any techs out there working own garage?

[daris]

Ya! I heard some talk about it from a few friends a while back. I think he was a "repair only" franchise, and he even had sales guys running around, trying to solicit customers for him, then he closed down and one of the sales guys kind of took over, but I gues if it was a franchise, he had fees plus his sales team to pay and probably Canadian Tire got some money out of it, sometimes I wonder if he's still around doing something similar. Sure would like to talk to him. Thanks for that reminder, sure makes me think that if he had all those fees and still had so many repairs, maybe if I try hard enough I might pull myself through the winter. I was also wondering if you're thinking commercial garage for the winter and if you have any repair only techs in London and how's biz down there. Thanks again for that reminder. Now It's opened up some thgoughts.

[kenb81]

There is a few repair only in London myself being one. And i am working out of a 10 X 20' portable garage for the winter. Business is good because i'm on a very busy intersection in London.
The person who used to run the Windsor location used to be a jail gaurd and had people working for him and yes it was a franchise and he had to pay 15%
royalty fees plus rent to Canadian Tire based on the number of repairs done in the month .The mininum payment was $50 a week (not alot of Money)
This franchise (Xpress) closed down completely in 2002 and all franchises went independant

[toab]

Screenman...My rustproofing bay will be seperated from the P.D.R./W.R. area by a wall.because of the small pop'density of my area I have to diversify a little and see what flys as the overhead of this place will have to be payed somehow.I think you are right about time consuming paintwork and will be doing it to keep busy untill the other stuff picks up.theres always somebody needing paint work but the p.d.r. and w.r. will take some time to educate people that the service is available around here and how it works.If windshield repair and paintfree dent repair takes off then I will drop rustproofing and spot painting in a heartbeat.