Car repair services are valuable business staples in the community because of the assistance they provide to hundreds of car owners in a single area. These are the types of business that you’ll see everywhere because of the scores of potential customers lining up to get their cars fixed or maintained. But, you might still be in doubt if one of these is actually a profitable and sustainable business.
This article contains insights that’ll help you decide if a car repair service is your business for you. Read on!
How Is Owning A Car Repair Service Business Beneficial?
There are many advantages to owning this kind of business. Primarily, you’ll be the owner, and that gives you time and freedom. Car repair shops are mostly in operation during weekdays. Sometimes, at weekends, they’ll be open only half a day, either on Saturday or Sunday, but that’ll depend on you. You need to balance your work and home life, and have enough time to pursue personal interests as well.
A car repair shop has the potential to be lucrative, especially during an economic improvement when people can afford to buy a vehicle. It’ll be at this time when you’ll need to improve your auto repair marketing strategies. Furthermore, it’s also one of the few businesses that aren’t threatened by the growing popularity of ecommerce because cars will always need tuning and fixing at a physical shop.
What Are Factors That Make Car Repair Shops Profitable?
- Hiring Skilled Labor
The service quality will depend on the expertise and experience of your workers. You can attract skillful people by offering competitive wages. If you need an idea on how much to pay by the hour, you can search classified ads to find out.
You have the option of hiring inexperienced workers if there are budget issues, but if you want the business to grow, you need to put in money for their training. When employees are skilled and knowledgeable, the turnaround time improves, and they make less errors. If you’re not sure how to hire skilled mechanics, you might also consider hiring services to find the best ones for your business.
You can set the base price for their wages depending on the timeline of task completion. See how long they can complete a break replacement and a coolant flush. When you have timelines, you’ll be able to compress the charges in labor and bill customers by the hour separately. The customers will keep coming back when your estimates are accurate.
- Making The Most Out Of Your Scheduling
Remember that to make a profit, there has to be a balance between the people who work for you and the amount of work you can take on. More people mean you’ll lose money, and more work than your team can handle means you’ll have to turn away jobs. But, you get to keep more profit at the end of the day. Try to imagine various scenarios your shop can experience to prepare your team better ahead of time.
To help you with proper scheduling work, you can choose scheduling software systems offered by tech developers online. Choose one by basing it on the following:
- Can you communicate with your customers with it?
- Is it cloud-based?
- Can you add customers to the calendar?
- Does it include a feature where you can track car repair notes?
- Can you integrate it with other systems?
- Is it supported by a reliable customer success team?
Once you’re done choosing scheduling software, you can start monitoring the type of work being currently done in the shop and which people are working on whose car. The proper scheduling system will help you avoid micro-managing the team and interruption while they work. It not only helps with assigning time for as tasks, but also looking into the progress of your team and delegating regular or prioritizing work.
- Tracking Expenditures
How much your expenses end up will depend on how much of the budget is used to buy consumable materials, tools, and how much work is lost. It’s important to keep the expenses low because these are one of the dominant factors of profitability. Aside from buying what you need to get the work done, you also need to set aside for insurance, mortgage, and more.
You can skip the rental fees if you already have a property of your own, but it’s a different story when you still need to buy a place for your car repair shop. It’ll eat up a large chunk of your capital. Apart from that, you’re likely to lease equipment or find financing to get the best equipment options. It’s best to keep track of your expenses to ensure that you’re also making a profit.
In Conclusion
There are more factors that can affect the profitability of a car repair services shop. But, the ones mentioned are the most common. Most shops can reach a profitability margin of up to 20% and more if the business owner can somehow find ways to supplement that income, like offering products to car owners. Profitability can still be achieved with proper management and learning how to be flexible when changes have to be made.
