Tradesman Transport - Tatty van or tidy car?
Discussion
Hello Pistonhead business gurus, I could do with a bit of advice,
I am in the process of trying to go full time self employed as a mobile mechanic. The problem is, after a year of being a student my savings have been eaten up and my start up budget for transport is tiny - Ideally sub £1000, £1,500 at a push.
This on the van market seems to buy nothing but tatty, messy, unreliable junk with well over 150,000+ miles.
Now the annoying thing - I don't really need a van. My tools and equipment would comfortably fit inside a large estate, MPV or 4x4 (which ironically would probably be larger in cargo space than the Berlingo/Partner vans I'm looking at once passenger seats were removed). My budget could buy a decent, non offensive car in far better mechanical and cosmetic state than a comparatively priced van. It seems like a no brainer.
Expect, the only thing that stops me is that I'm worried about what turning up in a car as opposed to a van says about my company's image/professionalism? I have been advised by a couple of guys doing similar work that ideally I'd want a proper van from the professionalism angle, but then I'm thinking rocking up in an ancient clattering van without a straight panel in sight is probably worse?
No matter what, if the business is a success I'd be looking to reinvest in a decent van ASAP. Its just the start up phase I'm finding tricky.
Any thoughts?
I am in the process of trying to go full time self employed as a mobile mechanic. The problem is, after a year of being a student my savings have been eaten up and my start up budget for transport is tiny - Ideally sub £1000, £1,500 at a push.
This on the van market seems to buy nothing but tatty, messy, unreliable junk with well over 150,000+ miles.
Now the annoying thing - I don't really need a van. My tools and equipment would comfortably fit inside a large estate, MPV or 4x4 (which ironically would probably be larger in cargo space than the Berlingo/Partner vans I'm looking at once passenger seats were removed). My budget could buy a decent, non offensive car in far better mechanical and cosmetic state than a comparatively priced van. It seems like a no brainer.
Expect, the only thing that stops me is that I'm worried about what turning up in a car as opposed to a van says about my company's image/professionalism? I have been advised by a couple of guys doing similar work that ideally I'd want a proper van from the professionalism angle, but then I'm thinking rocking up in an ancient clattering van without a straight panel in sight is probably worse?
No matter what, if the business is a success I'd be looking to reinvest in a decent van ASAP. Its just the start up phase I'm finding tricky.
Any thoughts?
Edited by 279 on Monday 24th April 11:53
Depends on your target market.
If you are working with high end cars or businesses I wouldn't deal with you in a car or tatty van. (Unless you came highly recommended).
If I was looking for a competitive service for myself the worse your van looked the more I would feel I was getting a good deal.
I would prefer van over car though (even if tatty) not sure why though, just would! Sorry.
If you are working with high end cars or businesses I wouldn't deal with you in a car or tatty van. (Unless you came highly recommended).
If I was looking for a competitive service for myself the worse your van looked the more I would feel I was getting a good deal.
I would prefer van over car though (even if tatty) not sure why though, just would! Sorry.
I think the van would give me the impression that you're doing it as a business and as a professional rather than just some guy that has started from his garden shed tool box this morning.
In terms of what the van looks like...as long as it didn't look unroadworthy then I wouldn't be too bothered. I realise its a work van and its not going to be looked after as it would just get used and abused.
In terms of what the van looks like...as long as it didn't look unroadworthy then I wouldn't be too bothered. I realise its a work van and its not going to be looked after as it would just get used and abused.
There is a local mobile mechanic firm in my area running 4-5 small hatchbacks that are branded, Mini's in fact, although they do have a couple of vans too.
Horses for courses I guess as they're clearly not going to be working on heavy commercial vehicles out of the back of a mini, but given they have 5-10 vehicles I assume they're busy enough to organise their workload well in advance and perhaps therefore what out of the ordinary kit they need with them at the time.
To answer your question, in my opinion, nothing wrong with a tidy car; I'd opt for a nice estate with some branding - But if you turn up without the right kit in the car that's when your professionalism will be called into question, first impressions count but the service experience is what stays in the memory long after.
