Re: Pay Wages For Small Engine Mechanics

Posted by Billy NY on February 24, 2013 at 06:02:01 from (72.226.79.200):

In Reply to: Pay Wages For Small Engine Mechanics posted by Whizkidkyus on February 23, 2013 at 17:42:16:

Some good valid points made about small engine repair.

I've known a few successful owners of small engine repair business's, some when things were not so throw away, the others now in the current era of toss and buy new.

Both were dependent on word of mouth, some advertising, but mostly due to repeat customers and recommendations, once established, both were/are decent profitable ventures.

There are peak highs where you can get swamped, so the volume of work may have ups and downs, cash flow will reflect this.

The guy I know doing this now is usually busy as a rule, and many times throughout the year, the front of his shop is full of snowblowers, riding and push mowers up to small tractors, garden, small farmall cubs and 9n's etc. He works in a garage right next to his home, and often you will see him out in that shop late.

Most of the work is light repairs, gunked up carbs, from things sitting, preventative maintenance, I believe a lot of the volume of work is of this type, he can do rebuilds and all the other more involved work.

People know him, word gets out and I am not so sure when he started but he did leave a decent job in construction to do this, the only equipment he has related to the business is the pick up truck and trailer for pick-up/drop off's.

I think he's got a good business established with this, I drove by his shop 2-3x per day for a few years, he does some work for us at the horse farm, probably more now since I did most of that work while I was there, very nice and personable guy, he had an appreciation for my eye with taking care of things, I remember some time back he was there checking on a 4040 simplicity we have, and I was oiling a chain or something and he thought I was spraying ether to get whatever it was I was working on to get started, "Hey..... what the heck are you doing? LOL!!! I showed him the can, he was laughing, found I hate that stuff as much as he.

I think in a nutshell, you have to be in an area where you can develop an acceptable volume of work, where small engine equipment is common, then you have to make a name for yourself, I would not do this work for an employer, just won't pay enough, its a type of business you are way better off doing on your own. The work itself is always there, like was said above, people let things sit, then it does not run, but it may not have a lot of age or hours on it so they don't immediately toss it and buy new, if that was the case, the guy I mentioned above would be out of business, so I can't agree that we live in a total throw away society when it comes to small engine and similar powered equipment, many people still have that old K series powered old school lawn or garden tractor, I see them in front of his shop often. He also does work for contractors, on their small engine equipment, service and repairs. You could probably set up to work in chainsaws, offer chain sharpening, my neighbor owned a small engine shop for 40 years, mostly saws and trimmers, some other power equipment, very stable business and there is a competitor across the road, he retired and just works there for his partner whom he sold it to for a few hours and few days a week. Thing is there are many who use saws, cut firewood or what have you and I see lots of old saws with work tags on them.

I think it depends a lot on the area you live in, this area is a tri-city area with lots of suburbs, all kinds of power equipment out there, anyone could carve a niche out of this market if they desired too, may take some time, but the market is there, its a necessity that most people have in small engine/power equipment.

I have considered it myself, many of my friends have me work on small engine equipment, almost all of it is carb work and oil/lube, preventative maintenance. I started out working on lawn mowers as a kid, even then, was carb work, service work and tune ups for things we owned. People know me to be a maintenance freak, good with carbs, sometimes its annoying, but even this is a steady trickle, picked up a snowblower carb job last night, easy, takes little time, either a kit or put a new one on, seems these are throw away judging by how they are made.

If its something you like, do some research and see if the market you live in is equitable, if you do good work, service your work, treat your customers right, around here word will get out and you will have jobs to do, if the market is just not there and people don't seem to use the service the obvious will be in plain sight, you won't really know unless you try.

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