misterzippo
New member
- Mar 11, 2013
- 14
- 0
Trying to wrap up writing my business plan for my mobile detail business and I am wondering if my Break Even Analysis is out of line?
Here's where I am at. I have always wanted to own my own business. ALWAYS, as in since I was 5 years old selling homemade puzzles by the side of the road. In 6th grade I was selling candy out of an abandoned locker in my middle school and in high school I would make $10/day selling pop tarts on the honor system out of my locker. The Principal shut me down and wasn't too keen when I offered him a cut if he would let me continue. :nomore:
I attended college and majored in Business Administration. I ran a "mobile" detailing business for about 2 years and did ok at it, meaning my expenses were very low and I made enough money to support it and myself. I had a passion for detailing and cooking. I always seem to have multiple hobbies/interests but several have remained with me my whole life including the aforementioned. I took a job in a restaurant and worked there until I graduated and took a sales position.
One thing led to another, the economy went south, blah blah and here I am as an assistant manager at a retail location.
The pay is decent for our area (15/hr) but I did not go to school and God did not bless me with a sense of business skills to make 15/hr working for someone else!
I had been dreaming of opening a restaurant but after spending several months researching and talking to owners I realized that at this time the financial (read
EBT) burden is too great for someone in my position with very little capital. I think my break even analysis would be $15,000 gross per month to cover everything.
After doing some more thinking it occurred to me that going back to detailing could be a reality. I have continued to detail my dads truck for the last few years as well as other random vehicles here and there. The low start up cost is appealing but what really gets me excited is taking pride in my work.
At my current job it is very cyclical, you never really start or finish anything so retail is very unrewarding. I am in charge of all of the operations and HR but I have been doing that for years and there is no challenge left. We recently had a store concept change and the work load has lightened and there is no challenge in the new system because there really is no system. It's a bit complicated without getting into specifics but the take away point is this: I'm extremely bored there and I LIKE to work. I LIKE to be busy, I NEED it. I'm always doing something around the house because of a NEED to stay busy.
When I was detailing cars there was a satisfaction when you took the owner out and showed him/her their "new car". I was proud of the work I did and I felt like I was accomplishing something in life. I want that feeling back.
Apologies for the book I just wrote but it leads to where we're going.
I would love to quit tomorrow and start detailing full time but the reality of financial survival is very low. My expenses are very little but they are an unfortunate reality. I have very little debt so I could afford to take some on to make this business work. I would like to start detailing part time to bring in some revenue and set up a client base but am somewhat limited as retail is an alternating schedule of days and hours. If I work at my retail job it would be hard to detail cars that same day due to the hours/location so this leaves me with 2 days a week. I spoke to my head manager about going to 4 days a week and that ruffled some feathers so I had to make up a reason as to why i asked, so that's out.
Here is the breakdown of what is needed to survive financially.
Monthly salary of $1900. This covers everything for me personally, house payment, food, gas, bills, etc. I live alone and try to live as frugal as possible but this has to be in place to replace my current stream of income.
My projected break even on the business itself is as follows:
Vehicle loan (van) $150
Insurance $250
Loan/credit card repayment $100
Fixed costs: $500
Chemicals $75
Advertising $50
Fuel $300
Tax Prep $50
Misc/petty $100
Variable costs: $575
Estimated monthly expenses $1075 + $1900 salary = $2975/mo or roughly $3000.
I'm hoping that the insurance costs for the vehicle and liability will be less that 250/mo but I wanted to estimate high. The loan repayment of $100/mo is for purchasing the rest of the items/chemicals I don't have and will run an estimated 3-4k. The work van is around $6k.
Water reclamation is the other item I haven't finalized because it seems to be an elephant in the room with other detailers. I looked on the ECHO EPA website and no detail or shop operations have been audited in the last few years but I don't want to be the first. That being said I don't want to sink alot of cash into something that is not a necessity. Waterless washes are a reality but a pressure washer is still needed imo.
I'm hoping I estimated a little high but its better to do so rather than go into this unrealistically. I'm sure theres something I haven't calculated for on here and would love a critique.
My targeted weekly sales need to be $1000/week to make this work, that gives me 41 weeks to make money and some to rest. If I detail 52 weeks/yr the break even is $790.
If you've stuck with me this far :thankyousign: as I tend to be a bit long winded.
Is it unrealistic to gross 800-1000/wk in this business? I know that you cant get there without hard work and busting your butt daily promoting yourself but is that a realistic number to quit your job for?
1000 may not seem like a lot but if you had to quit your job TODAY and start bringing in 1000/wk could you do it? Would you want to? Should I try and make a safety net of about 6k to cover myself until this gets going?
