Starting our own shop.

[1979C20]

My brother and I have been brain storming lately. Hes good woth sheet metal, wrench turning(big arms), tool fetching, and helping randomly. Im good at everything else. Mechanical work, wiring, troubleshooting, etc. So we've been working on our truck, my 79 and his 77. Both are c20's. He wants to slam his truck and bag it. I want to convert my truck to 4x4 and lift it. Were planning on using our trucks as the rolling advertisement for our company. We want to start out small, post our services on craigslist to kind of get the name out. We mostly want to have our trucks do the advertising for us and have it all be word of mouth. "yo who built your truck?! Thats sick!" "these 2 brothers are running a shop and do great work for cheap!". Were planning on doing eother half now, half later, or all up front. What we need advice on is how to start out  we dont have a garage, and have no tools. Currently were using my parents' driveway and my dads tool box. I was thinking of renting a climate controlled storage unit big enough for vehicles and tool boxes and making that our shop. But, where should we begin looking for tools? We need some cheap stuff to start out. Just some tools for simple tasks, socket wrenches, sockets metric and standard, nowmal box/line.wrenches, pliers, vice grips, drill or 2, impacts, couple hammers. Hopefully the storage place will have at least 110v. Anything else tou guys want to recommend or advise against?

[big bear]

good luck man.  thats a long time dream of mine.  anyhow, just be careful working out of a storage unit. i know you can get into some trouble for that if your not licensed or have permit ect.. then again maybe that just depends on your area and i guess you can just advertise on the down low and keep it that way.  you just dont want to be liable for something and a angered customer come after you and you have no insurance or what not. im not trying to be negative. i love the idea. just never can be too safe.

[Cody1018]

As far as tools go i would suggest Harbor Freight. http://www.harborfreight.com/

Me and my dad got a 301 piece mechanics tool set for 170-200. (depends if its on sale). Pittsburgh is the one that makes the set. Have had them for half a year and used them for everything and so far and no problems. They have a lot of tools their and fairly decent prices.

[Lt.Del]

estate sales.  garage sales.  yard sales.   You will never accumulate everything you need in a matter of days or even weeks.  it takes time. Unless you have mucho greenbacks, you can't just dive in and start a shop in a matter of days.
You must have liability insurance, file w/ your state corporation commission for an LLC, get a registered agent for legal papers, file your LLC with the state tax board, file for worker's compensation insurance just in case something happens, and be ready for your brother to be your worst enemy when it comes to paying 50/50 on everything and dividing all profits.  He may think you need this, you may think you need that. How will you both agree?
There is an awful lot of prep that must go into starting a business.
One of your first projects should be for someone who knows how to build a website.  No business can survive in today's era without a website. 

[bake74]

     A lot of times you can find starter sets that have 500 or so pieces for a couple of hundred bucks, good enough to start out with until you get money to get better ones.  Good luck on your dream, more than most of us would like to do this as a living.

[Stewart G Griffin]

i don't mean to sound like a pessimist, but i think it would be better and wiser to just concentrate on finding trucks, get them running (if not already) and get them presentable (if not already) and turn around and sell them for profit.  If you're working you can do this part time and i think you could make some decent bread on the side and maybe eventually it could go full time.

i don't think the customizing route is going to fly due to the fact that lowering and blinging and all that jazz is a not nessesity---it's a luxury and there's a lot of horse product when it comes to payment time etc.   i think this would be very low volume sales wise vs. car sales in general.


Everyone "needs" a car but not everyone needs a lowering job etc.

[westsidek20]

Theres always a market for everything, the truth is that as long as you are really good at what you do and even go to calling yourself a "specialist" in what your goal is (lifting/lowering/blinging trucks), people will come to your shop, but you do have to advertise, do the internet thing and have a good presentation.
You have to do what makes you happy and not what other people say your shop should be or should do, even if people say that times are tuff and they are strapped for cash, you don't even imagine just how much people are just blowing cash away in stupid stuff.
Everything now is making yourself known, as long as somebody has heard about your shop they will go and check it out.

[jaredts]

Just me, but I wouldn't go to a shop that didn't have credentials on the wall and several years experience doing it for someone else.  Don't mean to be negative, as I'm sure you could make some cash on the side.  I just wouldn't get too excited that everyone's going to knock down your door right away.  I would suggest getting some ASE certifications and doing this for someone else for a few years if you want to do this as more than a hobby.

[1980c10]

My advice is to plan carefully and plan for the next five years or so. Generally you'll need more money to put in the business at a start up point. Plan what you'll need what you'll spend and what and how the money will come in. When will you net your 1st dollar of profit? write it down and use realistic numbers. when you do this it will show you if your plan is realistic and you may find out a lot of details and save a lot of money without spending the money first. You also need to plan marketing strategies, you need to know competition. what will your strengths be and what will your weaknesses be and how will you overcome them. This should all be on paper for your reveiw.
Anyway I think you can see where I am going with this.
 
