Bert, Every place has what seems to be weird rules. Basically they are called zoning regs. At least where I am there is very little in these other than restrictions on property use. I was closer the city it would be more restrictive. Some residential areas even got their set of rules that get enforced by the home associations. Otherwords others are telling you how to maintain your property and how you are to run your business to their profit.
Now with fuel prices more doubling since two years ago. It is finally changing people habits as they are becoming more aware of how money and time wasted is by going the shops 20-30 miles away here. This year I have been selling a lot more in parts over the so called counter. (basically parts sales without equipment in the shop being repaired) It is when those customer realize sometimes it can be cheaper just let me do the repairs as throwing parts at a repair can get costly. I had one customer to spend over $300 on electrical parts that he brought from one those shops. He decided to ask about what was the problem and I suggested he bring in the mower. It turn out to be a fifty cent wire terminal. Now of course tried to get me to make him whole again by buying the used parts which I can't do as I have no idea if they are good or not. It just one of those things about electrical parts that you just don't know if they the one that was on the mower or off another broken unit. I might would help some if I had sold them but I didn't sell them.
As for most my new customers, it is two things that I prefer to do. One is my sign and the other is referrals by my current customers. Referrals is the best for me as those new customers are usually serious about getting thing repaired. I tried advertising in the local paper but all that did was to bring in the pests. Otherwords those that was so cheap they squeaked when they walked and some just called to harass me with totally off the wall problems unrelated to what I am doing.
Now this year has been a pain getting parts and that is putting a heavy drain on the bank account. Those costs are soaring now with all increases in prices. At i can offset it some as I got a fairly good inventory of parts on hand. But replacing parts sold is costing a lot more now. Really got to pay attention to costs now as some vendors have gone bonkers on charging extra shipping cost now. I would think that I am not alone in this.
I currently having to put reserves into the account just keep up the purchases but things will start smoothing out as I complete the repairs then I put the reserve back in the savings account.. Just a little as personally I having a lot failures around the home this year too. Like everything things seems to break in batches. My latest failures this last week was the printer broke down and when I when to go grocery shopping my truck mirror fell apart at least I caught it before the mirror it self broke hitting the driveway. Just didn't think about how much I used that RH mirror until it was gone.
Oh well time for a set of mirrors as the truck is 22 yrs old and they are plastic so I got an idea all the vehicles out there probably has the same problems with the plastic failing. At least the after market ones are not too expensive unlike the hot water heater and well tank.
