Windshield Repair Forum

Hi everyone . It's great to be apart of this great forum , I have learned so much on here and hope to own my own w.s.r. Business soon . I have been working for a company repairing windshields for almost a year now and have been learning the ins and outs of the biz . I am preparing to start my own thing , and I'm very close . There are only a few concerns I have at this point .
As I ready myself to venture into the business , I will have to take the leap of faith , quitting my current job and doing this 100% . So to prepare I am saving money and purchasing my equipment . I plan on doing a single tent location to start , and adding another location or 2 as my bank account grows . I feel that my main concern is

1.finding and aquiring a good location with a lot of traffic . I really don't care how much per month I spend on renting a location , as long as it's a busy busy spot that will yield many cars per day . I am unsure whether I will need a vendors license or permit or how to go about obtaining a location in writing .does it depend on where the location is , a difference in which city I'm in , if it's at a gas station or strip mall or car wash ? ... I don't know where yet I will go , but I do know it must be a high traffic location , and I'll definitely go to the rich part of town where people will all have full coverage insurance ... And I plan on having a nice , sturdy tent , not a cheap POS looking tent .. I plan on living off of insurance jobs mostly , not cash jobs ... I'm hoping that you guys , or a cpa will be able to help me out with advice. I understand how important it is to have a super busy location to work at , so I want to make sure that when I do find the perfect spot , I am prepared on how about to secure the location , assuming the property owner is willing to do business with me . Should I have a lease or contract agreement already written out by a cpa ? Or just let the property owner make it ?

2. The second concern I have with leaving my job to start this business full time is the time of year it is right now . It is almost September , and will be fall and winter soon . I have the luxury of living in south Texas , so ofcourse the winter is not as long or as brutal as what most of you guys have to endure every year . But even so , I am concerned about starting my business right now because I don't want to struggle through the winter , and I have not gone through the winter yet doing windshield repair , so I am unsure of how much business actually slows down during the winter season ... Is it fairly significant ?, in your opinions , should I just wait until next spring to ensure success right off the bat?

3. My 3rd concern is lack of knowledge running a business . Doing things like getting paid by the insurance companies ... Paying my taxes , making sure I have the basic , correct things I need to run my business like the right contracts with the property owner like I was talking about in my first main concern ... I am worried about having to learn all of this stuff while starting my first biz . With stuff like this , should I rely on hiring a cpa to handle all of that ?

4. I know there is some hostility towards some people that leave a w.s.r. company to start their own company . But as I see it , this is America and this is a cut throat life we live in , I feel like I am a lion and not a sheep to be herded around . On one side I do feel grateful that I have a steady job paying me $10/ hour to repair windshields , but on the other , it is kind of depressing to see myself making my company $200-$600 per day , while I make $80 / day . Now I did sign a non compete agreement , but it specifically says I can not work in the city in which my company has locations in , and I myself live in a different city and plan on working here and not in "their" city . Has anyone else here gotten experience with a company and left them to start your own ? I'd love to hear about your experiences , especially if you have any advice that would help me avoid any confrontations with my old company .

As you can tell I'm very green , even at the age of 29 , and I feel like I have a lot to overcome to get started , and i don't know if I feel confident enough yet to make that leap of faith .i plan on having enough money to buy all my equipment , including my tent , and ready to register my biz and aquire insurance and start trying to find myself a profitable location ... Any advice any of you have to offer would be greatly appreciated , thanks !

Texas Guy

Texas guy,
I was wondering how your leap of faith was going. I too am thinking of starting a wsr business. I previously had 2 replacement shops which I sold and then managed one for 6 years before I had a bad injury and had to leave the business. I figure the repair-only side of the business should not pose too much risk to my back and I'm sick of this office job.