Good luck with your venture whatever you decide on!
Horses for courses I guess as they're clearly not going to be working on heavy commercial vehicles out of the back of a mini, but given they have 5-10 vehicles I assume they're busy enough to organise their workload well in advance and perhaps therefore what out of the ordinary kit they need with them at the time.
To answer your question, in my opinion, nothing wrong with a tidy car; I'd opt for a nice estate with some branding - But if you turn up without the right kit in the car that's when your professionalism will be called into question, first impressions count but the service experience is what stays in the memory long after.
Good luck with your venture whatever you decide on!
I'd go for a van. As clean as you can get. It doesn't matter if it's not a new van, as long as it's scrubbed up and your tools are stored as tidy and methodically as possible. For my money, the inside of the van is more important than the outside. If you keep your tools tidy, you'll work in the same manner. Have a google for perfection valet - if someone turned up with the inside of a van looking like that, I'd employ. Especially for a starter. Our builder had a very messy truck, if he didn't have a track record, I would never have given him best part of £100K for our build. Good luck!
Ideally a van would look more professional, but if a reasonable estate works better in the short term then I see no reason. With either option I'd tidy the vehicle up as best as possible (like others have said, detailing world, etc, shows how you can get something back to a good condition). If you turn up to a job in a cared for vehicle it will give potential customers faith that you'll also care for theirs.
Agree with others that a decent branding/wrapping would help, and go for a proper website/domain name/email address.
Once you get going you can also get a feel for how people react to your 'image'. If some people are put off then you could look at getting a better van further down the line when your cash flow allows (dare I suggest look at leasing options?), but if people don't care then think of all the money you've saved by sticking to the basic estate car
Agree with others that a decent branding/wrapping would help, and go for a proper website/domain name/email address.
Once you get going you can also get a feel for how people react to your 'image'. If some people are put off then you could look at getting a better van further down the line when your cash flow allows (dare I suggest look at leasing options?), but if people don't care then think of all the money you've saved by sticking to the basic estate car
hmmmm... suspect this isn't helping much as there's a pretty mixed opinion!
For what it's worth - I'd go for 'tidy' over anything else - as a mechanic in particular, if you turned up to work on my car in anything that looked uncared for you wouldn't get very far. Doesn't have to be new, just well looked after.
Best bet, I would have thought, is an older, but sound, van with the back kitted out DIY. I wouldn't be overly fussed if you turned up in a car, just so long as it didn't have the appearance of being the family runaround with a few tools chucked in the back (ie better to be kitted out inside & sign-written)
For what it's worth - I'd go for 'tidy' over anything else - as a mechanic in particular, if you turned up to work on my car in anything that looked uncared for you wouldn't get very far. Doesn't have to be new, just well looked after.
Best bet, I would have thought, is an older, but sound, van with the back kitted out DIY. I wouldn't be overly fussed if you turned up in a car, just so long as it didn't have the appearance of being the family runaround with a few tools chucked in the back (ie better to be kitted out inside & sign-written)
Yipper said:
Van = business.
Car = leisure.
Get a van. Tidy it up. Straighten any panels. Hoover it. Clean it. Polish it. Wax it. Just take a look at Detailingworld and their Showroom section, and see how you can take a beater and shiny it up into a looker.
When I see stuff like this I think there's someone who spends more time cleaning their van than working.Car = leisure.
Get a van. Tidy it up. Straighten any panels. Hoover it. Clean it. Polish it. Wax it. Just take a look at Detailingworld and their Showroom section, and see how you can take a beater and shiny it up into a looker.
I think for every customer who decides that you can't be any good unless you've got a nice shiny van, there will be another who thinks that if you can afford a nice shiny van, you must be charging too much. It depends on which of those groups will form most of your client base, as to which way to go. There's another recent thread, something along the lines of "you're not going to see a customer in that!", on a similar topic.
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