While this is true from a business point of view..
But if your a Silver-Spoon born rich kid rolling around in a Maserati/Ferrari (or even SUVs, BMW....), would you go to a shop that tunes civics/corollas or a shop that only does high performance?

A shop for serious performance.. not for people who just want to get an exhaust or header done...


maybe during the winter time or offseason, you can do lower end cars or do some car servicing to get some revenue...

i think blitzkrieg's business model works very well. kind of the type of custom fabrication/tuning you guys are talking about. as well as specializing in audi/vw/porsche.

I was thinking Blitzkrieg the whole time.

You have a shop specializing in VAG/BMW/Porsche. Add to that, a skilled fabricator, tuner, VAG, BMW, and Porsche specialists with experience. Not to mention, a veteran with tonnes of track experience and race prep for P-cars.

Lots of cars come in for routine maintenance - old and new. Even the owner said it himself: "These customers are our bread and butter." They have customers who are much older and established who don't mind dropping good coin for the best products. They want to stand out. Why be like everybody else? Blitzkrieg has a market and they picked a good one.

Blitzkrieg rocks.

Ya there are probably special cases, but it doesn't means that you need those special case to survive with your business.

If a shop targets those special cases with little group of people, i will let them deal with it, while I have a bigger pool of fish I can grab. :)

If you are the "only" shop that say "High End Only" then you'll probably survive ok

However, if there is already something like that in town? not possible.

Since "Blitzkrieg" target high end cars, imagine if many more follows will cheaper pricing, now will Blitzkrieg survive? Will "all" the customers stay?

And this relates to OP's question, is there a room for one more shop.

I'm not sure but, I think all RS Vendor or other shop hope to have better and more business, but there are so just many competition. Yes here are cheap people around, me being for one, but its not like I wanted to or they wanted to. If I was super rich, heck for an oil change, i'll pay double or triple. When you are rich, you can throw money like that. But when money is tight, you look for deals and savings. If a business wants customers, they do whatever they can.

The reason why I ask this is because I have been offered the space and equipment to open up a shop.

Our body shop is closing down and we have a very large space, hoists, tools, ect ect that will go unused.
The service shop is thriving but it is more a general service and repair shop, not performance oriented.
Our current customer base is BMW, Mercedes, Audi customers (very high end cars and people who are not afraid of a decent size bill).
I am a Honda lover myself so I would like to find a way to open up to that area of the industry if I were to take these on.

I already have BMW, Mercedes and Audi/VQ factory trained techs. I have 2 guys who are absolutely AMAZING at fabrication and I also have a killer painter as well.

I will be sitting down over the weekend to come up with a business model for this and see if it works. This would not be the only source of income as it is part of a larger shop so seasonal work is ok, as are times when they get slow.

Thanks so much for the input guys, hugely appreciated.

^ do you have access to a paint booth??

I need to use!

If it's going to be a side business for an already established, thriving shop, it may be worth pursuing. The thing is, however, what sort of clientele you already have? You say you get a lot of high end cars, but who are the owners? Are they the typical business, mid-40's types who just want a luxury car to drive and don't care about anything else? Or do you have customers who seem interested in modifying them? It's one thing to service an M5 to an existing cutsomer, but it's another to try and upsell the owner a chip reflash and a free flow exhaust to the same guy.

Just a thought.

That said, if you guys decide to liquidate the hardware in the bodyshop, let me know... I want a hoist! :D

If you already have a successful business and plan on adding the performance side of life to the existing business then I think you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

From your original post you sounded like you were starting from scratch and focussing strictly on performance. Really nothing has to change other then adding a few new suppliers to your list and maybe marketing your business differently.

But cheaper doesn't mean better.

If I setup shop across the street from Blitzkrieg and offered labour at $65/hr but all I did was a hack job, how do you think I'm going to survive? Logically, where will those customers end up going back to?

Such clientele don't do absurd things like going to competitor XYZ because they are cheaper. You have a shop that takes good care of you and knows your car inside and out. Why take it to Joe Blow and risk nightmares?

instead of being cheaper i think it would be better if you allowed costumers to pay a certain amount of money every month

Thats what credit cards are for.
I'm not in the business of handing out credit to people to have to deal with the hassle of trying to collect later.
Not interested in doing business with people who can not afford to pay to build/fix there vehicles.

The way it works now (and will continue to work) is if you cant pay your bill you don't get your car back.

On that note, if you cant afford to pay for the mods you are doing to your car then maybe a re-think of your priorities is in order....

The idea is sound, but unfortunately there will always be people who can not bay there bill and I do not want to deal with that.

I just don't get this "I'm going to tailor to high end" shit.

I don't know jack about the performance shop business...but I'm pretty good at guessing a balance sheet.

