The main mistake of a new entrepreneur is that he tries to do everything at once. The “car tuning studio” business is no exception; here, like nowhere else, the temptation is great to cover all areas of activity at the same time. A tightly tinted VAZ ten rushed by - I wanted to do the tinting. The Porsche muffler roared - I wanted to start converting the exhaust systems.
To successfully develop your own business, you need to decide on its specialization, and as it develops, open up new directions.
How much money do you need to open a car shop?
In addition to the equipment, at the start of the business it is necessary to purchase the appropriate consumables for upholstering the interior: genuine leather, artificial leather, velor, auto carpet, vinyl and Alcantara. The most expensive upholstery materials are leather and Alcantara. One linear meter of quality material will cost at least $80. Material should be purchased in reserve, at least in order to fulfill small operational orders. The cost of purchasing it will be at least 50 thousand rubles.
Also, certain costs may be associated with the preparation of the premises, minor repairs and the purchase of furniture and shelving. Add another 50 - 100 thousand rubles. In total, the total cost of starting a business under favorable conditions will be at least 300 thousand rubles.
Recruitment
“A good workshop needs good craftsmen” - this is the slogan every new car workshop should have. The minimum staff of workers should include two seamstresses, a cutter, a reupholstery specialist and an installation/disassembly specialist. The approximate wage fund for such a team will be about 60 - 90 thousand rubles per month.
Ideally, an auto shop employee should take appropriate courses in this matter. To do this, you will most likely have to visit Moscow. For example, there is a company called Rusty Brothers, which offers everyone who wants to master the art of making exclusive car interiors. The approximate cost of a 20-day course is 30 - 50 thousand rubles. Upon completion of the course, the student gains knowledge about the materials used in car interior tuning, equipment and tools for upholstery. The worker can easily make patterns and reupholster the steering wheel, gear knob, seats, ceiling, doors and dashboard.
Yes, there is a risk here that, having trained an employee at his own expense, he will then happily go to his own business (or to a competitor). But, alas, it will not be possible to build a profitable business without qualified personnel.
By the way, qualified workers are needed not only to make beautiful cladding. Most of the work here is based on the collection and disassembly of interior parts, which, in the absence of appropriate experience, can be expensive for the order executor. On business forums you can read cases where “garage craftsmen”, due to inexperience, broke the airbags of expensive cars, which ultimately cost them considerable sums (40 - 60 thousand rubles). Just one such incident can ruin a business in its tracks.
Market specificity
This pitfall has a fundamental property. Mainly because it does not depend in any way on the efforts of the entrepreneur. This is a characteristic of the field of activity, which is determined by the demand for this service in a specific area of the global market.
The car studio provides one type of car tuning service. Tuning itself - improvement, “pumping” - is carried out when more pressing problems have been solved. The car owner should not have problems with the financial support of his family members; he should not be worried about the amount of utility bills. After all the expenses, the potential customer of the services should have so much free money that he wants to join the beauty and improve the appearance of his iron horse.
Agree, in our time of crisis, there are fewer and fewer people concerned with aesthetics issues. For clarity, it is worth assessing the absolute values in order to form an adequate impression of the width of the market niche. So, now most of these studios set a price for interior reupholstery in the range of 40-80 thousand rubles. (Depending on the degree of involvement of expensive materials in the technological process). Question: How many similar orders can we expect the auto shop to have per month? Probably, before answering, you need to decide how many potential clients there are in this market; in other words, where is this service supposed to be located? In order not to force the reader to guess, it is worth immediately stating the essence, and at the same time giving advice:
The car interior tuning market is extremely price elastic. This is explained by its potential narrowness, because the needs that this service satisfies are of a higher order (the need for respect and self-expression). It follows that car workshops need to be located only in cities, and larger ones. Organizing this type of business in a locality with a population of less than 100 thousand people is obviously a losing proposition!
In support of this thesis, it is worth giving arguments regarding the motives of potential clients (then everything will definitely fall into place):
- the owner of the car wants to decorate the car, as they say, for his own use (either the desire to stand out from the crowd, or simply adjusting the interior to his taste);
- the owner bought a used car and wants to polish it up so that the “used” nature of his vehicle does not spoil the driving experience;
- the owner of the car is simply going to sell it, and reupholstering the interior is designed to refresh its appearance, improving the impression of potential buyers.
It is possible that, taking into account the crisis trends in the economic life of the country, the auto shop can only gain more clients due to an increase in the number of potential clients from the third category.
