Tips on aquiring dealerships.

[Midtown Houston]

Do FLAG HOURS.........so if you finished a car early....you get paid more per hour...

 

All Dealership do flag hours on installer in Houston.

[WearTheFoxHat]

Step One ....Win the Powerball

 

 

Step 2 buy all the dealerships you want..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

:lol

[Toronto Guy]

It also depends on what restrictive covenants are in your employment contract. If you look at it from an employers point of view its much better to keep a good installer happy and working for him and making him money than setting up in competition.

Have you costed out going it alone?

Shop costs

Insurance costs

advertising, how, where, and how much do you spend

equipment and stock costs

whose software are you going to buy into, do you use one or more

time spent doing the 'back office' work

holiday pay

sick pay

what do you do if there is a lull in the amount of work coming your way or there is too much to cope with, do you take someone on and run the risk of them leaving and setting up in competition with you after you have spent time and money training them...

At the moment you probably finish work at the end of the day and don't much think about work until the following morning. As soon as you start running your own business its on your mind pretty much 24/7.

Not trying to put you off but it's not just a case of putting sticky back plastic on a car and getting paid for it, for me that's the easy bit.

As has been said above, much better to talk to your present employer first.

Steve

I second minty on the 24/7 thing. It'll follow you everywhere. Someone, somewhere, always has an emergency. As long as you can cope, no biggie.

Good luck with your shop. The negative response from your former employer can be used as fuel for the fire. Four years on my own and still going strong thanks to my former employer's decision on how to treat me. It's definitely much better to keep employees happy than lose them over $50/day...

[PPFdistributing]

congrats!

[Ganamanter]

So another update since I've been on my own for a year and a half now. I still follow and lurk the forum, but haven't asked many questions or added any answers. The start was rocky and the economy sucked, but it looks like folks are going back to work and buying vehicles. I'm now working with 8 local dealerships and a couple of bodyshops and pdf outfits, doing about 25 jobs a month. The dealership work payed the bills, but as of the last 4 months retail jobs by word of mouth has eclipsed my dealership work. I'm still the only employee and offer graphic/vinyl services as well. I'd love to hire another installer to keep up, but unless I farm from the competition, I just don't have the time to train someone. Switched over from Durashield to Suntek about a year ago and haven't looked back. Built up an awesome following for custom matte ppf work, and a good reputation for being fair with pricing and great on quality. Thanks to this forum, I haven't made too many mistakes, and still think this was the best decision I've ever made. Thank you all again.

 

One of the more recent matte on gloss projects. Its an oilfield truck so the customer wanted matte throughout the lower section seamed to clear for the upper rest of the vehicle...then pinstriped at the transition. Took a while, but I've heard the Toyota dealership asked him who did the vinyl wrap and were shocked to find it was all ppf.

[minty]

@Ganamanter, looks good fella, do you have any other pictues?

 

Steve

[Ganamanter]

A few. Couple more of the Tacoma before the pinstriping at the seam, and a few from some others where matte film was used for graphics as well as protection. Funny...seems to be only black vehicles. looks decent on red as well.