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A little about me to start off with, because it might be important later on.

I'm 49, I've been doing this for about 3 years now. I'm self taught, with a lot of help from the good folks here and youtube. But no schooling for it.

Last year sucked to high heaven. Went though a divorce and depression. Sold my home and moved in with family, in a town far far away. One of the reasons I moved here is because my brother said there was no small engine shops close by. It was in August of last year that I made the move. Honestly, because I was new here, I just sort of barely scraped by. My credit is shot and my savings are non existent.
Yesterday I was at the scrap yard in the next town over (about 30 minutes from the very small town, in which I live way outside of) looking for some parts, when I happen to meet up with the mayor of that town. (he owned the scrap yard). He said "we need a small engine shop in this town." And that he could help out with some sort of city government development thing. I have no idea what that even means. He told me about the building that used to be a small engine shop, so I swung by and took a peek inside. It still had all the small engine signs, counter and work benches. The back has an 8 ft chain link fence around it, with big sliding gates on both sides. I got VERY excited.
The guy who was there before, moved to another town, and his son took over the small engine business in that town, in a different building a few blocks away. He's still in business. But, from what I understand, he's rarely there. The word around town is that people have stopped using him because he's never there to fix anything. And the commercial mower guys, refuse to do business because they need their stuff right away.

Now, my question: I don't have a clue about starting a business. It's got to be more than just getting the lights and water turned on. I'd have to rent the building, because of my credit. Stocking the parts? Tax ID number? Coming up with the money things I'll need (saw sharpener, leak down tester etc etc). And a whole slew of other things that will have to address.
My first hurdle is a lack of confidence in being good enough. There's gotta be a thousand things I don't know. What I don't know, I can usually figure out. Or get a legit answer here or on Youtube. And the other is weighing the difference between a public store front in town vs doing this out of the shop here at the house. Which is what I've been doing since I started doing this. Which is dayum easy. I don't have to worry about taxes getting paid. Including collecting and paying sales tax. Lot's of cash payments. (almost all, in fact). Nor do I have to worry about insurance.

Maybe some of you who've opened up a shop in town, could give me some insight on all this? Is a store/shop more trouble than it's worth? Would it be better just to work from home? And maybe throw in some details. I'm all ears.
Being January, I have a little time before things get busy. But being in the south (Arkansas), I don't have a lot of time before the rush hits.

There is a lot involved running a business. Main problem is your resources, you got to have fairly deep pockets to start up an location dependent shop. As you said you will need insurance for at least the liability part plus having an inventory is a plus but necessary if you have vendors that can deliver is a couple days. Renting a building can be problem during the off season if things are like mine where repairs and sales are non existence this time of year.
Time is also a problem as single person shop you would need to be there all the time during business hours but hiring an employee(s) has it own drawback as the paperwork, insurance, and taxes. Paying someone when there is no income is a will downer too.

Having a good business accounting/shop software is a big plus as it can do a lot paperwork, inventory tracking, equipment repairs tracking and invoicing, along all the other accounting that you would need to do.

Here I run my shop out of a two car separate garage at home so I am here most days for parts runs on the dealer only items. Since 2009 I have finally manage to get a few distributors online so I am currently reducing the 35K in inventory due quick parts delivery now. I currently down to 25K in house parts with that reducing even more this coming season. Here my is usually dead until late March here in South Central Tennessee. I was really surprised that things didn't slowdown until late October last year.

Just a few thoughts but others will jump in with their ideas and experiences.

You would have to get liability insurance, and a tax ID number to start. You could run it as a sole proprietor which is what I do. A lot of small engine shops use Quickbooks for their accounting software. Something to keep in mind is the fixed cost of electric, water, heat, rent and insurance. And depending on where you are located you will make 75-90 percent of your annual income between March and October.

Also keep in mind if you want to get serious you will need to pick up some OEM engine manufacturers and maybe some authorized service center lines like MTD, Husqvarna/Poulan lines. or a major Z turn manufacturer. That whole setup could run in the $75,000-150,000 range.

I suspect there is more to the other guy is never there, which could mean there isn't as much business for repairs as people would let on, and because of that the owner is needing to work a second job.

I bought this service run some 8 years ago.
I have been faffing around with old motorcycles all my life so was familiar with engines, just not mowers.
Things went very well for 6 years then the drought bit and work stopped dead so these last 2 years I have been running at a loss.
Like AVB I run things out of the garage under a friends old farm house and " rent" is hours of farm work.
If I was paying rent then this year would have sent me bankrupt.
My best week last year was the first week of december when I did 17 fire pumps at an average $ 65 a hit due to bush fires nearby and that would not cover a weeks commercial rent.
I carry around $ 80,000 in inventory which was built up simply by buying 2 of every thing that was needed .
Down here parts a very expensive so I can get away with adding a 100 % mark up on most parts bought wholesale thus most of the inventory was effectively free.
Confidence comes with experience & knowledge, I take it one step further and run everything I fix for at least 1/2 hour before the customer gets it back .
Every person who posts a problem on here & the other 9 or so forums I haunt, I diagnose in my head regardless of weather I post and by now my hit rate is about 80%.
I run MYOB for billing and FileMaker for inventory of selected parts .
The latter is just to make it easy for me to find if I have the parts & monitor their useage, particularly blades & belts .

Regardless of weather you have a shop front or not you must have public liability insurance.
We all make mistakes and the first time some one gets hurt , you will get taken to the cleaners without it. Even when testing a mower you can find a rock, and hit a person or property with it.

I have found that time spent with customers is my biggest advantage so running a shop is not on as I can not be in 2 places at the same time.
If the town is not too far away get some flyers made up and work there mobile if you think that pickings will be better there than where you are.
Pick up their mowers after hours, try to do several in one hit, quote them all a week and do not charge for pick up & delivery.
Hold off delivery till you have a pick up if possible. Right now your biggest asset is your time which costs you nothing .
There is no mower shop in my town, one in the next town , 3 miles away & all the rest are 10 miles away.

Do not put your head in the shopfront noose if you have no capital particularly for stock.
Walking into a shop that does not have shelves full of goods sends bad vibes to the customers that you are just holding on and they will be uneasy leaving their mowers with you.

In your down time buy as much junk as you can afford and repair them.
Keep them for "loaners" so in peak season you can drop off the loaner then take your time repairing their mower.
I sell most of the used mowers like this because the customer finds that my loaner is as good or better than their main mower.
This is particularly important with things like chain saws & blowers where a new one from Wallys will be cheaper than you repairing their old one.

For all you know, the Mayor's brother could be the owner of the old shop and it might be empty because it is not a viable business, particularly if they have a Lowes or Aldi handy dumping cheap Chinese goods .

Bert check out Adminsoft accounting with Auto Manager. I think you will find it is more of what you need for shop software. Just be aware that the payroll module is for the UK only. Even without the payroll module you should find it rather robust software especially for zero upfront cost program.

PTmowerMech, As for my shop I kinda lucky to be 20+ miles from of the local shops. Because most of them are not that good a repairs does help too. Even the JD shop has rather bad rep on repairs of lawn care equipment.

As for advertising if you do good work then word of mouth referrals are the best. In the 10+ years I have been in business I have yet to advertise the business other than a sign in front of the shop. The winter months are the roughest for me so I started learning ATVs repairs with customers understand that I am new at the repairs so it takes me a little longer than most shops. But considering most of the ATV shops are running at 1-2 behind and I get one out in a couple weeks isn't all that bad. The new tools are the biggest headache at the current time.

