Pay Wages For Small Engine Mechanics

Hi All,


As some of you may all ready know by some of my previous posts on here I work on small engines and I have become quite good at it ( not trying to bragg ) and I enjoy it . I'm considering a career change and become a small engine mechanic .I'm wanting to know what an average mechanic makes starting out and what I can look forward to making as I get factory ( let employer send me to school , always wanted to go and get certified anyway ) certified . I know that it is mostly a seasonal deal and pay can vary from employer , areas of country and what I'm certified on as well as years of experience . Any pros / cons to becomming a small engine mechanic and getting certified ? My experiences is mostly on Briggs engines, older models from early 1990s 10 - 14 hp OHV as well as regular valves , as well as older Murrays , some MTDs as well as Briggs push mowers . I have experience on Kohlers as well as Hondas . I have worked on transmissions took them apart and fixed them as well as changing them as well as changing motors . I have experience with electricial systems on mowers , cleaning carbs , etc. But , still I admit that I don't know everything . I have even ordered and bought a couple of hundred dollars worth of small engine speciality tools . I have even done work for people and made money fixing their engines . So while a job in a small engine shop maybe more faster paced and more headaches , it can't be too much different from what I do at home . Any help and advice is appreciated .

Thank you,
Whizkid
 
Hi ,

As proof of my experiences with small engines , please watch these videos of me repairing a small engine , 4 or 2 cycle . I'm the one doing the engine repairs . A friend of mine does the electronics and computer repair . Some of you may have already heard of our Youtube repair channel called ESRepair , if not then please watch and enjoy and read all the comments . Yes , there are a few smart alecks out there but most post were complimenting us.

Thanks,
Whizkid
ESRepair On Youtube
 
Hi Whizkid,
I don"t know why you would like to work for someone else if you enjoy what you are doing and are good at it? If you would like to take a course you can always go to night school. I have worked for myself for over (20) years and wouldn"t have it any other way. Though I do love working on tractors as my hobbie. I would guess around here mechanics earn between $10-$15depending on experience.
Bob
 
I am not arguing with Farmall_Bob here but if all I had to look forward to is a 10 to 15 dollar per hour wage after going to several schools put on by engine manufacturers, I'd choose a different career. Perhaps......mastering hamburger flipping would be in the cards. LOL

Mechanics are usually required to have their own tools and tool chest. It's not hard to spend several thousand dollars for those items even when you are working on small engines. The Federally Mandated Minimum Wage is $7.25 although individual States are not required to follow it apparently.

The 2012 Poverty Level was $23,050.00 of income per year for a family of 4. Do the math. A $15.00/hr wage rate means $120.00 per 8 hour day X 5 days to earn $600.00 per week before deductions. That's a mere $31,200.00 per year or just $8,150.00 above the level of abject poverty.

A $10.00/hr wage rate puts you below the Poverty Level at $20,800.00 annual income. Hardly what I would call inspirational either way. Life is what you make of it Whizkid. It all comes down to what YOU are willing to settle for. If this "hobby" of yours cannot provide you with a decent living, then find something that can and keep this hobby as a hobby.

If the area you live in pays slave wages, then pack your bags and move to a place where you can make some real money. There are only X number of days in your life. Every day that goes by is one less day you have in front of you. It's how you spend those days that matter because eventually you will get old and reach that point where you can no longer work. That isn't a threat...that is reality.
 
One thing that Tom forgot to throw in his figures is the cost of insurance which according to radio and TV is going to be mandated. If you are good at it I would start someplace on your own even if its part-time. Word gets around if your are good and do the work at a fair price. You can build on it from there. Good luck if you plunge in.
 
Yep, thats about right if you work for someone else and they are paying your insurance, and benifits, for starting off. Unless you are in a management position you get more. In a poor state like mine. Lots of people here holding down (2) jobs just to stay even.
Bob
 
John, you are right! Start part time working for yourself, and get established. You have started on a shoe string so to speak. But the key is you have to work for yourself, since working for someone else just isn"t going to cut the mustard. That"s why there is a lot of folks in my poor state that work for themselves.
Bob
 
I was literally raised in my Dad's mower shop, and I worked there for 20+ years.

