Hi Everyone

[DBCARS 3]

Hi everyone, newbie here, stumbled across the forum. Looks a great place to learn, interact and get involved. 

Ive been trading for just about 15 years now, cheap stock under a couple of grand and building the business up slowly. I started off as a home trader which I hated as I felt unprofessional, I then rented a small office space with valet area and room for 5 cars, I am now moving January 2019 to a bigger premises with 1300 sq ft unit and parking for 25 cars. So I am happy to keep learning and looking to progress up the ladder to slightly newer stock, get warranties and legal cover in place and get proper website up and running with option of being AA approved etc... Lots to do, New logo & branding, looking at other advertising avenues apart from Autotrader. 

 

 

[RJEauto 18]

Hi DBCars!

We're also newbies here.

My partner had been in the industry for roughly 8 years but took the leap of faith in September taking on our own site, stocking up to 25 cars with a workshop, tyre bay and valeting bay.

Initially, we only used ebay & gumtree (the combined package) but took on a small AT package with the double up offer at the start of the month.

Best of luck with the new premises!

-Kelly & Ryan-

[umesh 336]

Welcome on board buys ! Every day is a school day - - we all learn lots from these forums. 

Lots of very helpful people on here and mostly willing to share.

Umesh 

[Andy Entwistle 96]

welcome 

 

[trade vet 701]

Hi DB

15 years in the job.look forward to your input

[Arfur Dealy 823]

54 minutes ago, DBCARS said:

Hi everyone, newbie here, stumbled across the forum. Looks a great place to learn, interact and get involved. 

Ive been trading for just about 15 years now, cheap stock under a couple of grand and building the business up slowly. I started off as a home trader which I hated as I felt unprofessional, I then rented a small office space with valet area and room for 5 cars, I am now moving January 2019 to a bigger premises with 1300 sq ft unit and parking for 25 cars. So I am happy to keep learning and looking to progress up the ladder to slightly newer stock, get warranties and legal cover in place and get proper website up and running with option of being AA approved etc... Lots to do, New logo & branding, looking at other advertising avenues apart from Autotrader. 

 

 

Welcome DBCARS and thank you for the polite introduction which makes all the difference to the community here   AD 

[DPF 18]

Welcome 

[DBCARS 3]

3 hours ago, RJEauto said:

Hi DBCars!

We're also newbies here.

My partner had been in the industry for roughly 8 years but took the leap of faith in September taking on our own site, stocking up to 25 cars with a workshop, tyre bay and valeting bay.

Initially, we only used ebay & gumtree (the combined package) but took on a small AT package with the double up offer at the start of the month.

Best of luck with the new premises!

-Kelly & Ryan-

 

Sounds great, you are a step ahead of me, I am only 35 years old, I started the job when I was 19 yrs, I used to sell cars that I bought from Auction off my mums front drive and it progressed from there, I have to admit that the lack of money has been whats held me back the most in this job as every penny Ive had to reinvest. 

Ive made alot of mistakes and ive learnt the hard way but also had to work with small profit margins on the cheap stock, looking to change this and grow, my biggest fears are big bills, I am a one man band and the time has come where im going to have to take on a valeter - This worries me somewhat, also currently using Autotrader PAYG - Not contract, I was usign Gumtree for a couple of years and it was ok, looking to swap back to the new Gumtree/Ebay package, but thats another £350 per month, cheap I know but if im still using Autotrader and new Premises, website fee's, Valeter, it all adds up.

Hoping to get some tips, If you don't mind me asking, what do you pay for your rent per month and how much money are you working with to stock your 25 cars as this will be my magic number I am to aim for!! (you can PM me if you want it to be more private) 

 

Thanks guys, hopefully we can trade some advice! 

2 hours ago, trade vet said:

Hi DB

15 years in the job.look forward to your input

16 Actually, I started when I was 19, Ive had 2 real jobs in my life, both lasted 6 months each, I came back to Car Sales, put more effort in and its paid off, think I was a biit young in the early days, its all about what you put in to what you get out, and I didn't have much money for stock back then.