As noted watch the repair costs vs replacement costs. Some things are just not worth the headaches if it is not something minor. As buying or just getting it gave to you used broken equipment it is a good way to learn new procedures on without guinea pigging your customers equipment.

Now my business nearly went under in 2014 but it wasn't the lack of business it was that my mother developed dementia and it was a full time job taking care of her. No regrets though.

I question whether in this day and age of the big box store, craigslist, the internet and a throw away society, one can make a legitimate profit consistently working on small engines only. I'd look into a full or part time job for a business owner with deep pockets ( maybe a dealership or hardware store that sells mowers and chainsaws or bikes) and start a side business for added income. It wouldn't be nearly the fun, but Fridays would be payday. Just my two cents. I wish you the best whatever you decide. Gearjammer

Thanks for all the replies. After some thought about this, I'm leaning towards just working out of the shop here at home for a year. And just see how much business I can drum up. My only advertising is through facebook. My brother is a contractor around here and knows everyone and their mother. That's been a nice help. I learned where I lived before (Texas) just how well word of mouth is.
All this expense of stocking, insurance, taxes and other stuff, sounds like a bit much to jump into without really checking things out a little better. if things go really good here, I'll be able to ease into a shop in the other town. I've never been one to jump into many things without at least checking out few aspects.

I found out that the other repair guy has a wife with cancer. So then there's that.

AVB said:

Bert check out Adminsoft accounting with Auto Manager. I think you will find it is more of what you need for shop software. Just be aware that the payroll module is for the UK only. Even without the payroll module you should find it rather robust software especially for zero upfront cost program.

PTmowerMech, As for my shop I kinda lucky to be 20+ miles from of the local shops. Because most of them are not that good a repairs does help too. Even the JD shop has rather bad rep on repairs of lawn care equipment.

As for advertising if you do good work then word of mouth referrals are the best. In the 10+ years I have been in business I have yet to advertise the business other than a sign in front of the shop. The winter months are the roughest for me so I started learning ATVs repairs with customers understand that I am new at the repairs so it takes me a little longer than most shops. But considering most of the ATV shops are running at 1-2 behind and I get one out in a couple weeks isn't all that bad. The new tools are the biggest headache at the current time.

As noted watch the repair costs vs replacement costs. Some things are just not worth the headaches if it is not something minor. As buying or just getting it gave to you used broken equipment it is a good way to learn new procedures on without guinea pigging your customers equipment.

Now my business nearly went under in 2014 but it wasn't the lack of business it was that my mother developed dementia and it was a full time job taking care of her. No regrets though.

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Thanks for suggestion.
Sorry to hear about your mother.
Mine was in & out of Hospices for over 10 years which made me a mental wreck.

Like a lot of things , we use what we have & know.
The hire car business & the delivery business were both run with MYOB.
With no employees ( I pay myself a dividend every 6 months ) I do not need the payrol tax updates so I can use the old ( MYOB 10 ) application that own & I have on old computers. so they are now free.
I did try to use the MYOB inventory system, but t was way too much work to set up and where possible I try to charge parity prices for a lot of parts so I would be forever updating it.
Thus all the invoices are service invoices with a second line that simply reads "parts" with a price next to it.
Showing under $ 75,000/pa turn over I can & do opt out of GST ( sales tax to some ) so it is just a labour charge & a parts charge.
Similar story with Filemaker.
Been using it for decades on an old computer as it is version 7 ( 1998 ? )
I can invoice out of it as well which I do for the commercial customers so they can monitor parts useage and for the odd residential who wants a detailed invoice.
Filemaker also is my job register and customer record.
The trick to it is to use filenames that make sense to me.
Thus Robo Robs Lawncare gets a file name of RRL and invoice numbers RRL 2020?? to RRL 2020?? ( FOR 2020 ).
Dave Smith being a private customer is DaSm 001 onwards
Thus a find on RRL or DaSm will bring up all of their invoices in chronological order.
IT also makes it difficult for the tax auditor because I have better than 300 different invoice number sequences and they can not understand that.
And my bank statement has number sequences all over the place for the customers who direct deposit so the tax man does not notice invoice number 1234 that you got paid cash for & forgot to bank.
A blank page with no data except for the customer name & machine details printed out becomes the job card which cuts down the paperwork and the "office costs" a lot.
It did take a couple of years to get the data files to where I wanted them but it works really well.
Stens wanted me to use their "free POS " softwear and it looks good but of course it also allows them to work out whose parts you are using and is preset to replace all parts used at the end of every month.
I still have around 100 job tags out of the ones I inherited with the business and when a customer asks for one I use one of these but most don't bother because they quickly realize they are a person and not a job ticket number.
When it is all said & done I would average about 3 jobs a day and it would be really nice if they came in that way and not 20 chain saws the day of the heavy winds that knocked down hundreds of trees or 15 fire pumps the day the bushfire got to 5 miles away or 42 generators the day the power went out & was going to be out for a week but that is the nature of the beast.

PTmowerMech said:

I found out that the other repair guy has a wife with cancer. So then there's that.

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That is how I got this run in the first place.
The owners wife who was 22 years younger than him was diagnosed with a terminal heart condition.
So it was sell the house, sell the business & get stuck into the bucket list while she could still walk.

Please do not baulk on the insurance way too many good people ended up in the poorhouse cause they were "too small for all that stuff "
Also check how you stand as a LLC or sole trader the set up costs might be a hurdle but if I get hit with a massive claim, the only thing to sue is the business.
The busines has very litle money in the bank and only asset ( on the books ) is the parts inventory.
All the tools are my personnel property and branded with my drivers license number .

Ptmowermech. If you do nothing else at least look at having liability insurance. Don't have to insure the inventory just need something to cover you if something goes wrong. Basically something to cover you if something goes wrong with a repair.

Here is a personal example that happened to me two years ago, and I was found not to be at fault so not a charge against my insurance, but most policies have what they call a no fault clause, which is an out for the insurance company to pay somebody to go away. I had a customer come into the shop with his new saw that had thrown the chain from the bar. I inspected the bar and chain and found nothing really wrong other than a few burrs on the bottom of a few drive links that I knocked off with a file. Test ran the saw with no problem. Got a call from the customers wife the next evening saying that the chain had come off again and the husband had to go to the emergency room and received 34 stitches in his leg. After all was investigated I was not found to be at fault but the insurance settled with paying him $5000 to cover medical bills. And the kicker is his son was using the saw and it became pinched and when he pulled it out of the tree he flexed the bar at full throttle which threw the chain off of the bar and cut his fathers leg. Chain didn't break and never left the saw since it was contained by the sprocket and side cover.

