Starting an MOT station
Discussion
I've run a garage for 4 years, moved into current premesis for 6 months.
Anyway I've been let down by one staff member, started out great but has other interests and it just isn't working.
The trouble is it's difficult to find staff for what I do.
Last week for example I stripped 2 gearboxes down, one had a broken syncro ring on a BMW (total b
h of a gearbox to repair) the other a bent lever inside.
Then we had timing chains, a bottom end rebuild on a BMW and an electrical issue that had been into a main dealer to fix and 4 other garages to sort. We did a rust and spray repair on a Merc and a few months ago we had to repair a Luton van that hit a low bridge which was a challenge as it was layered aluminium and had to be strengthened right up. Total custom metal work.
I.e we sort major headaches out that others can't. Absolutely not trying to blow my own trumpet but it's just how it is.
Anyway the wife is nagging as I'm doing on average 12 hour days 6 days a week.
The premesis I moved to is 1000sq ft with a 300 ft mezzanine.
It's in a good location 5 mins walk from town.
Unfortunately I tend to have a lot of dead cars around so I'm thinking of moving again into a lifetime location which is a little out the way but the headache jobs will follow me, location is irrelevant.
I make money out of them and that's fine.
Anyway I've got one of these 50k loans and am thinking of putting an MOT station in, taking on a friend of mine who is a mechanic and MOT tester and making into MOTs and repair work effectively.
Give myself a bit of a break.
The trouble is I will be bored no doubt. I have a second smaller unit off site already and any car sales and big repairs I can do there for now until my new location is ready.
I can't see any issue in using a bounce back loan for this?
Has anyone got any advice.
The problem is I love a challenge. The BMW I spoke of earlier had a BUS fault but also didn't crank. Turns out there was 3 seperate issues (probably caused by other garages) and the initial issue was water ingress messing up the BUS lines on a module and thus not triggering a main relay.
I loved it. Total headache, but I enjoyed it.
Failing or passing MOTs wont be enjoyable but if it's a steady income so be it.
Anyway I've been let down by one staff member, started out great but has other interests and it just isn't working.
The trouble is it's difficult to find staff for what I do.
Last week for example I stripped 2 gearboxes down, one had a broken syncro ring on a BMW (total b
h of a gearbox to repair) the other a bent lever inside.Then we had timing chains, a bottom end rebuild on a BMW and an electrical issue that had been into a main dealer to fix and 4 other garages to sort. We did a rust and spray repair on a Merc and a few months ago we had to repair a Luton van that hit a low bridge which was a challenge as it was layered aluminium and had to be strengthened right up. Total custom metal work.
I.e we sort major headaches out that others can't. Absolutely not trying to blow my own trumpet but it's just how it is.
Anyway the wife is nagging as I'm doing on average 12 hour days 6 days a week.
The premesis I moved to is 1000sq ft with a 300 ft mezzanine.
It's in a good location 5 mins walk from town.
Unfortunately I tend to have a lot of dead cars around so I'm thinking of moving again into a lifetime location which is a little out the way but the headache jobs will follow me, location is irrelevant.
I make money out of them and that's fine.
Anyway I've got one of these 50k loans and am thinking of putting an MOT station in, taking on a friend of mine who is a mechanic and MOT tester and making into MOTs and repair work effectively.
Give myself a bit of a break.
The trouble is I will be bored no doubt. I have a second smaller unit off site already and any car sales and big repairs I can do there for now until my new location is ready.
I can't see any issue in using a bounce back loan for this?
Has anyone got any advice.
The problem is I love a challenge. The BMW I spoke of earlier had a BUS fault but also didn't crank. Turns out there was 3 seperate issues (probably caused by other garages) and the initial issue was water ingress messing up the BUS lines on a module and thus not triggering a main relay.
I loved it. Total headache, but I enjoyed it.
Failing or passing MOTs wont be enjoyable but if it's a steady income so be it.
In a couple of years when you're tired of doing boring MOTs and have £50,000 to pay back, will you think you made the right move? Are you spending £50K now just because you can, or is it actually growing the business constructively/realising a dream? Seems you might be swapping something you enjoy for something you don't, and a debt.
I don't quite follow
You currently work a 72 hour week doing 'nightmare' jobs which you enjoy
You want to start up an MOT station and have someone run it for you.
How will this give you a break?
Unless you're thinking of jacking in the nightmare jobs and just doing the MOTs?
MOTs are boring, but pretty profitable by all accounts.
I would scale back the nightmare jobs to give you a sensible work/life balance and then use the MOT part to pay the bills.
You currently work a 72 hour week doing 'nightmare' jobs which you enjoy
You want to start up an MOT station and have someone run it for you.
How will this give you a break?
