so HMI is gone can i get a hell ya

[Stg4raddo]

well i havent been on hear for a while but ive heard HMI is leaving cr or has left. is this true??? is he gone for good or does he think he can open a shop in a more populated area?

oh yea be on the look out for a new shop in or near CR. Im not sure if it will work out in cr though not really a big enough car base for my likes and the fact i would have to over come HMI reputation of being half ass etc :drinkers:

[Deathinnovember]

Theres not enough car base? I thought there was quite a bit of people into cars in CR.


BTW your signature is going to give me nightmares.

[RandomHero]

whats crackin Tyler!!!, yea trent is gone under, word is hes going to debuque(sp?) , what are you thinking about starting up a shop, a reliable shop, with actual performance upgrades (big wings, fart cans, lots of vinyl, and neons aren't performance btw ;) ) cause if you did that would be cool, as long as you do good business and do reliable work youll have no problem gettin business.

[melhoneybee]

He went to davenport, is what I heard anyways...

[Stg4raddo]

Matt i have been thinking about opening a shop in a couple years. But CR doesnt really have enough imports that want to spend money on making their cars faster they would rather have wings and under glow wich i would not sell do to my deep hatered of said items. It all depends on how my school goes but i might leave the mid west and go some ware else.

[Regeneration X]

Dont work with mainly imports then. Go with domestics, euros, and imports. Then you have a HUGE selection. Problem with that though is htat its going to cost a lot of money.

[April]

i think in about 5-10 years....people wont want that stuff for their cars anymore and you'd waste the time and money

[ZacFields]

Trevor B, Mike C, and Myself are in the process of planning the opening of a shop. (several years down the road)

I personally think CR is a great place to open up a shop. A performance shop in CR has no competition, and therefor WHEN the performance razz hits CR (and it will) you'll have nothing to compete against.

Get a dyno...thats where the money is. Car clubs sometimes pay up-front to rent a dyno for an entire weekend. And no doubt they'll check out your shop while they're there for HOURS.

I personally think a performance shop that refuses to sell stuff like lighting and wings is destined to hit the ground. You have to be dynamic. You have to sell what people want. It's not practical to start up a business and say "You will not choose what goes on your car. If you want me to replace your muffler, I will do it to my own specifications. You will not have an excessively loud or 'ricey' muffler because that is not MY style. You will not have a wing spoiler unless you would like to buy it yourself and install it at home by yourself as I personally think they're ugly. I will install a small, better looking spoiler on your car because that's the way I want it. You will not have underglows as they are stupid."

I mean...I guess if you're looking at working on stock cars for hawkeye downs or something then maybe that's practical.

All I know is that if I start a business and some kid comes in and wants a fartpipe and wants to pay me $150 for it....i'll take his money.

That's why I think even a performance shop needs a business major to aid in the process of making business decisions. One thing you'll learn if you major in business is that it is a supply and demand world out there and if you start a business just because you like something then you'll go under because what you like is not necessarily what the people that will be signing your paychecks like.

[Stg4raddo]

zach about the thing about not selling underglow etc. yes that is a major part of the cr area cuz that all people want to buy. i have seen and am working in a shop in cr that just work on VW and Audi they do not sell neon or wings they sell oem and aftermarket. they also have developed and turbo upgrade that allows vws to run 12's on pump gas and stock internals.

also Zach do u really think u can open a shop with trevor and mike c with out having any schooling on how to PROPERLY work on a vehicle. The key to a good shop is keeping it clean selling stuff at good prices being a distributor for company and mostly having ASE CERTIFIED techs.

I do plan on opening a shop possibly in conjuction with DUB Werks tunning to help them expand i do not belive their is really enough car base in CR alone to have a highly profitable shop.

I have talked to krustin, drifte, and DJ and they are all in if i open a shop in CR and the big thing over ur group would be that we would start with two certified techs. no offense to ur group of people but would u rather take ur car to a certified and factory traing tech or some kid that has worked on is car in a garge and thinks he know what he is doin

I already have talked to some major companys in the Euro (VW, bmw etc ) and Honda markets that would love to have a distributor in IOWA.
and we would not just work on one type we would work on honda,vw, audi,dsm,nissan, domestics.

if i started a shop it would be a custom fab and performance as well as a factory recognized repair shop

yes the dyno is a big money maker but if u dont have enough cars what happens when every one has been on the dyno. u just gonna hand them a print out and take them off. to really make money u need to be able to wide band tune a car and make adjust ments to the car when its on the dyno. and being able to burn chips or flash ecu's would be a big plus .

i belive trent made the right move leaving CR he just needs to clean his stuff up and build a good reputation.

