Would You Take Advantage Of...

[BlueBolt 156]

Ok, as one or two of you will know (not many though) I have been on the start up of a business. 3 Year plan to have a workshop and be self sufficient enough in the business to be able to quit my current job and go full time at this.

 

The main thing I am doing is mobile mechanics. Affordable, generally using genuine parts where I can and just not adding on the massive mark up that I am told is the retail price for them so I can get more work in. "Charge less get more" kind of theory.

 

Well anyway. Besides this, I have been talking to a friend tonight who has given me an idea which I am now going to peruse as another service that my business will be offering.

 

The AA offer a full vehicle check over. This check list can be seen on their website.

The offer no warranty on their check, as the check is about the condition of parts that are visible. Just because the car has been in good condition when seen by the AA staff member, this does not mean it will be 1 mile down the road after you have bought it.

 

What my company will be offering is this very same thing!! But not with the cost involved in the AA one.

The problem behind this is that the AA have lots of staff all over the country, and therefore have no real travel costs. The vehicle they are checking will always be local to one of their bod's!!

This in turn becomes my own problem!! However, I feel that the initial price that I ask for completing the checks will allow me to travel up to 70 driven miles (No!! Not as the crow flies!!) TO a vehicle to check it over.

 

The vehicle would be raised and checked from underneath, following along the lines of the AA check lists, as well as any other information I can gather. The fee that the AA charge varies for some strange reason on the size of the engine... Why this is completely confuses me!! I see no reason for the engine size to make any difference as no compression tests or internals are checked or anything like that. It is just a thorough check over of the cars visuals, any accident damage, and such like. A road test to make sure there are no nasty surprises on heavy or light braking, steering wobbles, knocks, tinks, or clunks. Checks around before and after the test drive to make sure no leaks have been cleaned up before the visit.

 

As with this gentleman, if anything were to feel not right about the car for any reason, then I would walk away. A full written report stating everything I have found and concluded, and depicting what I feel would be my fair offer on the car.

 

My business is already VAT registered. I did this with the idea in mind that I would be able to claim back more than I would be spending, but this week have been doing the last of my accounts ready to submit and unfortunately I am owing the nasty VAT man money. This does however mean that if a business was to use my services then the VAT is claimable back. There will of course be an HPI check completed and print out to go along with it carried in to the cost of the service being offered.

 

I have spoken already about the prices on the AA site, and have linked through to another "Sports car checker" who charges more. My friend who got me thinking is using this person to check out a car for him this week so it saves him travelling from Hastings to Leicester to look at £8500 worth of a car. To him that's £240 well spent, should the car be a good one then he has already agreed a deposit with the sellers, and if it is not fully as described then the seller will return the deposit. The time, and fuel, and hassle for my friend far outweighs the cost.

 

So, would you use a service like this if you were looking for a car and wanted to know what it was going to be like before you spent an hour or more in the car just to go and have a look??

 

I've mentioned the AA's price, I've mentioned another gent's price, but if someone was to offer a "comprehensive" equivalent to the AA's list, for £100+VAT then would it be something you would think about using??

 

 

 

I know this looks like a For Sale thread, but it's more of a question to other car enthusiasts about the subject heading...

(Please note I haven't added my business name in to try and advertise!!) Would you take advantage of something like this??

£100+vat would in turn get the customer a full check over of the car, a written report, and a printed HPI check and all the gumph that comes with them. I'm not sure which company the checks will be made through just yet as I haven't done the research on them yet. I do know though that some offer a full listing of what was originally added to the car in terms of optional extra's and all that... These, to me, if they are accurate, would be the ones I would want to have for my own records, and therefore the ones I would use I think!!

 

 

[Batfink 201]

What's stopping you trialing it? Advertise the service locally and see what's what. It's another notch in the bow.

[notamondayfan 44]

Does sounds very useful, especially for those who aren't mechanical in anyway.

 

I would really think about how you actually sell the service. I would guess your approach should be 100% methodical, and to not offer any "advice". You are there to offer advice on the condition of the car, not if it's a good buy.

 

If I were you I'd have a chat with a solicitor, as you'll need something for your clients to sign so you can't get sued if you miss something, or even if the car breaks down through no fault of your own.

 

The other thing that sprung to mind is, why not also offer pre-MOT checks? I think to be competitive on price you'd only be able to be very local as MOTs can be as low as £30, so you could charge say £20 for an hour of your time checking over a car.

 

Just get an advert up locally, and even in the local autotrader, and see what happens.

 

Dean

[mnaylor9 0]

The mobile mechanic I use also offers this service, worth doing, it's a good little earner for him.

[BlueBolt 156]

Some good/positive feedback about the idea so far then.

 

I'd also thought about the MOT prep side of things. Once I have my road risk insurance this will be a lot easier to advertise.