I have seen good mechanics that were terrible businessmen, only to have their business fail.

I have seen good businessmen that were terrible mechanics, only to have their business fail.

Fortunately, my Dad was blessed with both skills, and his business survived for 34 years before selling out.

Doing repairs as a sideline will earn you some spending money. ...Hopefully, your other job will provide the benefits, income, and health insurance which you will need.

There is a lot to be said for having your own business and being your own boss. ....However, while it is tempting to think that you won't have a boss to answer to, you will have MANY "bosses" : your customers!

Once you jump in to your own business, are you prepared and willing to spend the 10-12 hours (or more) per day to keep up with the repairs, chasing parts, answering phone calls, picking-up & delivering equipment, spending time with customers (which is not earning you money), and the endless paperwork invoved for accounting, tax payments, record keeping, billing customers, etc. ????? ....If you don't have enough business to pay all your expenses, how will you survive?

Don't forget that you'd better plan on buying liability insurance to cover any repairs that you perform!

Once your business gets big enough that you realize you can't keep up with everything by yourself, you will need to hire extra help. ....Now, a new set of problems arises. ....But you are the BOSS!

Don't worry if the competent employee that you hire doesn't show up reliably. ...You can easily hire someone who always shows up but doesn't know what he's doing. (sarcasm intended) ...When the employee asks/demands a raise, you can explain why he is not worth it, why you can not afford it, or why he is earning more than you are.

Do you plan on selling new equipment as well as do repairs? ....You now need more money to buy inventory. ....You will spend time trying to sell equipment, but you have to remember that not everyone you talk to will buy. ....You will not be paid for that time you spent with them. ...Who will be doing repairs while you are trying to sell?

Profits to dealers have been trimmed to a small percentage by the manufacturers and distributors. ...Things are not like they were years ago.

Will you have competition from other repair shops or equipment sellers? ....Will you have to compete for sales against Walmart, Home Depot, and Lowes?

My comments may sound very negative toward having your own business. ....There is a lot of self-satisfaction that comes from having your own business, but lots of income is not guaranteed!

My unsolicited advice to you is to choose one of two options:

(option A) Get a full-time job in a dealership that is already established for sales and repairs of equipment. ....Earn what you are worth while learning as much as you can about the workings of the business. ...You will gain a lot of experience and possibly attend factory-run training schools/seminars. ....While your interest may be working on older equipment, you will need to have the knowledge to work on new equipment.

It is OK to take on repair jobs on the side for extra income, as long as you are not competing with your employer !!!!!

(option B) Keep your full-time job where you already get paid and have benefits. ...Start your own repair business on the side. ...It will take a while to build a large enough cutomer base to support you full-time. ....Once you get to that point, you can decide which path to follow.
 
cwtech, that is about the best advice I have ever heard! That's it in a nutshell, so to speak. I guess you could say that for 22 years I had the best of both worlds. I worked on small engines/lawn and garden equipment for Sears. We had a large shop at the local catalog distribution center. Seldom had to make an outside service call. Sears provided the tools and equipment. When they phased out the shop in 1987 I was making $13.25 an hour plus benefits. I took an early retirement offer in 1990. The problem was, NO small engine repair shop around here paid a decent wage. And many of them had, as you mentioned, those who didn't know or care what they were doing, but they worked cheap. I found work in other fields and spent several years behind the parts counter of an automobile dealership before I retired, but was never able to make more than 2/3 what I made at Sears.
 
cwtech wrote: It is OK to take on repair jobs on the side for extra income, as long as you are not competing with your employer !!!!!"


If you are employed by a company that repairs small engines, then the minute you begin taking on that type of work in your spare time, YOU ARE competing against your employer. If he sends you to a Kohler school or Briggs & Stratton school etc, he is paying for your education. He does this because you are not educated and as such, you are less valuable to him because you cannot make certain repairs unless you have that knowledge. In addition, having that knowledge will increase your speed in making repairs which will allow you to make more repairs per day.

