Oil Change Fleets

I know a lot of you all are struggling out there. I know how it is. The first two to three years I was in business I do not think I made a dime.

Here is an end of the year treat you might appreciate. I am going to give you a list of some fleets you might want to target. I cannot give you some of my top accounts. First, that would be suicide. My business partner John would kill me. You could open up a mobile oil change business in the same city as me and take all my customers. Good luck in dealing with the winter though. Second, some of my top accounts are not nationwide and would not help you anyway.

I am going to start with Best Buy's Geek Squad vehicles and also their Magnolia home theater install E-350 trucks.

In most cities I have been to I have noticed that they usually have several Volkswagen Jettas for their Geek Squad division, which all take synthetic by the way, and they have several E-350 install trucks for their home theater section.

I believe you have to have an account with Wheels, which is a fleet management system they use for some reason, and its a pain to deal with them. Plus, they take 10% of the gross.

To be honest this was a good account I used to have but I dropped it because I got tired of dealing with fleet management systems after I had all the business I could handle. It was just more of a pain dealing with them when I didn't need the money anymore. Now, when I get done with a job I like to submit the invoice and get a check in the mail no more than three weeks in the future. Anything more is not worth it.

The second company you may want to try is Schucks, O'Reiley, Checker, Kragen, or Murray Auto Parts, all of which are owned by CSK Auto. Each store usually have a couple Ford Ranger parts vehicle that will come due for oil changes fairly fast. They are on the road all day.

Again, for this company you are going to have to deal with a fleet management company. The one that deals with CSK is ARI Automotive. Make certain that you get the coupon from their coupon book in the glove box that corresponds with the oil change interval. It will make things go a lot faster.

The next company you want to try is Staples. Bet you never thought of these guys. I still have them today but I am going to tell you that they are a pain in the butt. They take forever to pay and can be an absolute pain to deal with. They bought out Corporate Express last June so a lot of locations have quite a few vehicles. They have mostly the Workhorse supply vehicles but also have several Isuzu Cabovers and large trucks as well. You may have to start out cheap to get them but after a while I would try to push them synthetic because they only have to get an oil change two times a year versus 3-4 which they will not end up doing and have vehicles 6,000 miles overdue. In my city there are about 12-15 vehicles and there is no more than 300,000 people who live in Anchorage so you can expect your city to have two or three times that number.

I am not going to go into details but you really want to talk to the managers of moving companies. They are going to be hard to get, and most of the time have their own maintenance department, but when you get them they are good. Be prepared to know what you are doing as far as diesels go. That is what they have.

The next company you want to try is the armored companies in your area. Most of them have the big International trucks and these vehicles are on the road from morning till night. Its nothing for these vehicles to average 6,000 miles every month. And if they go by the hours, forget about it! These armored trucks never cut off. The first couple times you do an oil change for these guys, if you can swing the account, be prepared to have employees with shotguns and handguns in their hands. Its policy. The first three times we did an oil change at their yard we had two guys stationed there with guns drawn the whole time. But its a huge pain for these companies to get their trucks in so you are providing a huge service to them.

Other than that try banks, credit unions, distribution companies (ie. fruits, vegetables, bread, ice cream, cookies, etc)

I cannot emphasize enough that you need to have a garage keepers policy of 1,000,000 aggregate and show that to a prospective client when you see them. This will put you above the rest. It will cost you $1,700 per year but you need it for yourself and its something that any legitimate company has. This is one of the first things I show when I talk to a new customer. I want him to know that I'm not a mickey mouse operation that has oil pans in my back truck. I hope nothing goes wrong but if it does I am more than covered. If you cannot afford this than you did not have enough money to start this business. Legitimate companies like to do business with other legitimate companies.

If you need to know which equipment you should start out with read a former post of mine about the best oil change equipment to purchase.

And if you need some sales advice on how to get prospective oil change customers you should definately read this. I think I outlined with fairly well.

Remember that you are selling a premium service and you do nobody a favor, including yourself, but slashing your prices to compete where you make no money. The is the number 1 mistake I see. You hurt yourself and the rest of us. How can you pay your bills on $15 oil changes.