The major selling point for this is obviously that I'll come to a workplace, collect a car, take it for an MOT and deliver it back all within the customers working day, allowing for them to have a hassle free time free experience with their MOT.

 

Advertising is obviously key to all this. I have a fb page, but I have actually had more work through my advert on Gum Tree that I put up ages ago before I had a logo or company name or anything!!

 

With regards to a solicitor. I'll have to write something up as you say.

The AA have no warranty or "comeback" on what they check, a friend has first hand experience of this all too well!! So I'll have to find out what it is they get signed and go along these lines.

 

Thanks for the input so far gents

[BlueBolt 156]

Well, the FB page has been updated and a Gum Tree advert made.

I will offer discounts to donating forum members

PM me for details though as I don't want to use this forum for purposes of advertising!!

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

What mechanical knowledge do you have?

 

If you look over a vehicle and give it a clean bill of health, and it turns to have in fact been two vehicles very well joined together - will you refund my purchase price?

 

I would firstly imagine you need to go over it with a very very fine tooth comb in order to cover your back and effectively recommend few vehicles for fear of repercussion. Ask yourself if you know enough about a broad range of vehicles.

 

Certainly don't put all your eggs in one basket, but don't try and offer 15 services either. Start out small and you'll either soon grow and possibly diversify in a particular area which appears to be doing well, or realise things aren't going to work out and change your direction completely to chase business.

 

Would I take advantage of your service - probably not as I don't know your level of competence and one mans version of a decent vehicle is another mans disappointment .

 

Would I take advantage of your service if I was a complete noob - no, I'd probbly go with the AA as they have a reputation and are possibly more likely to cover me. Whether you are more competent and equally insured is a guess - but an equal guess that a customer may make incorrectly and stick to the big names.

 

An intersting discussion, and please don't take any of my competence points as negative. As I say I have no idea of it's level - the same way a consumer probably wouldn't when looking at your name in a book.

Edited April 3, 2013 by chipstick

[BlueBolt 156]

Fare points raised and I see your points well, not as a negative. The idea of the thread was to use it to open discussion and see what people think to the idea.

 

The AA are no more insured to carry these out that you are. They offer no warranty over the completion of the checks that they carry out, and there is no come back to them if you drive off and something brakes. The checks completed are a clear indication of what the car is like at the time of checking. Not that there will be nothing that needs doing to the car in the next months, or that there will be nothing break or snap or go wrong with it... But that at the time of checking then nothing seemed untoward with it.

 

You know when you or I go to see a car, you can feel if something isn't right with it straight away as soon as you pull away for a test drive. This is something the AA won't tell you about!! They have their ticked boxes and they go with them only...

A good friend used them some years ago for one of his first cars. He paid a load of money to them, bought the car, and a week later took it to a garage as things weren't quite right about it.

The garage owner pointed out the muddy looking header tank, and then the mayo under the cap, and then explained what that meant. Then explained that this had in no way at all happened in less than a week!!

My friends knowledge on cars is now a lot better, and looking back on it he can understand what the garage owner meant. The mayo build up was heavy!!

 

The way to check and see if a car has been welded shut again would normally be an easy one with a good thorough HPI service check. This would be included in my service out of the cost already being paid. It doesn't take much to get an account with one of these companies, and many of them offer more along the lines of what the car would have had as optional extras and such when it was first ordered so the checks can be carried out to see if these too were present, and indeed working. If the cut and shut had been done to a level that the HPI checks came back fine, it looked fine throughout, under, over, inside, outside and all around, then the seller/shutter is clearly putting a lot of time and effort into it!! But yes, if I had put in my report that I had checked something, and it could be seen that I had not, then I would offer return of money or partial return depending on the item found to be missed. I think that is more a question of good business ethics more than anything else??

[TooMany2cvs 65]

However, I feel that the initial price that I ask for completing the checks will allow me to travel up to 70 driven miles (No!! Not as the crow flies!!) TO a vehicle to check it over.

Being based in Kent, I can see a real potential gotcha with that one - could that 70 miles include London? If so, then you'd better be prepared to spend a lot of your time sat in traffic... That's gotta affect the price you charge, since doing 2 inspections a day instead of 4 will affect your income.

 

I don't see any mention of legal and liability insurance policies. You're going to need it from two angles. Firstly, to protect yourself against allegations of "You damaged my car whilst checking it", secondly for "You told me this was good, it's a ringer/cut-n-shut/lemon"... The AA can say they've no comeback, but you can bet they've got a lot of legal paperwork behind them confirming it, and a large legal team for when the paperwork isn't enough.

 

Finally, I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here, but an HPI doesn't say it's not been bent/nicked/whatever, just that it's not reached the paperwork stage. I'd ignore the HPI - add a check on to your service as a cost option, sure, but it adds nothing to what you offer, which is a pro physical check-over.

