Performance Shop

Well, I'm now sittin here for about the 4th, 5th, and 6th week off of work from a recent accident. This is the time when I wish I had a hobby. Well let my 18 yr old mind run wild for a few days now and besides watchin ebay and refreshing every 30 seconds to see what prices cars have been up to I've done nothin lol. Recently a car lot opened up by an asian american and his bro. I stopped by and talked with them the other week when I noticed it happened to be all honda's. It's been open a month now and there are some nice cars there, a GSR, 'nother nice integra, an SI and then all the other Civic's and Accords some newer a few older oddball ones. With only being open for a month I stopped by again and there are already more trade in cars there then I would have expected. So I'm thinkin....we have autozone supplying APC crap. Why can't I open a shop up lol. Is this even able to happen. Am I running wild......a performance shop would only benefit from that car lot alone. But is this business thing able to take off. How could it work...like a store branch off of an internet shop?....let me know what you think. I'm getting way to obsessed with imports for the little time i've been here. I'm gettin every mag....and just can't stop thats why I want to find my car soon....and start workin on it.
Only negative about this lot......not sure who isn't going to have a civic with altezza's in our small little town

Originally posted by zm_dawg
Why can't I open a shop up lol. Is this even able to happen. Am I running wild......a performance shop would only benefit from that car lot alone. But is this business thing able to take off.

Sure, save up at least $30,000 and open a shop, don't forget the price of starting a business, finding a place for your shop, and hiring employees. My friend was gonna start a store selling car audio, just a little shop, he calculated that he needed $90,000 to start it up in NY. I'm sure you could do it for a little less than that though. You should have at least $5-$10k worth of parts in your store when you start off, and then have to get the hook up of being able to order things straight from the company for cheap so you can sell them to make your profit.

But......how could I keep that much money worth of parts in a store in a city like this? I mean....i can't stock tailights for every car sold. I'd have to get a big loan....i'd just rent out a little spot
How do you get hooked up on wholesalers.....or company direct....i'd want to have that setup before I go in? I mean how else would you start making money....i can't be buying groupbuys for 2 years and makin $2 on a set of shocks.
I think this could happen......just wouldn't know where to start.

[ShagginJet]

You shouldn't need that much money. the big killer is going to be the rent on the shop itself. as for the equipment and things to sell, you talk directly with the manufactures and they hook you up. You get special pricing and open an account that says you agree to purchase atleast 1-3k of good over the year. You don't get the best price, but you get a low enough price to make some good money. Carry about 5-10 different lines, make sure that you ahve the several copies of the manufactures full catalog on hand at all times. Keep 1 or 2 of some of the most popular kits in stock. If someone needs something you can usually pick it up from a local rep, or the manufacture will ship it out next day at an extra like 10-20 bucks, no big deal.

I've been there, done that. I want to get a shop going out here but lack the resources because at this time.

Besides selling localy, you can take some of the items and sell them on ebay for a little extra cash, and to help meet that 3000$ PO that you made with the manufacture. All you really have to do is to sell enough stuff to make rent for the shop and what ever income youhad before you opened the shop, should be easy.

[94_AcCoRd_EX]

Hey man, I'm going to move this to OT where you might get some more help

Originally posted by zm_dawg
I mean....i can't stock tailights for every car sold.

No, get a few performance parts for the most common vehicles out there and have them on display and you order what people ask for if you don't have it in stock. Ever been in a performance shop, a real one? You go in and you see a few bumpers hanging on the wall, a wall of intakes and exhausts, stickers, shifter knobs, a few taillights, all kind of cool bolt on shit that the average ricer will walk off the street and buy.

[Addict]

Like myself_included said, just carry a few parts for the most common cars. What you would need to do is setup an account with a distributor. Keystone does alot business in the aftermarket. Your initial order needs to be $10k. But they ship very quickly which allows you to not have to maintain an inventory.

Good luck. And don't forget to offer discounts to your fellow HS members.

[silver]

since I'm doing it at the moment I'll give you some insight. Of course you want to go factory direct, unfortunately you need to do a minimum buy-in just to get an account. For example(i was looking at this last night as a matter of fact) AC autotechnic requires a $4500 minimum buy-in and then a $4000 minimum monthly order to keep your status. Your best bet at the beginning is to find a small distributor(like myself for example) and get all the lines you can carry. That way if someone asks for a product you can deliver, though it will probably be at msrp to turn any profit. Find an authorized dealer of one specific line and work with them and push the crap out of that brand. That will return a higher profit than say skunk2, where it isn't worth to sell unless you're an authorized dealer. You need to know someone as well who can get you special pricing, a local distributor will not help you, you would need to know someone out here in socal. Plan on opening a shop and carry an inventory of universal items such as bulbs, wings, mufflers, maybe a few kits as samples, while everything else is on an order basis, there is no need to hold over $1500 in inventory. Go through a distributor first for pricing and then use your profit to research your buy-ins carefully, I am an authorized dealer of Bomz Racing, that could get you started if you need some help. You could start your business with $500 and make it big, I know many who have.

good luck