Your employer expects to get a decent return on that investment because while you are attending school, you are not in his shop making money for him. The training you are taking on is provided in the expectation of loyalty. Now if you have no intention of being loyal, then you should either go to those schools on your own dime or refund all the wages paid to you while attending school. It's a simple thing called integrity and it boils down to that old adage.... do unto others as you would others do unto you.

cwtech makes some highly valid points about the difference between self employment and working for others. Let me add to that. If all you intend to do is run a small shop working for yourself, then all you will ever make is a living wage. If you want to make an above average income, then you need to plan to open a shop and hire three or more full-time mechanics to do the work. Your job will be to RUN the business or it will run you.

It is up to you to monitor the quality of the repair work performed to make sure it is done 100 percent correctly and completely. It is up to you to order in the parts needed for each job, do all the invoicing and deal with the customers directly when they bring in the item and when they come to pick up the item. Your days of being a mechanic will be over with because you will not have the time to do it and still look after running the business and cleaning the toilet.

Expect to work at least 60 hours per week. You will need an accountant to prepare your year-end statements so you can file the income tax statement for the business. You will need a book keeper if you are not qualified to set up an accounting system and make all the entries for Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable and Payroll.

You will also have to spend money for Yellow Page advertising so that customers know you even exist. You will either succeed or fail based upon several criteria. FIrst of all, the quality of your work, your honesty and integrity, your fair pricing standards, your personality when dealing with your customers and your staff and your ability to set up systems and procedures so you can keep your finger on the pulse of what is going on with your business .

It's one thing to be a good mechanic and something else again to be a top-notch business owner. Good luck either way.
 
I did what cwtech suggested I left the farm after graduating from high school and found a job with the US government. I still helped my dad with morning milking. This was doing the Korean war and we worked 7 days a week. We received 26 days vacation and 13 days sick leave. Was paid time & one half for over 8 hours. Was testing engines on stationary dynanmometers that were run 24 hours a day. We tore them down when new and measured every part and when they completed the endurance tests they were tore down again and measured for wear. Started as a Wage Grade 5 and in 6 months was promoted to WG 8. Then I was drafted into the
Army and served 2 years and 6 years in the reserves. When I was discharged I was rehired back in my old job as a returning vet.

Six months later I was promoted Wage Grade 12 and this was when they had 26 Wage Grades. About a year later I was promoted to Grade 16 and then to 18. When Jack Kennedy became president he wanted government workers to be paid what privave industry was paying help. So they went to only 12 grades in the wage grade system. Then I was Grade 12 and got a few cents more. About the same time government health insurance became available and I signed up for it in 1960. Ike and Nixon had started this when they were in office. When the 1970's rolled around they said our current job description was wrong and we were converted to General Schedule known as GS employees and I was a GS-11. Worked there 43 years counting my Army time. Had 3000 hours of sick leave and 90 days vacation. The man that replaced me is still working and has over 51 years of government service. They made that position a GS-12. Look up GS and Wage Grade schedules for the Philadelphia area for current rates. Not many jobs where you can work that long. I kept my health insurance when I retired and can change
to a different company during the month of November.

From the 1970's until the 1990's I bought tractors and Troy Bilt tillers that needed repaired. I had over 30 Troy Bilt tillers. Paid my house off in 10 years and sent our daughter to nursing school and she has an AA degree, BS, MS all in nursing, MPH in Public Health from Hopkins. Hal
I had farm tractors and garden tractors
 
I dont think you will be doing anything at a dealer but setting up new stuff, sharpening blades and changing sparkplugs.
Nobody fixes anything anymore,just buy a new one.
 
Turned wrenches for local Allis and IH dealer for all through the 90's. Did good, reasonably fast, accurate work, but found there was always an excuse why nobody could afford to pay the mechanics enough to live on. At the IH dealer, the best, longest serving guy was making 11/hr, after 22 years.
After 5 years there, and getting all the way to $7.10/hr, I'd had enough. Answered an ad in the paper for a small engine tech at a Deere lawn dealer 30 miles away, and got hired on the spot.
We got 50% of our labor @ $55/hr, plus 10% of parts profit. Never had a job I enjoyed so much, and used to get paychecks that made me wonder what I'd ever do with it all! Full benefits too!
Lasted 5 years, until the owner, fearing the squeeze from the big box stores, decided to drop his Deere contract, and stick with the Honda Motorsport line he also had. All of us that wore green shirts there were out of a job. Found out fast that nobody else would dream of paying wages like that to a lowly mechanic.
Thought hard about opening my own shop, but my wife is self employed, so took a job as a manufacturers rep, mostly because we needed the insurance. I like it, but really miss the satisfaction I got from fixing things.
 
