anyone run a atv/dirtbike repair shop

[blastapole]

Thinking of expanding my skills and doing repairs for people. I'm looking at getting an LLC and fed tax # so it will be legit but had some questions.

Whats your policy on rebuilding or fixing stuff? Like you put a topend on someones bike and tell them to ride it easy for x miles or do a proper break in and they bring it back because they didnt do what you said and it broke.

What kind of job hours do you charge? Do you allow set hours for say a crank install is 3 hours minumum 5 hours maximum etc........

Do you let the customers order their own parts or make them pay for parts upfront? Or do you order them out of your pocket do the install and then charge them.



you can pm me if you like. I'm just trying to get stuff lined out.

-Matt

 

[BlueDragon1998]

Well I think that is a great idea.....good to hear it.I Dont know nothing about a repair shop though..only tattoo shop....lol How long you been working on engines. If you fell good doing it and you do it well...you better do it

 

[blastapole]

I've mainly rebuilt 4 stroke engines. I've rebuilt a few aircraft engines and a lot of VW bug engines. Me and my younger brother have been flipping quads and dirtbikes on the side the past 4-5 months with good results. The last one was a crf450 that the guy gave us the engine parts in a box.....lol

Right now I'm replacing some cv joint boots and had to extract a broke bolt out of a hub on a polaris 700.

That stuff don't bother me as much as the "business side".

 

[89custom]

For awhile i wanted to own a shop but no i dont give a f*ck. when i was doing co op through school at my local shop which is very good, they take someones machine, tell them there going to check it out, if it requires takign apart, they call em up and tell them the charge, i think its usually like 1 hour charge to take it apart and inspect if it requires it then they call and tell them what needs to be fixed/replaced. they order the parts and charge the customer when all is done. certain things have set prices like a bore and hone is 65(1 hour) and alot of their porting is priced out. if you wana check how they do some sh*t, the company is bondi engines. google their name for the site.

 

[coreyownz]

well local shops around here and how i would do it is like this say a bike needs a rebuild you say it will need xxxx so the customer knows whats up than you order put it together and say heres what xxx cost and they pay you if not you hold their bike..and as 89 said labor rate is x amound of dollars for x amount of time

 

[FLOTEK]

depending o n the state yo u will have to apply for a tax code after that you will be required to file income reports and pay use and or sales tax ,some states like florida dont requir that at all ,call your better business bureau ,you will likely be considered a self proprioter and would file your income mixed in with your other earned gross wages as a whole ,figure your shop rate so that yo u can cover building and repair costs energy costs also some to possibly pay some help that you trust if you have multiple workers and such ,some income needs set aside for investing back in the company theres more into than most people think and if your forunate youll make a fair portion of the rate in profit or atleast break even.also figure on the fact theres a lot of unforseen out of pocket expense that it will initlally take to get things going and to get capital and supplies.for local business its proabably a smart idea before any high purchases are made for parts you should get atleast half the money upfront in case the customer cant or wont pay.dont be tempted into running it under the table like a lot of places do,just do it the legal honest way and be straight up with people,if you think its going to take 3 weeks tell them ,if its going to cost 400 bucks to fix tell them honestly upfront and remember you dont mess with the governments money cause if your number gets pulled for an audit you ~will go to jail for fraud

 

[blastapole]

yeah I think my states fee is only 50 dollars to get a tax code. Were aiming to get 8-10 grand capital just chillin in a bank account before we open the doors. We have a shop that we've been renting for 2 months now and have just about everything we need. Were just going to outsource our cylinder boring and anything performance wise(porting,head milling etc.....)

There are alot of farmers around here and they ride their quads hard. The 700 I'm fixing now the guy uses it to steer cattle. He said if one dosent fall in line he ropes it and drags it with his polaris.....1200 pound cattle. I:I

Were gonna keep our day jobs at first and hopefully 6-9 months working both places we'll get enough customer base to tell the dickheads at the aviation shop to go f*ck themselves.....lol

 

[FLOTEK]

the four stroke sport bikes and 4x4 utlities should bring in a good amount of work for you
mostly becuase they suck ot work on and everybody is pretty much clueless how to take them apart and repair them lol

 

[370]

your best bet is to incorporate.. that will divide the business's finances from your personal finances incase of financial problems.. the quad/bike repair business is not all rainbows and lolli pops either bro.. there are dry spells. and slow times.. my advice to you would be to keep your overhead low.. bank as much $ as you can... espeically if your renting or buying a building.. if you hit a dry spell the bank doesn't take "uhh works been slow" as a payment.... i've seen alot of places dive because of sh*t like that.. i know i'm a downer... just trying to point you in the right direction..

 

[mach158]

I didnt read everyones post mainly because I get lost reading big huge books without paragraphs but just remember most people will bring you their stuff after they tried tofix it themselves and made it twice as bad.

 

[djack12]

All the advice given is great. Here is one thing my buddy does that owns a motorcycle shop.

If you are just walking it to order a part, you pay up front.

Anything you bring in for repair, you sign for 1 hour labor.

If you bike is getting worked on, and it needs a part, he call the customer to ask them where they want to go with it. If they want the part they just have to come in a sign for it. He pays for the part. When the bike is done the customer pays for it when they pick it up. If they don't come in a pay for it after 30 days they lean sale it to make the money they spent on parts and labor.

if you are going to carry parts in stock, only carry stuff for popular bikes. find out what people ride in your area. don't carry a lot of Suzuki stuff when most ride Yamaha's.

One last thing is think about is who/how you are going to get parts. OEM included. are you going to try and get a account threw a large company like Parts Unlimited, WPS, or Tucker Rocky? Or do you want to just order them online yourself.

Don't forget a mark up for parts you sell. You have to make money on that as well.

 

[blastapole]

Thanks for all the replies. You guys answered a ton of question/scenarios I was wondering about.