I do know renos. I can tell you that I didn't get to start my first day and say "$5 million houses only". I had no cred. I had to work a shitload of crap ass places for money that made baby jesus cry before I got a taste for real addresses. And then have the owner of said address tear you a new one because it wasn't up to their expectation. Fun day at work. Once I have a picture of me standing in front of the view from my first penthouse off stanley park just thrown without a care into the portfolio pictures, then it makes it easy to grab the next one.

You need a pile of work sitting there before you get to say "no thanks. I want to say I'm too good for you, but don't want to be an asshole."

It's simple, you don't target anyone directly, but if you can't afford the work you go somewhere else.

This whole idea is to use space and equipment I already have to offer a service. It's not a need, more of a want for myself.
I have the service side of things covered already, no need for any of that. We are a mainly Euro shop with a few exceptions, but we do not have any lower end cars come in because of the price. If people are looking for deals or such we just send them to other local shops.

We have enough work to be able to do this and focus on what we are food at and can do well. Our business is very focused. By doing this we are able to offer a better experience for our customers because of our knowledge on the vehicles they bring us.

What we would open here is a performance shop....not a service shop as we already have that.

^
I think what everyone is getting at is that you're giving off the vibes that you're already planning for Step Z, when you have yet to accomplish Step A, B, C, D and so forth.

I mean, yes you already have a shop that does car maintenance but you're also just looking to branch out for performance modding and already you're gunning for market's cream-of-the-crop clientele when you have yet to either work on, build a brand, gain a reputation, on even the lower spectrum of the market scale.

I mean, I wish all the luck to ya but so far what I can observe in your business plan is: you're already refusing business that you don't even have yet in the first place.



I think what Gridlock is saying is: It doesn't matter if you have a maintenance shop already. When you step into the business of performance modding, you still have to earn your way up. Just because your goal is on Step Z doesn't mean you can just gun straight for it and ignore the preceding steps before it.

Up to this point we have done a lot of performance work for our customers already. I just want a clear divider between the service ad performance side of things.

Our current clientele is already very high end and they are willing to spend the money (many have already).
But I hear what you guys are saying. Definitely will take that into consideration.

By a lot you mean, you have enough to sustain the "performance" side of the business independently from the "maintenance" side of the business?

Because, by "a lot" means you should be turning away work. "Enough" means you have just enough work to for the "performance" business to sustain itself.



Or maybe are you just looking to have an "performance" service just as an auxiliary income to your current one?


I ask this because in an auxiliary setting? Then yes, you can afford to be picky, and turn away business. As Cman333 already said, if this was your intention, then you have everything to gain and nothing really to lose.

If however, you're looking for it to sustain itself, and be independent, then I think that's where everyone here is not understanding your current business model.

i dont see the problem of going for high end vehicles.(without starting on cheaper cars)

its not like your customers worked their way up from a Civic to a Ferrari, and hit every level of car shop on the way.

no one is going to drive their exotic into a shop who parking lot is littered with aluminum wings.

and as Boosted said, his prices are at a point that budget minded customers will look elsewhere. he doesnt NEED more buisness, he wants to explore his interests and make a few $ on the side never hurts.

if your showroom is filled with high end parts, instead of Rota or taiwanese anodized crap, it makes a big impact.

obviously doing all kinds of vehicles is best, but not financially viable. the enormous amount of stock you have to keep is ridiculous. thats all $ stuck doing nothing.

Thats the worst idea i've ever heard,

have you met vancouverites lately?

no one owns up to anything around here, let alone payments to a car shop

Offering credit 'can' be done. A friend of mine works on getting money for those that have difficulty in getting money.

And he is usually successful. You can find people that will hand out the money...you just may not always like the interest rate. How badly did you need that again?

But I wouldn't touch this idea with a 10 foot pole. You will spend more time fucking around with credit than anything else. The Brick is a credit store, with comfy sofas. The idea can and has been done. To the point that I think if you walked into the brick, with cash, they'd look at your alien ass and call Will Smith.

I prefer the idea of...you pay me, or I keep your car.

Or...you can pay me, or I slap a lien on your house. Peace! Thankfully, I've never had to say that line.

or how about just not getting the work done if you cant fuckin afford it?

why do people do that shit? il never get it.

a guy tried to get me to re-tune his car not too long ago, and he asked me if I could take the money in installments,

wtf? no, im not a fuckin charity, beat it

In God We Trust, all others pay cash. best policy.

no money, no work. that's what credit cards are for.

no credit card? well, time to find a cheaper hobby.

I think offering credit could work for those who receive a monthly allowance from their parents, or whoever. Say the customer wants to spend $50k on their car and pay like $10k per month. Get that interest rate into double digits and then put a lien on the car(assuming they own it). Or better, put a GPS tracking device in the car. Customer misses a payment, snatch the car. It's still pretty high risk though.

That's a lot of effort. I prefer...cash, or we aren't as kind taking it back out as we were putting it in.

Cash is king.