All the small shops around me have closed. My shop is a 24x24. Building and i am a small one man shop. I am retired so fixing mowers does not pay all the bills. I make enough to buy most the toys snd tools i want. My suggestion is become a sole proprietorship LLC, get a tax ID #, get liability insurance for the LLC. Open a checking account and credit card in the LLC name. Get business cards. All this is fairly cheap. You will need to charge sales tax and show taxable income. Talk to an accountant it will be worth what they charge.
Most of my work like other shops is seasonal so in off season i do handyman work. I stock very little in parts, mainly fuel system, oil filters, air filters and spark plugs. Most everything else i order as needed. I looked at opening a storefront shop. I would have to charge about $100 an hour like the 2 John deere dealers near me plus be a dealership for some line of mowers and power equipment. Sales generates more money than service.
Check with your local zoning about running a business out of the building you are going to use. If in a small community leave business cards at local businesses like the bank, hardware store, independent auto repair shop, restaurants. Make up a flyer advertising seasonal maint to go with the cards. When you fix a piece of equipment give the customer 3 business cards. Tell them keep one and give the other to friends. Stand behind your work. If something comes back fix it free regardless of reason. Reputation is everything. I buy 500 business cards every year. Cards are cheap from vistaprint. If possible get a trailer to do pickup and delivery. Will really increase your riding mower business.
Good luck

The best promotion I have done was to give the 3 local primary schools a free service voucher.
They get one each every year which becomes a minor raffle prize at a fundraiser.
The actual cost to me is next to nothing as service parts that are included are filters , oil , belts & blades.
It blew one of them away when I fitted 3 new blades to their 48" ride on, no charge.
The actual cost of the service is about 1 ad in the local newspaper and only about 2/3 of the vouchers get redeemed.
I put a 2 year expirey date on these so they don't come back & bite me.
I also don't worry when the person presenting them is not the person they were originally awarded to.
I also do pensioner work with a fixed , discounted labour fee.
They pay full price for parts but only $ 29 to get their walk behinds serviced & $ 50 for a small ride on.
These people can not afford a new mower so become regular customers because they want the mowers to outlast them.

The younger new residents just go into the city & buy a new mower.

From what I've seen, buying used (cheap) fixing & selling it, makes a LOT more money than repairs. I don't take credit cards. But customers with Facebook accounts, can pay with their cards through Facebook pay. It's free. With a credit card service, IIRC, they charge like 3% to 5%.

PTmowerMech said:

From what I've seen, buying used (cheap) fixing & selling it, makes a LOT more money than repairs. I don't take credit cards. But customers with Facebook accounts, can pay with their cards through Facebook pay. It's free. With a credit card service, IIRC, they charge like 3% to 5%.

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I used to do some of that also, but it got to the point where people were not wanting to pay more than about $25-30 for push mowers and $150-200 for riders.

Same story with reselling repaired stuff as well.
They come to the gate almost every day and demand a $ 10 trade in.
Got sick of argueing with them so I wheel out an old Victa with holed wheels and a rusted through deck and rusty handles.
When they look aghast I produce a set of replacement blades & bolts clearly marked $ 7-50 and drop the line this is a $ 2-50 mower or $ 10 with new blades, won't charge them my std $ 15 fitting fee for the blades , catcher is $ 20 extra .
I get called some nice ripe words and most then leave $ 20 worth of rubber on the road as they wheel spin away giving me the bird as they go.
Really restore one's faith in humanity and sets you up mentally for a fun day.

The reasonably good mowers that are worth repairing get repaired and then loaned out to the desperate ( my daughter is getting married tomorrow & I got to mow the grass before the marquee is errected ).
Most of the used sales happen this way .

I used to flip mowers. Not any more. Most folks don't want to, like the man said, pay more than a couple hundred dollars for a used rider. Even if someone gives me an old rider by the time i put parts in it like blades, filters and belts and 3 or 4 hours of my time at my shop rate of $40/hr i am in it for more than i can sell it for. most folks want me to pay them like a hundred for a mower that i need to fix up and give a warranty on. Thanks but no thanks. Most things i flipped i either lost money or just broke even. My labor is worth something. A wise man once told me "There is no money in owning a boat but there is good money in fixing other people's boats." Very true words
I don't want your mower
I want you to pay me to fix your mower. I refuse to have a mower junkyard behind my shop. I don't install used parts and i don't warehouse junk so someone can save a few dollars on a repair i have to warranty. That is a different guy. Junk mowers i get go to the scrap yard.

ILENGINE said:

I used to do some of that also, but it got to the point where people were not wanting to pay more than about $25-30 for push mowers and $150-200 for riders.

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Dang I can see why you stopped doing that. I get more than that for on during the winter. Sold one a couple of weeks ago for $300. Decent push mowers, (plain Jane with good paint) will go for about $60.
Depending on the time of the year. Buy cheap in the winter, sell in the spring & summer. Pick up a lot of free mowers. Ones with good paint, save to sell, Bad paint jobs I use as parts mowers.
People are funny about paint. They'll give more for a mower with a good paint job, but doesn't run or cut just right, than they'll give for one that runs like brand new, but has a chip in the paint or a busted hood.

Hammermechanicman said:

I used to flip mowers. Not any more. Most folks don't want to, like the man said, pay more than a couple hundred dollars for a used rider. Even if someone gives me an old rider by the time i put parts in it like blades, filters and belts and 3 or 4 hours of my time at my shop rate of $40/hr i am in it for more than i can sell it for. most folks want me to pay them like a hundred for a mower that i need to fix up and give a warranty on. Thanks but no thanks. Most things i flipped i either lost money or just broke even. My labor is worth something. A wise man once told me "There is no money in owning a boat but there is good money in fixing other people's boats." Very true words
I don't want your mower
I want you to pay me to fix your mower. I refuse to have a mower junkyard behind my shop. I don't install used parts and i don't warehouse junk so someone can save a few dollars on a repair i have to warranty. That is a different guy. Junk mowers i get go to the scrap yard.

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I never give more than $100 for a mower. Usually it's just a little more than scrap price. If it's close, I'll pick it up. A lot of the time, I'll get my resell mowers for free. I'm going tomorrow to pick up a John Deere for $45. THE only thing that wrong with it, that I seen myself, is a blown fuse and the paint is not good.

Some the same story about not selling used equipment most cost to repair than it can be sold for. Just gave up repairing any left mowers or purchased ones instead just parting them out now. Now my brother half way repair them and get the same money I tried to sell them at for here. Most poeple lately are just barking that they get them at yard sales for a little of nothing.

I basically just got where I repair the ones that customers are willing to have repaired correctly and just forget the rest.

And Bert I think figured out where the world you are. It wouldn't be the big island across that big pond that is on fire right now?

Yep,
We were under fire advice a goodly amount of Dec & early Jan.
If the Erskine Creek fire jumps containment lines then we will be in danger again.
A problem cause by city dwelling white men who naturally know better how to manage the land because they are white & have computers.
The only place that does not have catastrophic fires is the bit we thought was worthless so left the native inhabitants alone to do their silly cultural burning

Now it not so silly now. That land is probably looking good now.

Most city dwelling idiots couldn't sneeze without a permit. It like here in a way the county fire department jumped all over me for cleaning a fence row by burning small piles of brush once I move it to a safe place. 60 yrs doing this and now they think I am not able to do safely during dry spells. Small low burning fire are a lot easier to control than ones with all the extra fuel. Its just a matter of common sense but of course they can't drive either without using a cell phone, reading a newspaper, or putting on make-up (guys included on this one).

Several years ago I drove through a local town that had billboards up saying it was illegal to do your own plumbing. Otherwords you couldn't even change out a leaky faucet. Still all the local hardware stores sold the replacements.

How did Sting say it ?
First came the churches, then came the schools then came the authorities then came the rules.

As for where we are it is a good idea to have that in the right hand block.
I have asked for it to be returned because it makes a difference to what we can do.Things are very different in Europe or the UK and massively different down here when the big names have cozy franchise arangements.

