Mobile Oil Change Equipment

All the mobile oil change business advice posts I have been writting have had a negative slant to them. I have done that on purpose.

I have highlighted five negative aspects to every positive I have mentioned when it comes to owning a mobile oil change business or mobile oil change franchise. I have done this 100% on purpose. Its not so much that I am not a negative person but I feel that it is my sworn duty to start real negative and stay negative for a long time.

Why is that? So I can show you how hard this business really is and you can honestly make an assesment if you want to get into it.

That was not done for me. Oh, if I had just a little insider information when I started off! When I started in 2004 all the information I recieved about owning and operating a mobile oil change business was complete "BS." I have to be honest about it.

First, I bought that utterly useless Melrics oil change guide which was the worst $35.00 I ever spent. Do not buy that guide if you want to succeed in the mobile oil change arena. They will give you a lot of nice fluff and nothing that I at least deemed useful. They give you a lot of "duhh" advice. Its advice like "when you brush your teeth in the morning make sure you put toothpaste on your brush." Oh brother.

As I stated in an earlier post we started with a "franchise." Unfortunately you will find that a franchise means little unless its name is backed up by something valuable. Its kind of like the US currency thats becoming worthless with each passing day. Me and my uncle just bought into a awesome name.

It was Jet Set Life Technologies with their worthless Oil Extreme. Another piece of advice that will save you thousands!!! Do not believe a word they say.

They do have a great product. Oil Extreme is great. It is some of the best motor oil you can put inside your vehicle besides Amsoil. If you like it so much go to Mr. George French's website and buy the oil. Its $8 per quart plus shipping but do not start a mobile oil change business from it. You will fail.

I promise you that his system does not work. I am not bitter or hateful but he is delusional and thinks that Oil Extreme is the best thing known to man and while I cannot fault the old man for his passion and he does have some good and likeable qualities, he will sell you the world and will not deliver.

We thought that we were smart and asked him for referrals and he gave me two people who were already a part of his mobile oil change " empire. The first guy was the one who fabricated his vans, which are nice BTW but highly impracticable. The second was one who had just bought into Oil Extreme several months before us. We find out a year later that he had leveraged himself to the hilt and had barely done any oil changes during his period of ownership. It turns out that later he sold all his equipment dirt cheap to another guy who found window chip repair to be more lucrative.

They both told me that no only staring a mobile oil change business was a great idea, and that I was going to make tons of money, but that Oil Extreme was the only way to go!!

"Wee, I'm going to get rich," I thought after getting off the phone with them.

I still can remember me and my uncle meeting for breakfast at Arctic Inn Restaurant talking about what we were going to do with all our money made from our mobile oil change business. How could we loose? Great product with a great service.

Here is a big lesson that I am going to give you right now. If you have read through this post and what to gleam some crucial information take out a notebook and rewrite the following sentence and burn it into your mind: 90% of people know nothing about oil, in fact they just think that if wait too long (meaning 5,000 miles) to get an oil change that their car will blow up.

Besides that even less individuals know or care about specific brands no matter how good it is. You could put cat piss in their car and as long as it ran they would care less.

They only thing that will motivate most people to even switch a higher priced oil is maybe the extended drain intervals meaning that instead of going every 3,ooo miles they can do 6,000 miles.

So as a mobile oil change operator your job is to get the right oil at the least possible price. Let me say this again, and re-phrase it a little bit. As a mobile oil change operator you want to get the cheapest oil you can find and a lot of times I can tell you it will be at Wal Mart. Hate the store with a passion but love their prices. In fact I can guarantee that nobody, not even the jobbers or distributors, will beat Wal Mart's prices on motor oil. They buy so much oil that on a national level they recieve the best prices and are the only store that has 5 quart containers. If you are a mobile oil change business operator you know how important that is.

So I will repeat. Do not go with Mr. French and his Oil Extreme franchise. Learn from my mistakes. Going with Mr French set me back two years and put my uncle in a massive amount of debt that was never necessary. He lied to us, told us about contracts he never had, and did worse to other franchises. I just have to be honest. A part of me still has great respect for Mr. French. A heck of a salesmen. If I could have the salesmanship of him and my father, who in the past I despise but admire, I would be rich man. He knows what to say and exactly how to fire you up. But his superior product isn't even his own. He re-labels someone else's product. Its called EP Lube and they are the real makers of the famous Oil Extreme. Sorry I had to say it. I consider myself an honest person and never try to lie to anyone and yet as much as I really do like Mr. French he lied to us and everyone of his franchises.

The mobile oil change business is hard enough but when your "franchise HQ" is not telling you the truth and selling you overpriced product that makes it impossible for you to compete then you have to say something.

There are some others like Lube N Go and Oil Butler but they really just sell you a fancy overpriced van with fancy pumps that are worthless. They are not like Oil Extreme and I am not saying they are bad but you will have less of a chance of success if you go with those guys for your mobile oil change business.

