Do You Try to UnderCut the Competition

I have seen so many oil change businesses try and do this and it never works. Mobile and fixed companies. They try and undercut the competition. They send out coupons or advertise oil changes for $19.99. A guy tried to start a mobile oil change business up here advertising oil changes for $24.99. What they hell???? How does he think he is going to make a profit from $12 profit per unit. I don't know anywhere where someone can live on that. Even if he were to do ten vehicles per day that would be $120 profit. That's shit. After taxes, fuel, fix expenses, etc that $120 will be more like $80. And is there one, I mean one mobile operator that is consistently doing ten oil change every single day?? Come on, get real. I called this guy up and asked him what was he thinking? He wasn't operating in the same city as me it was in "the suburbs" 30-40 miles away so it was not a competition thing for me. I just wanted to see if this guy was retarded. And his answer was "he just wanted to get his name out there" and "build up a customer base."

Let me tell everyone something. Your business will establish some sort of "brand" for itself. Even if you run a "fly by night" operation, which most mobile oil change operators do, you will establish a name for yourself. You will known as a real business or a cheap discount business that won't be around for long. You pick. I can go out today and advertise $19.99 oil changes and pick up 100s of new customers. But guess what I have learned. Once those customers see that you are willing to work for free.....they are going to come to expect you to keep working for free. They are going to expect that $19.99 oil change all the time. And when you raise your price to your standard price they are going to go to the next guy offering $15.99 oil changes. You can pick up tons of what I like to call "bottom feeders" or people who always want the world for nothing. You can have them. I let those people go to Midas, or Sears, or someplace like that. I love hearing stories of people going in those places for a routine cheap cheap oil change and getting totally ripped off and slapped with a $350 repair bill because they needed blinker fluid and that stuff is really really expensive. Those people never learn and will always go for the cheapest product or service they can find. I do not want them. You cannot build a strong viable business off people like that. Sure you are not going to have customers that will always write you a blank check, though some actually will beleive it or not, but you need customers that are willing to pay a fair market price for good convenient service. That's a foundation.

I picked up this fleet two and a half years ago. I am not going to say their name but it was G$@#&#*# Mechanical. They had 20-30 trucks. Nice sized fleet. It took me a month to get them. I did 15 of them. The owner brought me into the office after we did them. She was complaining about the extra quart I charged them (like when a truck or SUV takes 6 or 7 quarts). She claimed that the quick lubes never charged her for the extra quarts over 5 quarts. "HUMMMM" She also said that Jiffy Lube gives her free oil changes after so many. She also said that drivers say yes to too many add ons. I could go on and on..........

I dropped that fleet like a bad habit. I got paid for what I did do never did any more work for them again. That's how I operate. I do not want cheap bottom feeders. I am not going to run a business like that. I do not work for people who nickle and dime me.

I have another fleet that I love. If something needs to be done I explain what it is and why and he 99.9% of the time tells me to "go and do it." I don't add on all the time but when I do he knows its important. He has never complained once of my prices. He sees me freezing my ass off in the middle of winter doing all his trucks and he respects that.

The few individual customers I do have are ones like the guy I just mentioned. I only kept 10 of the 100s I used to have. Guess which ones I kept?

I got off base. My point is that if you are running a mobile oil change business and you are doing cheap oil changes than you are an idiot and when you go out of business do not complain. You work for free do not expect to profit. Remember that your goal is to make $100/hr minimum. So you have to be smart and find your correct customers. Don't waste your time.