As for DIY,
We were dirt poor when i was young so there was no such thing as calling in a plumber, builder or electrician
I am 68 and the only time I have called an electrician is to repair the fuse box that got hit by lightning and that was only because the supply authority had pulled their fuses .
I ran the office & workshop using 3 generators, one hooked up to each phase so an not to accidentially create phasing problems The fuses for all the 3 phase stuff were pulled.
The electrician was amazed at what I had done , He could not understand why I did not want some one to come out & fix it immediately ( on a holiday weekend at twice the price ) .

When we sold our house in the mountains we needed to get an electrical safety check.
The electrician who did this said " you have done a beautiful job on the wiring "
What makes you think I did it ?
"Because it is neater and better laid out than any professional would have done." was his answer.

When I moved into this workshop , it had been rewired before I got here.
The power was always a bit funny so when I finally got around to checking I found
5 circuits with the max allowed 8 GPO's on each one on a single phase
the "b" phase had nothing on it but the stove & lathe
the 'C" phase had nothing on it but the lathe & lights
And this autrosity was done by a licensed professional.

Balancing the load better and my power problems vanished plus the power bill went down around 12%

AVB said:

Now it not so silly now. That land is probably looking good now.

Most city dwelling idiots couldn't sneeze without a permit. It like here in a way the county fire department jumped all over me for cleaning a fence row by burning small piles of brush once I move it to a safe place. 60 yrs doing this and now they think I am not able to do safely during dry spells. Small low burning fire are a lot easier to control than ones with all the extra fuel. Its just a matter of common sense but of course they can't drive either without using a cell phone, reading a newspaper, or putting on make-up (guys included on this one).

Several years ago I drove through a local town that had billboards up saying it was illegal to do your own plumbing. Otherwords you couldn't even change out a leaky faucet. Still all the local hardware stores sold the replacements.

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This is what makes me wanna just stay where I'm out. I'm outside the city limits of a small non interventionist town. No codes, not permits. Nothing but me and my customers. Customers are enough to deal with. But most of them pay cash. So all the money I make, is mine. I'll probably make a lot less, than if I were to open that shop in the nearby town. But will have a lot less headaches. That's worth something. In the end, It'll probably work out about the same.

AVB said:

Now it not so silly now. That land is probably looking good now.

Most city dwelling idiots couldn't sneeze without a permit. It like here in a way the county fire department jumped all over me for cleaning a fence row by burning small piles of brush once I move it to a safe place. 60 yrs doing this and now they think I am not able to do safely during dry spells. Small low burning fire are a lot easier to control than ones with all the extra fuel. Its just a matter of common sense but of course they can't drive either without using a cell phone, reading a newspaper, or putting on make-up (guys included on this one).

Several years ago I drove through a local town that had billboards up saying it was illegal to do your own plumbing. Otherwords you couldn't even change out a leaky faucet. Still all the local hardware stores sold the replacements.

Click to expand...

Getting way off topic, but for 60,000 years ( some now say 90,000 ) the black fellas burned every inch of this country using nothing but some branches with leaves on the end to direct it.
The did this to burn off the stuff that the animals they hunted did not eat and to encourage new growth because most browsers or graizers prefer fresh young shoots.
Us white fellas who know everything because we have the "right " god and of course are white banned them from doing this and within a few decades nearly every major settlement burned down.
So we learned from them how to manage the bush with fire.
However once we went into the machine age we forgot all that we learned and resorted to our God given right to be here & use the land for our purpose.
Now I am not a religious person but did have a religious upbringing & read the entire King James Bible cover to cover plus a goodly lumps of the Tora.
However in those thousands of pages I can not remember a single world about burning eucluptyus forests.
The end results of this is of course the fires of last season & this season and as we rely on bigger boys toys, next year as well.

There's lots of good advice for a prospective small engine shop owner in this thread. I've never had a shop like that; I'm just a hobbyist. But I suggest that, if there isn't enough business to support a viable small engine business, you could consider another line of business to supplement small engine repair. For me that might be bicycle repair. It's a growing sport and it's less seasonal than mowing. Some of the tools overlap and the basic skills are the same.

Bert, I'm sorry to hear about your troubles with drought and fire. I think you're right about the wisdom of the native people of Australia and I think that applies to North America as well. In the case of the repeated problems with wildfires in California, there are ways known to modern man (native Americans knew 10,000 years ago) to minimize the effect of brush fires. You can create fire breaks and do controlled burns. You'll still have fires but they will be smaller and not catastrophic like the ones we've been having. But so-called environmentalists oppose these measures even though the huge fires that result from these policies are terrible for the environment.

California, Spain & Greece all bought euclyptus from us because they grow very fast for hardwoods,
With that came all of our missinformation about managing them.
None of these places have kangaroos , Wallabies & Wombats to keep them trimmed

Hello,

Why not start your business part time before jumping in with both feet. I tried starting a business machining metal parts during the "Great Recession", and I got very few customers, although most tool and die shops had little work and a lot went under.

Starting any business is about being in the right place at the right time. Give some thought to, I'll come to you instead of you bringing your equipment to me.

Regards

Jeff

The building I was looking at, that still had all the small engine signs on the front, apparently was just opened up. One of my customers from over there sent me a picture of the advertisement.
I was a little disappointed to see it opening up. I get the feeling I should've went for it.

No you did right thing.
If you do not have the capital when you open a retail space you are on a hiding to nothing.
The shelf stock would have cost at least $ 50,000 that you do not have.
If the people who walk through the door find you don't have the part they want, they don't come back .
Next time you are in the area, pop in & have a chat.
Offer your services to the at a discount if they get too busy , that can be very profitable in the long run and you are then getting a lot of exposure to different mowers.
They will give you all of the labour intensive jobs that will clog up their workshop.

bertsmobile1 said:

No you did right thing.
If you do not have the capital when you open a retail space you are on a hiding to nothing.
The shelf stock would have cost at least $ 50,000 that you do not have.
If the people who walk through the door find you don't have the part they want, they don't come back .
Next time you are in the area, pop in & have a chat.
Offer your services to the at a discount if they get too busy , that can be very profitable in the long run and you are then getting a lot of exposure to different mowers.
They will give you all of the labour intensive jobs that will clog up their workshop.

Click to expand...

Hopefully I made the right decision. I feel like I did. I'm starting to get some folks stopping and asking me about the equipment I have out by the road. (3 push mowers, a rider without a deck, blower and a tiller). One guy, a friend of my brothers, is bringing me his zturn this weekend for spindle bearing and a service. And buy a push mower. Another is coming to buy a push mower. And it's the first of Feb.
Hopefully by spring, I'll be too busy to do any work for the other shop. If not, then I'll offer.
And honestly, that shop had very little spacing between the front of the shop and the road. So everything would've had to be done in the back. I want more frontage.

Frontage costs a lot of money.
Shops in side streets usually work better.
Lots of them around here are in industrial estates.

bertsmobile1 said:

Frontage costs a lot of money.
Shops in side streets usually work better.
Lots of them around here are in industrial estates.

Click to expand...

I'd rather have something that resembles an old fashion gas station. (without the pumps) bays on the side, office windows to see the front.
The shop here at the house, is on the side. With a drive going up to the shop from the road. Lots of room between the shop and the road. Plenty of room for people with trailers to turn around. And room behind to shop fense to put several parts mowers.

PTmowerMech said:

The building I was looking at, that still had all the small engine signs on the front, apparently was just opened up. One of my customers from over there sent me a picture of the advertisement.
I was a little disappointed to see it opening up. I get the feeling I should've went for it.

Click to expand...