[Toddy 7]

Why have you registerd for VAT, this has made your services more expensive to the customer, unless they are VAT registered?

 

Have you suitable Liability Insurance incase a faulty develops which you have not highlighted and they make a claim against you?

 

 

Good luck

[Anthony 1,003]

My thoughts are along the same lines as Dan above, in that I'm not sure who you're aiming the service at - or rather, who would use it?

 

• Anyone buying something exotic or prestige is likely to want it inspecting by a specialist for that particular marque.
  
• Anyone that's not local is likely to go with a known name such as the AA and aren't likely to consider an "unknown" advertising on Gumtree
  
• Anyone that's car savvy probably isn't going to want to pay a non-specialist for an inspection
  
• Anyone that's local is probably going to look themselves, probably with their car knowing "mate" in tow, or get it inspected by whoever they currently use
  
• Anything that's not within say 20-30 miles of you is likely to not be cost effective / worth your while as you'll be competing against local firms
  
• If you're going to be working part-time elsewhere, how are you going to fit in with customers and sellers schedules?

 

The only people likely to use you, that I can see at least, are those that already know you, at least until you start getting recommended and word of mouth spreads, but that's only ever going to be localish for the sort of opporation that you're talking about.

 

Another question is are you competent to do this sort of role? I've inspected quite a few cars for family and friends, and a few for people on the forum, but I wouldn't for one moment consider doing so as a commercial entity as that's a whole different ballgame with a considerable risk attached to it.

 

I'm not trying to cast doubt and clearly I don't know you beyond a name on a screen and a few posts, but it was only a year or so back that you took your car to Miles for a GTi-6 conversion because you admitted that you didn't have the knowledge/skills to do the work yourself and that doesn't sit too well with me if you're now talking about spannering as a paid business. Have you worked as a mechanic previously for any length of time to give you sufficient grounding and experience before branching out on your own?

 

Away from that, what local already established competition is there offering the sort of services that you're talking about, and what are you offering that's going to make you stand out from them and generate sufficient business for make it viable? People will go to someone that they've used before out of preference unless there's a reason why they wouldn't.

 

Not trying to sound over-negative here, just raising obvious issues and concerns that I see in what you've written

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

Touching again on what I said about diversifying down a particular path. A great way of going about this sort of thing is with a specific marque as Anthony mentions. You linked to a guy who specialises. Many healthy small companies are now doing something that has grown from an interest or effectively fallen in to place from experience.

 

Lets look at a Peugeot specialist for example - you'll find many are ex PSA mechanics that have taken their knowledge on and become independant. They have taken that experience, and applied it at a lower cost in order to take the buisness. They'll probably do quite well - but you won't see the local Peugeot workshop empty. Even bad businesses can tie themselves over. The difference is a bad business won't grow as well.

 

Don't assume every self employed person running their own business is living the life of Riley. You take home X a month and only have to rely on waking up on time and pulling reasonable weight to keep your job. Even a sucessful business can have bad months. Earning really well one month, but knowing the next may be slow.

 

You've only got to look around at the pointless companies that exist. Domestic oven cleaners. I ask myself eveytime I see the van 'How on earth do you make a decent living'. They may do - or they may be driving around earning just enough to keep their heads above water and prefer that than signing on.

 

A business plan is a good idea though, and it's good to see you are realistic and open to critisism. The one thing I do fear most when reading similar threads is that the OP is going to make the jump regardless. I for example went through a similar thought process as you back along and decided not to bother in the end. A quitter maybe. But from research I learnt I'd actually struggle to make what I'd need to.

Edited April 3, 2013 by chipstick

[BlueBolt 156]

All valid points.

 

Antony

In reflection, the main reason at the time for taking my car over to Miles was a space and tooling issue. Having had the chance to look into it more now, and been around the working of my another friends conversion on a Clio to 2.0 and ITB's, then I do really wish that I had taken the time and effort to find somewhere to complete it and have done it all myself. But on the flip side to that, Miles has completed a good many of these conversions and is able to make it all fit and look extremely good and tidy in a much shorter period of time than I would have. Also, knowing the level of feedback that he has on here for his work kind of made me want to just "get it all done" so to speak. Given the chance, I am still at a 50/50 split as to if I would choose the same route or if I would do it myself. The one thing I am careful not to do is accept any job that I don't know I can complete without any problem. There are always hic-ups and such along the way with any job being done, but by that I mean that if I don't feel confident about completing the job then I wouldn't do it.

 

 

I agree with what's being said about making sure I am not biting off more than I can chew at the moment. I am working on this project (business) as a part time thing, fitting it in around my full time work and family. My other half is being very reasonable about the time she knows I need to work, and as such allows for that when we are making plans. The full time job will be continuing while I am getting my new mortgage sorted for a new house, and I can see it continuing for a few years still while I build up a customer basis and regular business.