Sure you might get a lot of customers at first but as soon as you raise your prices they will go to Sears or Midas for a $10.00 oil change (and end up getting robbed in the process I might add when they end up with a $400 brake job they did not need). Bottom feeders looking for deals with always be bottom feeders. You are looking for clients be it fleets or individual customers who do not mind paying for decent service. You get what you pay for. Don't be a joke!

You can get 100s of customers tomorrow if you charge cheap cheap oil changes but you will not be able to pay your mortgage, truck note, insurance, taxes, utility bills, accounting costs, printing fees, or yourself if you do.

On a side note I would highly recommend you invest in a waste oil furance when you get some extra cash. If you have a boiler set up you can also get get a waste oil boiler. I purchased mime from Nueraheat which is a distributor of Energy Logic waste oil burners in the northwest.

My business partner John purchased one of these and he heats his whole house for free. Even in the middle of the winter when it is -20 degrees and all of his neighbors have $350 heating bills his natural gas bill is $10.00. Not a bad investment. If you have a mobile oil change business you will most likely have an abundance of used motor oil so instead of giving it away or paying to get rid of it I would strongly recommend you turn it into free heat.

Oil Change Competition

Whats the first thing you need to think about when you start a mobile oil change company? Well, at this point you most likely have the van. By now, you have the most common oil filters you are going to need. Hopefully you have a professional looking uniform. Business cards are a must. Have a roll of oil change stickers ready to go. You are going to need rhino ramps if you plan to get underneath smaller vehicles. And you are going to need some type of durable mat for catching spills.

If you have all these items than you have everything you need to operate a mobile oil change business. So what next?

You are going to need customers. This is the part that many people have trouble with. And understandably so. There may not be any mobile oil change company in your area and you might think that you do not have any competition but after buying your equipment you will quickly realize that you have a lot of it. Sears, Midas, Jiffy Lube, Wal Mart, K-Mart, and Meineke Car Care are just some of the larger chains out there that you will have to compete with. They are on every corner, every major strip mall, and spend millions of dollars in advertising to get people into their bays.

And here is the other secret that you will realize about all those businesses. The majority of these chains, besides Jiffy Lube, have a model where they bait millions of unsuspecting people into their shops with cheap oil changes, and I mean cheap to the point where they actually loose money, and subsequently find tons of expensive problems (many of them unnecessary or not even there) to scare the customer.

Here are some examples of what you are up against.

Example Oil Change Competition #1

Midas starts to advertise oil changes for $10.00. Now, anyone in any oil business knows that it costs $10-$13 just with any brand name oil and filter to do an average oil change. Even if you have a national account and can get oil for a far lower price than anyone else and can do an oil change for $10 than at the minimum you are breaking even. Now what about all the overhead, insurance, utilities, and labor (biggest cost) that they have to pay. How are they going to be able to stay in business and make a profit on a $10 oil change? Impossible! But they could care less about the oil change. Truth be told Midas would loose at least $10 per customer if they just got the oil change.

Lets take a fictional person and call her Lauren and she comes to Midas to get a cheap oil change for her Honda Accord. She pulls her car in the shop and sits in the lobby sipping a cup of cheap black coffee and reads a month old magazine thinking this whole thing will take maybe 20 minutes. The service manager comes into the lobby and proceeds to tell her that while they were doing the oil change they noticed a) she needed new brakes b) her timing belt needed to be changed c) her belts were bad or d) her time circuits and flex capacitor needed to be adjusted. Keep in mind this car is just two years old so maybe the most she needed was "1.21 gigawatz" to go to the past an hour earlier to tell herself not to get duped.

She ends up leaving with a $350.00 tune-up bill or new brake pads most likely. Did she need them? Who's to say. She may have or she may not have. But the original reason she had went in was just for a $10 oil change so the system worked.

Example #2

There are some places like Wal Mart, K-Mart, Costco, or Sams Club (if these places offer oil changes) that really do not care that much about making a profit. They just want people to shop in their stores. They want people to come in for an oil change and than buy something else.

Someone comes into a Wal Mart Express for a $20.00 oil change and than they end up buying a new video game they just remembered they wanted to a new iron or $100 worth of cheap Chinese goods.

So this is what you are up against. You have an oil change business trying to make money from doing actual oil changes at a reasonable price that would allow you to make money while a lot of the top chains are using oil changes as a tool just to get customers in so they can purchase other items or more profitable high margin services.

