Ok, looking for some real life advice...would you use this?.

Hey hey, looking to buy into a property with a buddy to start up a wee business.
Idea is to buy the property and fit 2 car ramps, kit both bays out with compressor and tools etc etc. property is undergoing renovation and already has 2 roller shutter doors fitted.
Initially rent 1 bay out to a mechanic for £75 a week and then use the other bay as a rent a ramp for £10 an hour for the diy'er..and see how it goes.
Looking about a total £20K investment each for the property with tools/ramps etc..
End of the day the property alone would be worth what we paid each..and we would own the building.
£20k is a lot of dough in anyone's eyes so any thoughts/ potential pitfalls would be appreciated.
I know if I could " rent a ramp" with tools for a tenner an hour in my area I would've jumped at it. But there's nothing close to that where i live.
What'd ya think?

Liability insurance?

Under laying hidden costs & overheads . . . .

Bay Manager
Waste oil & haz chem disposal
Battery disposal
local authority licences to trade
oil spill protected area

just a few off top o me bonce

A bike lift would be good , but I don't like the idea as it is too far north !!!!

Excellent thoughts guys, cheers for the input..
Liability ins would be with the tenant, diy'ers would sign a disclaimer.
My boy would be running the op for a minimum wage
Appreciate the Alan sugar input but was really looking for.....would you use it!! Bike ramp and tyre changer is an added option in my eyes.

Misread this the first time I read it mate as i thought it said "rent a tramp" and I thought times must be tough to be trying to sell a body like yours
Definitely liability insurance required as I've seen you drink to excess.

Seriously though it sounds like it could be a sound idea. Have you googled it to see what is available elsewhere and what they charge etc etc?

Good luck if you decide to jump into it

Cheers
Ross

P.s Nick if you get any work up north. I could have a base for ya.

Rosco wrote:Misread this the first time I read it mate as i thought it said "rent a tramp" and I thought times must be tough to be trying to sell a body like yours
Definitely liability insurance required as I've seen you drink to excess.

Seriously though it sounds like it could be a sound idea. Have you googled it to see what is available elsewhere and what they charge etc etc?

Good luck if you decide to jump into it

Cheers
Ross

Yup Ross,
It would be a sideline for me. Not giving up my career as a global jaikey!!
There is not a lot in central Scotland that does this.
And if brave pill needs somewhere down my way to do his stuff I'll give him mates rates to work his magic under cover!

To answer your question "would I use it" ...... Depends on how much it is I guess and how 'local' it was to me.

I've only ever done bike stuff and Tracey probably wouldn't let me touch her car so probably a no from me and my company car :(

But at the right price .... Might suit a lot of part-time and diy mechy's.

Cheers
Ross

Rosco wrote:To answer your question "would I use it" ...... Depends on how much it is I guess and how 'local' it was to me.

I've only ever done bike stuff and Tracey probably wouldn't let me touch her car so probably a no from me and my company car :(

But at the right price .... Might suit a lot of part-time and diy mechy's.

Cheers
Ross

Hmmm good answer Ross, my big plan is that I'm gonna market it as a DIY garage but with a mechanic in the bay next door to give advice if needed.
P.s I'm with Tracey. I wouldn't let you near my car either! -

Sounds like an excellent idea, Im a proper girl and really don't like getting my hands dirty so it wouldn't do for me but I'm sure as times are hard, people are DIY'ing their cars & bikes, and a base in which to do this would be a fantastic idea, good on yer.

I presume you've worked out how long it wold take to get your £20,000 back, make a profit, how much it would get used, how many days it would make no money at all etc.