I know there's a lot of questions in here but I appreciate any answers you can help me with.
Here's where I am at. I have always wanted to own my own business. ALWAYS, as in since I was 5 years old selling homemade puzzles by the side of the road. In 6th grade I was selling candy out of an abandoned locker in my middle school and in high school I would make $10/day selling pop tarts on the honor system out of my locker. The Principal shut me down and wasn't too keen when I offered him a cut if he would let me continue. :nomore:
I attended college and majored in Business Administration. I ran a "mobile" detailing business for about 2 years and did ok at it, meaning my expenses were very low and I made enough money to support it and myself. I had a passion for detailing and cooking. I always seem to have multiple hobbies/interests but several have remained with me my whole life including the aforementioned. I took a job in a restaurant and worked there until I graduated and took a sales position.
One thing led to another, the economy went south, blah blah and here I am as an assistant manager at a retail location.
The pay is decent for our area (15/hr) but I did not go to school and God did not bless me with a sense of business skills to make 15/hr working for someone else!
I had been dreaming of opening a restaurant but after spending several months researching and talking to owners I realized that at this time the financial (read
EBT) burden is too great for someone in my position with very little capital. I think my break even analysis would be $15,000 gross per month to cover everything. After doing some more thinking it occurred to me that going back to detailing could be a reality. I have continued to detail my dads truck for the last few years as well as other random vehicles here and there. The low start up cost is appealing but what really gets me excited is taking pride in my work.
At my current job it is very cyclical, you never really start or finish anything so retail is very unrewarding. I am in charge of all of the operations and HR but I have been doing that for years and there is no challenge left. We recently had a store concept change and the work load has lightened and there is no challenge in the new system because there really is no system. It's a bit complicated without getting into specifics but the take away point is this: I'm extremely bored there and I LIKE to work. I LIKE to be busy, I NEED it. I'm always doing something around the house because of a NEED to stay busy.
When I was detailing cars there was a satisfaction when you took the owner out and showed him/her their "new car". I was proud of the work I did and I felt like I was accomplishing something in life. I want that feeling back.
Apologies for the book I just wrote but it leads to where we're going.
I would love to quit tomorrow and start detailing full time but the reality of financial survival is very low. My expenses are very little but they are an unfortunate reality. I have very little debt so I could afford to take some on to make this business work. I would like to start detailing part time to bring in some revenue and set up a client base but am somewhat limited as retail is an alternating schedule of days and hours. If I work at my retail job it would be hard to detail cars that same day due to the hours/location so this leaves me with 2 days a week. I spoke to my head manager about going to 4 days a week and that ruffled some feathers so I had to make up a reason as to why i asked, so that's out.
Here is the breakdown of what is needed to survive financially.
Monthly salary of $1900. This covers everything for me personally, house payment, food, gas, bills, etc. I live alone and try to live as frugal as possible but this has to be in place to replace my current stream of income.
My projected break even on the business itself is as follows:
Vehicle loan (van) $150
Insurance $250
Loan/credit card repayment $100
Fixed costs: $500
Chemicals $75
Advertising $50
Fuel $300
Tax Prep $50
Misc/petty $100
Variable costs: $575
Estimated monthly expenses $1075 + $1900 salary = $2975/mo or roughly $3000.
I'm hoping that the insurance costs for the vehicle and liability will be less that 250/mo but I wanted to estimate high. The loan repayment of $100/mo is for purchasing the rest of the items/chemicals I don't have and will run an estimated 3-4k. The work van is around $6k.
Water reclamation is the other item I haven't finalized because it seems to be an elephant in the room with other detailers. I looked on the ECHO EPA website and no detail or shop operations have been audited in the last few years but I don't want to be the first. That being said I don't want to sink alot of cash into something that is not a necessity. Waterless washes are a reality but a pressure washer is still needed imo.
I'm hoping I estimated a little high but its better to do so rather than go into this unrealistically. I'm sure theres something I haven't calculated for on here and would love a critique.
My targeted weekly sales need to be $1000/week to make this work, that gives me 41 weeks to make money and some to rest. If I detail 52 weeks/yr the break even is $790.
If you've stuck with me this far :thankyousign: as I tend to be a bit long winded.
Is it unrealistic to gross 800-1000/wk in this business? I know that you cant get there without hard work and busting your butt daily promoting yourself but is that a realistic number to quit your job for?
1000 may not seem like a lot but if you had to quit your job TODAY and start bringing in 1000/wk could you do it? Would you want to? Should I try and make a safety net of about 6k to cover myself until this gets going?
I know there's a lot of questions in here but I appreciate any answers you can help me with.
rops:
