Thinking about opening a speed shop...thoughts and ideas?
 

My friend's and I have been tossing around the idea of opening an import performance shop in our old hometown of Milford in Northeast PA. Over the past 4 years the Honda and import scene down there in general has exploded and continues to grow every day. I've seen everyone from 16 year old kids in their first old-school hatch, to office execs in their mid to late 20's running around in 10 second monster civics and integras. Even the hot chicks down there are pimpin' at least a 13 sec. eclipse or better. Yes, there is some rice in the area as well, but after seeing all that is going on down there, and the lack of a close shop at all (closest decent shop is in Middletown New York, about an hour away) we've been tossing this idea around. We have the contacts, we have the suppliers and machinists, hell...we even have the commercial lot 3 bay garage already rented out for other projects. A couple of other people want to see what happens and then decide if they want to jump in on it as well, but for the time being we want to start out small and test the waters. I know a few people have their own business designs goin who are here on HMT, and I just wanted to get some feedback on what people think. And most importantly, all you guys on HMT that have your own business's dealing with performace related and specialty parts will be #1 on my list of suppliers for those types of parts...such as stealthmode with your oil line kits and such, weir_racing with your sexy-ass adapter's and plates, and xenocron with your ecu chipping and such. I'm here to support the HMT scene as much as possible, and to hopefully make a couple bucks doing what i love to do the most. I'm not saying I'm the most experienced person out there to do this kind of work, but I do have quite a few years under my belt, as do my friends. So that being said, let me know what you guys think...and if you have any pointers and tips, please...fill me in :)

Re: Thinking about opening a speed shop...thoughts and ideas?
 

Opening an import performance shop is a perfect way to loose a ton of money.

Re: Thinking about opening a speed shop...thoughts and ideas?
 

first things first, get good insurance and alot of it. Especially if your going to tune peoples cars or have a dyno. I know people are going to say its their own fault they wanted their car turbocharged bla bla. They will still try to find ways to get you to pay for the damages :-X. Hope that helps alittle

Re: Thinking about opening a speed shop...thoughts and ideas?
 

an even better way to sum it up :l

Re: Thinking about opening a speed shop...thoughts and ideas?
 

It wouldn't be our full-time job until we see how things go. Like I said, we have the place, the tools, the lifts, hoists etc. We just want to see if it would be worth it, mostly because we really don't like the jobs we're at right now...and instead of bitching and moaning about it, we'd really like to do something about it to see. If things don't pan out, then we're still back to where we were...minus some dough for advertising and stuff.

Re: Thinking about opening a speed shop...thoughts and ideas?
 

I would probably start out selling parts, then get into installing and fixing things.

Re: Thinking about opening a speed shop...thoughts and ideas?
 

The one kid sells parts from his dad's garage as it is for dirt cheap plus a little profit for himself, we're more interested in doing the motor swaps and stuff for the kids around here that really don't know what they're doing and charge em a little for doing it. The average fool in that area dishes out at least $2500 to have an LS dropped into their civics just in labor alone...mounts and crap are usually extra :-X

Re: Thinking about opening a speed shop...thoughts and ideas?
 

Re: Thinking about opening a speed shop...thoughts and ideas?
 

---- it man, follow your dreams. If you want to open up a shop and have the necessary skills, tools and $$ then do it. I think it's always good to actually like the job your doing, it makes work fun, and if you don't do it then you will never know. Like you said if things don't work out, then your back to where you were, but at least you tried and if your good and enjoy the work and have trustworthy friends then it's a good chance that it might work out.

Re: Thinking about opening a speed shop...thoughts and ideas?
 

chances are if it like it is out here, if you can reliably turbo your honda yourself, then you pretty much know more then anyone around.