You may want to consider detailing etc. from there you could do some light mechanical repair and become a retailer for aftermarket items such as bedcovers, grilles, chrome accesories etc and eventually become the shop you want to be. also consider what is lacking in your area. for example maybe there is not a good garage for hitch/towing installations and this could be your bread and butter and get people in your door then later expand as you get more tools etc.
 
To make a small business survive you need an edge and some luck, most businesses fail for one reason or another so you need to do something to make sure that doesn't happen to you.

[beastie_3]

Since you wont be able to do everything at your shop, make friends with other shops who provide other services. My old shop (think 4 wheel parts, but local) we had a good relationship with a local wheel and tire supplier, as well as a alignment shop. We had lower prices between our shops and a small discount to customers if they were sent from another shop. Because we did this, we could save the customer money when we took a truck over after a lift kit to get it aligned, that way the vehicle was completely done before we handed back the keys.

[thirsty]

I can relate to what you want to do. Here is my $.02 with my experience.
I work for myself doing a variety of things including vehicle repair. I have plenty of tools and a small shop with a pit but no lift but my biggest asset is a good relationship with a couple of area shops. When I need tools that I don't have (like a strut machine for example) or advise or information I can rely on them. It works both ways though I do stuff for them too.

As far as tools go try and buy the best quality you can afford at the moment. Sometimes a cheap tool will get you by but quality tools will be there for you when you need them.

Accounts with wholesalers is also a must. When you need parts you don't want to be driving to the store and paying cash when they will deliver it to you for the same cost. When I need to go to the parts store in person I am not making money while I am gone. This is a problem when I do contracting work that I struggle with. Home Depot and Lowes may have better prices than the local suppliers but it takes too long for me to deal with them. I always have to weigh the savings against time lost against the profit.

Starting out doing it on the side and building a customer base is the the best way to go. You will have a paycheck to fall back on and you can reinvest your profits back into yourself. Although it will eliminate all your free time. If you don't have a family yet now is the time to do it.

I don't think the storage unit thing is a good idea. I would look into finding a space that would be better suited for the work.

[1979C20]

Im going to make a generalized reply. We're planning on starting REAL small. Like, doing a friends vehicle, and slapping a sticker on the back window until the word gets around. Im going to be searching for good deals on tool sets, look around at storage units to work out of, and start checking local laws. My brother said something about loving arizona because small businesses are so easy to run? Idk. Were planning on talking with a lawyer about a legal bindong contract to protect us.in any circumstance. Like, before we even touch a vehicle, we go over all terms of the contract including the price for the work they want done, stipulations for not paying, and payment. Were going to have 3 options for payment. Payment in full for the estimated price up front, half now, half later, or payments until the job is done, then payment in full for the remaining amount. I want the contract to protect us in a way that if they do not pay, they have to sign the title over. If they dont like the job afterwards, theyre out of luck. If something out of our control happens, were not responsible. I understand its going to take a lot of planning, and were going to have quite a lot of.time to plan consoderong we still have to make our advertisement!(our trucks finished)

[Lt.Del]

good luck on that turning the title over.  Serving civil papers and working as a deputy for over 20 yrs, I'll tell you that there are legal avenues to collect money. 
First and foremost, do not turn the vehicle over to the owners until paid in full.  They have spare keys, but, you may want to get a fenced area and keep it locked.  You have the right to keep the vehicle if you place a lien on it from the court.  If the owner needs it, they will have to go to court and put up a bond amount, equal to the bill owed. Then the deputy serves the paper to the mechanic and the deputy must release vehicle.  The paper will have the court date on it. The court holds that money until after the judge hears the case.  The money goes to whomever wins the case.

If the owner gets the car and you haven't been paid. Hopefully you photocopied the driver's license or received home address at least prior to working on it.  File a warrant in debt against the owner for total bill, plus time off work and interest and legal and filing fees. the deputy will serve the owner.  There will be a court date.  If you win, you can then garnish the person's paycheck, put a lien on whatever the person owns, etc...
there are many ways to get money owed. 

[1980c10]

Just some thoughts;
As far as obtaining payment look up a mechanics lein, that allows you to keep a vehicle and re-title it etc but look it up in your state to see how it applies in your situation.
As far as stuff that happens of your control-that is what insurance is for. Sometime this will be covered under an auto policy, sometimes property insurance and other times it could be covered under your business liability insurance.
A good way to get started may be to talk to some smaller local car dealers that would hire you for detailing and mechanical work to prep their vehicles ready for the sales lot.
It would be repeat business and they could send more business your way.