This is the reason why you cannot build your business off price. Never sell any customer on price! You are going to need to appeal to the convenience factor and this especially works with fleets.

This is my motto "We Do Not Sell Oil Changes We Sell Convenience." That should be what you base your business model on. Drive that into fleet managers mind. You take all the guesswork from this part of their job. Every 3 months you come by in the afternoon and take care of it. They may be able to bring their truck down the road for a cheap oil change but it will never get done and they will end up paying more in the end.

Oil Change Specials from Lance

I have often thought of Lance Winslow being an "authority" when it came to advice dealing with the mobile oil change business. He rarely gets it wrong. I feel that one of his most recent articles he wrote several months back hit the nail right on the head. Most people should not start this business. They are going to be in for a rude awakening when they do. There are some markets where this just will not pay. Too much competition and too many $9.99 oil change specials on every block. Do the math first! I am sorry but if you think you are going to be making money from $20 or less profit per oil change without doing 100s of them you are mistaken.
What is the Best Advice For Starting a Mobile Oil Change Business?

What is the Best Advice For Starting a Mobile Oil Change Business?
By Lance Winslow

Most people who start a mobile oil change business have a lot of misconceptions about how things actually work. They see the need and know that people want the oil change business to come to them, but what they may not understand is that logistically the mobile oil change business can be quite a nightmare for a whole lot of reasons such as:

• Stocking Filters for Different Types of Cars
• Finding Qualified Workers
• City Ordinances Against Car Maintenance on the Street
• Traffic Congestion Zapping Time
• Used Waste Oil Disposal Costs
• Long Time Between Intervals for Repeat Business
• Persnickety Customers
• Customers that Ask Too Many Question Taking Time
• Big Box Store Oil Change Discounters
• Competition Sending Out Direct Mail Lost Leaders

With all this considered and all the issues debated, the best advice might be to NOT start a mobile oil change business at all, yes, I am serious about that. However, if you are dead set on starting such a business then my best advice to you is to concentrate on the fleet vehicle customers first and foremost. These commercial accounts will save time, energy and stress and lead to better productivity and thus, higher profits.

Most of the draw backs of the mobile oil change service business model will go away if you concentrate on the fleet side of the business. Plus, the productivity and efficiency of operations will go through the roof because you can line up all the vehicles in a row and most of them will have the same motors, thus, the same type of filters. So, that is my best advice to someone who cannot be convinced to ditch the idea of starting a mobile oil change business. Please consider all this carefully and think on it.

Lance Winslow - Lance Winslow's Bio. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lance_Winslow
http://EzineArticles.com/?What-is-the-Best-Advice-For-Starting-a-Mobile-Oil-Change-Business?&id=1613512

Your Oil Change Prices

I have heard this question a lot: "How Much Should I Charge for An Oil Change?"

There are two ways to answer that question. You have to consider two things. First whatever you do charge you need to be making $100 an hour. Second, what is the price of an oil change at Jiffy Lube.

I will attack the second consideration because I have already talked about the first one at length. I would like to say, if I have not already, that I like Jiffy Lube model. I have spoken to the owner of the Jiffy Lubes were I live, have been in them, and I love their system. They have created a great assembly line type system for oil changes. I have learned a lot by watching and copying their model and applying that to a mobile operation. Obviously it works. I figure they have to know what they are doing. If they didn't than they would not be in every city and on every block.

So what does what I just said have to do about pricing? Well, what I just said about watching Jiffy Lube applies to a lot of facets in this business but setting your prices for a typical oil change is one of them. Think about it! They know the market better than anyone. Jiffy Lube will always charge what they market will bear. They are never too low or too high. Where I live they charge $54.99 for a regular oil change. They charge $57.99 for an AWD or 4WD vehicle. I know many of you gasp when you hear that but I promise you customers were lined up, some bays 5 deep, yesterday. What does that tell me? Why should I be any lower? If anything my price for an oil change should be at least $56.99 because I am bringing the service to them!

Where you live I can promise you that Jiffy Lube will have already researched the market for you. Set your prices right where they are. Not their seasonal or at times special discounted price but there standard prices. They do the $19.99 oil changes too but only on certain days and for certain times of the day for most places.

