start a business with no work experience?

[fnevets]

I have been turning wrenches my entire life being an avid automotive enthusiast. I have repaired almost every square inch of a vehicle in my driveway including transmission rebuilds and axle repairs. I am 25 years old and have been self employed my entire life. Owning a landscaping company has given me the business knowledge I otherwise would be lost without. My passion has always be the automotive work. I am registered for auto tech school starting mid summer. I have tried to obtain a job in the automotive business for the past few months with no luck. From a business stand point, I completely understand why noone wants to hire someone with no experience to back them up. I have two choices right now, either keep searching and find a 8.50 an hour lube tech job which my wife and I could not live on, or continue my landscaping business while paying for school.

I feel the only area I lack experience is diagnostics. Fully understanding WHY the engine locked up or WHY the transmission lost reverese. I hope to learn this while in school and obtain my ASE certifications before finishing.

I apologize for the long post but it gets frustrating when you are confident in your skill set but cant obtain a starting position at minimal pay.

Have any of you guys started your own shop with no actual work experience under someone else?

[phynny]

Congrats on going to school. I'd recommend finishing school and finding a dealership that will hire you and pay off your tuition. If you work hard the knowledge you can get from a dealer is invaluable in starting your own business or finding a job.

 

I would stick with what is working for now because chances are your business would fail. Anyone can change brakes, starter, alt or even an engine with enough time but very few can diag. Especially with an independent shop that will see every vehicle made. An independent shop has to absolutely have the best techs to survive let alone grow. Hope this helps man.

[ncautoshop]

Congrats on going to school.  I'd recommend finishing school and finding a dealership that will hire you and pay off your tuition.  If you work hard the knowledge you can get from a dealer is invaluable in starting your own business or finding a job.

 

I would stick with what is working for now because chances are your business would fail.  Anyone can change brakes, starter, alt or even an engine with enough time but very few can diag.  Especially with an independent shop that will see every vehicle made.  An independent shop has to absolutely have the best techs to survive let alone grow.  Hope this helps man.

Amen! it requires the best diagnostic skills and they must be on point every single day, every single job. One mistake can wipe out a business in the blink of an eye. Be it reputation, financial or legal mistakes in this field are pretty substantial in the customer's eyes!

 

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[Joe Marconi]

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[ncautoshop]

I am going to throw you a curve ball.  While I am a master tech, and achived that by an early age, it was my commitment to learning about business that made the real difference.  Being a mechanic and knowing about cars will only get you so far. In fact, if you dont have the right people around and if you don't have the skills of running a business, you will find it very hard to run a business.

 

The skills of running a business are vaslty different than the skills of repairing cars.  Being a great mechanic actually held me back, early on.  I loved cars, I still do, it is my passion too.  But, once you commit to starting a business, you need to understand that you are now a business owner, and your commitment is to running the business.

 

My advice, learn all you can about buisiness, in addition to learning about cars.

 

I hope this helps...Good Luck!

The EMyth!

 

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[ScottyP]

The EMyth!

 

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Great book! Definitely pick up a copy and read it.

[mspecperformance]

if you are the only tech at your future shop and have no diag skills, don't open a shop. You would be doing the auto service a serious injustice and add to the already big problem of sub par shops and parts changers that drag our industry down.

 

Now of course if you are going to tech school, learn as much as you can. Try to work at a indy and dealer if possible so you can see how both sides live. At the end of it all if you still want to open your shop then roll out the check book and find a spot to pitch your tent!

[mccannable]

I am a huge fan of the E-myth as well. I am not a "tech" but I am far from ignorant on auto repairs. If owning a business is your goal I would focus on learning small business management and accounting, That is what I spent the past couple of years doing at my local community collage.

[CARMandP]

I agree strongly with what was mentioned above. I had 13 yrs tech experience before I started my own shop and I WAS NOT prepared for the business side and I still struggle greatly with that 6 yrs later. I would strongly recommend learning how the business should be run as well as working on cars.

[mmotley]

Yup^^^^ I was a tech for years, and I thought all I needed to do was buy my own lift, rent a shop, and roll my toolbox inside... Turns out, that's not half the story of an auto repair shop. Something can really be said for working at another Indy though! You can learn a lot of their procedures and processes.

[ncsvoboda7]

Here's another curveball for all of you. I am in the same boat just on the flip side, I have tons of business experience and knowledge including quite a bit in the automotive industry but I lack an in depth knowledge of automotive technology. How do you deal with this situation?

 

I am currently in the planning stage of opening a shop was planning to simply hire a master mechanic.

[phynny]

Here's another curveball for all of you. I am in the same boat just on the flip side, I have tons of business experience and knowledge including quite a bit in the automotive industry but I lack an in depth knowledge of automotive technology. How do you deal with this situation?

 

I am currently in the planning stage of opening a shop was planning to simply hire a master mechanic.

you don't. Unless you are going to be a brake shop, tire shop, exhaust shop etc. this really isn't a kind industry to thoughts that aren't of the industry. Why chose a repair shop when there are so many owner friendly businesses out there?

[ncsvoboda7]

you don't. Unless you are going to be a brake shop, tire shop, exhaust shop etc. this really isn't a kind industry to thoughts that aren't of the industry. Why chose a repair shop when there are so many owner friendly businesses out there?

What are some of those businesses?

[xrac]

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[Sean]

Get some auto specific training by working. Alternatively there are resources such as elite worldwide trainings that can be had for little money. Check out the www.aaec.ca online elearning and or read everything you can ge your hands on by bob greenwood and others like joe the site founder here and writer for ratchet and wrench. Read motor magazine archives etc there is a ton of info online. Also customer link has a blog as does elite worldwide. One way to get educated on repair stuff, specifically drivability,

at home on YouTube is scanner danner he also has an ebook

 

Here are some links:

http://www.aaec.ca/newsite/elearning.cf

 

http://www.ratchetandwrench.com/

 

http://www.eliteworldwidestore.com/blog/

 

 

http://m.youtube.com/user/ScannerDanner

 

http://www.autosphere.ca/carcarebusiness/category/greenwoods-blog/

 

 

http://www.customerlink.com/auto-repair-marketing-blog/

Edited April 17, 2014 by Sean

[OngiriAutomotive]

All the sites recommended by Sean are excellent! thank you for the links!

[Sean]

All the sites recommended by Sean are excellent! thank you for the links!

Thanks for the kind words and welcome to the forum. Here are a few more good ones:

 

http://m.searchautoparts.com/motorage

 

http://www.motor.com/articles.asp

 

If you haven't joined iatn and are thinking of opening a shop or currently have a shop it is a wealth of knowledge:

 

http://www.iatn.net/

 

Albin Moore is a good author:

http://m.searchautoparts.com/search/apachesolr_search/Albin%20Moore

 

Don't forget to have a look at gonzos stuff as well

Edited April 23, 2014 by Sean

[Dee1234]

I can understand your position. I started a shop before knowing much about cars. Mistake! Unless you have lots of capital. Even hiring a master tech is no guarantee. Many techs will take advantage of the fact that you don't know about cars:try to have you sell unnecessary repairs so they make more money, fix things on their own time with no urgency because they are the only tech in shop. May be good idea to partner with someone who is a tech so there is a vested interest in business succeeding.