Brand new person

[Firefighter Wash 1]

Hi to all, thought I would take 5 and introduce myself, I'm John (48), live in the Southwest (Torbay) and brand spanking new to car dealing, I've been involved in the tree surgery business for many years running my own business for approx 15yrs, also I'm a retained firefighter of which I'm contracted to 63hrs a week, its always been an ambition for me to be involved in the used car business, sure alot of you who have been involved in the business would say keep clear, I would say the same about tree work but if you don't try you'll never know!, like most things they always look easier from the outside looking in.

I spent most of Christmas and New Year reading up on posts on this site, thanks to everyone who contributes, really helpful information, my local auctions are BCA Bridgewater and Manheim Plymouth, managed to do a couple of dry runs to BCA to suss things out, couldn't put things off any longer so bought a tidy Peugeot, didn't need much other than a good tidy, sold it 2 weeks later with not a bad profit (bought for £1200, sold for £1850), last week came back with a 1 series BMW, after all I had read up not entirely sure why I bought it!?!, I think just got caught up in the auction banter, I will keep you posted on how it works out, with the MOT tomorrow you may never her from me again :).

I've been offered a small frontage probably get around 6-8 cars on and its on a main road, cost is minimal so I think a bit of a no brainer, if I had a bit more experience / confidence in the trade then decisions would be alot easier, next visit to BCA tomorrow, currently on a Silver card but negotiating Gold to reduce fees, bit of a kick in the teeth these are!

So that's a brief introduction and where I am at the moment, thanks again for all who take time out and contribute, for us neewbies this information is really helpful.

Cheers

 

John

 

[Screenman 47]

Welcome, one thing I would say is work out the difference between margin and profit, they are very different. All credit to you for being retained my youngest did it for 12 years and full time for a couple until cutbacks, he is now full time ff at Doncaster Airport, not a job I would fancy.

[DBDlloyds 18]

On 03/03/2019 at 3:06 PM, Firefighter Wash said:

Hi to all, thought I would take 5 and introduce myself, I'm John (48), live in the Southwest (Torbay) and brand spanking new to car dealing, I've been involved in the tree surgery business for many years running my own business for approx 15yrs, also I'm a retained firefighter of which I'm contracted to 63hrs a week, its always been an ambition for me to be involved in the used car business, sure alot of you who have been involved in the business would say keep clear, I would say the same about tree work but if you don't try you'll never know!, like most things they always look easier from the outside looking in.

I spent most of Christmas and New Year reading up on posts on this site, thanks to everyone who contributes, really helpful information, my local auctions are BCA Bridgewater and Manheim Plymouth, managed to do a couple of dry runs to BCA to suss things out, couldn't put things off any longer so bought a tidy Peugeot, didn't need much other than a good tidy, sold it 2 weeks later with not a bad profit (bought for £1200, sold for £1850), last week came back with a 1 series BMW, after all I had read up not entirely sure why I bought it!?!, I think just got caught up in the auction banter, I will keep you posted on how it works out, with the MOT tomorrow you may never her from me again :).

I've been offered a small frontage probably get around 6-8 cars on and its on a main road, cost is minimal so I think a bit of a no brainer, if I had a bit more experience / confidence in the trade then decisions would be alot easier, next visit to BCA tomorrow, currently on a Silver card but negotiating Gold to reduce fees, bit of a kick in the teeth these are!

So that's a brief introduction and where I am at the moment, thanks again for all who take time out and contribute, for us neewbies this information is really helpful.

Cheers

 

John

 

Welcome & good luck....