 

The "pre use check" plan is not an idea to try and make my millions over night by any stretch of the imagination. It's more another string to the bow, another service to offer out to people and as has been already mentioned, spread by word of mouth more than anything. I've advertised on GT, but that's about it!! I'm not trying to grow massive in seconds as that's not going to help me, the business or the customers in any way shape or form!!

 

VAT registration was for the purpose of getting back VAT more than anything. I had imagined that I would be spending a lot more than i have been bringing in, and as such would be claiming vat back more than anything..... This was wrong, but at the same time, I just add it all together anyway. The prices I make in my mind before an invoice are created are always the same once the VAT is added. Either this means my maths is terrible (it's not that bad) or I'm pricing right for the business that I want to bring in to allow for the VAT to be added. Yes, it is all a big ball ache!!

 

Ok, there's a lot to think about with it all. But the main reason why people are coming to me so far is cost!! The people already coming to me are either known to me, as already mentioned, or that have been pointed in my direction by these people. The cost of me coming out to people and working where they are is a lot less than them going in to a garage, getting charged full whack on prices and loosing a day trying to get themselves too and from the garage to deliver and collect.

 

 

 

Touching again on what I said about diversifying down a particular path. A great way of going about this sort of thing is with a specific marque as Anthony mentions. You linked to a guy who specialises. Many healthy small companies are now doing something that has grown from an interest or effectively fallen in to place from experience.

Lets look at a Peugeot specialist for example - you'll find many are ex PSA mechanics that have taken their knowledge on and become independant. They have taken that experience, and applied it at a lower cost in order to take the buisness. They'll probably do quite well - but you won't see the local Peugeot workshop empty. Even bad businesses can tie themselves over. The difference is a bad business won't grow as well.

Don't assume every self employed person running their own business is living the life of Riley. You take home X a month and only have to rely on waking up on time and pulling reasonable weight to keep your job. Even a sucessful business can have bad months. Earning really well one month, but knowing the next may be slow.

You've only got to look around at the pointless companies that exist. Domestic oven cleaners. I ask myself eveytime I see the van 'How on earth do you make a decent living'. They may do - or they may be driving around earning just enough to keep their heads above water and prefer that than signing on.

A business plan is a good idea though, and it's good to see you are realistic and open to critisism. The one thing I do fear most when reading similar threads is that the OP is going to make the jump regardless. I for example went through a similar thought process as you back along and decided not to bother in the end. A quitter maybe. But from research I learnt I'd actually struggle to make what I'd need to.

 

 

By no means do I intend to "jump" before I know that I will be able to do more than just "survive" on the income. I've had enough of just surviving on the income I have at the moment in a job that I grow to hate more and more as the days pass by, but at the same time as that detest of the job grows I know I have a family to support and a life to live and need the steady income.

Slow months and busy months are obviously a concern, busy one's not so much, but the slow ones for sure!! Careful planning is obviously something needed to make sure that the slow months are accounted for throughout the year. December for example is a definite slow month all round unless you are a shop or courier.... The workings of a business plan is already in the making though...

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

I think what Toddy was suggesting is that while you are warming up and earning a pittance to gather a name for yourself, you are charging a customer £20 for every 100 to pass on to HMRC.

 

A quick friend of a friend once over 2 miles away for a nominal £30 becomes a £36 invoice. You think meh I'll invoice £30 to satisfy them in the hope of a happy returning customer. You've netted £24.

 

The VAT threshold is a high hurdle for someone holding down a full time job in year 1.

[BlueBolt 156]

Yea I know what you mean, the income from a £30 job is £25, and I'm charging VAT on everything like that, but by the time I'd had my second or third thought about it then it was a little too late and was done.

 

I guess that as this is a new Tax year I could de-register the VAT and end up making more income, regardless of the tooling and supplies I'm buying I've already shown myself that I'm earning more in than I'm spending out...

 

That's a whole different story though.....

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

Of course, it's all got to be weighed up in order to make the best decision. What's your projected spend for the first year on tooling and consumables? Are you going to be enrolling on any particular courses to educate yourself and become certified at all? You may decide to do several straight away or space them out in which case they will be yearly spends and easier to handle.

[BlueBolt 156]

Courses and such will be over time, and saved for... Taking less of a hit on me. But it's also the likes of vehicles, insurance, and all of that which is good to be able to claim back against, along with the fuel costs!!

Slightly off track now though as Taxes is a whole crap heap of a topic of its own, probably best not for forums lol

 

I've got a few friends local to me in their own business who I've been making best use of their knowledge on the Tax thing, even if a little late in the day...

 

First year predictive spending will be not far off the income. I told the banks and people that I predict the first years turnover to be around £5k, I think this was about right judging by the first two months of busniess. However, if things keep growing the way they have been then I will be turning over a bit more than that, just have to see when the quiet months are I guess....