I have however learnt from my mistakes, I have developed into a great valeter, know all the tricks and more, I learnt and studied body and paint and can now re-paint cars to a high standard. I have diagnostic equipment but my mechanical skills are not so great, I do understand alot more about the mechanical side of things but cannot really use the spanners for much more than changing drop links hahaha

[Arfur Dealy 823]

3 hours ago, DBCARS said:

 

How many cars do you currently have ? Where are you advertising and how many have you sold this year.... and last year ? Be completely honest.

[It's me 615]

21 minutes ago, Arfur Dealy said:

How many cars do you currently have ? Where are you advertising and how many have you sold this year.... and last year ? Be completely honest.

also for zee record we need shoe size the current balance in your account and exactly how many used notes you have in your wallet

[DBCARS 3]

19 minutes ago, Arfur Dealy said:

How many cars do you currently have ? Where are you advertising and how many have you sold this year.... and last year ? Be completely honest.

Im clearing the older stock as its becoming nothing but trouble to me and the margins are becoming less and less with repair bills so im going to try and move up into the slightly more expensive stuff in a hope to have more profit margin and less hassle prepping cars for sale. 

I have 2 cars left in stock, I normally stock around 7-10 cars at anytime, I have limited space until I move to new premises which has stopped me from growing the business forward. 

I currently use Autotrader on a Pay as you go basis, I sold around 100 cars last year (2017) the year before (2016) was probably a better year with around 120 cars and this year has picked up again with around 130 cars for (2018)

Most of my current stock is £995, £1495, £1995 stuff

Im hoping to buy better stock but a bit unsure of what price range to be aiming for before people start needing finance etc, im thinking cars from £2000 - £5000 with the odd few cheap bits, I have done well off the cheap stuff in the past and most of it you can have £400 - £600 out of at cars under £1500 and they sell quick but just lately ive hit a bad patch of cars that are needing £200-£300 worth of prep to get them right before sale and its completely taking my profit and the fun away.

 

 

5 minutes ago, boring dave said:

also for zee record we need shoe size the current balance in your account and exactly how many used notes you have in your wallet

Just a couple of ugandan pigeons in there sir ! 

[It's me 615]

£2000 seems to be the new £1295

if you look in  your autotrader everything under 1695 is shredder material, high mileage over priced expensive road tax and undesirable 

spend a good few hours looking in your local area to whats really selling

a good tip is to pretend to sell a car on autotrader and see how many hits your type of car gets

ie

a chevrolet spark gets low hits because nobody knows what it is but on a pitch it can sell quick because it looks low numbers for a newer plate so something like say a peugeot 107 has high hits but  do the numbers here........

[EPV 631]

28 minutes ago, boring dave said:

£2000 seems to be the new £1295

if you look in  your autotrader everything under 1695 is shredder material, high mileage over priced expensive road tax and undesirable 

spend a good few hours looking in your local area to whats really selling

a good tip is to pretend to sell a car on autotrader and see how many hits your type of car gets

ie

a chevrolet spark gets low hits because nobody knows what it is but on a pitch it can sell quick because it looks low numbers for a newer plate so something like say a peugeot 107 has high hits but  do the numbers here........

Good advice there, and welcome to the forum.

I stock 5-12k and my finance penetration is very low really, people can borrow cheap money at that price point so don't worry about stocking £4k stuff and not getting any joy.

[RJEauto 18]

16 hours ago, DBCARS said:

Sounds great, you are a step ahead of me, I am only 35 years old, I started the job when I was 19 yrs, I used to sell cars that I bought from Auction off my mums front drive and it progressed from there, I have to admit that the lack of money has been whats held me back the most in this job as every penny Ive had to reinvest. 

Ive made alot of mistakes and ive learnt the hard way but also had to work with small profit margins on the cheap stock, looking to change this and grow, my biggest fears are big bills, I am a one man band and the time has come where im going to have to take on a valeter - This worries me somewhat, also currently using Autotrader PAYG - Not contract, I was usign Gumtree for a couple of years and it was ok, looking to swap back to the new Gumtree/Ebay package, but thats another £350 per month, cheap I know but if im still using Autotrader and new Premises, website fee's, Valeter, it all adds up.

Hoping to get some tips, If you don't mind me asking, what do you pay for your rent per month and how much money are you working with to stock your 25 cars as this will be my magic number I am to aim for!! (you can PM me if you want it to be more private) 

We're both young too. Ryan (my partner) is 27 and I'm 23.

As long as you're learning from your mistakes then you will inevitably progress!