No matter where you live I can guarantee that your prices should not be less than $35.00 for a basic oil change. If your market cannot or will not bear at least that I would suggest buying a Taco Bell or KFC franchise. I rarely see a place those two stores cannot make money in.

Do not worry about Wal Mart's prices. They cater to the people who would not use your service anyway. They do terrible service and make the customers wait for a long time on purpose. They want people to shop more. Thats the only reason they have it.

So you have the answer now. For your average price of an oil change your prices needs to be A) at Jiffy Lube's rate or higher and B) high enough where 4-5 vehicles can net your $100 per hour. Its that simple.

Sales Should Be Your Focus

I just closed another deal today on a fleet of several Isuzu Cabovers. It was a nice sized fleet of seven belonging to a medium sized company. I have been lazy the last couple months so I decided to start pushing sales a little bit more before the summer comes. If I was on top of my game I would be out passing put at least fifty business cards daily. I am under the assumption that you should drop as many "seeds" as you can throughout the day because you never know where one may find itself.

I remember talking to a guy about my business while I was at a pizza buffet for lunch and that guy ended up being the superintendent for a nice sized construction company several months down the road and we did all their equipment. The moral of that story is that you, and I need to remind myself of this all the time, to talk to everyone you can. You have no idea who is in what position.

Sales is just all about talking to people. Find something in common with someone. Open up a conversation about anything if the situation presents itself. I started a conversation with that guy over sports. Everyone loves sports. Then we got to talking about what we did and he told me and I told him.

You see a fleet you like go up and start talking with one of the employees who works there. Find out about the company. How many trucks do they have? Who is the boss? Is the boss a cool guy? Is he cheap? What is the company's reputation.

The object is to be talking with the manager or boss with as much information as you possibly can.

"Oh, I saw that one of the tires of your trucks looked kind of low, the license plate is FDR 306." That's the kind of stuff that will make it impossible for him to hang up the phone on you.

Write down everything. I remember the most insignificant details about everything I see. "I see you guy changed the paint on your store sign." Stuff like that.

A mobile oil change service is one of the easiest things to sale once you master how to do it. Everyone needs to get an oil change. It is not one of those items that people have an option of getting or not. The question is are they going to get it from you. There is no doubt they need it. Its all about how you are going to present it.

So this is how I picked up this fleet. I will go step by step exactly how I did it.

1. I drove into the warehouse area and saw a guy getting off the forklift. I stopped him briefly and asked him who was in charge of the fleet maintiance. He told me. I asked him if he was in there and he told him yes but he was about to leave for lunch. I left.
2. I then called the next day at around 10Am and spoke with the fleet manager. I told him that I was passing by going to a job and noticed he had several fleet vehicles. I told him what I did and then asked said in these words "and I wanted to call to see if you could use a service like this since you have several fleet vehicles." He said yes and I told him I would drop some information off around two in the afternoon since I have several oil changes to do in the area at around that time.
3. I made a packet consisting of ) our $1,000,000 insurance policy information b)current customer list c)sample pricing of oil change service.
   
4. I went their at 1:30 PM and gave him the information. I then proceeded to show him that van and all the equipment. I emphasized that we are a "Jiffy Lube for fleets" that comes "on-site." He liked it and told me he wanted all the vehicles done every three months on a Monday because that's when they are not moving.

Its that easy. Put in a little effort and you can make it happen. It was not always this easy. You have the luxury of me telling you exactly what you have to do. I had to learn all this the hard way. I made life so much harder on myself for the first two years. How am I was able to stay in business I have no idea.

Mobile Oil Change Sales Advice

So we have already established where your efforts should be if you are the owner of a mobile oil change business. If you are still trying to pick up individual customers by your sixth month than you are missing the boat. You can make money off them and if you are in business to make $20 an hour than by all means go that route. Quit reading this blog and go do your thing. For the people who want to make some real money keep reading.

You need fleets. I used to be a hound and make cold calls from the yellow pages all the time. It worked some times but it was not efficient at all. I did pick up a couple which proves that any sales you do accompanied by effort will produce some fruit. Just not much. Anyway when you a driving around you need to notice fleet vehicles. Write them down. If you see a nice diesel truck that belongs to a company write down the name, phone number, and if possible the address. Write down what type of vehicle you see. Write down the license plate and the color of the truck. Write down where you saw it. If the truck is parked and you are able to talk with the driver or employee ask him who manages the fleet. What is his name. What is the name of the employee who you are talking to. What time of day is it? Find out as much information as you can. Write it all down. Save it.

