Celica Forums General Discussion General opening up a shop

now im looking for shop owners help here my b/f has been selling things online now for about 6 months everything from wheels and tires,body kits any thing that has to do with cars he gets good prices on now hes been taking about getting a shop do you think it would be worth it?i meen hes doing just fine now from home besides the fact we always stuff in our house.Now having a shop i know he'll sell a lot more just from walk ins but at the same time he'll have rent to pay,so what do you think he should do.

well...if you and your bf is well off right now...as in financial wise. I say go for it!!! and since your in the import scene, your shop can be advertised and such, which will bring in more customers and interest.

you should be good. advertise on your car since its one of the nicest cars iive seen. sell a few things from the shop also. you should be good. only problem is if you start to do installs and modifcations on certain cars. cops are cracking down on the owners of shops that do illegal modifications. be careful waht you install but other then that you should be good to go

GOOD LUCK!

i dont think he looking to do installs due to the fact he cant put anything on without braking it he wont even do a oil change on my car.I thinks he looking just to do sales.If he would do install it might just be for wheels and tires.

Werd totally agree with Edy. If you have a great feeling Kat go for it! It's something Leica and I venture to do one day studying how to speak Japanese. hehe you get the idea. Having a small business is great and when you blow up you can expand and have people work under you Like my buddy tom. Advertises his shop all over his car at Sema and on other cars he has sponsored. You can Katch will do great. If it doesn't work out hey atleast it's a learning experience. Have fun with life you only got so many years to do what you trully love to do. We gotcha back girl

well if it is just for sales...i suggest putting up a website or something...cause if you plan on putting up a shop, customer would suspect that you would also do the install as well.

and have a good lawyer ready to stuff the cops should they threaten you with anything.

as in any startup business make sure you have the capital to sustain operations for 4-6 months generating no net income. paid advertising should be included in your budget. most small businesses fail because of lack of capital in the development stage.

VIRGILSON "well if it is just for sales...i suggest putting up a website or something...cause if you plan on putting up a shop, customer would suspect that you would also do the install as well."

This is really true, maybe you should hire someone you know to do installs cause unless i could get a product for much cheaper at your place then id rather go for an all in one bill it makes it a lot easier than to bring the item to a different shop but thats just me

itll be good if he does the installs of the parts himself. labor is good money, and part and labor you give them a better price, and you get profited also.
its really tough nowadays for small businesses to survive, theres so many other places of any job. but it is possible to do successful business. first, advertise the shop on ur car, goto some meets and let everyone know where they can get wheels and tires, and other stuffs for great deal, so so. its gonna take you a while to launch the business, or at least starting to make alittle profit. if you can last for a few months at least without any profit and some losses then go for it.
good luck

Yeah like everyone is saying you have to have the installation part if you plan on opening something like that or just stick to your home based business. Do you have a website or do you sell on ebay?

Do tinting also, that makes A LOT of money

Once you start the company, dont forget the Ecelica hookup...then have X come visit you...then bam your golden.

No, there are too many things to take into account when opening up a store front. Theres Rent, Property Taxes, Insurance, electric, sales tax and the list goes on and on. Stay on the net, you will reach a larger captive audience and by pass the larger overhead thats unavoidable w. a store.

Overhead cost inhibits good prices at best on the street, online is where its at. Id funnel the cash into upgrading the website and promoting it

Trust me it sucks, if I could sell pizza over the net... well lets just say Id be a VERY, VERY happy man

sweet so your husband sells stuff online whats the web address to your shop?

ebay.com^^

J/k, get us a deal on some stuff qt!

Yeah just leave the business on the websites, it's much simpler and cheaper. I have a couple buddies who opened up their own website for body kits and such and they make decent money that way. They have a shop, but they never use it, they just use it for storage purposes. If I were your boyfriend, just buy a small garage or warehouse and keep it as a warehouse and do the retail end of things online. Get a website, sponsor sites (such as NCelica) and put banners up there, and yeah, he'll do fine that way. Since it's already working out fine now, why risk it I'd say.

Also, if he really wants to open up a shop, go around to local bodyshops and see if they will rent him some space in their counter area for sales and such. This way, if anyone does buy parts from him, he can just tell them to get it installed at the shop where you are selling your things. This not only boosts sales for him, but it also boost sales and business for the shop that rented him the space.

I agree with the opinion that it's not worth the risk of a shop if it's just for sales. That is big time and if he messes up his credit can be ruined.
I think if he wants to open a shop, he should at least go to mechanic's school and get ASE certified first. Parts are easy to come by, but not great mechanics who can do custom work. In addition, his technical knowledge will help him make better recommendations to walk-in customers as to the product they should use for their car. Skill and knowledge lead to reputation which leads to sales and profit.