Unless you're thinking of jacking in the nightmare jobs and just doing the MOTs?
MOTs are boring, but pretty profitable by all accounts.
I would scale back the nightmare jobs to give you a sensible work/life balance and then use the MOT part to pay the bills.
I’m not sure I follow myself.
You install an mot bay, your mate does mot’s and repairs.
You do repairs.
I don’t understand where the interest/complicated stuff disappears to?
As you have such a good reputation the tricky stuff will only disappear if you start turning it down. If it’s not paying enough then put your rates up.
An mot station is a good earner and probably more important it brings in repair customers.
A little word in your ear .... I had a brother in law who has a garage and loved it. Worked till 9pm most nights and most Saturdays. Oddly enough he’s now my ex brother in law. Who’d have thought it?
Exactly what you all have said.
The trouble is car comes in I diagnose which takes time then I have to wait for parts etc.
I can't really control what comes in, servicing and MOT comes in sometimes which is quick boring but profitable and very manageable.
So I want someone who does MOTs and basical mechanical but who is very good at it.
That will then pay the bills with it ticking over etc and I won't quote so many headache but enjoyable jobs.
I get a lot online which I quote for and I will just scale it back to 1 or 2.
We have 2 courtesy cars so they are ideal so if we have 1 headache job in like a gearbox rebuild last week, he had a courtesy car so while we had his for 3 weeks he had a car so was happy.
I just want a bit of basic to consistently pay the Bill's then earn the pocket money on the big jobs.
I don't think I will ever regret starting an MOT station as they always seem profitable so if I don't want to do it the wife can run it.
It's a nice 8-5 business with no need to stay late cause nothing can go wrong with an MOT really, the MOT passes or fails job done
The trouble is car comes in I diagnose which takes time then I have to wait for parts etc.
I can't really control what comes in, servicing and MOT comes in sometimes which is quick boring but profitable and very manageable.
So I want someone who does MOTs and basical mechanical but who is very good at it.
That will then pay the bills with it ticking over etc and I won't quote so many headache but enjoyable jobs.
I get a lot online which I quote for and I will just scale it back to 1 or 2.
We have 2 courtesy cars so they are ideal so if we have 1 headache job in like a gearbox rebuild last week, he had a courtesy car so while we had his for 3 weeks he had a car so was happy.
I just want a bit of basic to consistently pay the Bill's then earn the pocket money on the big jobs.
I don't think I will ever regret starting an MOT station as they always seem profitable so if I don't want to do it the wife can run it.
It's a nice 8-5 business with no need to stay late cause nothing can go wrong with an MOT really, the MOT passes or fails job done
Josho said:
Exactly what you all have said.
The trouble is car comes in I diagnose which takes time then I have to wait for parts etc.
I can't really control what comes in, servicing and MOT comes in sometimes which is quick boring but profitable and very manageable.
So I want someone who does MOTs and basical mechanical but who is very good at it.
That will then pay the bills with it ticking over etc and I won't quote so many headache but enjoyable jobs.
I get a lot online which I quote for and I will just scale it back to 1 or 2.
We have 2 courtesy cars so they are ideal so if we have 1 headache job in like a gearbox rebuild last week, he had a courtesy car so while we had his for 3 weeks he had a car so was happy.
I just want a bit of basic to consistently pay the Bill's then earn the pocket money on the big jobs.
I don't think I will ever regret starting an MOT station as they always seem profitable so if I don't want to do it the wife can run it.
It's a nice 8-5 business with no need to stay late cause nothing can go wrong with an MOT really, the MOT passes or fails job done
OK, so how will you be bored, as per your original post?The trouble is car comes in I diagnose which takes time then I have to wait for parts etc.
I can't really control what comes in, servicing and MOT comes in sometimes which is quick boring but profitable and very manageable.
So I want someone who does MOTs and basical mechanical but who is very good at it.
That will then pay the bills with it ticking over etc and I won't quote so many headache but enjoyable jobs.
I get a lot online which I quote for and I will just scale it back to 1 or 2.
We have 2 courtesy cars so they are ideal so if we have 1 headache job in like a gearbox rebuild last week, he had a courtesy car so while we had his for 3 weeks he had a car so was happy.
I just want a bit of basic to consistently pay the Bill's then earn the pocket money on the big jobs.
I don't think I will ever regret starting an MOT station as they always seem profitable so if I don't want to do it the wife can run it.
It's a nice 8-5 business with no need to stay late cause nothing can go wrong with an MOT really, the MOT passes or fails job done
You get a guy in to do MOTs and repairs. He, basically, does the cream work earning the money for you.
You still get to do the less-attractive stuff, which you enjoy, you just get to enjoy a bit more work/life balance as you've got money coming in from the MOT part.
Sounds like a win-win.