Then when you get back to the office you know who to call. You are not blindly calling a company and asking "who is in charge of the fleet maintenance"?. If the guy who you need to talk to is not there do not leave a message. They will not call you back 8/10. Call him at another time like after lunch. I make sales calls between 1-3 PM. That is when I find managers are the most pleasant. After lunch! That's when I am at my best and laid back after woofing down a nice sub, chips, and drink.

If you want to be more effective go and scout the business. If you live in a big city this may be a little more time consuming. Write down what trucks they have. Do they have a maintinance department. Talk with some more employees. They will know if they send their vehicles out to get their oil changed at Jiffy Lube. That is an important question: what are they doing now for their fleet maintenance. Ask the employees if they think their company could use a mobile oil change company to service their trucks.

Ask questions. Most people love to talk. Find out as much information as possible. My business partner is the question king. I have never seen a person who loves to ask questions and drill a person as much as he does. I have listened to him for a whole hour talk to a person and maybe he made one actual statement; the rest were questions. Master the art of asking questions. You want to find out as much about the company as possible. That way when you talk to the fleet manager you know more about his operations that he does. Tell him you will drop off some information about your mobile oil change business, with your insurance information (they really really are impressed when YOU bring this up) on Wednesday when you are in the area doing another nearby fleet. Money in the bank. Information is key. I pay for information. I love information. That's the difference between calling Steve and getting a fleet and him saying "he's fine with what they're doing."

Lets have a short recap.

Target fleets. Target all fleets but especially fleets with diesels if you have the set up to do them. Do research on the company. Find out what trucks they have. Talk to some employees who work there. Find out what they are currently doing. Find out as much information as you can. Call the fleet manager. Tell him that you were talking to "one of his guys" and they mentioned "you might could use a service like this." "One of your guys" told me that you might want to have a mobile oil change service come by after hours instead of having to take all the vehicles to the quick lube or shop. $$$$$

I take donations :) I may need them for all the income taxes I have to pay this year for what our mobile oil change business did. Ouch! Uncle Sam will rape you at every corner. Thats why I try to maximize what I make because paying 22% really really sucks.

Mobile Oil Change Profits

I talk to a lot of people during the day and it is woefully apparent that they have no idea about running a business. They are totally clueless and really should not be in business for themselves.

People any business that you are in has to be generating at least $100 per hour for it to be worth anything. That can be off one job or multiple jobs but if your business is not making $100/hr than you will fail. You may think that is high. Actually that's low. You need to make more than that to afford the average American standard of living, especially with inflation or if you live in California, but one hundred dollars an hour is the absolute minimum.

Think that is being unreasonable. I have to send the IRS a check in the mail for my 2008 earnings. Even with all the deductions its $10,000. So self employment and state taxes could take up to 22% of your income. Than you have accounting fees at the end of the year. Then you have insurance. And you need two types of insurance. You are going to need garage keepers insurance and it should be a million dollar aggregate policy and you need a standard auto insurance policy. Don't even get me started on the insurance you need if you plan to have employees for your mobile oil change business. It can be as high as $10-$20 per hundred dollars in payroll. Then you have fuel. Then you have administration costs like envelopes, postage, paper, fax machine, phone, etc. Then you have all the miscellaneous expenses that will pop up every month. And then you have to account for mistakes, no matter how careful you are, to happen. A year ago we had to buy a 2001 Dodge Neon from a body shop we did the oil change for because we put a PZ-19 on the car when we should have put a PZ-21 and the oil filter got hit and oil came out and messed up the engine and we spent another 4,000 replacing the engine and selling it. And I hope that if you have a mobile oil change business you have a partner. I highly recommend not going into this business without two people who are equally committed to making the business work. Two heads are better than one. All the mobile oil change companies that I have seen with one person went out of business quickly. Sure you have to split the profits but believe me its worth it. So you see that per dollar an hour will actually be more like $35 per hour after you factor in everything.

