So, some back story. Winter is long and cold here, people don't want to pay a reasonable price for woodworking because a bunch of old retired dudes are happy to sell stuff for less than material costs. I decided to insulate and finish my shop and start taking in work. We're still doing the market garden thing but it's not paying the bills yet.

As predicted, I hate working on farm trucks but word gets around and I'm fixing more "everything else" now.

I'm now certified by Polaris for their off-road equipment and I'm doing the training for snow, then Slingshot and Indian motorcycles.

I've got 5 jobs in the shop right now. Sled, quad, dirtbike, a garden tractor and an outboard motor. Three more are booked next week.

People don't want to spend money on their daily driver but they love spending money on their toys. I'm used to running a shop from doing automotive at my previous job and I know what I look for in a motorcycle shop.

I'm not interested in being a dealer for anything, I just want the service and repair end of things.

Anybody care to share what they like and dislike about dealing with a powersports repair shop?

  My dealings have been with dealers locally here in ‘metro’, who happen to be the two worst reputation dealers in the area, International, and the BMW dealer in Langley. One ooozed a don’t give a S#*t attitude, and pitiful communication, more like complete lack of communication thru an 8 month repair on my brother in law’s new bike warranty repair. The latter an unearned self importance attitude.
  Taking on a dealership often entails minimum inventory onsite, possible employees, and seasonal slow times. That would be a potentially very large expense!  Being an official repair status seems to be a good move. Perhaps once you get used to the customer base for each particular’toy’, you could perhaps have certain trinkets on hand that are popular with them, accessories of sorts, which might be attractive. Maybe a stock of oil and filters. Maybe certain attire.  Maybe heated vests. The biggest profit margin in any shop is the accessories dept.

Nope, like I said, I don't want to be a dealer. I've got just enough space to run a repair shop.

We've always operated on the "under-promise and over-deliver" method and I'm keeping it that way.

I've never been someone who haggles over price.  But I want quality work. 

Shawn I tend to agree with Bill.   I like to feel that I was treated fairly even if occasionally the billing could be more than expected.    In some dealings over the years I have been charged for shop tools which I guess is some way of recuperating overhead costs.  To me if you run a shop you should have tools and of course a place to work on them.   Seeing them billed on an invoice as an add on always irks me.   Another on is misc. parts on an invoice,  I would rather pay 5 bucks for a nut and bolt rather than a misc. costing.   I once had a mobile repair fella and he did good work however when is bills came it seemed like he was nickle and dimeing us for his services.   I had another one that was just the opposite and would put a line " misc parts- no charge "   Did he somehow rub a golden cow to be so nice as to not charge us at all?
Guess what I am saying is just be fair and even in your billing and once in a while just pick up the phone and call your customer should an extra expense show up or explain how you arrived at hours minimum to change a spark plug. 
I do not recall every saying no to extra costs if they were properly explained.
Also I do not want to pay an hourly fee if the mechanic is on the phone or talking to other clients while seemingly billing me for his time.
Just be fair and they will come back again or even better they will spread the word of mouth which is free advertising to your humble business.


 

Stick to your quotes and inform customer of addition costs BEFORE the work is done.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

My bills always have detailed notes, I get what you're saying about billing hours and such.

I agree, shops shouldn't be charging for a tool purchase. Our policy at the restoration shop was that, if the tool could only be used on that particular vehicle (30s Lincoln wheel wrench for example) then that tool was billed to the customer and left in the vehicle for future use. If the tool would be used for other things then it's a shop purchase and gets amortised over many jobs (that's why there's a "shop supplies" charge).

Clients get their phone time put on their bill, I keep a whiteboard on my shop and each job gets a section of the board. I clock in and out on the job as needed. We had a customer who would call and chat about his project whenever he was feeling bored. Those calls stopped when there was a line on his bill "phone time, 1 hour" because it took someone away from another customer's job.

I'm just about done tooling up the shop. I brought home a distributor synchrograph yesterday, put a deposit on a lathe and my Bridgeport comes home next month.