PTmowerMech said:

. And room behind to shop fense to put several parts mowers.

Click to expand...

I used to put junk mowers behind the shop. Not any more. Folks want to pay next to nothing for an expensive part or a part for an old POS mower they are too cheap to buy a new mower and they sure don't want to pay good money for a part for it. There are other old guys with the mower junkyards they can shop at. I warranty my work so no used parts for paying customers. If a cust wants me to install a used part they bring in i will but no warranty. If you are going to go into business you really need to have a business mindset. Fixing mowers is the easy part. Figuring expenses vs income, keeping track of taxes, insurance, advetising, managing inventory, tool costs, do you pay sales rax on parts up front or setup tax free accounts with vendors and track sales tax. When it is all said and done will you make enough profit to meet your needs. I am lucky i have a small building on my property i work out of so no rent or mortgage payment. If i had a store front i would not make enough profit to be viable.there is a reason the dealers around me charge $100 per hour for labor. Lots of overhead. Before you ever sign a lease. Add up all your monthly expenses, lease payment, utilities, insurance, trash etc. Now honestly calculate your average monthly income minus parts and supplies. Sutract the expenses from the income and will result meet you needs? Will it allow for retirement savings? Medical coverage? This just acratches the surface. Friends of mine have retired and decided to open a business. They all have closed. If you are going to try and open a business be brutally honest with yourself. A charity is a non-profit organization. A mower shop shouldn't be. Just my soapbox $.02 worth.

Hammermechanicman said:

I used to put junk mowers behind the shop. Not any more. Folks want to pay next to nothing for an expensive part or a part for an old POS mower they are too cheap to buy a new mower and they sure don't want to pay good money for a part for it. There are other old guys with the mower junkyards they can shop at. I warranty my work so no used parts for paying customers. If a cust wants me to install a used part they bring in i will but no warranty. If you are going to go into business you really need to have a business mindset. Fixing mowers is the easy part. Figuring expenses vs income, keeping track of taxes, insurance, advetising, managing inventory, tool costs, do you pay sales rax on parts up front or setup tax free accounts with vendors and track sales tax. When it is all said and done will you make enough profit to meet your needs. I am lucky i have a small building on my property i work out of so no rent or mortgage payment. If i had a store front i would not make enough profit to be viable.there is a reason the dealers around me charge $100 per hour for labor. Lots of overhead. Before you ever sign a lease. Add up all your monthly expenses, lease payment, utilities, insurance, trash etc. Now honestly calculate your average monthly income minus parts and supplies. Sutract the expenses from the income and will result meet you needs? Will it allow for retirement savings? Medical coverage? This just acratches the surface. Friends of mine have retired and decided to open a business. They all have closed. If you are going to try and open a business be brutally honest with yourself. A charity is a non-profit organization. A mower shop shouldn't be. Just my soapbox $.02 worth.

Click to expand...

All those things you listed is why I didn't jump on the shop in town. Even with the mayors help, it wouldn't have been near enough to do more than working for taxes, insurance, rent, parts and supplies.

The parts mowers come in real handy. Especially for parts that aren't extremely important. Coils, seats, rebuildable carbs, wiring harnesses, etc etc. I wouldn't put a crank or something to that effect on a customers mower. Unless they agreed to it. I'll sell used parts all day long.
The guy who opened up the shop I was looking at, I wish him well. He probably got the same $15K the mayor was offering me. But can't say or sure. From what I'm hearing from my customers over there, no one really knows him. Although he lives there. Maybe it's just my customers that don't know him.
One thing I have on him, at the moment, is I pick up & deliver. That be the case, it's not gonna matter the location (here at home).

PTmowerMech said:

One thing I have on him, at the moment, is I pick up & deliver. That be the case, it's not gonna matter the location (here at home).

Click to expand...

I live in a rural area and everyone has some type of riding mower. I bought a trailer specifically for pickup and delivery. My bread and butter is annual maintenance on riders. I also get their trim mower too. The dealers charge about $100 to pickup and deliver, i can beat that. Without the truck and trailer i would not be in business. I added a small electric winch to the trailer so i can pickup non running equipment.

Yep,
Free pick up & delivery
No call out fee
That was the bedrock of my business.
Add to that having a non monetary rent I can charge $ 60/hr
The shop up the road charges $ 90/hr and he sends big hour jobs down to me.
I send new equipment customers back up to him.
!5 miles away in town it is $ 175 / hr and non refundable quotation fe of $ 75 - $ 100
All these prices are AUD so divide by 0.6 for US $

Hammermechanicman said:

I live in a rural area and everyone has some type of riding mower. I bought a trailer specifically for pickup and delivery. My bread and butter is annual maintenance on riders. I also get their trim mower too. The dealers charge about $100 to pickup and deliver, i can beat that. Without the truck and trailer i would not be in business. I added a small electric winch to the trailer so i can pickup non running equipment.

Click to expand...

A wench is a must. I got mine the first year. Pushing a mower 30ft, through 3 ft of grass, with flat tires...(2 hours to load it) Yeah, it took me once time to figure that one out. I even have a spare one just incase that one goes out. It's been worth it's weight in gold.
After the rainy season, I'm gonna hook up the remote switch to it. It's supposed to be waterproof. But my first one wasn't. So now It get's taken off during the winter.

I P & D for $25. That sound a little cheap, compared to what the shop by you charges.

bertsmobile1 said:

Yep,
Free pick up & delivery
No call out fee
That was the bedrock of my business.
Add to that having a non monetary rent I can charge $ 60/hr
The shop up the road charges $ 90/hr and he sends big hour jobs down to me.
I send new equipment customers back up to him.
!5 miles away in town it is $ 175 / hr and non refundable quotation fe of $ 75 - $ 100
All these prices are AUD so divide by 0.6 for US $

Click to expand...

I'm at $35hr. LOL... Like the old saying, "You get what you pay for."

BTW, I have a friend that lives in Australia. Last year when I posted a mower I had for sale, he jokingly said he'd buy if I shipped it to him. What a suprise he'd get if one showed up at his door some day. (That is if, you two happened to live within a few miles of each other)

Not sure if I mentioned it before but the business name is " Bert's Mobile Mower Repairs" .
The MOBILE is the important bit.
The workshop is in an old farm house on a farm but because I am MOBILE I did not need to get a a license or approval which I would not get because it is a farm.
There is no signage on the workshop, just on the sides of the trailers parked behind the fence & visible from the street .
Thus the free pick up & delivery, the Penrith dealers charge between $ 90 & $ 120 each way.
THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT
Increase your labour rate to at a minimum 1/2 what the shops charge.
You can adjust the hours so the actual price to the customer.
It makes you look like you are competiant .
I circumvent this by using set fees for various common jobs that are about 2/3 the shop price.

bertsmobile1 said:

Not sure if I mentioned it before but the business name is " Bert's Mobile Mower Repairs" .
The MOBILE is the important bit.
The workshop is in an old farm house on a farm but because I am MOBILE I did not need to get a a license or approval which I would not get because it is a farm.
There is no signage on the workshop, just on the sides of the trailers parked behind the fence & visible from the street .
Thus the free pick up & delivery, the Penrith dealers charge between $ 90 & $ 120 each way.
THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT
Increase your labour rate to at a minimum 1/2 what the shops charge.
You can adjust the hours so the actual price to the customer.
It makes you look like you are competiant .
I circumvent this by using set fees for various common jobs that are about 2/3 the shop price.