[ZacFields]

Well no offense to you, but you're starting a shop with an idea very similar to Trents.

To start a successful business you first will need a loan. (Something overlooked by many people.) DJ, Drifte, Krustin, and you are extremely good auto technicians...but the bank is not going to give you very much money to work with. The reasoning is similar to why the bank was not about to give Trent any money when he started his business. Trent may have known a ton about cars....but the bank is more interested in good business minds than how certified you are to be working on cars.

Also, do you think DJ, Drifte, and Krustin aren't going to want a piece of the pie too? If I'm assuming this right, you are talking about starting a company with 4 or more owners. That's rather strange for an auto based business. Even Quik-Trip is owned by one single person and they have over 500 stores in America. The issue with having 4 owners is that you have to split the profits among the 4 owners. In your first year, you will be lucky to make $60,000 as you will not yet be established. Now at least $20,000 will need to be retained to pump back into the business. Now you're talking about splitting $40,000 among 4 owners. That would be about 10K per owner.

Granted owners can withdrawl money from the business for personal use, but we already established that you can't get much money unless you have someone on board that knows how to handle it. (exe a Business Major or a previous, fairly successful, similar business owner.)

Not to start a "business war" here, but Trevor an I bring a lot to the table that you don't know about.

-Equity: Trevor is now working for his dad's business as a CAD designer. Should be working a lot and making a decent amount of money. I am building a perfect credit report. Not once have I had any bank charges on any credit cards or loans as I never hold a balance on them. I pay them all off monthly.

-Business knowledge: I'm only in my first year of college, but I've been studying businesses since I got into high school. I am very passionate about starting a business and have written NUMEROUS business proposals (for practice) for our potential business. If you don't know what a business proposal is, you should look into it. If your business proposal is not impressive enough, you won't get dust from a bank. Take CR:U for example...even though nobody seems to achnowledge this. This site was dead when I took over. It was getting 8 posts per day. This month we're averaging 190 posts per day. Running a website is very similar to running a business. But instead of money, you gain or lose members.

-Open-Mindedness: This comes from my business classes. You have to do what is going to make you money. You laugh at some kid ricer for wanting you to install a fart can on his car and he will go home and tell his friends what a dick you are. Then all his friends that may have otherwise come to you to work on their cars aren't even going to bother to drive past your shop because they heard that you wouldn't even put a muffler on their friend's car. Telling a kid you won't install a fart can on his car is like saying "hey...I know you're just throwing $150 at me so I can do an incredibly easy install on your car....but fart cans just aren't MY style. Take your $150 someplace else."

Car Knowledge- I don't know much about cars, nor to I pretend to. Trevor is working right now and next year is planning on getting an education. Even though we are the ones who are starting the business, that does not mean we are the ones that will be doing the hardcore work. The business will have employees that will be specially-trained in their specific areas. Trevor and I have already begun to find people that are currently getting an education in areas that we are looking for. Mike C is our best candidate right now for body work as he is going to Wyotech next year to learn collision repair and interiors. I'm trying to convince Mike to stay at Wyotech a little extra time and make sure he learns how to paint a car as well.

That is really as far as we are about getting people to work for us. Naturally we will need more people, but we are being very critical about who we talk to about this. We aren't just picking any random people to come help us do this. The only official person we've chosen is Mike, and i've spent a lot of time talking with him about this.

And as far as critisizing my knowledge of cars. Doesn't phase me. I could start a business that teaches retarded kids french, even though I don't know anything about retarded kids or french. Being a business owner doesn't necessarily mean you are an expert at the business your'e starting. I mean, you can't tell me the person who started Wal-Mart was an "expert" at wal-mart. You have to know what you're doing business-wise and be a strong leader for the people you choose to employ. After you employ your team, you enforce the level of quality on them that you want your customers to see. Trevor and I (theoretically) would inspect the work done to every car before it leaves our shop to make sure it meets our quality standards. If it doesn't, the job will be re-done.

Trent didn't know everything about cars when he started his business, yet I think his business could have hit it big here if he had someone with him that was business-smart. He needed somebody to be constantly walking around the shop and asking his employees questions about what they were doing to those cars and he needed somebody critically inspecting his employee's work before the car left the shop. He also needed somebody to give him advice on some other little things, but in my respect for Trent as a business owner who was doing his best, Im not going to mention them.

