechanical skills is really the only thing making me profitable, I see many others on this car sharing platform and unfortunately I don’t really see how they are making a whole lot after depreciation and maintenance, especially those that rent out luxury cars. But hey, what do I know I have no idea what their numbers are just my observations knowing cars a little.
Now from here, I’d like to scale up to 8-10 cars at minimum. I’ve used up most of my cash buying these last 4 cars, how should I approach a bank with this? Do I make a business plan and try and acquire a business loan? The cars are making money and I’m getting a great return on investment as I am able to acquire the cars for a good price, and reconditioning and maintenance costs are low as I do the work myself and get most parts at wholesale pricing. I think the business is solid, just need to start scaling. Any advice?
My goal is to net at least 100k a year. I think I can do it, I just need to add more cars to my fleet. My only sticking point at the moment is lack of money. Would appreciate anything from some more business minded folk here.