How to Start an Auto Repair Shop

Introduction

As it goes with any serious business venture, making a decision to start an auto repair business is something that requires preparation. If you are one of the people who have something like this in mind, chances are you used to hone your auto mechanic skills in an auto repair shop and after some time, you decided that you can do it yourself. The good news is - yes, you can. The bad (but not a terrible one) is: there's a lot work to be done before you start actually repairing cars again.

Consider Possibilities

The first thing to do is become clear on what your best option is. Starting an auto repair shop from scratch can be a daunting prospect, especially when it comes to attracting customers and then keeping them for yourself. This is why you may think about a couple of alternative solutions.

A good one is to look for a car repair shop whose owner wants to get out of the business and try to negotiate a sale. Buying an already established business is not a bad idea, given the fact that you will be able to skip a lot of preparation and many of the decisions will be already made for you.

Another idea is to by a license for an auto repair franchise. While this might not be your cup of tea (you would again have someone above you), the good thing about a franchise business is that it gets a lot of advertising help from the central office.

If you are like my family , though, you will look forward to setting up nothing but a blank slate in your head. After all, there's nothing so satisfying as when you see a product of your own work, and your work alone, become reality.

Make a Business Plan

Many people will give you the same advice and this is because there is absolutely no debating the usefulness of this one. In this day and age, it is crucial that a person who starts a business venture knows what he or she is up to. So it is necessary to make a business plan.

Do as extensive research as possible and try to talk to people already in the business on the positive and negative sides of it. Ask around to see how much money you will need for a good start and if you don't have that much, consider visiting a bank and taking a loan. Maybe you will not want to start owing money from the day one, but if you are ready and think you can live with it, by all means do it - the initial financial injection can prove very useful in the long run.

Purchase insurance. You never know what can happen in the future and no one likes to think about negative things like that, but a responsible person will do it nevertheless.

Think about the size of your future shop, the number of employees you would hire, services you would offer. Read legislation and don't let some legal technicality get in your way just because you were too lazy to read and ask around (If you are from Australia, read this document, it helped us a lot).

Pick a Location

Once you are sure you know what to do, start looking for a good location. This is, as you suspect, crucial for your business - you need to be visible and close to people if you want them to come to you. The size of the premises is not that important, so don't let that be too much of a factor in your final decision. Yes, you will need some storage space for spare parts and stuff like that, but you can follow my example and purchase one of those second hand containers which are cheap and extremely handy. And they let you extend the amount of space you have without any fuss.

Advertise on the Internet

Once you set up your business and you are ready to go, don't forget to advertise your shop. The best and cheapest way to do it today is on the internet. Set u profile on popular social networks, make website or blog, find local business directories, yellow pages, and register everywhere you can. It is often free of charge. This way you will make sure people stumble up upon you when they search for a neighborhood shop.

Final Word

It might seem like a lot of work and when you start preparing for it you will realize it's even more work than you thought, but take it from someone who went through all of it - it's worth it. So, don't give up, be patient and you are bound to succeed.