DannyFSA

Ladies and gentlemen... Hello. First post for me lurking always. As I seen it asked at the top of the thread I will give some info. Name: Dan Years in repair business: 9 Dealership background : advisor/manager/director I am looking at a 2 bay shop. It's really basic at best. It's a rental property that the owner of the property cares little about business as he has a massive business. Rent factor is cheap like first day of the month rents paid cheap. Business does apporx 60k in revenue per month with close to 15-20% net to gross. Not sure what the owner takes home to be honest. Sole owner has had the shop for 20+ years. Has rave reviews because of his integrity and willingness to really help people which is what I'm all about. His son and I grew up together and I am as close to family as another guy gets. I need help on the value. His son wants to grow it and knows he can't do it alone because he doesn't know the business all that well. He's the parts hanger and dad's the brains/diag machine. That's where I come in. Son wants me to buy in with him 50/50 and buy dad out so he can go retire. He's broke his back for 30+ year turning wrenches and prior to that was in the military. Reason to sell: retirement Reason to buy: dealerships are a big grind just like owning a business will be but I know this one's a winner. Things to look out for: need ideas Goal first 10y: expand 2 bay into 5/6 right away, capture recon work from small dealers, get dealers license, open 2 or more locations. I have a very proven track record in recruitment, expense control, customer retention, customer CSI, CP labor growth and manufacturer top honors for the largest German importer. I think I know what I'm doing but it's time for a big leap into a business and grow the heck out of it.

Welcome. Noobie here too. I have been in the dealership world for many years. my plan is not to wrench, as i have been on the front of the business for years now. There is plenty of money to be made on good honest work on passenger vehicles. good work, fair price, and respect will have you with an endless amount of work. I'm just south of you and for years a very close family friend has owned a shop for 24 years now, its a little two bay hole in the wall and its just him, his tow kids and wife who run it. They are honest, way to fairly priced, and respect all of their customers.

Hello ladies and gentlemen of the AutoShopOwner community. I am new to this forum but have almost 8 years of professional automotive industry knowledge and know-how. Although new to this forum and progressing toward the ownership of my shop (started the bank process last week) I look forward to flipping though this forum and hopefully making some great friends in the community and learning what I can. I come from Fixed Operations management and have received a couple of accolades from manufacturers (foreign and domestic) and publications. I wont post any public information on this forum until the day I leave my current employment for fear of being terminated by them. This next comment is not to sound cocky or over confident in myself or my ability but I know that they would fear that I would take my pick of their techs, advisors, and a large customer base and for that terminate me at their earliest convenience. added note, if you work for a dealership now I will show you how to put over $100,000 on your gross profit annually without cutting pay or expenses. Not here to advertise that just want to help the world around me. First questions I would have for anyone: lease or purchase a building? Stand alone or row (contiguous)? DMS or invoicing software used? Labor rate (understand that location is a major factor)? Mitchell or Alldata? Bays per Tech? (mechanical) Square footage of shop area? average parts markup in your store? average gross per tech? (1mo) with a wife and two Kids would you leave a good job to chase your dream? What is your google star ranking? How many customer/cars a day? Hours of operation? do you do SEM / SEO? what type of marketing do you do? any other advise? Thank you all, not sure if anyone will play 20 questions but I am really curious of what everyone's opinions. My goal and probably everyones goal is to walk into day 1 with a clear understanding of what needs to happen over the first couple of months to make things happen. If anyone has any questions for me I would be happy to answer them. I understand that I am as novice to the independent world as I could possibly be, I do however know dealership fixed operations very well and am only perusing this as it has been a dream of mine and I need to take this leap of faith to fulfill my personal goals in life. Cheers, good on ya, and lets rock this thing!