Mobile Oil Change Business Advice

You want to start a mobile oil change business. You have not bought anything yet. The van, the equipment, the oil, the filters, nothing. Stop right there in your tracks. Do you have what it takes to make this work. I know it sounds like a good idea, I know you think the whole mobile oil change concept sounds nice but do you know whats involved. I wish someone else would have made this blog when I first got into business. It would have a)stopped me from doing it or most likely b)made me successful a lot sooner.

Besides going after the wrong type of business most mobile oil change operators just don't have the type of personality you need to make this work. You are not going to be able to sit by the phone and wait for your customers to call you. You are going to have to go out and get them. This is the the only reason why I am in business and most other mobile oil change businesses are not. Most operators are introverts to say the least. This is not to say they are dumb but I have found that a lot of people who start this type of business are not "sales oriented." What do I mean by that??

Let me tell you back in 2005 how I got a huge fleet. I will even say the name of this one. Its a company called Corporate Express. They got bought out by Staples last year in the summer. Anyway I was doing an oil change at an office complex. That was back in time when I was still doing the individuals or "onsies twosies" as my partner likes to say. I had just gotten done with an oil change that, by itself took 25 minutes but if you add going up the fifth floor and getting the keys then repositioning the car in an area in the parking garage that had more room and then after the oil chage is done going back up to the fifth floor to hand back the keys and recieve payment only to find out that she wants to pay with a credit card but did not tell you beforehand so you run back down and ride the elevator back up and hand her bach her keys and swipe the credit card, ends up taking over an hour. I noticed a Workhorse truck parked outside the front of the building. I do not even think about it. I quickly run up to the truck as the guy is bringing some packages in the building. I look at his oil change sticker. Surprise, surprise, the truck is 6,000 overdue on its oil change. Thats money! When the guy comes out, his name was Jason by the way, I ask him who is in charge of the fleet maintinace for his company. He is a little bit shocked and surprised but tells me anyway. I then go on to tell him that I own a mobile oil change business and that I noticed his truck was overdue. Of course he did not care, if fact could care less. But I had gotten the crucial information I needed. I found out the fleet managers name. That is the most crucial pieces of information you can find out. Once you find out who can tell you "yes" or "no" you have solved half the equation. Oh yes, I also was able to get from him how many vehicles they had. It turned out they had 15-20 vehicles. Again, that money. This is a fleet that has something worked out but its obviously not working or the truck would not be 6,000 miles overdue. It also tells me that the air filters, coolant, fuel filters, are most likely going to have to be changed since the vehicles are not being serviced like they should. Again, thats money. And I know what they have fifteen trucks and if I could net at least $30 per oil change I would make $450 just off oil changes if I could seal the deal with the fleet manager. And if you account for add ons or if I could talk them into going with syntheic oil, which I did, I could make $800 net minimum per oil change interval. And that is just what I did. I talked with the fleet manager. We worked out a deal. I told him I could come after hours, which was his main concern and showed him my 1,000,000 liability policy which was no concern to him but impressed him nevertheless, and I got the fleet. And when he left a month later one of his top drivers took over and I got him to swtich his whole fleet to syntheic oil and we did the coolant flushes for all of them.

The point is you have to be ready to talk to anyone at all times. At no time I am waiting by the phone. I hate the phone. You have to be ready to go up to fleet managers, fleet workers, business owners, and just start talking. You are going to mess up but if you want your mobile oil change business to work you will make yourself get good at it. I have only meet a few guys who understand this.

You have to talk to people. You have to be ready at all times. You are going to have to do cold calls. I have done 100s of cold calls and got hung up on so many times. I have just steeped into office building and acted like I knew people there when I did not. I do not care. I cared about my mobile oil change company working. I have actually gotten lazier over the past two years. I do not do what I used to do. I have really toned it down. I still do some crazy tactics here and there but I just do not have to any longer. I don't have the desire. But the first two years I was like a fireball. I was ADD. It was always the next deal. The next deal. We just got a brand new fleet, who cares, next deal. That is why I have a viable company now.

So now you know two componets to having a profitable and successful mobile oil change business. You have to be comfortable talking with people, be bold, be corageous, not care about anything, and know that you have to go after medium to large fleets bypassing the individual to make having a mobile oil change business succeed. If not I hope you live with your parents or your girlfriend has a good job because I am sorry you just will not make any money at all. I live in the coldest state in the country, I get paid more for ONE OIL CHANGE that you do for three, and I swear if when I did the individuals even alot of them I was not making any money. And I will continue to emphasize this on every post. Your mobile oil change company needs to be a business to business company and nothing more. Do not waste your time. Please! I want to see more people suceed in this business b/c it can make you alot of money. But noboby knows how to do it right.