Business Plan

[Kershaw]

vivek, you dont know what you're talking about. not sketchy at all.

services like this are really talking off in the DC area. the washington post ran an article about a guy doing this. he started 2 years ago with just himself and now the business has 6 people, iirc. he makes contracts with large office buildings and they reserve a section of parking lot for him. employees in that office building make appointments, leave their car there at the appropriate time and pick it up later. it's going pretty well.

PDR comes to you. windshield replacement comes to you. it's a fucking hassle going to a mechanic to get an oil change.

[Vedubin01]

Intreastng idea but there must me a reason why businesses like this don"t exist.

They do exist down here in South Florida. They do tire service and full detail services as well. The cost is about what you would find at a local shop. There are not many doing it but I have used the service several times.

[Farbin Kaiber]

Jiffy Lube charges about $39.99 for a basic oil change. $55.99 for a mobile service is something many people would pay.

[imsotyerred]

I think it would be pretty successful. You have pretty limited overhead right?

We have a slightly limited client base just because the person would have to have an area of private land that we could do it on right? It would have to be someone with a driveway basically because it's illegal to do that on the street.

not if you make a mobile workshop...a slightly oversized trailer with a small lift inside, tools, oil drainage receptacle built right into the floor of it. not sure about the legal what-nots on this but seems like it can work.

gotta keep in mind that, if you're just changing their oil for them in their own driveway, that they can do it too. IMO, A big part to keeping customers with this idea is that YOU have all of the equipment and the facility to make it happen.

[Farbin Kaiber]

Just because the e30 community is a bunch of penny pinching people, there is a whole majority of people that don't even know how to put air in their tires, or where their air filter might even be...

[LJ851]

edit

[frankenbeemer]

Jiffy Lube charges about $39.99 for a basic oil change. $55.99 for a mobile service is something many people would pay.

Assuming Farbin's figures are correct: There are many people who would pay that extra $15 not to have to wait.

[frankenbeemer]

Is part of your business plan the actual oil change procedure? There may be some value in trying to reduce the time required. Will you extract the oil or drain it? Can oil be extracted from the no-dipstick vehicles?

[mar1t1me]

This looks like a real hard way to make a relatively small amount of money. Very high cost of doing business with a relatively tight margin. This is coming from someone who owns his own business.

[Lodsin]

not if you make a mobile workshop...a slightly oversized trailer with a small lift inside, tools, oil drainage receptacle built right into the floor of it. not sure about the legal what-nots on this but seems like it can work.

gotta keep in mind that, if you're just changing their oil for them in their own driveway, that they can do it too. IMO, A big part to keeping customers with this idea is that YOU have all of the equipment and the facility to make it happen.

This was what I had in mind as well. Why stop at oil if you have a small trailer garage? You could easily do any kind of work, as long as it fits the time frame (assuming people are at work and need to be able to go back home at end of day).

As far as profit margin goes, Jiffy Lube makes do with mostly oil changes and some repairs(??,I dont go to JL). But, if your mobile garage is an office then you wouldn't need a shop and the only losses you might have that JL wouldn't is gas/tires/etc for vehicle.

And I would definitely pay $50 for an oil change that I did not have to do a thing besides pickup the phone.

[camip]

Have you factored in insurance,license, and bonded just in case you fuck something up not saying you incompetent but you never know. What happens if you forget to tighten the oil plug and tree days later it wiggles out and the owner blows up his engine?

[j0oftheworld]

$180,000 oil futures.. $20,000 for oil change biz if you don't win.

[mamzak]

haha shit... I didn't know anything like this already existed. I don't think there's anything around here anyways. Oh well.. there was nothing about not being able to do already existing businesses.


Hmm.. I really like the idea of signing a contract with say an office tower and changing employee's oil while they're at work...that would definitely increase volume, and decrease travel time!

not if you make a mobile workshop...a slightly oversized trailer with a small lift inside, tools, oil drainage receptacle built right into the floor of it. not sure about the legal what-nots on this but seems like it can work.

gotta keep in mind that, if you're just changing their oil for them in their own driveway, that they can do it too. IMO, A big part to keeping customers with this idea is that YOU have all of the equipment and the facility to make it happen.

Yeah thought about doing this as well... I just wasn't sure how much a trailer like that would cost. I also thought that if we make it look too easy people might realize "hey, I can do that too!" but figured that a lot of people still wouldn't want to crawl around under a car.

Also, as far as draining and filling I was planning on having a vacuum pump to suck out the catch pan. (still drain out of the drain plug but then just suck it up) and to fill yeah similar to a lube place. Just an air powered pump with a couple bulk tanks offering name brand oil in 5w30 and 10w30 conventional, and 5w30 and 10w30 synthetic.

Keep in mind this is just a business plan for school, not for me to actually go out and do so I'm not all that concerned about some of the nit-picky stuff but it is good to be thinking about them.

[Fusion]

Why sketchy? I know about a local mobile tire replacement service and one that does windshield replacement. My brother is thinking about doing mobile car cleaning.
You'll figure out a way to make it work. People love not having to do anything and saving time. You can charge higher because you're offering something unusual. Screw the cheapskates, let them do it in their driveway themselves.

Oil suction machines already exist. You stick a hose in the dipstick tube and suck it out. = No mess under the engine, depending on filter placement.

Oh and with 200K you could easily add more services like the mentioned cleaning and/or tires. Your company could be ie. 4 trucks, each equipped for a certain purpose. Your phones won't stop ringing if you're doing this in a fairly large city.

[Raxe]

Holy crap, what kind of oil are they using on those $25 oil changes? At our shop a standard oil change ranges from $110 to $400+ depending on the vehicle.