Well, until recently I have kept the mobile lube service pretty much limited to my Amsoil customers. If they bought Amsoil I would come and change their oil for a small fee.
It has grown a bit since I started offering that and has brought in a several customers. With talking with the people I did the work for it was increasingly evident that I needed to do more with the Mobile Lube Service. Part of the problem has been that I work full time and I didnt want to put out the service and then say I can only show up on these days, though I have had many customers tell me that just coming to them would be worth the wait for them.
Well one of my dealers that is signed up under me has partnered with me and we're going to make a go of this. This guy is a very dear friend of mine, was my pastor at one point and I taught in his church. He has had a great interest in the mobile lube service and as we got to talking we decided to put something together.
We've been talking with a couple of fleet owners that could amount to about 450 vehicles to service, diesel and gas engines if we can snag the accounts. One of the fleets we can save a bundle of money on maintenance and Im pretty certain we can land. I think we will ultimately add in one more package that is just a petroleum oil option for those that do not want to run synthetics (cant imagine why though as the prices are very competitive). Im working on some diesel packages as well. A new member to TF has been helping me out with getting things worded correctly (AZMike) and has provided a great deal of insight to things I didnt consider initially.
Check out the link below and you can see what we are offering at this time.
If you can land said fleet(s) is the intention to quit your job and make this your fulltime gig (sorry, I'm slow!)?
If so, I wish you the best of luck! Well, I'll wish that for you anyway, how about that? It sounds like a great idea and if the customers you have now are that pleased I'm sure once others get word of you they will feel the same way.
lil duratec wrote: Nice site, easy to navigate, looks clean.
If you can land said fleet(s) is the intention to quit your job and make this your fulltime gig (sorry, I'm slow!)?
If so, I wish you the best of luck! Well, I'll wish that for you anyway, how about that? It sounds like a great idea and if the customers you have now are that pleased I'm sure once others get word of you they will feel the same way.
Keep us posted!
I haven't decided yet whether or not I would quit my current job. I have a good job with great pay and excellent benefits. That being so, however, I dont want to retire here. If there were a way where I could work here enough to maintain the benefits and still work the business I would do that. As it is I dont think that will happen. I aint above getting a part time job at McDonalds if I have to just to have benefits, at least that way I would have a really flexible schedule and still be able to do what I need to with the business.
That being said, I did a cost analysis and I would only have to do about 10 oil changes a day to maintain my current income level. Even if they took me 30 minutes each to complete that would mean working only 5hrs a day vs. the 8 hours a day I do now. Im pretty sure that I can get each one done in about 15 minutes, so that would amount to roughly 2-1/2 hours of work so I could handle a load up to about 25 per day if needed and still probably work somewhere part time for benefits. But if I could do 25 per day that would more than double my income and I probably wouldnt have need to work anywhere for benefits.
The business model is sound. Im probably going to file for an LLC at the first of the year and move the liability away from me personally at which point I will get what is known as garage keepers insurance which will only run me about $700/yr I can take out ads on the local cable provider on their advertising channel for less than $20/wk, there is an Amsoil distrubution center just a few hours a way so I wouldnt have to pay for shipping on all the product which improves the profit margin even further and none of my cost analysis takes into account commissions from Amsoil which at even 10 cars a day I would be near or in the top tier level of commissions.
So its all a doable thing, I just gotta push it a little more and start growing the service more.
____________________ My car is a synner! It uses Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants.
2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
It whines a lot, but I like it
Mr. Versatile wrote: Good job! Break a leg out there.
Mr. V. You once mentioned to me about the convertable Beetle and its difficulty in changing the oil. Was it the oil drain plug that was hard to get to or the oil filter itself. I want to get a list of those 'hard to do' vehicles so I can schedule them accordingly.
____________________ My car is a synner! It uses Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants.
2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
It whines a lot, but I like it
SyntheticShield wrote: Mr. Versatile wrote: Good job! Break a leg out there.
Mr. V. You once mentioned to me about the convertable Beetle and its difficulty in changing the oil. Was it the oil drain plug that was hard to get to or the oil filter itself. I want to get a list of those 'hard to do' vehicles so I can schedule them accordingly. The filter isn't easy, but you can get it. The drain plug...my advise is to give up now. Maybe get a job selling shoes or something.
