How to Find an Investor

[Spikeroo]

I'm in need of some help here, I work at a Lube shop that has several locations, and its pretty much just me and the manager that work there 8am - 6pm every day, monday - saturday. I make roughly 350 a week, and he brings home around 525. He didn't become manager until a few months ago, and I've noticed that Him and I make a great team. I'm 20, and hes 23, so were both in the same generation, so we get along great. We were sitting around one day, after making a shit ton of sales that day, and I was telling him, I wonder how much we make this shop. We tallied up everything, and it turned out, that month after labor, taxed, and products, we made that location $30k, so why are we getting paid so little to make money, My question here is, how could we start a business changing oil? What are the first steps? Please help!

 

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[PatrickP]

Google the name of the place you work at and look up how much a frachis costs plus construction, land rent etc.

I would make a wild guess you are looking at 500 - 750K.

I really doubt the place you work at nets 30K in one month. Maybe gross but even if it did that comes out to probably less than a quarter mil for investing over half a mil +.

 

[Runum]

The short answer is you buy a jack, some oil, and filters and go at it.

The long answer is that you don't see all of the overhead that the owner pays for. He probably has franchise fees, property taxes, business taxes, sales taxes, franchise taxes, liability and injury insurance, building lease, inventory(oil filters, oil, tools, etc), equipment maintenance, waste disposal, advertising, and employee costs. He probably had to come up with a chunk of change to buy the franchise and get it running.

Not trying to shoot you down, just presenting all the facts.

Oh yeah, I was you 30 years ago.

I wish you well.

 

[The-J]

Don't start a business changing oil. Runum is right: there is a lot of overhead you don't even see that the owner of the lube shop puts in. Unless you work at Jiffy Lube or one of the big franchised lube shops that operate nationwide, I can guarantee that the owner is working a job himself, putting in a lot of hours, just to make what he does.

If you want to help your industry, find something about changing oil or whatever that really annoys you and makes you feel as if you can get the job done much better if you had something to aid you. Find that aid. If the need is strong, you (and maybe your manager, if you decide to partner with him) will be a very rich man. If the need is weak, find another industry.

Welcome to the Fastlane Forum. Hope you enjoy your stay.

 

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[Spikeroo]

It is a private company its not a franchise. I know the owner personally, him and his partner started the business in april of 2009, and now have 7 Different locations, and they both own all of them.

 

[Runum]

It is a private company its not a franchise. I know the owner personally, him and his partner started the business in april of 2009, and now have 7 Different locations, and they both own all of them.

OK, so you eliminated the franchise costs. What about the other costs?

As I said, you can buy the tools, rent a building, and find a source of inventory and be in business. You will have bought yourself an expensive job. You will work unbelievable hours to keep everyone around you happy. Your return on hours will be very little.

I did same thing in 1988-1991. Worked myself to death. Had to get a job so I could rest. There are a hundred local guys that can do what you are doing and they all think they can do it better.

Now, what I did not do was build a business. My HUGE mistake. The owner of your shop has built a business. It runs without him being there. He has systems in place that work everyday. If you quit he gets another person just like you to do you job.

You don't want to do this and build yourself a job, you want to build a business. Have you read "The E Myth"? It's worth a read for where you are right now and what you are considering.

 

[PatrickP]

It is a private company its not a franchise. I know the owner personally, him and his partner started the business in april of 2009, and now have 7 Different locations, and they both own all of them.

Well if he did it and actually built a business and not a job stay where you are and learn as much as you can.

Who knows you could do the same thing in the next town over.

 

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[The-J]

You might want to find out what the owner of the franchise actually does. Does he do what he wants, or does he spend his time in an office for long hours? What's his role in the company? What does he actually do for the business? Then based on that figure out if it's something you want to do long-term.

Based on what I know from you, it doesn't look like a good idea.

 

[DeletedUser2]

you have the right mindset, look at a currently operating business, do some quick math, see it might work.
now you need to add the other aspects in.

1. fast research. learn to discover the base business model of anything you look at.
2. accounting .05 (NOT EVEN 101) figure out what are the basic numbers that most all businesses have.
3. market research, is there a need? can you reach that need economically?
4. self assessment. do you have the skills to roll out a series of them? do you have the mindset?
5. cash start up assessment. have the cash? if no, how much will it cost you to get the cash? and is it worth it?

OK now you can go out and assess 100 biz, and find the right ones, the scalable ones, the ones that work. so you dont have too.

hope that helps
Z