Need some Ideas

Mac18

Hi, I just joined this site and I`ve been reading alot of the posts. I live in louisiana and I work for a small auto repair company. I`ve done this for almost ten years now and I`m tired of working for someone else. I have experience managing a retail store also and I am an certified mechanic. Me and a friend of mine want to start our own automobile service center. The Idea that we have is to not only take care of normal cars and trucks doing oil changes, tires, and preventive maintenance, but also 18-wheeler Tires, oil and light repair. There is a serious lack of heavy truck shops in the area where I live and our goal is to address this and hopefully bring in the local trucking companies as our customers.
We have the mechanical experience to make it work and both of us know well trained people that would work for us. Any Ideas on how to get start up funding would be great. We have located a good property that is right off the interstate and has a high traffic volume. It is easily accesible for both domestic vehicles and big trucks. Also I have been trying to find measurements on the Ideal size of land that we would need. The property that we found is huge (12acres) and the owner is willing to sell part of it instead of the whole thing.
The shop we want to build will consist of 2 oil changing lines for domestic vehicles which would hold 4 cars/trucks at a time also 4 mechanic/tire bays and 2 lanes for 18wheelers.
If anyone is currently running a diesel shop or a lube center and can give me an idea on a lot size please reply. Any other Ideas would be appreciated.

marla

I am part of a company by the name of FDP Financial Solutions we work with a wide variety of funding programs.  Our minimum funding request starts at $100K.  No maximum.  Some of our programs include the following: *Commercial Real Estate Funding *Equipment Leasing and Financing *Purchase Order and Accounts Receivable Financing *Programs for Developers and Builders *Small Business and Startup Funding *Hard Money *Venture Capital *Notes *Foreclosure Bailouts *Other Special Programs   For more information visit:  www.secondchancetofinance.com/m.giddens</A> or contact me today.
Marla R. Giddens
Managing Director
FDP Financial Solutions
609-882-1456
e-mail: [email protected]marla2006-9-18 21:28:48

rosniak

I think that such a substancial investment up front would be a bit intimidating. If you are pursuing commercial fleets, maybe you would be better served to invest in a moble set up and go to the customer. I have experience with vehicle service, and nothing sells service better than working around the customer`s schedule. You go to them and service their trucks when they are not in use. Most vehicle dependent opperations would gladly pay a premium to avoid any down time!

SnowflakeMan

Hi
Assuming that most large truck emergencies will be handled by roadside recovery teams, it may be worth ensuring your new location is closely situated to the actual depot of the distribution companies rather than near the interstate.
Do some research are the trucking companies using in-house personnel? If so, could you be an overflow when they have too much on as a way to get your foot in the door.
Best of Luck
Lee

OilGuru

I operated a mobile lube service for a couple of years, and I have no complaints, people and business pay well for the convenience. Contact me and lets talk shop.  

paul2145r

If you need any help setting up your business plan, or anything else having to do with the startup paperwork, etc, keep me in mind. I actually have a great model for a maintenance shop that would give you an idea of the information that you`d catch an investor`s eye.