I assume there's not many, if any, MOT shops in your area so this will be viable.
My Dad used to do MOTs back in the day and always said they were great as a base profit. Little harder nowadays as you can only do so many per day but still a good earner.
I'll weigh in here seeing as I own an MOT station. Firstly getting a reliable tester isn't always as easy as it sounds. I've had a few who were great to start with and then lates and sickies etc.
Cost wise you're looking at needing approx £650 to £700 per week just to pay for the tester, equipment calibrations Loller inspections etc. (This doesn't include other overheads such as building, insurance, loans and electric etc.) which equates to roughly 19 tests priced at £40 each (each test slot costs an admin fee of £2.05)
You will need to do your NTs (nominated tester) course and then your AEs (authorised examiner) course to be able to run the station unless you trust your tester enough to allow him to be the AE and you just do the site managers course (I wouldn't personally let anyone else be the AE as it allows them too much control over the business re mots)
A test bay now is more expensive than it was as the brake rollers, emissions tester and beam tester have to be connected which has ramped the price up a fair bit. Gone are the days of buying out an old test station and putting it in a new unit.You'll be looking at £25 to £30k plus vat for one of the newer packages plus any groundwork etc.
Don't imagine you'll fill every hour with a test initially (or at all for that matter ) I do 1500 and 2000 tests a year but I'm in the middle of town and have been established a long time. The further out you are the less people will want to travel just for a test and the trade tend to use those close to them to save on downtime dropping off and picking up.
Cost wise you're looking at needing approx £650 to £700 per week just to pay for the tester, equipment calibrations Loller inspections etc. (This doesn't include other overheads such as building, insurance, loans and electric etc.) which equates to roughly 19 tests priced at £40 each (each test slot costs an admin fee of £2.05)
You will need to do your NTs (nominated tester) course and then your AEs (authorised examiner) course to be able to run the station unless you trust your tester enough to allow him to be the AE and you just do the site managers course (I wouldn't personally let anyone else be the AE as it allows them too much control over the business re mots)
A test bay now is more expensive than it was as the brake rollers, emissions tester and beam tester have to be connected which has ramped the price up a fair bit. Gone are the days of buying out an old test station and putting it in a new unit.You'll be looking at £25 to £30k plus vat for one of the newer packages plus any groundwork etc.
Don't imagine you'll fill every hour with a test initially (or at all for that matter ) I do 1500 and 2000 tests a year but I'm in the middle of town and have been established a long time. The further out you are the less people will want to travel just for a test and the trade tend to use those close to them to save on downtime dropping off and picking up.
I realise this discussion is slightly out of date now but in case this information is useful for anyone else looking to start an MOT Bay in a garage, or indeed a brand new MOT testing station.
It can be a very profitable business to have, not just for the MOTs but because customers have to visit you for MOTs they will often use you for all other motor works too, so one service plays into another.
As the previous replies mentioned, now MOT equipment has to be connected to DVSA, at the moment these are the items that need to be connected:
Roller Brake Testers (RBT)
Decelerometers
Diesel Smoke Meters
Exhaust Gas Analysers
Headlamp Aligners were planned to be connected by the summer of 2020 but Covid-19 scuppered those plans.
Depending on the terms of the money you have and the payback period, you may be better off buying an existing MOT testing station, or even an existing garage and then just upgrading the MOT connected equipment, but of course, it needs to pay you back (and more) to make it work.
My company sell MOT bays, and know that it certainly makes a very profitable income for a lot of garages, if anyone needs some free advice based on their own circumstances, then feel free to give us a shout.
Equally, if anyone else has first-hand experience of setting up or upgrading an MOT bay then your opinion and learnings would be really interesting to hear.
It can be a very profitable business to have, not just for the MOTs but because customers have to visit you for MOTs they will often use you for all other motor works too, so one service plays into another.
As the previous replies mentioned, now MOT equipment has to be connected to DVSA, at the moment these are the items that need to be connected:
Roller Brake Testers (RBT)
Decelerometers
Diesel Smoke Meters
Exhaust Gas Analysers
Headlamp Aligners were planned to be connected by the summer of 2020 but Covid-19 scuppered those plans.
Depending on the terms of the money you have and the payback period, you may be better off buying an existing MOT testing station, or even an existing garage and then just upgrading the MOT connected equipment, but of course, it needs to pay you back (and more) to make it work.
My company sell MOT bays, and know that it certainly makes a very profitable income for a lot of garages, if anyone needs some free advice based on their own circumstances, then feel free to give us a shout.
Equally, if anyone else has first-hand experience of setting up or upgrading an MOT bay then your opinion and learnings would be really interesting to hear.
Edited by andyconceptge on Wednesday 11th January 11:46
Gassing Station | Business | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff