Expand business or just be happy?

[applemillautorepair]

Hi everyone, I joined this site a few months ago looking for some ideas to help my business and have gotten many good ideas from here. However I am in a situation that I am hoping some of you have been in before, and am hoping that I may receive some help. We are going into our second year of being in open and have seen a pretty good increase in sales this last year. I am a young and have read that some of you were also young when you started your shops (I will be 27 in March).

Let me lay a little ground work so you know what the circumstances are, we are located in the same building as a used car lot that has been there for 18 years and has a very good reputation around town, and have gotten a lot of customers from that. Unfortunately I don't think that we can grow the business any more without expanding the building, you see our current facility is 2 bays one of which has a hoist, the other is a flat stall that the car lot uses for detailing cars and occasionally I use for repairs. The other problem is that I am the only one running the repair business and working on cars.

I do have a business partner that also owns the car lot, so anything that I do usually gets run past him before I do it. I guess what I am looking for is some ideas as to what direction we should go with the business, you all seem like you have been through some things in the business that you may be able to offer some suggestions. I believe that to grow the business we at least need to expand the building and add at least one employee. What are any of your thoughts?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, Eric

[Joe Marconi]

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[applemillautorepair]

Joe, I think that you are absolutely correct, my feeling is that either I need to expand or I may as well close the shop. We just finished our second year of business and our net profit was more than double from last year, so I am excited, however I would like to continue to keep that going and I am afraid that without adding on there will be no hope of that happening. I am kind of overwhelmed right now trying to do mostly everything by myself, so I am hoping to get some advice and guidance from some other professionals in the business. Joe, I really appreciate the reply and I think that it is great advice, I just need to do some acting on that advice. Thanks for the help and good luck with the new building. Eric

[Joe Marconi]

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[applemillautorepair]

Thanks for the input Joe, I really do appreciate you taking the time especially when you are in the middle of the project that you are undertaking. I admire you for doing what you are right not, and hopefully some day soon I will be working on the same type of project. Best regards, Eric

[Joe Marconi]

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