____________________ If you can't read this, you're illiterate.
ROFL. Well if its the drain plug thats impossible to get to, Im okay. I dont have to get to the drain plug to change the oil, so Im in good shape there.
____________________ My car is a synner! It uses Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants.
2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
It whines a lot, but I like it
What's the latest? How is this going for you? Is this based on an original business plan or are you all original here? Just wondering, seems like something that I could enjoy doing myself.
Tim
____________________ WTB...My old post count/sign up date....waaah!
Sorry for the missed posts here. I have begun ordering equipment to make the mobile lube services easier such as oil extractors and used oil containers. Im also looking at some vehicles but I may just use the GTP for now. After all, whats more impressive the plain white truck with some business stickers on it or a modified GTP that sounds cool, and has some external stuff done to make it stand out? I often have customers comment on the GTP and want to see what I have done. Its time consuming at first, but once they have seen it I often hear amont other things "You are the first car guy that has done work on my car that actually has a clean car and clean engine bay". Thats speaks volumes to the customers because if you are taking care of your own stuff, they feel more comfortable that you'll take care of theirs.
So I try to keep the car as clean as I can and the engine bay spotless and I highlight all the Amsoil stuff I use and I carry my oil analysis reports with me. I point out the Amsoil air filter, the Dual remote by-pass unit, the window sticker that shows I got 14k miles on my oil and its still going strong supported by oil analysis results. I point out the Amosoil ATF. I point out documented fuel mileag gains before and after Amsoil.
I dont just sell the stuff, I USE it and use it wherever I can. If I had grease fittings Id show them Amsoil synthetic grease. I have leather interior and use Amsoil Leather cleaner and Leather protectant. And if I didnt sell the stuff I would still use it. I dont use it to impress the customers, I use it because the products impress me and have since the early 90's and I pass those impressions on to my customers and its easy to do when you use the products for the right reasons, it shows and the customers can tell.
So all that just to say that I may just use the GTP as my business vehicle. It has PLENTLY of trunk room to store all the product and used oil containers. Ive carried product to do a vehicle from front to rear (oil, transmission, rear end, air filter, etc) along with used oil containers, floor jack, tools, etc. So room isnt an issue and the appearance is good for business.
I started work on the incorporation and in the process ran across an even better deal and have temporarily put things on that front on hold while I sort out the legalities and which is going to offer the best tax advantage and business protection. Im also close to deploying a revamped website where people will be able to order products on line and mobile lube services. I dont have an exact time frame as to when that will be complete other than to say Im close, but Amsoil is deploying new products and as they do that I have to change the site and its a bit more involved with the eCommerce solution.
Im also in the process of adding some more mods to the car. Im getting ready to add 1.9 ratio roller rockers from CompCams, new CompCam springs and retainers and some beefed up push rods and then I'll have a tuner to get everthing working together well. The good thing about this is that I can put it under the umbrella of the business.
Once I get that done I have a new set of headers. Once I have them ported and polished and coated I'll slap those on. After thats done I'll slap on a smaller S/C pulley and then focus on an intercooler.
Im also working on trying to land two fleet accounts that would total about 500 vehicles to maintain, mostly diesel vehicles, so you know the insane amount of oil they hold. Its in the works but no word yet on whether or not I'll be doing the work yet.
When it starts to get warmer, I got some advertising lined up. I could start now but I think it better to wait until it starts getting warmer when people are thinking more about having their cars serviced.
So I got several things going on, I got a plan but as with plans they are subject to change. I lay out on paper this should only take two weeks for instance only to find out its going to take a month, so while I stay on plan in structure, I get off track time wise, but thats fine too I want all this done right so the business is protected.
So thats where I stand so far. Ive accomplished a little here and there but still got a fair amount of work to do. Its a process, Im learning, that you may want done right this instant but the wise thing to do is to take the time to make sure its the right way to proceed and consider carefully all the options.
____________________ My car is a synner! It uses Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants.
2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
It whines a lot, but I like it