Click to expand...

Thanks for that. I was thinking about putting a sign out front. BUT, also thought about the tax collector seeing it. LOL..

And the labor rate thing, that's pretty smart. If I noted it at $60hr, doesn't necessarily mean I'm gonna charge that much. Like right now, I'm running a winter special of $15 oil change and blade sharpening. That's labor only. Trying to coax some folks to get their mowers out a little early. The weeds are green & growing.
Oil changes aren't going to actually take more than about 10 to 15 minutes. That includes sharpening the (2) blades. Unless King Kong installed the blades.
Valve adjustments are usually about $35. Unless the valve covers come off clean.
I usually only get into the full labor rate when I'm having to chase wires, weld decks, valve jobs and things of that nature that takes an actual hour or more to do.

the local deere dealer has a box truck completely outfitted for mobile mower service. The owner almost begged me to be a mobile tech since i retired. Why should i work 40+ hours a week for a third of what i made before i retired. He hasn't has a mobile tech for years. PT don't undervalue yourself. At 35 an hour be sure to bill all the time and set a minimum of $20. I sharpen blades at $7/blade and $7/chain off the saw $10/chain on saw. Any work on equipment is $20 minimum. I also have a small standard markup on parts. It takes time to lookup parts and place orders. I also have a pickup and delivery charge.

Hammermechanicman said:

the local deere dealer has a box truck completely outfitted for mobile mower service. The owner almost begged me to be a mobile tech since i retired. Why should i work 40+ hours a week for a third of what i made before i retired. He hasn't has a mobile tech for years. PT don't undervalue yourself. At 35 an hour be sure to bill all the time and set a minimum of $20. I sharpen blades at $7/blade and $7/chain off the saw $10/chain on saw. Any work on equipment is $20 minimum. I also have a small standard markup on parts. It takes time to lookup parts and place orders. I also have a pickup and delivery charge.

Click to expand...

I'm new to the area, so I gotta keep that in mind. Barely anyone knows me.

Advertise, warranty your work, be honest and treat people fairly. You will develop a reputation. People would rather pay more for honest quality service than a lower price for poor service. Word of mouth in a small community will make or break you. One of the things I do is pressure wash all the mowers i service and then spray them down with WD40 and wipe them down. Makes equipment look really good. I buy WD40 by the gallon. Customers love the way that old mower looks when i drop it off. Don't be afraid to invest in tools. I probably have $15K worth of tools in the shop and that is not a lot by some shop standards.

PTmowerMech said:

Thanks for that. I was thinking about putting a sign out front. BUT, also thought about the tax collector seeing it. LOL..

And the labor rate thing, that's pretty smart. If I noted it at $60hr, doesn't necessarily mean I'm gonna charge that much. Like right now, I'm running a winter special of $15 oil change and blade sharpening. That's labor only. Trying to coax some folks to get their mowers out a little early. The weeds are green & growing.
Oil changes aren't going to actually take more than about 10 to 15 minutes. That includes sharpening the (2) blades. Unless King Kong installed the blades.
Valve adjustments are usually about $35. Unless the valve covers come off clean.
I usually only get into the full labor rate when I'm having to chase wires, weld decks, valve jobs and things of that nature that takes an actual hour or more to do.

Click to expand...

It is a perception thing you right down $ 35 / hr and most are going to think you have no idea what you are doing.
I have a couple of old scheduled fee service books ( warranty work ) and regardless of how long a job takes, in most cases the customer gets the scheduled hours @ $ 60/ hr
I do not sharpen blades, except for the commercial customers who drop off a 1/2 dozen sets every week.
Min fee is $ 30
Fitting fee of parts supplied by customer is $ 20
Chain saw prices are about the same as Hammer adjusted for Aus $ / USA $.
Commercial customers get them done for $ 5,00 a hit if they drop them off on their peg.
I sharpen then then put them back on the peg & they toss the cash in the letterbox.

Same as Hammer, I hit the gear with cheap spray degreaser, followed by a pressure wash and a finish off with Innox or silicon spray.
Innox & WD 40 get bought in 5 gallon drums & i use a triger sprayer, pressure sprayer & oil can to apply it depending upon the job at hand.
The local cheap car parts retailers regularly sell degreaser for $ 1.00 / can so I buy a couple of cartons at that price.
For hand helds a spray with the degreaser followed by a rinse from a pump up sprayer works wonders & costs next to nothing .
If foam prefilters are not falling apart they get a run through the ultrasonic cleaner then returned to the customer with instruction to swap & wash them monthly.

Wow Bert, you don't sharpen blades except commercial customers. I sharpen lots of blades. I used to use a Bradley S20 grinder. Does a good job on flat blades but takes too long to sharpen a blade and won't do mulching blades. I switched to the All American Sharpener. It uses a 4.5" angle grinder. Now i can sharpen a blade in seconds not minutes. A little technique sensitive but once you figure it out it works great and fast. 36 And 60 grit flap discs are cheap.



One of the best things i bought for the shop. At 62 years old this thing is my friend. Between this and an impact gun and the All American Sharpener i can do blades quick.

bertsmobile1 said:

It is a perception thing you right down $ 35 / hr and most are going to think you have no idea what you are doing.
I have a couple of old scheduled fee service books ( warranty work ) and regardless of how long a job takes, in most cases the customer gets the scheduled hours @ $ 60/ hr
I do not sharpen blades, except for the commercial customers who drop off a 1/2 dozen sets every week.
Min fee is $ 30
Fitting fee of parts supplied by customer is $ 20
Chain saw prices are about the same as Hammer adjusted for Aus $ / USA $.
Commercial customers get them done for $ 5,00 a hit if they drop them off on their peg.
I sharpen then then put them back on the peg & they toss the cash in the letterbox.

Same as Hammer, I hit the gear with cheap spray degreaser, followed by a pressure wash and a finish off with Innox or silicon spray.
Innox & WD 40 get bought in 5 gallon drums & i use a triger sprayer, pressure sprayer & oil can to apply it depending upon the job at hand.
The local cheap car parts retailers regularly sell degreaser for $ 1.00 / can so I buy a couple of cartons at that price.
For hand helds a spray with the degreaser followed by a rinse from a pump up sprayer works wonders & costs next to nothing .
If foam prefilters are not falling apart they get a run through the ultrasonic cleaner then returned to the customer with instruction to swap & wash them monthly.

Click to expand...

I was just trying to find labor rates on the shops around here, (online) and could only find 2 that was within an hours drive from here. And both were $35 to $45hr. I'm gonna stick with the $35hr.
The equipment washing, I used to do that at my old shop. But the few that I didn't get a chance to wash, the customers didn't even care. Everything I touched, got wiped down or blown off (the deck).
The used equipment I sell, is usually spotless. Top to bottom.

BTW, I didn't know you could put those pre filters in the ultrasonic. I'll have to give that a shot. I've got a couple I washed with dawn dish soap and water. But they don't look clean.

I don;t know where you are PTmowermech, but that sounds low for most areas. In my area the range is $68-125

In my area we are the same hourly rates as IL posted. Pick up and delivery ranges from free (new large units) to $150 (large units over 75 miles).

AVB said:

Bert check out Adminsoft accounting with Auto Manager. I think you will find it is more of what you need for shop software. Just be aware that the payroll module is for the UK only. Even without the payroll module you should find it rather robust software especially for zero upfront cost program.