Good luck, well done for initiative and I hope it all goes well Dave xx

Great idea Dave, However for what it's worth as someone who does most of his own mechanical work when possible I doubt I'd use it.
The reason being is I'd try to budget in my head how long I'd need the ramp to do a job to see if it was cost effective, I know from bitter experience that most jobs take longer than estimated & that if a part is seized/broken or an unexpected part needed that the car/bike could very easily be stuck on the ramp for hours/days longer than estimated, For this very reason I'd be put off & would decide to budget to put the vehicle through a mechanic,
I also think you would be forced to get liability insurance for a DIYer as well as giving basic safety advice on how to use the equipment otherwise I think you would be leaving yourself very vulnerable.
Renting both bays to one mechanic would make more sense to me & a lot less hassle to yourself.
Just my two penneth, sorry to sound negative & best of luck with it.
Regards Nick

I think it's a great idea, and particularly useful to people who would do their own DIY but don't have anywhere to do it (no drive or garage). Just having a spacew to do an oil change for example. If you could maybe throw in some coaching as an incentive, you can encourage people to have a go even if they are new to DIY.

The main thing to understand is what the local demand for this might be? Is the local area full of older vehicles and enthusiastic amateurs, or is it all country mansions and 2 week old Bentleys? The only way to find out is to get out and find out - customer survey kind of thing. Forums a re a good way to contact lots of people, but responses may be biased by the forum subject and keyboard warriors.

Similar businesses already exist so maybe see if you can talk to them; if they're not local to you and wouldn't suffer competition then they might be willing to give some advice.

Couple of guys on local Coventry forum done similar and is going very well, I know one of these guys is very proficient mechanic and is often on hand for knowledge, they do tyres etc, think all started along lines with what your thinking!! Good luck with it, Link thing!

to a dedicated bike self service place in London - might give you some ideas .. they charge for oil disposal and sell oil, brake fluid etc, do training evenings, fix punctures ... Bikes, cars the business principle's much the same.

One day I may use the place, but won't be rushing there - think my days of taking engines and bikes apart and getting most of it back again together are over.

It sounds like a sound investment if nothing else. Have a scout around for something to do with £20k that would give a decent return and you'll come up with nothing.

Buying into property. Especially at the moment while confidence and the market are low is a really good idea, whilst not a short term, get rich quick thing, the long term trend for property prices will always increase. The only question to ask yourself is how long you can afford to be without the money, if the answer is indefinitely or you can afford to lose it, ( not that many can), it's a no brainer, as long as all your insurances/waste licences/liabilities are covered you can't realistically lose out on this one.

As for the business aspect yeah I've spent many a time stuck under a car half way through a job in the pissing rain and would have loved the shelter. If something like this was local to me I would have definitely used it in the past, not so much now though because I have a garage etc. but there must be a plethora of young kids etc wanting to pimp their Corsas and Clios along with a lot of weekend DIYers who would rather give £20 quid to you and service their own cars instead of shelling out £100s to dealers who half the time do a piss poor job anyway.

I say good on you for the enterprise and go for it, I can't see anything to lose, and a hell of a lot to gain. (Plus if it takes off there's always the option to franchise the idea) imagine a DBD DIY Bay in every town!!

Cheers folks for all the pointers.
Def gives me a lot to mull over.
It's never gonna be a get rich quick idea, but it gainfully employs my eldest son and gives me a wee return on my money.
Looking at quick figures I reckon a £6k a year profit is easily achievable with only minimum rental( 10 hours a week) on the rent a ramp and a mechanic renting the other ramp. So £3k a year return on a £20k investment is not a bad deal considering the building would be worth at least £40K which would be ours too. So our initial outlay is still there to get back if we sold it.

Cheers

Snowcat wrote: imagine a DBD DIY Bay in every town!!

. . . . . Lock up yer shiraz !

Good luck with the new venture Dave. Sounds like a good one and it gets the boy out of bed!

0ldcat wrote:

Snowcat wrote: imagine a DBD DIY Bay in every town!!

. . . . . Lock up yer shiraz !

Definitely sounds like a good idea Dave! I would certainly make use of something like that as I lack tools and a ramp although I certainly think some expertise on hand for tool training would be handy or even perhaps decorate the walls with examples of how a tool might be used and examples of how a particular part might be serviced (just an idea)... As others have said the biggy would be the liability insurance, you may even have to 'dumb down' the tools so idiots can't hurt themselves with them if you know what I mean.

Other than that good luck to you! Entreprenership is all about taking risks so just make sure you can't get sued from any angle and go for it I say!

Had to double take there Tel....thought that was you.

Check these out Dave, might be a few pointers in there

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