Autotrader package should work out cheaper for you than PAYG with better results, especially when your website is up and running. We used Clickdealer for our website, the setup fee is small and the monthly fees are not extortionate, they can also feed your stock into AT, Ebay/Gumtree and any Facebook business pages etc.

With a valeter, rather than employee someone who you may not have work for have you looked at sub-contracting someone who does trade work? Prior to this, Ryan was a full time valeter/detailing, mainly doing higher end cars but would bulk his diary up with trade work and had contracts with 4/5 garages. They rang when they needed him and paid per car. 

I'll pm you with the other stuff. 

-Kelly-

[MattR 177]

Ditto with the valeter - you dont need to employ someone to do that, find a mobile valeter who will charge you per car instead of being a drain on your bottom line every month. I pay 30 to 40 per valet. if he was on minimum wage he would be costing me the same as 10 valets per week, and I dont have that sort of turnover. You'll have plenty of other fixed costs, you don't need another. 

[Tadams 29]

Welcome to the mad house 

[DBCARS 3]

19 hours ago, boring dave said:

£2000 seems to be the new £1295

if you look in  your autotrader everything under 1695 is shredder material, high mileage over priced expensive road tax and undesirable 

spend a good few hours looking in your local area to whats really selling  - How? 

a good tip is to pretend to sell a car on autotrader and see how many hits your type of car gets - I am on PAYG advertising so no package as of yet, so would be too expensive to experiment at this stage I think? 

a chevrolet spark gets low hits because nobody knows what it is but on a pitch it can sell quick because it looks low numbers for a newer plate so something like say a peugeot 107 has high hits but  do the numbers here........

Thanks, you make it sound so easy, I sell alot of French cars, Peugeot & Citroen but not sure this is going to be successful with the slightly newer stock as the market seems saturated with them, I do well with Estates and Family stuff, unsure weather to move onto sporty stuff or German stuff such as VW, Audi, ?

Interesting point you made about the £2000 being the new £1295, I will pay more attention to this! 

18 hours ago, iJCS1 said:

Welcome DBcars.

R you based in Barnsley any chance?. 

No im in Leicester, DBcars isnt my trading name, I just used that as a Forum name! 

19 hours ago, EPV said:

Good advice there, and welcome to the forum.

I stock 5-12k and my finance penetration is very low really, people can borrow cheap money at that price point so don't worry about stocking £4k stuff and not getting any joy.

Thanks thats very reassuring! 

4 hours ago, RJEauto said:

We're both young too. Ryan (my partner) is 27 and I'm 23.

As long as you're learning from your mistakes then you will inevitably progress!

Autotrader package should work out cheaper for you than PAYG with better results, especially when your website is up and running. We used Clickdealer for our website, the setup fee is small and the monthly fees are not extortionate, they can also feed your stock into AT, Ebay/Gumtree and any Facebook business pages etc.

With a valeter, rather than employee someone who you may not have work for have you looked at sub-contracting someone who does trade work? Prior to this, Ryan was a full time valeter/detailing, mainly doing higher end cars but would bulk his diary up with trade work and had contracts with 4/5 garages. They rang when they needed him and paid per car. 

I'll pm you with the other stuff. 

-Kelly-

Thanks Kelly thats super helpful, it did cross my mind but some of the valets we do take 1 full day and would probably cost in excess of £100 for a mobile guy to be able to take a wage out of it... some stuff just wants a quick clean though so might be an option. This has become one of the most challenging areas for me as handing the responsibility over to someone else to valet the cars to a high standard as me and then paying them a wage... Stressful, so will certainly look at sub contracting someone!!

 

Thanks will check my Inbox!

3 hours ago, MattR said:

Ditto with the valeter - you dont need to employ someone to do that, find a mobile valeter who will charge you per car instead of being a drain on your bottom line every month. I pay 30 to 40 per valet. if he was on minimum wage he would be costing me the same as 10 valets per week, and I dont have that sort of turnover. You'll have plenty of other fixed costs, you don't need another. 

£30 to £40 a valet sounds perfect to me! 

Im going to try and find a good mobile guy, any tips? will he use his own materials etc..?

2 hours ago, Tadams said:

Welcome to the mad house 

Thank you. Are any of you guys on the Facebook Car Dealers or the IMDA Groups ?