Disturbed Bird

iTrader: (9)

iv been thinking for a while now about starting my own performance part retail business (i would only be selling parts not installing, i leave that to next level performance.) there is no other place around me like this, except for american motorsports, and there 40 mins away from me and vary pricey. im trying to figure out how i would go about starting this and get it up and running. i live in a area where everyone is trying to be faster or make more power than someone else and i know that seems like everywhere you go. so any info on getting a business like this started would be vary apretiated.

Whistler

iTrader: (46)

Go for it bro you can do anything you put your mind to!

Disturbed Bird

iTrader: (9)

thanks. im just trying to figure how much $$$$$$ i need to start something like this up, and what im looking at spending in the first 2 years just to break even. and of course i would be a sponsor on this great forum of ours.

Lasombra52

iTrader: (3)

First you have to make the contacts with the parts suppliers. So go ahead and start contacting all the companies that you want to list your parts.

#1 Do online first. The first 6 months to a year are going to be HARD, but you have yourself in a good spot. With the 09 coming out soon, just make sure you offer parts for the Camaro and obviously you'll have a crowd from here going to buy stuff from your shop. Don't worry about getting a shop just yet. You can't guarantee that you will have enough money each month for overhead (labor, insurance, business license stuff that you have to pay each month, utilities, rent or mortgage, blah, blah, blah.)

#2 Get to know any and all manufacturer. Call them, tell them what your thinking of doing. See if they can offer any assistance. Remember, you will be selling their items, and gettign them a profit, so they want you to succeed.

#3 Don't quit your day job. Most people that I know of that start a business, do so with both feet, and then all of a sudden, you can't pay the rent or mortgage on your own house. So be careful. If you start working 40 hours a week now. Put 40 more hours into your business out of your home a week.

#4 Market. Get your name EVERYWHERE! Just like you said about being a sponsor. That's a great idea. Do it to multiple boards when you can afford it. Setup Dyno runs for people over at Next Level Performance or some other shop.

Case in point, I spent $90 on a business pizza party for a client about a month ago for their entire staff. Since then we have gotten over $5,000 worth of work. Talk about a return. If you offer some kind of dyno run, or racing event (LATER WHEN YOU CAN AFFORD IT) offer a little in order to participate, and sell your parts at the same time, then you should get a return.

So how much would it cost?

Look into the following:

Website domain and hosting for your company.
The Manufacturer's that you want to deal with.
How much of a wholesale discount they are willing to give you when you purchase there items.

Some manufacturers will allow you to buy once a client has bought an item, but this is RISKY, since you don't know if the item is backordered or not when it is purchased. So you need to get an idea of how much money you can spend on your initial stock in order to stock your garage with some parts and work from there. If it's just you, and your working out of your house, and you have a fully functional website, than once you sell a product, make sure that all proceeds go back into your stock items.

Do not take a paycheck from this company until profits can support you.

Well there is some food for thought for ya. And good luck. I'll be rooting for ya!

mnypitZ

iTrader: (19)

Good Points Jason.

Also, think about some things. Are you married? Do you have a big mortgage or rent? Do you have kids? It is very hard to keep things going with all the distractions. When I went into business and finally left my other job, my wife, all of the sudden thought I was built in babysitter and taxi for my daughter. You know, I wasnt working and all. My wife hated all the hours I put in. Hated being poor. Hated the business. Basically hated me.

You will need to devote every waking moment into the business. You CANNOT succede otherwise. You need a good amount of capitol. If you dont have a money cushion you will fail.

Be at every event possible and do not limit yourselft to just f-body, especially in the beginning. Get to know your compitition and shops in your area well.

Going into business is tough. I blew tens of thousands on my business and after 2 years I was working for someone else and it took me and my family almost a year after that to recover. I absolutely hated cars for a long time too. My passion became my hatred.

Think long and hard and do a lot of research.

Good luck. It can be done and the satisfaction when it is doing well is overwelming, but good things turn fast. Dont get complacent.

01Blue4.8

do it and keep us updated. I'll buy parts off of you to help ya out.

Disturbed Bird

iTrader: (9)

i was thinking about starting a internet site first. but no im not married or have kids yet,lol. so thats one good thing for me since i can devote most of my time in to this. anyone know of a good company that can make a website?

ill give you a discount o1blue4.8

im not going to be just limited to fbodys even tho i would like to but theres just not enogh of them. so i was thinking about doing just domestics or fbodys and mustangs at first.

Choppers

iTrader: (60)

mustangs would bring a big crowd to.

Ntimid8r7

iTrader: (9)

definately Mustang parts too! The have to mod the hell out of them to run with us anyway! lol jk good luck man! hope things can start up for you. I am a business owner as well and it can get tough but you just have to hang in there and it will pay off.

mnypitZ

iTrader: (19)

We have a buddy that can do the website. He is a car guy too. Let me know if you want me to get his info for you. I have to go talk to the neigbor to get his new number. She just had a website done by him. Here is hers, kinda foofoo, but you get the idea and can pretty much add as much as you want for all your parts, and you get the idea.

http://www.thecancancompany.com/

Either way, it looks like you allready have a huge advantage by being single. The internet is a huge market. Just make sure you get some advertising on the big sites and make yourself known with the people that buy this stuff.

Good luck
John

Zralou

iTrader: (3)

There are plenty of DIY easy to use software to create your own website, most will walk you through the process step by step (Eversoft first page is one such software).
Once you've got what you want, go to www.awardspace.com where they offer free hosting with no forced ads, I host my website there (zralou.com). Its limited bandwith (5gigs/month) but for the initial start up that should be plenty.