And making at least $100 an hour in some places can be hard. How can you make decent profits when you are doing $20 oil changes. It does not add up. I am really scratching my head at how some people make it in certain states and cities in the "quick lube" business period. The only way I can see people make a profit is bait customers with one price and then push as many add ons as they can once they have the customer. That's the only way. And even with some of those ad ons the profits do not add up in my mind. Maybe someone can fill me in. I cannot figure it out. I know that if you go to Wal Mart now on 3-20-2009 a 5 qt container of Super Tech 5w-30 is going to cost $10. Then you are going to have to spend another $2.00 on an oil filter. That equals $12 for the oil and filter. That does not include fuel and fluids even though most cars at the most will require maybe a dab of brake or power steering fluid. Some will require a good amount of coolant though. My point is that if you are charging 19.99 for an oil change, you are making $8.00 per oil change!??? You can may more money working at Starbucks once you factor in tips. Eight dollars profit?? That's crazy. Even if you charge $25 per oil change that's $13 dollars profit.

So my point is that if you have a mobile oil change business of any sort than you need to be pro fitting $20 net per oil change and be doing five cars per hour that you are working. If you are not than you are wasting your time. That is the only way this is going to work in the long run. Your wife is going to be really supportive for the first year maybe and I do mean maybe one and a half years but if by year two you are not making decent money than she is going to put pressure on you to get a "real job" with benefits. I promise. Like I said I have spoken with a lot of mobile oil change operators in the last 5 years and I have seen many come and go. I know of websites that were put together really nicely and when you call the number on it its out of service. If you cannot make $100 an hour and cannot figure it out than it will not be long before you will go out of business. You are just prolonging the inevitable.

On a side not I am setting up a mobile oil change consultation service for operators. I have several options available. E-mail me at akoilextreme@yahoo.com if you are interested or want some general advice.

Back to profit margins. Its something you really need to think about. Where do you plan to get your business from? What about profit potential? Can you make $100 per hour? How are you going to do it? Which types of vehicles do you want? How do you plan to get them? Whats your presentation? Do you have to proper tools to service the types of vehicles that actually pay? Can you sell? How are you going to learn how to sell? What equipment do you have? How are you going to survive while you are in the building stages of your mobile oil change empire? Do you realize that it will take minimum 1-2 years before you can make a decent profit that you can live on? Is your spouse aware of the extra burden that is going to be placed on her but that if this works she can relax after/ if it takes off?

These are all questions you need to ask yourself.

From 2004-2007 I made absolutely nothing off my mobile oil change business. I gave myself just enough draws to eat and put gas into my car. I lived with my parents. Now whenever I want I can make $6,000 per month and if its the summertime I can make $8-10 per month. I say if I want to because sometimes I don't feel like pushing it and I barely do any work and make $2,000 a month like last month. It was February, dark, cold, and stayed inside and worked on this website along with several others. This month I want to make a least $3,000 so I can pay my taxes off. I could make way more but like I said its Alaska, its cold outside, and I do not feel like changing oil or doing any fleet work 8 hours a day five days a week in 10 degrees with snow coming up to my ankles. The point is that I could. I have the ability because I paid my dues for several years, reinvested all my profits, and now I have a great business. If you are willing to do what I did than your mobile lube business can work. But still in order to work you must set your sights at making $100 per hour minimum. And you can take that to the bank.

Mobile Oil Change Business and Wrong Profit Numbers

I was just on Lube and Location's Wesbite and noticed the following.

This is dangerous. Watch out for this crap. I am sorry for saying this but these figures are what cause people who get into the Mobile Oil Change business to go bankrupt. These figures are pure wishful thinking. I like Lube on Location, almost bought my van from them, would have way better if I bought my set up from them than Oil Extreme, but even they provide false figures. How are you going to make a decent profit on 10 oil changes per day at $30.00. Please explain to me how??? I really get made about this!! I am dead serious. Anyone who is in the Mobile Oil Change business and is successful can tell you that the following figures are nonsense.

And six days a week?? Hum?? If you get into business to work six days a week than you are stupid. Go work for the school district and you can work 5 days a week with the summer off. Six days. That is not the reason I started my own mobile oil change company. Look at the following figures and totally make a mental note in your head that they are wrong. Sorry if you were excited. I just saved you thousands of dollars.

Again, I am not trying to just be negative. But I am trying to chop up the crap. And there is a lot of crap in the mobile oil change arena. I helped a potential competitor of mine a year ago. He was in the Valley offering oil changes for $25.oo. I sent him an e-mail basically calling him an idiot and asking him to reconsider. He upped it to $40.00. That is still cheap but at least he is not working for free. If your area does not support at least $35 oil changes reconsider this great business opportunity.

SERVICE JUST 10 VEH. A DAY 6 DAYS A WEEK
AVERAGE OIL CHANGE TAKES 10 MINUTES
YEARLY INCOME AT $29.95 PER OIL CHANGE AND INCLUDING OTHER SERVICES. (WIPER BLADES, AIR FILTERS, AND TIRE ROTATIONS)
TOTAL INCOME FROM SALES $121,856.00

EXPENSES:

VAN OR EQUIPMENT PAYMENT IF FINANCED
$4,188.24
INSURANCE, VAN AND OR GARAGE LIABILITY $2,200.00
OPERATION SUPPLIES, FLYERS, INVOICES $900.00
TELEPHONE, PAGER,CELL, OFFICE $1,080.00
UNIFORMS $300.00
ACCOUNTING $960.00
LICENSES $60.00
FUEL $3,600.00
WHSE SPACE 10X10 STORE&LOCK $900.00
COST OF GOODS SOLD $9.00 PER VEH. $24,720.00
OTHER SERVICES WIPERS & AIR FILTERS $7,020.00
WASTE OIL DISPOSAL 10 CENTS A GAL. $936.00
TOTAL EXPENSES $49,864.24

NET PROFIT $66,991.76 PER YEAR

VAN OPERATOR WOULD BE 25% COMMISSION OF GROSS SALES IF MUTIPLE VEHICLE OPERATION

SERVICE 20 VEHICLES A DAY AND NET OVER $100,000.00 PER YEAR AS AN OWNER OPERATOR

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.

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.

Mobile Oil Change

If you want to make money in your mobile oil change business you need to listen to me.

Most of the people doing mobile oil changes are not making any money at all. Most of you all are going out of business or will go out of business soon. I know this to be a fact. You thought that this was a great idea. Your friends said that it was a good idea. How could something like this fail? Everyone needs to have an oil change anyway. Usually they have to go to JiffyLube or something like that. Why not bring the service to them. They can get an oil change at their home or at their office.

Most of you all need to throw out what you have been taught or what you think because it is wrong. The mobile oil change business is not easy, quite the opposite, and it will stay hard unless you do it right. You think you are going to make money making $15 bucks off an oil change. Think about it! Its foolish. The going cost for a typical oil change in this country is $30.00. But the price of oil is going to cost you $10.00 at least and the oil filter another $2.00. Then add three more dollars for fluids or and your fuel to get there. You are going to make fifteen dollars if you are lucky. Complete bullshit. I live in Alaska and I make way more than anyone else doing this business off a regular oil change and even making that I still don't make enough money so don't tell me you can too. Even if you had a couple add ons you fall behind. Go and get a job. Don't waste your time and money if you are even thinking about running your mobile oil change business that way.

Let me tell you first how JiffyLube makes their money. I am going to get into how you can make money in the mobile oil change arena but before I do I will tell you how an average quick lube makes money and you will see why I am telling you this later in the post. And JiffyLube had the best oil change system around so what they do is industry standard.