I wish I would have went with Sage Vac. I have handled their equipment and can say they are the best. I actually contacted them and tried to get them to pay me for saying this. I really like their product but I figured I would make some money off this website. They never responded to me but I still love them nevertheless. In the process of trying to buy some equipment with them right now.

They offer the best mobile oil change set up equiped to deal with FLEETS. Remember I said that in one of my first posts. You want fleets and not individuals. The other mobile oil change fabrication companies make a system that is worthless to an operator as far as general practicality. They focus more on looks.

People see your van and are amazed but none of the pumps and equipment on your mobile oil change van are easy to use and in fact they are more trouble than they are worth. Try sucking oil with a diaphragm pump and see how long that takes you vs draining it. Sage Vac offers mobile oil change devices that are vacuum pumps, which is what you will need to quickly pump 15W-40 out of a truck, and their equipment is especially good for vehicles that actually pay well to do an oil change on.

I am not getting a kick back to say this. You can call our business at 907-677-8175 and I will tell you in person. I may not answer the phone but leave a message as I may be working or writing this blog and hate to be disturbed.

It is my hope I have been as negative as possible when it comes to the mobile oil change business. I have other blogs that I just write for money and don't care about. Those blogs are ones that I write for money. I did crunched the numbers and if this particular blog ranked well on all the major search engines I would make a wooping $30 a month. This blog is my baby and one I own where I am brutally honest. My mobile oil change business is my main business, it pays all my bills, gives me a lot of money, but most people are not cut out for it.

That is the truth. There is only a select few that will succeed in this business. I live in a state that has winter for 6 months out of a year. How do you think I feel that it is now February and I still will be dealing with heavy snow come April.

It sucks. I spent the first part of January changing oil in -15 degrees. Think that is any fun. My competition fades quickly. There has been 4-6 other guys to try this. They all failed. I dare anyone to try to start a mobile oil change business in Alaska. But I dare anyone to start a mobile oil change business in Texas or California or Missouri. Oil Changes there go for $10-15. Good luck having a mobile oil change company in semi pleasant weather but with no net profit.

There is no money in oil changes alone.

Again, and I will repeat it, Jiffy Lube makes their money from shear volume. I mean 100s of oil changes in one day. They attempt to make their money on transmission flushes, coolant flushes, fuel filters, battery replacement, belt replacement, air filters, tire rotations, emission tests, and a lot of other "add ons". They make no money from changing your oil.

Again, most quick lubes make very little to no money from changing your oil alone. They have to add on to a person's bill like there was no tommrow. If you leave their bay with just an oil change then the service manager has not done his job.

Oil changes are one of the least profitable businesses out there. Do you believe your mobile oil change business is any different. You might want to believe it is but its not. You will have to add on too. Not as much because your overhead will be significantly less but also keep in mind you do not have the large volume either.

I just gave you another secret.... I planned to tell you this much later. I do this 100% honestly but I push add ons as much as I can. Oil Changes represent 40% of my mobile oil change business. Oops gave away another secret....

I have to be careful. I want to go into detailed plans but I have to resist. My goal is to tell the truth and lead you into the right area. I will not tell you exactly what fleets to go after. Thats very valuable information and I am sorry if you want me to make sales for you but I will need top dollar to disclose that information. If you pay me I will drum up 1000s of business for you but some things you must do by yourself.

But for free I will lead your mobile oil change in the right direction. I hate fluff. I will not be easy or talk in smoothing talk that will "tickle the ears". I try to be real. I want to start negative and end positive. The mobile oil change business does work. I know everything involved. I have done everything and seen everything related to the mobile oil change business arena.

Nothing is new to me. If I told you how much I make you would faint. I hate to be cocky but I have figured this business out and am confident that I know what works and what does not. I love hot weather love basketball and would rather live in CA or some other place than Alaska.

I am not a huge fan of this state by any means. But I love the business I built with a lot of sweat and cannot leave it. I know what will work in the mobile oil change business and what will not. I am an authority. I am the authority. Ask me any questions and I will tell you. I know what works while trying to make money changing oil as a mobile outfit and what does not. I have done television commercials, radio, yellow pages, fliers, Val Pak, direct mail, doorknob stuffers, ect. I have done it all. I can tell you what worked for me in the my mobile oil change business and what only costs me money with no return.

Are you making good money changing oil? Tell me about it. I can tell you how to make better money more easily. I know exactly what I am talking about. I am not going to sugar coat it and say start a mobile oil change franchise and make $100,000 a year. It easy. Minimal start up costs. Thats nonsense.

How about making $4.50 an hour in your mobile oil change business. Does that interest you? Well if you do not know what the heck you are doing that is how much you will make and will sell all your equipment to someone else who doesn't know what he/she is doing.