I got an itch....

Barry Theal

Barry Theal

New member
Been thinking long and hard about opening a 2nd location about an hour from me to cater to strickly higher end clientle. I have found a nice small shop that could house 2 cars. I'm thinking of pulling the trigger. Does anyone here have 2 locations? Can you tell me how it is working for you.
 
An hour away makes it difficult to manage.



Here are a couple of questions...

What is the size of your current location?

How many folks work with you doing details?

And to repeat above is there much competition?

...at you current location and at the new location??
 
My thinking is this: With your popularity, that size may not be big enough. Where will you store the other high end cars? If you do open another location, get something with more space. You WILL get more work that that. justmyopinion.



Good luck though!
 
merlinii said:
An hour away makes it difficult to manage.



Here are a couple of questions...

What is the size of your current location?

How many folks work with you doing details?

And to repeat above is there much competition?

...at you current location and at the new location??
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My current location is about roughly 4000 sq feet, I have 7 guys working for me fulltime and a parttimer. This shop is ready to function itself without me being here. Alot of the work is dealer work. My goal is to have a really highend detailing shop. Most of my work is generated from the philly areas. I live in a small town with lots of volume work, but its a distance for me to travel to the higher end clients. It a hike for them as well. So why not take the chance and build a new shop to work out of partime or full time in the highend clientle area. I'm not really worried about compettion.



<"//>< said:
I say go for it. 2 bays can't be that expensive. Is there much competition in your area?
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Competition has no concern to me. lol





Pats300zx said:
Barry...what area are you looking into?
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West Chester!!! I'm looking at 3 spots now. I found one I really like. Nice and small. I already have everything I need to build it. Just need to pull the trigger and do it.





tdekany said:
My thinking is this: With your popularity, that size may not be big enough. Where will you store the other high end cars? If you do open another location, get something with more space. You WILL get more work that that. justmyopinion.



Good luck though!
Click to expand...



Thomas I'm not looking into a big shop, Im thinking a small exclusive shop to work out of partime or full time. Not really sure yet. Thanks for the encouragement.
 
Barry, it would be really tough to control your quality being an hour away. That is why I moved my shop and didn't want to have two locations. I have seen several detail shops try to over expand, and now they're doing worse than ever.
 
Barry Theal- Noting that I'm a cautious old fart...I'd want to try the "autopilot" thing with your current shop for a while before you take the plunge. Make sure things really will go smoothly if you let the guys work all by themselves to that extent.



And, heh heh...can't you just sit back and leave the [freakin'] work to others for a while?!? ;)
 
Accumulator said:
Barry Theal- Noting that I'm a cautious old fart...I'd want to try the "autopilot" thing with your current shop for a while before you take the plunge. Make sure things really will go smoothly if you let the guys work all by themselves to that extent.



And, heh heh...can't you just sit back and leave the [freakin'] work to others for a while?!? ;)
Click to expand...



This is the right path. If you get past June, you will have worked all the seasonal bugs out and solidified processes and policies to maintain and track quality control and metrics reporting.
 
The hour drive doesnt seem bad at first, but when you start doing it all the time it starts to suck afterwhile. I did it for awhile from lancaster to allentown for work before i moved up here.
 
Barry: I'm not trying to belittle any of us here, or make you seem like you're "out of the group". However, you have a shop and a volume that probably 90% of the detailers on here don't have. You also cater to a multiple kinds of clientele that most of us do not. You have probably more staff than any 2 of us combined (again, that's most of us). I don't mean to be offensive to anyone here (including myself), but I don't think that most of us would have any real relavant advice to give you. This is purely a business decision, it has nothing to do with Autopianism or anything else. Can you make enough profit for your entity (I'm assuming you're a corp) to justify opening the second location. If the answer is yes, then I say go for it.
 
barry, I want to do what you are doing...lol, seriously though...thats my game plan! except for right now its without a shop location
 
We have 2 mobile trucks and a location. Let me just say that small changes can be VERY challenging. I currently have 11 full time employees. Even my best guys sometimes don't do well with little changes. Just think of it this way. How much of your time now do you spend putting out fires or dealing with problems that only you can deal with? 1st, double that. Then (take a deep breath) triple that. The less you are around the more problems will arise and the more time you'll be spending dealing with them. Which usually means more staff, which usually means more fires. My advice is if you have 18 months to get hyper focussed on your business then go for it. Just come up with a very detailed plan 1st. Plan out some free time ahead of time too. And whatever your budget is be prepared to spend twice that. That said, I am a big proponent for "going for it." Most people don't have the knowhow to take it as far as you already have. Good luck!!!!
 
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