Can you make a LIVING at this???

[Brent Deines]

Would you need to make $80K the first year? If not, what would be the minimum you would need to make the 1st year? What would your 3 and 5 year goals be? I think most forum members will agree that generally speaking it takes time to build your business. This is where it gets a bit tricky. Some people are much better at developing business quickly than others. I can manage a business in such a way as to develop consistent growth year after year, but every business I've ever started took 3-5 years to get to where I felt like I was making a decent living. I have customers making more in their first year than I did in my first 5 years, and it all has to do with planning and marketing.

Hopefully this is an area where other forum members will chime in with strategies that helped them to grow a bit more quickly than I did. I know candyman, SGT and other forum members are far more organized and pay a lot more attention to marketing than I did when I got started. It's just good business to do so.

Do you have a detailed business plan including a marketing strategy yet? Have you done any market research in your area?

[t4k]

What is the going rate for HL restoration in the area in which you plan open shop? Keep in mind with a shop will you have more monthly out of pocket expenditures than the guys who are mobile. What will stop the hired help from getting trained by you and opening their own shop, because this happens everyday.

I am not trying to put a damper on your dreams of having a HL restoration business on LI but these are all questions that come into play.

[Brent Deines]

What will stop the hired help from getting trained by you and opening their own shop, because this happens everyday.

Great point! This is a big problem in both the headlight restoration and windshield repair industry and it's a question every business owner needs to ask themselves. You have to figure out a way to make sure employees have the opportunity to make more working for you than for themselves.

[candyman]

I just typed some information for you and it disappeared. I 'll retype the jist of it. If you were to do 1250 headlights or about 5 per day, five days per week you would make about 100K , if you charged an average of $80 per vehicle. Your expenses for supplies would be about $8331.40. You would need about $12000 for garage rent. If you hired someone in your area to do the work you are now looking at another $ 31,220 plus SS, Medicare etc...
You would also have a phone, utilities, garage insurance and advertizing that could easily add another $10K. If you did all the work yourself you could clear about $70K at the high end. It would not be easy and it depends a lot on your lead generation and marketing plan. Iam not where I need to be yet. I work full time, and belong to several organizations such as the Masons and Shriners that require my time. Iam retired from the Federal Gov and soon can retire from the state. I do the HLR and WSR in my spare time and sacrafice my sleep time. Not to mention that my wife and I own a Bookkeeping and Tax service. I know I can make money doing HLR. Some weeks I make more than my current job pays with only 12 hours of actual work time. I live in an area that has about 12% unemployment and the major factories have closed. I charge about $55 per HLR. sometimes more and seniors and students get it for $45 -$50 depending on vehicle and location. Building your base will require many man hours and dedication. I invest more hours generating leads than actual work. I do both WSR & HLR because they both fit nicely together and by combining the two makes me almost recession proof. When one is slow the other picks up. Its a good mix and I enjoy doing both skills. Your goal can be done in a large maket, but it will require a lot of work on your part. If you hire people it cuts the profit. You can put people on the street corner in a large city with a kit. This would require close supervision and hands on traing. You could face some liability issues for damaged vehicle paint etc... I hope this has given you more insight into this business. Candyman

[candyman]

I forgot to mention that I trained someone to help when I couldn't get to the customer. Within two months he was doing them on his own at one of my best detailing shops. I was giving him about 50% of the fee for the HLR and supplied all his supplies. After a few weeks I was getting calls to redo the work he did by the shop owner. He still works at the detailing shop but he has few request for HLR and the shop owner calls me for their prefered clients. He started taking short cuts and not using correct pads or over using them. He also tried to stretch the UV coating too thin. The results surface within days causing his customers to request a redo or money back. He is now doing Window Tinting and seems to be ok with that at the same shop. He just had another person open up one block away with the same WT supplier. I guess payback was due him. Your employees can make or break you if you are not on top of the daily sistuations. I dont hold a grudge against the guy. Life is too short. Short cut the job and you wont be in this business long.

[pommy]

Candyman - do you have a website? If so, what is it?

You seem seasoned in this HLR business, I'd like to see you'r marketing on the internet side ofr things please.

All the best,

Pommy

[DavidS]

One question that will help other forum members to give you helpful responses is this: What do you consider making a living? For some that may be $25,000 a year while for others it is $100,000 or more. When I first started repairing windshields I saw an advertisement that said it was possible to make $100,000 a year. I was working very hard at the time and not making anywhere near that so I thought it was false advertising, but now I have many customers making far more than that.

Brent,

Thank you very much for your detailed and informative response. We live on Long Island where the cost of living is very high, so we'd like to be able to make as much as possible. However, I cannot imagine any geographical USA location where $25,000 a year would be considered "making a living" - so, I would be looking for a figure "north" of that.

Not to beat a dead horse but you pointed out above that you have customers making in excess of $100k annually doing WSR. Would you be able to say the same about HLR?

Thanks
John

What is your yearly goal?

There are many poor people in america that earn less then $25k a year, and what you can not imagine, they
have to endure this every day of the year...My $100k salary might as well equal one of those people making
$25k...I just can afford a bit more that others can not...$100k sounds like a lot, but it really isnt...after $30k
in taxes, car payments, high rent, insurance, 3 cells, home phone, food, so after life bills; I am able to
safe aprox $1k a month...and that is not much in terms of savings, a small disaster could wipe all that out....
and I have no kids either, if I had kids, I would be considered poor (to my standards)

so if you are making $25k, the govt considers you making a living, you are not considered poor by
govt standards until $12k or below...I was talking to a car dealer the other day, and he was telling
me how he had to let his help go that he paid $25k/year...by the time he was able to call her back
and offered her job back, she was making in excess of $50k, she told him, why she would give
up her government benefits (unemployment) to go back to earning $25k/year...? I just wanted
to say thanks to our tax payers, we pay for people like this to continue to sit at home....

but anyways, I have no expectations or illu about WSR or HLR...If you think people are just going to flock to
you just because you made an investment, then business is not for you...I do understand that it can take
a lot of work to get a business going, but no one can make any guarantees, you can work hard
and still fail (at any business) If you try this for a bit, then give up, then you have already failed...it
can take a long time to get your business going, and for that phone to keep ringing off the hook.

[creaghmi]

I just joined the board and I too have been researching headlight restoration based on my own observation of the huge need for this service. The question I have is that everything I read focuses on lens restoration. I have noticed many older vehicles where the reflector appears to be oxidizing Is there any method of restoring the reflector without removing the headlight?

[t4k]

I just joined the board and I too have been researching headlight restoration based on my own observation of the huge need for this service. The question I have is that everything I read focuses on lens restoration. I have noticed many older vehicles where the reflector appears to be oxidizing Is there any method of restoring the reflector without removing the headlight?

If the reflector is damaged the whole headlight assembly will need to be replaced.

[pommy]

Are the lights that are oxidizing glass or plastic?

I've only ever seen glass fronted lights go bad on the reflector.

Have to agree with previous, although if you have a classic car with hard to find lights, if you put the whole assembly into the oven for 20 mins, the mastic/adhesive will soften and allow you to remove the glass easily, accessing the reflector.