Is 15 Yrs. old too young to do repairs?

[screenman]

My son was working for me at 15 but he did not go out on his own until he was old enough to drive which is 17 by this time all the customers knew him it was never a problem.

[glassdoctor]

Like I said, 15 is too young for anything but a sidekick apprentice, and that's only IF the kid is more mature than the average high school freshman.

I know I would hire a 15yr old kid to mow my lawn or scoop snow, but there is no way I would hand over the keys to him to work on my car, unless I already knew him and had reason to believe he was skilled in what he was doing. And I think I am more likely to give a young man the benefit of the doubt more so than the average joe customer.

The school thing could possibly happen on some scale. That would depend on the how much the teachers liked the kid, etc. That's not the real world of business anyway though.

IMHO

[GlassStarz]

As you probably know from my previos posts my 15 yr old works with me when not in school he is a good tech and generaly does good repairs the only things I see missing is the lack of experience and knowledge of how to treat different breaks this comes with experience not age. He is very well dicipline (state champ last 2 yrs tae kwo do) I dont know about whether customers would give him the benifit of the dought because he is younger than most techs. How would you feel if when you brought your car to the garage for a tune up and oil change and the owner gave the keys to the 15 yr old kid that looks old enough to wash cars but not fix em? I guess as a helper/second tech its ok but maybe not alon? hey what do I know I voted for Bush and you can see what a bad choice that was

[StarQuest]

Mepoozer,

I think that's great that you want to share your trade with your son. Even at 15 years old it doesn't hurt to keep him occupied and off the computer or the streets I think it would be smart though to keep him as a assistant bye your side until he grows some. Most fleet account mangers and dealership managers already have a problem with us making $50 an hour for our services. Put a teenager in their face at those wages and I'm sure they will have major problems with it. I also wouldn't be paying him much more then he'd make at the local Mc Donalds or Wendy's for helping out. The rest should go into a CD or joint savings account account towards possible future college expenses.

Good luck!

[glassdoctor]

How would you feel if when you brought your car to the garage for a tune up and oil change and the owner gave the keys to the 15 yr old kid that looks old enough to wash cars but not fix em?

Sure, that's not a problem because the 15yr old in this case is under the direction of his superior. He's not running the biz himself. His boss is resposible for him. That's why I would have a problem letting a kid loose to go work on his own, but having him with you as a helper is fine.

The ability/skill of doing the repairs has nothing to do with it, cause that's not the point. It's about selling himself and his work as a professional.

There may be liablility issues should there ever be an "incident" of some sort happen. I dunno... probalby never happen. I guess it's no different than a kid washing a neighbor's car for $$.

There's only one way to find out if he can pull it off.. give it a try. So I say go for it! We want to know how it works out..

Fixed Quote Box

[glassdoctor]

Well, that post didn't work out too well with the "quote box" thing... #-o

[gt_repair]

If you had you kid working for you, You would only pay him or her a percentage of what they did. They are using your EQ. and mat. So just pay them on a %.. Let the dealerships or any account know that also. and if the person was trained under you and you are any good they may respect that........

[glassdoctor]

At 15, he can't drive... so to do work at dealers by himself he would have to walk or ride a bike. HMMM that won't work... maybe if you dropped him off to work there...

I do work for 25+ dealers. I KNOW some of them would not like me sending a teenager to work on their lot by himself. But if he could pass for 18+, as some 15yr olds certainly could, then what they don't know won't hurt you.

But other dealers are more laid back and easy going... I'm sure some would not care so long as the work is done well, etc.

On a different note: Do you suppose a 15 yr old could get signed up with ACT? Or maybe just sign up yourself and have him call in under your biz. With using ACT, he may even do ok selling "free" retail work... tent setup or the like. Maybe the "free" thing would be more believable coming form a "minimum wage" looking kid. No?

[desertstars]

I'm impressed.

In my opinion, good question and good answers and advice.

I'm most impressed by the kids who are interested in doing SOMETHING and even ANYTHING at such a relatively early age rather than sitting on their rear ends playing games on the computer.

Go for it dads and mothers.

And don't forget to compliment yourselves for raising kids with get up and go.

I know too many adults whose get up and go got up and left years ago.

[gt_repair]

I think the minor should work with and along with you to get the time under their belt.. and every now and again just do an inspection on thir work before you leave the lot to make sure they are up to your standerds.... I was even doing that with my wife when she was doing this with me. I would inspect her work. and she did not care.. She wanted to have her work look as good as she could because everyone know I trained her.. She just couls not do that and work her real job that also spend time with her horses on her days off. She backed off from the repairings... Bad loss to me..
She was getting good.