Just starting out

January 15, 2013

Hello all. I'm new to the board. I am in the process of opening my own business. I would not consider myself a tinter...yet. I have tinted a few dozen cars over the last 2 years for another shop and I do good work with minimal material waste- I just take a good 3-4 hours to do an average sedan. I've worked 80+ hours per week over 2 jobs for most of the last 10 years and I am tired of killing myself to build someone else's dream. I thought it time to work myself into the ground for me and my family. So I am jumping out on a limb and I have chartered an LLC. I plan to do jobs out of my garage as an extra income source while I continue one of my full time jobs for the time being. Hopefully I'll eventually have enough business to be self sustained and then one day have a store front. I'm a union electrician by trade as well as 13 years of experience with custom car audio install, fiberglass enclosures, remote car starters, mobile video, ect. I also have done home theater installs, home automation, home security, and some networking/low voltage professionally and a lot of mechanical work and rebuilds. Instead of opening a 'jack of all trades' type business though, I wanted to focus on tint. Personally I'd rather have an expert in one field work on my __________ than someone that knows a little about everything, so I'm carrying that idea forward that I want to be a tinter and supplement the remote starts and other skills during downtime. I have found this site most informative about everything from tint brands and best practices to marketing strategies and for that I commend you. My (long winded) question here is- what would you do/ recommend to get those first customers in and to get my name out there? What are the absolute must do's? Realistically I'd like to start with 2-3 cars/ week and move up to as much as I can handle. I have my install bay (garage) prepped, have all my tools and chemicals, and should have my first order of tint within the next two weeks. Lastly, I have to be careful how I advertise as my business is a direct conflict of interest with my employer. Now before you get the idea that I am stepping on someone's toes- I am NOT stealing business from friends that have got me started in tint. In fact, some friends of mine that own another shop are the ones placing my initial order as I am still waiting on my state tax id number. The conflict is that a certain big box store that I work for decided that they would like to try their hand (or mine) at window tinting, and I have no qualms "competing" with them. Thanks for reading my Hemmingway and any input/ advice you have

TintJunkie · January 15, 2013

This is just my opinion, using my experience getting started in the tint world...

I worked for other people doing automotive for about 5 years before I put my foot in the water...somewhat. I made sure my face and name was present with tinting someones vehicle when I felt comfortable that the job would be done right. I did side work all the time, but it was difficult to do because I had to be careful and ethical not to bite the hand that fed me. I eventually was able to get people to ask for me personally to do the work. After some time, I had a reputation. When I left and started on my own, people knew me, and with a little help, they could find me. I had to build relationships with others who did alarms and custom audio stuff to pass my name along. I still have people that I tinted a vehicle for in 2001 call me.

Obviously, you cant do it that way, but you have to remember that every car is different, and working for someone who is established doing all types of vehicles will leap frog your experience. You will have a disadvantage starting the way you hope to because you need a reputation to build on that you dont have yet. It will take years to receive any reputation until you have a mental image of any window in any vehicle someone is asking to get done, and know how to do it, and do it well.

Im not discouraging you. You may want to consider going through a tinting course, or at the very least purchasing a tinting training DVD. Stan Foster is the best in our industry for this, and he may even say to take baby steps even after taking his course. Its far easier to tint a 2013 vehicle that is hard to tint, than a 20 year old Honda Civic thats easy to tint.

Friends and neighbors with lots of pictures and testimonials cant hurt...

gospeed3go · January 15, 2013

I still wonder why I thought tinting would be a good career move.

January 15, 2013

Thanks for your input TintJunkie. I believe I'm a little past tint school though. I'm not one of those guys that watched a youtube video once and said "Hey, I wanna do that!" Tinting is a skill I've been hungry for for several years and I've finally had the chance to learn over the last two years both from several co-workers whom did go to tinting school (company paid while I was working like a Hebrew Slave at my other ft job......) and from a friend that is very successful here in KC that has been tinting 25+ years. It still amazes me to watch someone knock out an entire car in 45 min to an hour. As far as visualizing windows- I can. I work on cars for a living. Can I tint any vehicle out there? Of course not, and that's why I said I don't consider myself a tinter yet. There are 3 other great tint shops within 10 miles of me and all are friends of mine. I probably could go work for one and I have no doubt it would leapfrog my experience, but then when the time came that'd be kind of a slap in the face to compete with them being so close in proximity. That's the same reason I am asking for opinions on here. I have people I could just call or swing by and pick their brain, but I really think that'd be a d**k move.

Ryker · January 16, 2013

So, instead of working with someone for a while then going out on your own you just want to go out and "slap them" right off.... and you don't want to ask them for advice instead you want to come on here and ask all of us.....really what is the difference other than we, Tintduders, are not right there beside you???

January 17, 2013

All the difference in the world, Ryker. I'm probably not going to hurt your business any when you're in IL and I'm in Missouri. So a guy like you could safely say "here's how I get business and here's how much I charge" and it really won't affect you. The shops here it may affect, especially during the winter months. They all know what I'm doing, but I still refuse to pick their brains just to compete. If someone came to me and said "teach me to install remote starts, give me your business plan, and then order my product so I can compete with you".....well I wouldn't be nearly as helpful as my friends have been to me. Everybody starts somewhere. What, I didn't earn my stripes because I didn't start by cleaning windows and prepping cars for a tinter? BS. I learn extremely fast. The skills aren't my concern- marketing strategies are

coast2coasttinting · January 17, 2013

I'm sure with that attitude you will make a great tinter someday. :facepalm

January 18, 2013

Hey, I came here humble with a legitimate request for advice from people that have been there. If I wanted a smartass answer I'd talk to myself. Every one of you is in this position because you wanted to master a specific skill. I wouldn't be trying to make this work if I wasn't confident my work is as good as anyone else's. The only thing I lack is experience, and that will come with time. Might as well make some money in the meantime as this can be a hugely profitable market. Myself and one other installer bring an average of $15k a month in labor to my current install bay. I'd be happy to do 10% of that on my own. All I asked for was tried and true methods to bring that home

Porsche951 · January 31, 2013

Here's my story. I worked as a computer technician that loves cars and can do pretty much anything to a car. Tried to tint my car. Realized it was about the only thing I couldn't do myself and I hate that. I decided I wanted to own a business and figured since I couldn't tint worth a crap id try to learn. Ordered some tint and watched lots of videos, got stans dvds and tinted friends cars out of my garage. I took my time and did pretty decent work for just starting and obviously didn't make any money..but I slowly built a reputation. It was never meant to be a full time job. Well I got too busy, and last december got a shop because too many people were coming to mty house. Now im full time and making a good living and I absolutely love it. Now, how did I do it? The biggest thing is to be your biggest critic. I can't tell you how much film I ripped off in the beginning for a few specks someone would never see. But because of that I trained myself to do good quality work and people talk. Second, be professional. For some reason the tint industry has a reputation for being shady and unprofessional. Make sure you don't fit into that category. Third, facebook. Facebook is free advertising that gets me tons of business. Someone buys a new car and posts a pic, comment and tell them it would look great with tint etc. As well as establishing a good facebook page updated at a minimum of a few times a week. Take pics of everything and post. I've had people tell me that the reason they decided to get tint was because they saw a pic of their make and model in the same color and it looked awesome.