I also have other ideas that I'd rather not discuss on the boards. (Can't tell you all my secrets.)

Once again...I haven't even thought a ton about this. It was just a neat idea I had one day that I'm studying on how to carry out. If I even start a business, we're looking at 4 years before I'm even out of school and ready to begin the preperations needed just to get a loan from the bank. So we're looking at 5-6 years from now. Can't really count on everyone to stay interested for the next 5 years, but it would be nice.

Zac

[DJ0820]

As much of a pipe dream the whole idea of opening a shop sounds to me, it'd really be awesome if it got off the ground. As none of you know right now, I am going to school in the business field. This may or may not help me with whatever it is that I am going to do for a career, seeing as I have no idea what I'm going to be doing once I get out of school. And seeing as how I enjoy working on cars in my spare time, this whole shop idea sounds like it would be very nice.

And what Trent really needed was QUALITY CONTROL. You can't expect to succeed without it.

[ZacFields]

DJ has said it exactly.

The idea of starting a business before you actually have a full education and money in your pocket is nothing but a dream. It's a pleasant thought to be your own boss.

Stg4raddo, DJ, Krustin, and Drifte are all some of my best friends from high school. I'd do anything to help you guys out...and I hope you guys would return the favor.

As it seems, I'm the owner of a website based in Cedar Rapids that is gaining 60+ members per month. In fact, we're on pace to gain 90 members this month. Any car shop in Cedar Rapids that gets a contract with CR:U that would give certified CR:U members a discount at their shop would be putting themself in a position to gain quite a bit of business. (Not so much right now...but add 60 members per month for a few years (keep in mind that the members gained per month is rising) wer'e looking at a minimum of probably 2,500 CR:U members 3 years from today (if it's gaining a bare minimum of 60 members per month and never starts rising)

I'd really love to start getting CR:U members some discounts at some local shops.

[Stg4raddo]

yea i know about the perfect credit thing paid my raddo off in less than a year. on a 36 month loan

i am qualified for 3 ASE certs all ready just waiting to get the in feild training. i will have all the certs to be a master tech by next june :supz:

and having 4 owners is a good thing ever heard of limited liablity owners ship if the place fails its not all on one person.

also i would probly be dealing with more than 4 partners i have more people and places than u know. i am currently a distributor for usrt products and Upsolute chip tuning. i am currently looking into being a distributo for gaic chips and flash ecm tuning.

and about the CR:U member ship i am a moderator on VWvortex and many SCI affiliated forums due to personaly knowing the owner of sci.

so basicaly i know i am going to be opening a shop in around 5 years if not sooner depending on how working at a dealer ship is.


and we all should get together at the track some times breaking stuff is fun and two step is even cooler

[ZacFields]

limited liability is good....but like I mentioned in my post it also limits personal income so each owner is less-able to pay back a loan if the business goes under....and you gotta argue with Krustin all day about business decisions (just kidding Krustin)

Also, my basis for mentioning CR:U is that it's based in *cedar rapids*. What good is it to have connections in california, new york, florida, georgia, if you're starting a business in Cedar Rapids?

Like I said though. Whether or not there is another shop in Cedar Rapids when I get ready to start a business is really not a concern of mine. People say there's not enough base in CR for performance tuning but I think that's bull. CR just hasn't been able to trust a performance tuner yet. You start up a shop and start doing quality work and people will come to you.

And if there's 2 quality shops, that just means the interest will grow twice as fast. I honestly think 10 years from now there will be at least 5-10 performance shops in CR. Some big and some small. Just like muffler shops and general maintenance shops. Just nobody has caught on yet. People always want to start a shop in a place that has an existing interest, which is good to some extent, but when you start a performance shop in Chicago, you have competition up the yin-yang and the only way you're going to make true money is if you have gotten a big enough loan from the bank to be able to stick it out as other shops go out of business, therefor sending their few customers elsewhere.

lol....sorry about the long posts everyone. I've done a lot of studying and thinking about this topic.

[ZacFields]

Anyways Tyler I'm through arguing for tonight. If you wanna talk some more, go ahead and shoot me a PM or IM me on AIM...i'm always on.

Let me know when you're coming in town again too. I got your text message last time but I was already scheduled to work that day.

Zac