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Been there done that, quality of life is now what i aim for, seen a few friends of similar age sadly go to the big maker in the sky with stress far to much drinking ect Not for me i even pass on the rancid burgers they offer you in the auction houses these days

I hold 30-40 on my own Do between 20-35 a month. My weekly tasks Buying Paying for vehicles Arranging delivery (be it myself it within an hour or sorting delivery company) Advertising Answering emails & phone calls Warranty Claims Selling cars to customers and valuing part exhanges Preparing Cars once sold or for sale, logistics of MOT's servicing and repairs Ordering stock for valeting bits and bobs for cars. Keeping basic accounts to present to accountant Work out vat every quarter and pay it *sob* Maintaining stock book daily Post on car dealer forum think thats about it - quite a lot when you look at it lol I have one staff member here in the week 9.30-5.30 and someone to help with Saturdays for collections and sales, so 2 technically. I now only open Sunday by appointment but for the first 14 months I worked 7 days but it was getting too much. Try to buy all cars online or via public where possible. We've been doing a bit of valeting this year and Ive bought 3-4 cars this way actually.

carry 15 cars at any one time, its a juggle but I manage it, if it gets too much I just switch the phone off, do 4-5 sales a week

I have a 15 car unit that i work out of, I open when I want and work on an appointment only basis. However i base myself at the unit 6 days a week so catch the odd walk in and the rest of the time work from home I do all my own cleaning/fetching/carrying/buying/website etc... but i'm struggling to keep up, to keep it flowing and iron out the peaks and troughs. I sold 125 cars last year on my own, but I missed probably 25/30 as I wasn't there/couldn't make it in time/car not clean clean/car not photo'd etc.. So i reckon i've lost approx £125,000 worth or turnover because i'm on my tod. even with small margins thats ££££ down the toilet. My Mrs starts with me on Monday - quit her job and we are going it as a twosome ( we've worked together for 6 years prior so I don't worry about the whole working/living together bit!! ) I can't wait. Someone else ( other than the dog ) to speak to, motivate me tell me to get off my ass but more so another pair of hands, someone else to speak to the billys as they always seem to rock up at the same time. I'm budgeting for 175 sales this year because I know we can turn stuff quicker when its in, clean, photo'd, website etc... basics that seem to take a back seat whilst I sit here drinking coffee looking on the internet.... oh wait - Better get of my backside! Good luck to you all. Sometimes we need it, but I always say, if you acknowledge how luckyu you are, you get luckier - Im the luckiest guy in the world!

I'm in the same boat as Scooby, i stock 25 and do everything myself. I wouldn't recommend it longterm as it does take its toll and the main problem is the time that you have to be away from your premises, auction days, collecting a vehicle, going to get tyres/mot's etc. Also when you are away from the business for extended periods of time that's another issue, for example i just got back last night from a 4day trip to Spain, i switched on my phone this morning and i had 20 voicemails, 1 car coming back for a warranty claim, people that wanted to view cars over the weekend that i missed, etc, etc. Imagine i had gone away for 10 days Now i've got a day or 2 of trying to catch up and get everything back in order, with a member of staff in place most of it would of been taken care of whilst i was away.

Can be done - I don't sell anything like 30/35 cars a month but do everthing ( A bit like scooby ) but I don't get stressed - since 2006 done it all myself , I do 6 days a week and do have a life away from the business its a balance , it's all down what you want from it , but fully understand about staff issues as 6 months ago took on a workshop /tyre site and overnight gained 5 staff .. sorry now 4 as one is leaving at of the month ! Finding the right person /people we all struggle with but you need to give support to the Mrs G and the little un , last thing is to miss out on the baby growing up ! Good Luck mate.

I'm a one man show I'm doing 30-35 cars most of the time. Have 2 other online ecommerce businesses and no girlfriend Reason for lack of girlfriend/wife? You guessed it! No time. I do everything from: Sourcing stock Organising payments online. Organising collection Washing/Valeting. Mechanics. Photo-shoots/Advertising Answering calls/dealing with warranty issues Driving to MOT centre Dropping off cars/picking up from train/bus Popping to the bank Meeting customers It's a stressful, stressful life, with virtually no down time and my health is being affected Need a second guy badly, only I cannot find anyone trustworthy enough at the minute. I feel your pain

It'd be hard work. If you have a warehouse based site indoors then it'd be quite simple I think because you can just lock the door when you're out doing stuff. On an open forecourt it's harder because you need to be present. I did three weeks on my own whilst the other director was on holiday and skipped going to the block because I couldn't leave the site unattended, cars didn't get run down to the valeters because I had no way of getting back and the general workload was a bit too high. That's based on a 40 car forecourt though. I know when we both leave the site we almost always get back just in time to see a potential customer walking/driving off that we've missed by not being about. One person sites are easy to sell from but imagine how many punters you'll miss while running a car somewhere or going on test drive? How do you get to a daytime auction? And biggest of all...what do you do when something goes wrong and you have to drop everything? For me, the site costs A LOT so we have to maximise it's value and that simply means always having someone there selling while the other buys, drives and does all the other silly jobs.

I had a job at halfords as a mot tester, I started on my first day at 8.30am, I handed my resignation in at 8.45am the Same Day. took me 15 minutes to work out what a sack of shit bag liers they were. That Afternoon I went round the garages offering myself as a freelance tester, got work for few months until I set my own place up.