Good luck with your venture, a few people here have given some VERY good advice, listen to them, there are a LOT of pitfalls in business, one of the biggest being the dreaded Taxman.

Sara Lou

Disturbed Bird

iTrader: (9)

i wouldnt say single just not married. iv been going out with my girl for a little over 4 years, everybody calls her my wife and i spend all my money on her so i guess i am married lol. so thats going to stop for now. all that money will go in to this new venture. i hate working for people just, i just cant do it for vary long. even tho im vary young i have been through alot in my life and always was challenged to do my best and i all ways have to out do or prove my self to others. i did mention im 20 years old right. i know that i seem young but i have been around alot in mylife and most of it was managing my brothers restaurant, worked at ford as mechanic while i was in 10th grade till i ended high school in 2006. and was assistant shop manager and then to parts manager. so iv been in this kind of business for a while and have manager experience. im not stupid i know this will take alot of money and alot of hard work but im up for the task and i rather get it done know and established while i dont have a family or house to lose. so by the time im 40 i can retire and have all the fun i want. but thats what im try to shoot for. so far i have been calling companies all day and been getting dealer prices from AFR, NX, vortech, UMI, nitto, mickey thompson, APS Engineering but im having trouble with them since im to close to next level performance. i will be calling more tomorrow. so will see where this leads to, i already have the name for the business and i got the papers for my city to get my business license. hopefully i will be up and running in the next month or two.
thank you everyone for the info.

383astro

Good luck man. I once did a little selling and I used a company called Keystone. They basically bought up huge amounts of stock and sold it to you at decent prices. There was still room for a turnaround. I made a few bucks and then decided to buy direct from the manufacturer, but I couldnt afford their buyins. I think NX wanted like 5000.00 merchandise buy in before they would sell me anything. Also most companies have price undercutting rules. They wont let you sell their stuff too cheap or their other buyers might go out of business. Thats my 2c

Disturbed Bird

iTrader: (9)

most of the buyins for the companies i spoke to where around $1,000 and buy 2 or so products from them. not as bad as i thought it would be. it is doable to start on the internet and then try to get to a store in my city in a year hopefully. i know alot of people in my city and i work right now for some cops doing general contracting and house remodeling and i do get alot of attention to my cars and bike. most asking where they can performance parts so i may have something here to start with. and being my age i have alot of friends who want to have fast cars.

and thank you for the kind words hopefully i can make this dream happend.

JEB99TA

iTrader: (32)

Business, these days, is tough. You usually either take off in a big way ater many years of struggling or go bust after a short period of time. There's a lot of risk management decisions along the way when growing a business. You shouldn't try to start out without a cash reserve to pull you though hard times. In a small town like this, word-of-mouth travels fast and that is how you seem to plan to start out with a local customer support base.

An Internet customer support base is so fluid because people who do not know you will generally purchase to thos ewho sell the product the lowest. Free shipping entices those customers to go with the big companies who can afford to offer it. Interent sales are so competetive these days that you have to sell for very little profits at high sales volumes to make money. I do believe there is a big market for a shop here, but, you'll need a location and room to stock some common things. Most stuff, you'll have top depend on warehousers and suppliers. When they don't deliver on time, you have to answer as to why ... when sometimes they won't veen give you a reason.

If you can start out in your own place, myself and others will buy Performance parts from you and help you get started. Space is expensive in Lake Mary, but, you can order stuff and be available tfor the customers to come in to see if their parts arrived, which you have ordered for them. People like that ... coming in your shop and seeing you get on the phone to run down the status of their parts when they don't get there on time. Go for it man ... Lake Mary needs a place we can go buy stuff to mod our car with.

mnypitZ

iTrader: (19)

Yep, start out small and build. Dont jump to the storefront too fast. That is kinda what I did. Once I had $40k reserve I rented a space on the main road in Deland. Then Katrina rolled through and I was stuck with a lot of expensive inventory that nobody wanted anymore due to the gas prices. By the time the economy recovered I had liquidated and at a huge loss.

You can "get around" the minimum price compitition requirements some suppliers require by offering free shipping, or throwing in small trinkets as a promo. You get a little less profit, but sometimes more sales at a lower profit is better than little or no sales at a higher profit.

Let us know when you get up and running. Remember, you cant advertise here unless you are a sponser. They get a little touchy about that.

Disturbed Bird

iTrader: (9)

i got done withe the bank and since i have poor credit and no business credit they are going to help me build business credit so i look good on paper. so in 12 weeks i will have the money and have the web site started and be a sponsor on here. so i will keep you guys informed.


im also selling my motorcycle if anyone wants to help me out its a 2007 yzf-R6 and has 150 miles on it, has HID lights from ledguages.com 8000k, frame sliders, flushmount turn signals and undertail kit. i also have a bike stand and alpinestar jacket that i never used. asking $8,700

JEB99TA

iTrader: (32)

Dude, your post count hit 666 on the post above. That's not a good omen. I'd make a few more posts elsewhere and come back and delete this obe above and re-post it for good luck. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Disturbed Bird

iTrader: (9)

lol iya i just saw that

JEB99TA

iTrader: (32)

... depending on your prices and availablility for local pickup, I might look at buying my nitrous setup from you, Josh. Realistically, it comes down to who can provide it the cheapest. If there's only a couple dollars difference and you're a little more expensive, I'd buy from you to help you get started out. I think a lot of local folks here would.