New Business

April 4, 2009

Looking for advise on a few things, Considering starting a small business starting out as a mobile window tinting until the opportunity presents itself to get a shop, this will be for my son while he is going to college and work part time while in school.

He has no experience in window tinting but loves to work on cars.

Obviously hands on training is the best but other than that what do you think would be the best training method, I have read some of the articles on training on this page and I also did window tinting when I was his age but nothing comes close to hands on, does the video's on you tube work ? do any of you know a window tinting class that might be in houston ?

Products : how do you go about setting up a product line and which ones should we stay away from

Are the product lines like most of everything else is that they have one rep in that city that can sale or install the specific product say for example 3M , is only 1 shop in town allowed to install that brand, can you have more than one brand ?

is one product better than the other ?

what do the mobile tinters usually charge for traveling, is there a specific added amount to be mobile for example my Yukon cost me <x amount> to tint is there say <25 less than x amount> add to be mobile ? just looking for idea's

As far as the mobile vehicle do mobile tinters usually work our of a Box van with the tint securely attached in the Box Van ?

I plan on advertising for him on local radio stations for mobile tinting so I expect to start getting customers right away I just need to have everything in place before Add 1 goes out

Yes there is a selfish part about this, if this works it allows him to move out and get his own place quicker and pay for his own car and gas

May 5, 2009

Looking for advise on a few things, Considering starting a small business starting out as a mobile window tinting until the opportunity presents itself to get a shop, this will be for my son while he is going to college and work part time while in school.
He has no experience in window tinting but loves to work on cars.

Obviously hands on training is the best but other than that what do you think would be the best training method, I have read some of the articles on training on this page and I also did window tinting when I was his age but nothing comes close to hands on, does the video's on you tube work ? do any of you know a window tinting class that might be in houston ?

Products : how do you go about setting up a product line and which ones should we stay away from

Are the product lines like most of everything else is that they have one rep in that city that can sale or install the specific product say for example 3M , is only 1 shop in town allowed to install that brand, can you have more than one brand ?

is one product better than the other ?

what do the mobile tinters usually charge for traveling, is there a specific added amount to be mobile for example my Yukon cost me <x amount> to tint is there say <25 less than x amount> add to be mobile ? just looking for idea's

As far as the mobile vehicle do mobile tinters usually work our of a Box van with the tint securely attached in the Box Van ?

I plan on advertising for him on local radio stations for mobile tinting so I expect to start getting customers right away I just need to have everything in place before Add 1 goes out

Yes there is a selfish part about this, if this works it allows him to move out and get his own place quicker and pay for his own car and gas

oh man where to start where to start.

1. the best teaching is hands on, period. Get a set of stans DVDs(autowindowtinting.com) their very good, and will show you all the basics. Then get yourself some decent quality film and go out and practice. You could use cheap film, but cheap film shrinks a lot easier than good film, so really in the end it won't do a whole lot of good to master using a 1 ply film when you're going to be installing 2 ply all day. Expect to burn through $5-600 in film to just get the basics down enough that you can go out and start tinting and making some money at it.

2. Film line is all personal. As for a limit on how many shops in each town, generally its not really limited. Some companies, like 3M, do, but most don't. Personally I would suggest using a good quality film from the get go, because you don't want your first cars coming back in a year or two because you decided to use crappy film to save money. I use Globals QDP as my main line, and love everything about it. Its relatively low on the price scale for a quality film, but being a vertically integrated company they can keep their costs down.

3. I'm strictly mobile, and I don't charge for the travel time. Scheduling plays a big part in it. Often ill drive 1hr+ for a job, but Ill schedule two cars in close vicinity on the same day. My saturn gets ~37 in the city, so fuel costs are not my main concern. Another local company will do the first 25 miles free, then after that they charge like $.50 a mile. That part is completely up to you.

4. Vehicles. Again, I drive a 02 saturn sl1, and just put my film boxes in the trunk and my tool box and corny tank in the backseat. Theres no need to have the film securely attached or anything, since its relatively durable when its in the boxes. Signage is a big thing with your car when your mobile. Spend the money and have professional signs put on it, and it will really make you stand out. Depending on the vehicle you have will determine what you can do with it. On my car I have a front and rear windshield banner, and then AUTO-COMMERCIAL-RESIDENTIAL on the bottoms of the side all along it. Its simple, white on a black car but is very eye catching.

5. Have you checked into how much it costs for prime time ads on a local radio station? :lol2 Expect to spend THOUSANDS of dollars for a short 5-10 second clip on a big station. Then you have production costs, etc, etc and in the end its not worth it. Look into creating a professional Craigslist ad, and it will draw you tons of business for free. 50% of my gross business is directly from Craigslist, and its all completely free. Make your ad stand out from the competition, and you will get more calls because of it.

The biggest thing is DO NOT start working on customers cars right away. I know you may have read that this industry has easy money and high profits, and its true, but its also not nearly as easy as it looks. Like I said before, expect to spend a MINIMUM of $500 on film just to practice with with the expectation that you will be throwing it away when done. Find as many friends cars as you can do for free to try working on all types of different cars. If you start out doing sh**ty jobs word will get out and you will not get anymore business. Read EVERY SINGLE POST on this site, along with him and you will learn a ton about the dos and don'ts of this industry.