The JiffyLubes that make money are in busy corridors with a lot of traffic. Not just any traffic but shopping traffic. This is important. The JiffyLubes by Costco, Sams Clubs, shopping malls, outlet stores are making money. People are in a buying mode and while they are doing that they get an oil change real quick. They barely think about it. Nobody plans for an oil change but while you are out shopping or running errands you look at your sticker, see you need an oil change, get it, and forget about it. Okay, because the quick lubes need to be right by BUSY SHOPPING CENTERS with tons of traffic they are going to have to pay outregeous rents. And they have employees. Minimum wage employees but lots of them. And a lot of overhead. And they do not make a dime off oil changes. Oil Changes may barely pay for the free coffee in the lobby. For them to make money they need volume and they have to.....add on like hell. Wipers, batteries, belts, transmission flushes, power steering flushes, air filters, fuel filters, nitrogen, cabin filters, coolant flushes, lights, youth....you name it. Many of these services are valid but alot of time they have to push them even when you don't need them. And even with add ons they have to do A LOT and I mean A LOT of oil changes to make money. In fact your typical quick lube operator, with all the work involved, with all the hours involved, rarely is able to put more than $50-60K per year in his pocket even if his store does very well. Thats not a lot considering the costs involved in start up, the hours, the risk, ect. In most cases a quick lube that looks good and is in a decent spot will cost half a million. And you mean to tell me that the operator may be able to put 60K in his pocket. Exactly. If he is lucky then in twenty years when he pays everything off he might make a little more. But at the end of the day the key to making money in the oil change business is owning multiple quick lubes. If you own several of them and each make minimum 40K then you can make a decent income. But I would say that more than half of the oil change operators are just glorified employees who "own their job." The overhead needed and involved to even get the business is just so big and those places are almost forced to be dishonest if they want to stay in business. The whole model is flawed. Especially when I see advertisements for $19.99 oil changes and the cost and material is at least $13 and the labor is costing another $10.00. Most oil change business are loosing money off the actual oil change in hopes of getting something else. Some operators who have their quick lube business in a place that support higher costs, bought and paid for their place when prices were low, and everything else goes right make money. They make a lot of money. But I they are in the extreme minority.

So you have a mobile oil change business or thinking of starting a mobile lube business and you think you can make money when most fixed locations cannot. Most of you all try to undercut the competition. If the going standard rate is $35 you try to do $25. But I am going to tell you this fact...you are not going to have the volume. I know your overhead is going to be WAY less than fixed locations but you still have overhead, you still have your personal overhead, and you will need tons of volume not JiffyLube volume but tons of volume to make money. You need twenty per day to support your mobile oil change business but first thats hard to get and second its physicaly impossible for one or even two guys to do that many and third there is not enough time in the day to service twenty vehilces unless they were all in the same place. And that is one of the keys to owning a mobile oil change business. I just told you the secret. The main secret. There are others but this is number 1. Your mobile oil change business must do multiple vehicles at ONE LOCATION to make money. That is the only way it will work. First I want to tell the majority of you all that even saying that most of you all will fail, this business is tough, find another good idea, or get a job. But if you are intent on starting a mobile oil change company or want to make yours work, forget about doing individuals. They are an absolute waste of time. I will say that again. Doing vehilces at multiple locations are a waste of time and money and will lead to you going out of business. Your goal is to get as many vehicles at one location as humanly possible. This means focusing in on fleets.

Your mobile oil change business should be business to business only. Maybe you can do your grandma's car but thats it. I get calls all the time from the phone book "I want to set up a oil change" and I quickly say "sorry, we only service fleets and businesses". I do not want them. The mobile oil change business is not for individuals. Its for businesses. Even if you make $15 per car but you do 20 of them, thats $300 bucks net. You will learn later thats nothing but you could live and grow your business of that. Later I will show you how to make that in one hour, sometimes in thirty minutes, but right now I want to get you off going to multiple destinations trying to make money. Good luck with that. Make your mobile oil change company only do business with other companies. No exceptions. I have gone to the hopitals, I have serviced vehicles for doctors and lawyers and businesses at offices and I made very little. It looked great but I made very little. Never again. I did that for 2 1/2 years. I got corporate campuses and hospitals and this and that and it was hell. I looked good, the appearance was good, we even were voted most valuable company for a major hospital because everyone loved our company but our mobile oil change set up made nothing. It paid the bills. Every month I took a $300 draw. Great.................

I was given terrible advice. We were a franchise of oil extreme and we thought we had something. I was so pumped. I was 19 years old when I started this company. My uncle gave me the money to do it. He put over 50K on the line for me and we went with a franchise that screwed us. They gave us a great looking van with a great but impractical setup nice uniforms but terrible advice. Extremely terrible advice. If I continued to follow their advice at Jet Set Life Technologies I would be out of business. The owner knew nothing about starting a mobile oil change business. He has charisma charm and was a great motivational speaker but knew nothing about starting a profitable mobile oil change company that actually made money. I will tell you how to do that. Please, listen to me.