PTmowerMech, As for my shop I kinda lucky to be 20+ miles from of the local shops. Because most of them are not that good a repairs does help too. Even the JD shop has rather bad rep on repairs of lawn care equipment.

As for advertising if you do good work then word of mouth referrals are the best. In the 10+ years I have been in business I have yet to advertise the business other than a sign in front of the shop. The winter months are the roughest for me so I started learning ATVs repairs with customers understand that I am new at the repairs so it takes me a little longer than most shops. But considering most of the ATV shops are running at 1-2 behind and I get one out in a couple weeks isn't all that bad. The new tools are the biggest headache at the current time.

As noted watch the repair costs vs replacement costs. Some things are just not worth the headaches if it is not something minor. As buying or just getting it gave to you used broken equipment it is a good way to learn new procedures on without guinea pigging your customers equipment.

Now my business nearly went under in 2014 but it wasn't the lack of business it was that my mother developed dementia and it was a full time job taking care of her. No regrets though.

Click to expand...

I'm just looking at this software you posted. Watched a couple of video's about it. Is it at easy at that? At the moment, I'm just logging customers into separate files, with their names as the file name. But on a different file, there's the parts I've order. On another is the supplies I've bought. I'm starting to get a lot of files. I'm using Open Office spread sheets for the parts and supplies. And it's pretty easy. But it doesn't tell me how many of what I have.

Does this adminsoft do a lot of that for you?

Logging in all those receipts....... I'd rather have a root canal without novacaine than log in all these receipts.

My advice is to just give it a try. You run along side your current system and see how it works for you. At first there is quite a bit data entry but it is store it is easily access. I believe once you use the software you find it quite useful and saves a lot if time. Everytime you order parts via PO it is as receiving them and then invoicing to accounts payable. All stock items are automatically updated as you receive them and when you book them out on a work order. Just got remember to keep your price files up to date.

They are all easy to use but a PIA to set up.
All of them are either a set of data bases or spreadsheets with fancy dancy data input windows & output windows .
BEhind that are just cell calculations look ups and relations rules .
I find it too cumbersome to use as intended.
So I use one of the business templates that does not have inventory ( Accountant , Doctor, etc etc ).
That way the printed invoice has billed hours & I add the parts as individual line items .

IF you set up as a repair business then you have to add all of your parts inventory, including the parts you have bought for this job, before you can bill the customer for them.
Then you have to remember all of the parts numbers & I find that a bit onerous .
IT also can not handle things like parts that have 2 or more numbers like an air filter which can have a JD number, an MTD number , a Husky number & a B&S number .
Then there are pulleys where you need to bill the customer for a Toro part but you fitted a Husqvarna one that is the same size .
Same story for belt where I fit a Hustler belt which is a 1/4" shorter to the Time Cutters but 1/2 the price.
On he invoice I need to show the Toro number but the softwear will not allow a different description to the one you entered in the inventory .
Thus the use of a service invoice and the keeping of 2 sets of accounts .
In my carbon book I can write the actual part used on the back of the opposite page so I know I fitted a 265-918 belt while the invoice shows a 954-0441 belt .
Then at a latter date sit down and enter what I need to from the carbon copy into the computer so I have a computer record for taxation purposes to do all the adding & subtracting .
For parts the computer I just have three account names ,parts bought , parts sold and parts inventory .
So all of the bills from the parts suppliers go into parts bought account and all of the parts used come out then the balance is inventory which goes onto my tax return.

The other problem is I do parity pricing with one of the bigger internet parts retailers so my selling price continually changes .
So again I have to either allow overiding which is not a good idea or continually change the selling price every time I do an invoice .
Then there are trade customers which get different pricing again but not a std discount rate .
I really do not need most of the information that these applications produce except for lodging tax returns .
Charts , graphs & tables are fine if you are full time manager but as a sole trader a bit of overkill for me.
I use a lot of grab packs for cube carbs so end up invoicing for a "rebuild kit " or "diaphragm & gasket kit " when I keep neither in stock but have no intention of invoicing for the actual parts used as individual items.

The other trick is to set up your business file then duplicate it and work on the duplicate so if you have to change things latter you have the clean copy with no data in it .
Again work on a copy of that file , it might take a dozen or more tries till you get it right but it takes a lot less work to import a customer list or accounts list than it does to re-enter all of that information time & time again.
Use a fresh file for each year calll them PT 19-20 , PT 20-21 etc so if you need to change them you can do it easily without having to go back to scratch again.

Holy crap. I just wanna fix small engine equipment. I got a head ache trying to take in all of this.

Secretaries are way under rated and under paid. lol

And you just thought they just sat looking pretty. Now you know why some are grey headed and willing to bite your head off if you cross them.

PTmowerMech said:

Holy crap. I just wanna fix small engine equipment. I got a head ache trying to take in all of this.

Secretaries are way under rated and under paid. lol

Click to expand...

I used to keep meticulous records of every piece of equipment i worked on. Every part, what i paid, what i charged. What i did. How much time. What a PITA. My accountant told me no need for all that. So now i have personalized sales books with a carbon. Every month i just add up all the sales and sales tax from the carbons. Do my sales tax on the Ohio Business Gateway. At tax time i give my accountant totals for all my expenses by category, parts, tool, shop supplies, insurance, advertising, mileage. I just have to keep all the receipts. I don't keep enough inventory on hand to have to pay tax on inventory. Other countries are probably different but i try to keep it as simple as i can.

That I suggested the software all that gets taken care of as you go. This I can go back up to 10 yrs and easily find out I did to a machine without having to dig through tons of paperwork.

I rule up the inside front cover of an indexed ( numbered pages ) carbon book .
The customers name & job get written there so Joe - saw or something similar.
The books when filled get numbered & dated so it is not a great deal to go back through them.
A triplicate book works even better because there are only 50 pages so more space on the inside of the cover per invoice .
Using that you give the customer the top copy and leave the second copy there till you get paid so you can see easily when invoices are outstanding.
When paid the 2nd copy get removed and put into the "income " shoe box .
I found this the easiest way for me to keep track of things .
Every night is a glass of red while the information from the carbon book goes into the computer ( MYOB ) for the purpose of tax records and a filemonger database for my benefit .
It took about 3 years to get the database to where I wanted it to be but now I can search by customer , by equipment, by equipment brand , by equipment maker , by equipment type , by job type by parts used, by part numbers or by date .
It is just a matter of creating the data fields you need .
Every job gets a workshop job card where I can write stuff down as I go , they are on clipboards complete with individual pencils and stay with the job.
Some of what is there gets added to the data base .

The other thing I have found very beneficial is not to open any mail till I am sitting in front of the computer so every bill can get added to MYOB the instant I see it .
After that it goes into the "to pay " folder and when a cheque is written for it the cheque number goes onto the invoice which gets moved into the done box .

The problem I have always had with package soft wear is they are all written by computer geeks according to what they think you need and is easy for you to do.
So none of them actually fit.
WE ran the courier business, the location van business, the wedding car business, the hire car business & my professional consulting business all out of MYOB and in every case it took a year or more to set it up to work for us .

I do not know what your soft wear is like because it is PC only and right now I am using linux on a mac .

I haven't read all six pages, so if someone else has said this, I apologize.

Before you do anything, add up all the FIXED annual expenses you will have--rent, utilities, taxes, insurance, etc.. Then divide this number by the average amount of gross profit you will have on each unit you repair. That will tell you how many units you have to profitably repair, just to break even. Only after you have done that many units at that level of profit will you start to make any money.

