Anyone have multiple tent locations ??

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Texasguy
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Anyone have multiple tent locations ??

Post by Texasguy »

My business plan consist of starting with one tent location until I get the hang of it , and eventually opening a few more locations ... I do not need a multimillion dollar company to be happy , if I could make atleast 60-80k a year , I would be very happy to work my butt off 6 days a week . Is there anyone out there that has 1-5 locations and only does fixed locations(no fleet or mobile service ) ? If so , may I ask if you atleast profit 60k a year ? I am highly considering starting my own company and I figure if I'm going to do it , the time is now . I have about 700 repairs under my belt , I am 29 , no kids , no wife, and this seems to be a fairly inexpensive business to get into . Any and all advice is greatly appreciated . Thanks !
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Brent Deines
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Re: Anyone have multiple tent locations ??

Post by Brent Deines »

5 repairs/day x 5 days/week x 52 weeks/yr x $50/repair = $60,000. 5 repairs/day x 6 days/week or 6 repairs/day x 5 days/week x 52 weeks/yr x $50/repair = $78,000. Are there technicians who make more? Absolutely. Are there technicians who make less? Definitely.

5 repairs per day because it's not an unrealistic number. We certainly have customers who average considerably more but whether that is you or not will depend on location, marketing, hours per day worked, salesmanship, quality of repairs (repeat business), etc. If you treat your business like a job and work...actually work...8+ hours a day averaging 5 repairs/day is an obtainable goal.

5 days per week because even if you work more some weeks there will likely be other weeks when you work less as well. You should also consider leaving one day a week for marketing your business.

52 weeks per year may be realistic when you start but eventually you will want some time off. Work hard, play hard.

$50/repair is a realistic average if you are in a tent location doing mostly insurance repairs. I'm not a big fan of discounting cash repairs but the fact is a lot of technicians do so here in the USA most technicians who focus on insurance repairs make more. Keep in mind that 5 repairs/day at $50 nets you more than 10 repairs/day at $25 and leaves you more time to develop your business and attract higher paying customers.

What you do between repairs, after work and on days off will play a big part in how successful you are. How many hours you actually work in a day also makes a difference. If you sit under a tent watching movies or playing video games until your next customer arrives to beg you to do a repair for them, or if you only work 5 hours a day, you will probably struggle to make $60K. A lot of windshield repair technicians don't work all that hard and therefore don't make much money. That's fine if you don't need much money but as with all business startups you need to work harder than you have ever worked before if you want to continually increase your income. Most successful business owners never stop thinking of ways to improve their business so their day does not end when the repairs are done.

I know there are many forum members who are not making $60K/year. I also know there are some who are making $80K+ and have been for years. Those are the ones you want to be listening to.
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screenman
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Re: Anyone have multiple tent locations ??

Post by screenman »

Not a big fan of the tent set up here, I would rather be pro-active rather than inactive. The number you quote are not that huge, but I would look at fleets and maybe quality garages for start to my customer base.

One of my WSR customer spends $1400 a month with me +or- a small amount, they take me 10 hours each month to service. I have quite a few like that, maybe not quite as large spenders but you get the idea.
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Re: Anyone have multiple tent locations ??

Post by bill lambeth »

Well said Screen and Brent! Tents are not good in my opinion ! You are stuck there ! You can always get out and hustle some repairs up ! NOT much control over the amount of people coming to tent. If you are not a hustler or good salesman then a tent might be for you!
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Brent Deines
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Re: Anyone have multiple tent locations ??

Post by Brent Deines »

I dunno, some of the tent locations I've seen average 10 repairs per day which is not too bad. Like everything else, there are right ways and wrong ways to run a tent location, beginning with the location itself.
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bill lambeth
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Re: Anyone have multiple tent locations ??

Post by bill lambeth »

Location Location Location ! Here you are not going to find to many places that will let you do it .
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Re: Anyone have multiple tent locations ??

Post by screenman »

Last time I did a tent location I think we did 14 repairs over a 8 hour period, profitable for sure just not for me all the hanging around if things went slack.
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