Ron

Hey Ron , well , I am just about to start it up . I am getting started much later than I wanted to this year , but there's still plenty of time . I have been spending money and not really been 100% committed to starting this biz . But now that I've got my personal taxes taken care of this year , and now that I've saved some money up , it looks like I'll have enough by next weekend to go all out . I have done research and figured out how I'm going to handle most of my main concerns previously posted . I am not working for the windshield repair company I was with anymore. I figured out , to start , I'm just going to start a sole proprietorship . This will save me $ . I'm also going to try to get set up with deltas new program , so they will just submit and get me paid by the TPAs . I'm also not going to invest in a fax machine , or bother paying for home Internet service , I'm just going to download a mobile fax machine app on my smart phone that will allow me to have a fax number , and to send and receive fax . I also found a CHEAP , good quality tent that I think will suit my purposes . The tent I found , you can see on YouTube , just search "marks bolts canopy" . It looks perfect , just have to make sure it's secured to the ground properly and throw up a couple banner signs between the legs and it's good to go . Only about 150$ after all is said and done . I think I'm going to purchase the B-150 bridge from delta kits to get started with . So it looks like by May 1st , I'll have all of my May bills paid , and around 1,500$ Saved , just enough to get everything going ! I hope to have the business and all equipment set up and ready to go by May 7th or so , and I'll be out looking for a location set up at . Im hoping that I can arrange something with a property owner that will allow me to pay him for the first month when I get the money , because I don't think I'll have enough to pay them for the first month on the spot . I think the location I get will be the most important part of this business being successful or not , so I'm going to go big and try to get a prime spot on the frontage rd of a major highway ... Or might try to swing something with a major grocery store like Walmart or HEB or a super target . , a mall parking lot would be nice , but I think they have laws that prohibit a "tent" to be set up for more than a month or 2, so that will probably be out of the question . I might consider a major car wash , but I'm unsure of that idea . Gonna try to stick with highway frontage rd at gas station or something as my number 1 target . And if the location is good enough , I will not shy away from a high monthly rent Bc I know it will pay off . I'd rather pay 800$-1000$ / month at a location I'll make 6,000$-10,000$ than pay 400$/ month at a location I'll only make 2,000-4,000. I also plan on marketing on signs and giving away a good "free gift" for every costumer . I think it's going to be a big customer getter . I also met a guy recently who sells a chemical he makes , that renews the shine on the exterior plastic parts on cars . It also restores headlights to protection in seconds .but I'm unsure of the long term results that product will yield , hopefully it will work well . I plan on promoting 5 min HLR for around 15$-20$ / HL . I'm thinking if I can get a great location , I might be able to build a impulse-buy driven , super-profitable business overnight , but maybe I'm just dreaming , hahaha!!! I'm about 90% sure at this point , that I'm atleast going to try . I will definitely keep you posted .ill update again once I pull the trigger and start the process , hopefully by May 1st . Thanks for checking up on me , I was a little disappointed when no one replied to my long post .

Any opinions or advice is always appreciated from anyone. Off to bed , gotta get up super early to make this start up $$$$!

Ps. I wrote this reply very quickly , so please forgive any ranting I might have done , or any misspelling . I have many other topics of like to discuss , but no time to post about them tonight .

Well good luck and thanks for your post. I never thought of using an app to receive my faxes that sounds great something like eFax on google play?

I also found a local supplier for my canopy and will have to visit them next week to get pricing. I figure a 10 by 10 should do; what do you think?

Regards,

Ron

Yea 10X 10 is perfect ... My only marketing will be a few banner signs put up , and a couple on the tent its self . Just gotta tie it down in a manner that looks okay and definitely keeps it down . My main marketing will be "free gift" on the signs I have up .... Hope to get around 35/week plus hopefully 6-12 headlight restores / week . I'll keep you posted .

Your business plan sounds as if it has a million holes. You need to go to them, dealers etc. A tent is not a way to go.. or not having capital.

Texasguy u still out there. I will be getting ready to start my venture soon. Just wanted to see if u could give an update on your business.