If you add in your expected annual salary to the fixed expenses and then divide that by the average gross profit, that will be how many units you've got to fix to make the money you want to make.

Interesting way to look at it Cpurvis .
However you have to know what an average profit is first.
Sort of difficult to do until you have been doing it for a while,
Add to that the massive variation in profit from making a chain loop right through to a full engine rebuild .
I did accidentally come across a sort of trick.a while back that has boosted oil sales & fuel can sales.
So now when a customer comes in to pick up a mower, it is always parked right in front of a display stand full of oil, blade kits, oil change kits etc etc.
When I go to the big box stores to get some hardwear I slip in to the mower section & photograph their prices .
That gets printed out and stuck on the stand along with a sign that reads "don't be fooled by the BS lowest price scam "
They then see that the shop is selling 30W mower oil for $ 15 /L and I am selling it for $ 10 / L and my blades are about 1/2 their price .
SO now I am selling 10 times the number of these sundry items and that adds quite bit to the bottom line as it all counts to bigger volume discounts from my suppiers .

Prior to that they collected their mowers on the lawn so I could demonstrate how easy it now starts and how well it cuts.
Pride / vanity / ego does not pay the bills and no one remembers how good the mower is now but they will tell others that they got a bottle of oil $ 10 cheaper than the big shop .

cpurvis said:

I haven't read all six pages, so if someone else has said this, I apologize.

Before you do anything, add up all the FIXED annual expenses you will have--rent, utilities, taxes, insurance, etc.. Then divide this number by the average amount of gross profit you will have on each unit you repair. That will tell you how many units you have to profitably repair, just to break even. Only after you have done that many units at that level of profit will you start to make any money.

If you add in your expected annual salary to the fixed expenses and then divide that by the average gross profit, that will be how many units you've got to fix to make the money you want to make.

Click to expand...

So an on screen report like this isn't of any help?

or a monthly Income statement like this of any help.


or have something like this just at a glance.



And this get done as you do year daily business entries.

And before barks that haven't make much profit yes I am having a rough start to the year. Things are going about in the next week alone as I get the current major repairs out the door.

I can get all of that from MYOB plus it will make next year predictions and this year predictions based on the recurring transactions frequency.
Don't think the version I use will do graphs and again I can not see much benefit of the graphs other than to alert you to keep some extra cash on hand to cover costs on lean months and when to schedule holidays.
MYOB uses account number codes to group like accounts together so all the cost of sales are displayed as a group which is a bit handy, but in the long run the financials are not what I need to play with.
I just use MYOB to generate some numbers to keep the tax man happy.
What I need to know is when Dave Allen Lawn & Garden last brought the HRC219 in for service so I can send him a service reminder or check what parts I used for his service so they will be in stock when it comes in or when we put the last drive belt on this Fast Cut 34.
With MYOB and probably this system it is hard to search for a piece of equipment a particular customer gets serviced particularly if they have 20 or more items.
This is why I wrote the data base so I can search for " Fast Cut 34" blade " and that will bring up all of those I have fitted regardless of weather I fitted ASP , RGS , Stens or genuine Greenfields blades
Then do a secondary find on that find to include only a single customer then a cronological sort to see which blades lasted the longest.
I can also use custom invoice numbers so Dave gets DA2001 to DA20xx this year ( 21 next year ) and that helps both him & me keep track of invoices & payments as any one of his crew could bring in a mower and in busy times I might get one or two a day for a whole week dropped off by the B ,C ,D, or E team which he will not know about then nothing for a month .
The next modification I need to do is to add a booked date so I can see what takes forever & a day to get out the door.
The data base is actually quicker than MYOB for data entry because I search DA L & G ( in custome name ) then fast cut 34 ( in equipment field ) then duplicate and I get a new copy with everything filled in so just change the date , invoice number and items , job done.
Most times the items will be the same, oil, oil filter, deck belt, blades etc.
In MYOB and probably your program I can only do that if I have previously logged DAL&G Fastcut 34 as a reocuring transaction and then it only automatically enters what was there last time plus assigns a sequential invoice number that is not custom one.
And of course I have to remember the code I gave to DAL&G Fastcut 34 service and will need to have a code for each & every piece of his equipment so DAL&G will have 50 entries in the reocuring transactions window along with similar numbers for all of the other teams.
Then we come to inventory
I do not have to enter a set of ASP Fastcut 34" blades into inventory before I can bill DA for them and I don't need an item code for the 4 34" blades and of course another 4 for the 42" blades considering that these are trial fitting till he decides which one he wants to use.

All you need is a calculator to do what I suggested; it's from Econ 101---fixed costs divided by per unit profit.

This is something someone needs to do BEFORE starting a business to get an idea of whether the business is even feasible at all.

I can see where you are coming from it is part of due dilligence .
For me brake even on fixed costs is about $ 20 /day.
However after that everything is a guess.
The Bucket Kohler had 6 hours labour so a nice profit on that but the 2 push mowers I did yesterday were break even.
It is not like a coffee shop where you have a consistent mark up so you know that 145 cups / day is break even and cake is all profit.

Hi there! Starting a business can be both exciting and overwhelming. It's important to take the time to research and plan before making any decisions. Regarding confidence in your skills, it's natural to have some self-doubt when starting a new venture. However, if you've been successfully repairing small engines for three years, that's a good sign. You have the necessary skills to run a small engine repair business. It's a good idea to create a business plan that outlines your goals, strategies, and financial projections. This can help you stay focused and organized as you navigate the process of starting your business. It may also be beneficial to check business related sources, such as wolfoffranchises.com. I hope I helped!

MadisyntClay said:

Hi there! Starting a business can be both exciting and overwhelming. It's important to take the time to research and plan before making any decisions.

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You'll work twice as much for 1/2 the pay. lol

PTmowerMech said:

You'll work twice as much for 1/2 the pay. lol

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What you mean half it is more like near nothing at times....Yesterday was a good example worked all day and only made $2. I might get paid later when the repairs are finally.done but work on 4 units and spent several hours looking for part on the net but only sold an oil filter.

Regarding your dilemma between a storefront or working from home, it really depends on your goals and comfort level. Running things from home might be simpler in terms of overhead costs and flexibility, but a storefront could potentially attract more customers and give your business a visible presence in the community.
As for the mayor's offer to help with city development, it's definitely worth exploring. Sometimes, government initiatives can provide valuable resources and support for small businesses.
Ultimately, trust your instincts and take things one step at a time. You've got this! And hey, if you ever need a break from small engine talk, I've noticed that many people are venturing into high-tech sectors lately, especially in sex tech companies.

tggenamho said:

Regarding your dilemma between a storefront or working from home, it really depends on your goals and comfort level. Running things from home might be simpler in terms of overhead costs and flexibility, but a storefront could potentially attract more customers and give your business a visible presence in the community.

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Depending on your area, opening a storefront requires a huge amount of extra work, time and all sorts of extra's. I tried the storefront thing, but I got so bogged down that it was unreal. Not being able find any reliable help was the worst part. Which meant I was constantly backed up. Some customers were having to wait over a month. Getting so much equipment diagnosed, and the parts ordered, that by the time the parts came in (a day to a week later), I'd forgotten what was wrong with it to start with. Keeping notes was the way to go. But a lot of times, you simply didn't have time to jot it all down.

I can't say I made way more money, considering the expenses it required to be in town. Sometimes working until midnight. Finally my back gave out and was in bad shape for a couple months.