Tom, I agree with your statements!

To clarify the point about "not competing with your employer," one of our employees lived and did side jobs in an area where we did not draw any customers. ...His few side jobs were not taking any customers (or potential customers) from us.

Any experience or knowledge gained from his side jobs would increase his skills and make him a better employee for us.

We had no problem with that until we caught him STEALING parts from our inventory to do those repairs. ....Had he been honest with us, we would have SOLD those parts to him at a discount. ....Of course, we could not give him the 100% discount which he enjoyed before/until we caught him !!!!

We believed that the cost involved in sending an employee to a service school was an investment which we would benefit from in our shop.
 
No matter how it is done, employee training costs the employer money. It does not cost the employee money. in fact, once the training has taken place, the employer often increases the hourly rate of that employee.

Now... let's compare that situation to some other fields. If you want to be paid big bucks, you go to school and get an education that either your parents underwrite or you pay for via student loans that must be repaid. You don't get to wear an iron ring on your finger unless you go to school and become an engineer.

You don't get the title "Doctor" without attending medical school and then interning at some hospital working horrible hours for peanuts. So if you are an employer who funds the training of an employee, then you are entitled to have that employee show you some gratitude for what you have done for him/her. Anyone who quits their job a week after going through several schools at the expense of their employer, lacks character.

Employers don't spend time and money training employees so they can jump ship and go elsewhere.
 
You ask this on a different forum and I guess you didn't like what you got told.

1. I know several shops that are small engine only. They don't pay much because the money maker there for the owner is parts markup.

2. You cannot expect many places to give you much is any of that markup.

3. They don't hire anyone off the street so to speak. You have to have a trade school certificate for them to even talk to to you.

4. Most people with small engines just throw them away if they connot fix them themselves. Old Murry's get crushed at a fantastic rate. Why would an owner dump 500 bucks into an old 999 Murry when they can replace it new for 1000 bucks at Wally World? Heck my own son tossed a 99.99 special lawn mower cause they wanted 68 bucks for a new carb without installation. Most folks with old crap machines who will pay to have them fixed are not going to be willing to pay the 45 or so an hour to have them repaired at a shop that hire mechanics, so you need to be up to speed on the new stuff who's owners can afford to pay that.

5. Most of your certs anymore for the different makers is for only engines. Shops what guys trained in the whole system, be it a snow blower or a lawn tractor.

6. Many of your newer trannies are "sealed" units and are throw away. On the better more expensive units with decent trannies they seldom have problems.

7. The real money in "small" engine is in "rec" engines. Marine/Outboard, ATV's, motorcycle and such. For that you need to go to school. Only place I know of that was willing to train went belly up about 10 years ago.

8. Really want to make money turning wrench's? Owning your own shop is the way to go. Lot more work and cost but the rewards are greater too.

It'a an achievable goal if you really want it. You just need to be sure of it. You can expect to have to have 2K or more in professional grade tools. Shop owner isn't going to hire you with a base set of Craftsman. He can't afford for you not to be able to complete a job cause a wrench broke. He's going to want you to have tools from a distributer that comes to the shop once a week, not have to give you time off to run to Sears or HD to replace a broken Husky.

Or you can try to just free lance it and work on old junk for customers who are not willing to pay a decent price is at all. You can't live by fixing stuff for free.

I know this isn't what you wanted to hear but to the best of my knowledge it's the best info I can give you. Part of this is gleened from my wife's employer. She works at a C store that also performs lite repairs on cars/trucks and is a full line dealer and repair for TORO and Husqvarna.
The owner told me when I ask that given your qualifications he'd maybe give you a job at the regester and when needed use you to set up new equipment.

Rick
 

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