The Mobile Brake Business
I started a mobile BRAKE mechanic business where I come to your home or office and fix your brakes on your vehicle. I operated for about 5 years and have been operating part/full time ever since.
Basically I traveled out to customers houses, inspected their brake pads and rotors and let them know if they needed changed. Sounds simple right? It is! If you have ever fixed brakes before and understand the two bolts to change pads and the 4 bolts to change the rotors… you are gold. You can work on EVERYTHING from a civic to a corvette. If you don’t know how to do this but want to learn, just use YouTube…. If you still can’t find it there, then this business isn’t for you.
Tools you need for the job:
- Suv or small Transit van. I used my Nissan Xterra and then upgraded to my transit connect van. You don’t need anything fancy!
- 3 Ton jack and Jack Stands- Go to Harbor Freight and get the aluminum one since it’s lighter than the steel one because you will be moving this thing a lot!
- Cordless Impact Drill- I bought a Bosch 21V impact that torqued up to 550Ft Pounds and that was more than plenty. It also can loosen ANY bolt or lug nut. I think I spent $400 on that thing and it paid for itself after one job.
- 1/2 Drive and 3/4 drive wrench with the basic sockets to go with it. Up to 19MM in most cases- that’s fine.
- Box end and circular end RATCHET wrenches
- Flat head screw drivers
- Brake Cleaner
- Rags
- U clamp- to push the brake caliper piston back in once you are putting it back together.
Marketing
I have Yelp and Google! These will be crutch and very crucial to get rolling. I also used Craigslist HEAVY in the beginning and did brakes jobs for almost nothing to get a 5 star review and earn a customer. Everyone hates YELP marketing but the ROI for the $300 bucks you spend is amazing.
Example of Yelp’s marketing
I paid them for a $300 ad budget, the cost per click to my page was $12.00. So if someone clicked on my page in took away $12 from my $300. In short I made my money back for the MONTH on 1 job, 1 JOB! In addition to that, I made over $4,500 in profit from yelp ads in 1 month. In short- Get on Craigslist, Yelp, Google business page and Facebook. i never used social media…but I heard it’s helpful.
Feel free to look me up. Search “Brake Time” and Location – Bristow, Va.
My competition in that area is The Brake Squad (I was their first employee before I started my own) and Brake Masters. There are 3 mobile based business with over 5 million cars in a 30 mile radius. The upside to capturing business is HUGE.
How did I make money?
Here is the transparency I would love to see from other business’s but never get it. This is my pricing structure. I charged way less in the beginning before I was paying taxes and was really small. Keep in mind, this price was ALL-Inclusive of Parts, labor, Warranty, etc. I charged between $150-180 LABOR only per axle. That number was fluid because I would charge more to work on German and non Domestic Cars.
Front Brake pad replacement- Charged $225.00 Profit- ($180)
Front Brake Pads and Rotors- Charged- 425.00 Profit- ($295)
Front and Rear Brake Pads Replacement- Charged-380.00 Profit- ($320)
Front/Rear Brake Pads+Rotors (Brake’s all around)- $750- $850 ($500 or so, this would vary) Depending on the vehicle and cost of parts.
In Parentheses is my PROFIT after Parts, Shop supplies but before Taxes… so not a true net number. This is just a quick breakdown of what I would make per job.
I could average around 3 jobs a day on the weekends and 1 job at night. Most weeks I walked away with over $1000.00. EASY. The most I ever made in 1 Week in $4500.00. That is a TON of work and very labor intensive, but the money was nice. It’s LOW overhead and if you treat customer right they will call you time and time again.
This is a job where you need to be good in front of the customer, have excellent communication skills (Talk through payment and how the job went), also have decent mechanic ability and the patience for the backend.
Marketing, answer customer inquiries, Finances, Taxes, etc. YOU need to be it ALL, but not right away. You will slowly learn everything through trial and error, I have had to give a few refunds and take some jobs on the chin until I figured it all out.