What do the statistics tell us? Research in this sector of entrepreneurial activity tells us that the minimum required level of sales for the most budget project (with 4 employees and the cheapest material and technical base) is 10 standard orders per month (with the price range indicated above). If the number of orders reaches 15, then it is simply necessary to have an expanded staff and completely update (qualitatively change) the structure of the equipment.
List of services provided
Market players advise doing more than just car interior trim. It is necessary to expand the list of services provided in order to earn really decent money. For example, you can offer customers glass tinting, car vinyl, anti-gravel films, optical reservations, interior dry cleaning, polishing, air conditioning repairs and refills, and so on. Yes, this will require the purchase of additional equipment and the hiring of additional workers (or training of existing ones), but this will avoid periods of complete lack of orders (season, competitors, etc.).
What type of advertising is better to choose for a car workshop?
Most entrepreneurs claim that advertising decides in this business. Moreover, the more unique and creative it is, the better. For example, you can buy an old VAZ or Volga, repaint it, make colorful tuning, redo the interior, hang neon stripes and place an advertisement for a car workshop on the car in large letters. And here is “live” advertising for you. The main thing is to drive this car on city streets more often.
Classic methods of advertising also work well here: radio, TV, banners, leaflets, posting advertisements. You can order the creation of your own website - a very effective advertising channel. The cost of creating a website will be about 30 - 50 thousand rubles. You will not see a return on this investment right away (the site is promoted in search engines for several months), but in the future the site will bring you clients on an ongoing basis.
In conclusion, advice from forum member “Sergey.O” on working with leather (taken from the chipmaker.ru forum):
Upholstery of the torpedo with leather:
Of course, opening a tuning studio in Moscow is a very profitable investment, given the high purchasing power of the population. Meanwhile, you shouldn’t immediately work on the entire car, although in fact any part can be improved. Clients who are willing to spend a lot of money, first of all, value the quality of work, and it is not always possible to find qualified personnel for a tuning studio.
Search for clients
The target audience of the tuning studio will be young people who want to highlight their car with a visual accent or increase engine power. Also, other car enthusiasts will also contact us, who, for example, need to wrap their car with film, flash the engine control unit, make sound insulation, or alter the steering wheel.
There are several ways to attract clients to this business.
- Creation of a website with a description of services, prices and a registration form. To get your first traffic, you can use contextual advertising.
- Advertising on social networks, especially relevant for Instagram. Publishing before/after photos, reviews, and prices for services will help you gain an audience that will ultimately convert into customers.
- Cooperation with car services. You can organize an affiliate program and pay a certain percentage for each referred client.
- Advertising on bulletin boards: Avito, OLX.
- Banner advertising in your city.
- Discounts and promotions on your first visit to the salon, as well as for regular customers.
In the future, clients will come to you through personal recommendations from satisfied customers. Before opening a tuning studio, it is advisable to monitor the demand for services, namely, look at competitors, evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, and only after that can you select a list of services that you will provide. The second point is that this business is suitable for a large city where there is demand; in small cities, launching such a studio will not be profitable.
Where to start
Moscow is an ideal place for a tuning studio. But the competition here is very high. Therefore, it is better to start with the provision of intermediary services: you accept an order, say, for a body kit, and entrust its direct production to a specialized company. The profitability of such a business is quite high. On average, car tuning in Moscow can bring you up to 25% of the order cost.
If you live in a relatively small city, you will have to conduct serious marketing research and write a very detailed business plan. The fact is that owners will not trust a small car tuning studio to change, for example, engine power or software. Any mistake will lead to a reduction in service life and traffic safety problems.
In addition, not every car will be able to undergo such an operation due to the low quality of spare parts. Today they have learned to make them, as they say, “in every gateway.”
Specialist training
In addition to equipment and special software, anyone who wants to learn chip tuning is interested in the issue of training. True, even despite the fact that some companies recruit groups of car owners to train in chip tuning, in fact, few of them receive useful knowledge that will help in the future to provide high-quality services to other car enthusiasts. Most often, the person who does chip tuning undergoes training directly in practice; through trial and error, he learns to “understand” the power unit, change its properties and increase productivity.
Changing the interior or airbrushing
If you open a car tuning studio in Moscow or another city, then you need to concentrate on improving the comfort of the interior and airbrushing. These two areas are in demand everywhere. Their main advantage is that modification can be carried out for different amounts. Everything will depend on the financial capabilities of the customer. The benefit of the tuning studio is also considerable - at least 50 percent of the price of materials. In order to start successfully, you will need to initially invest about a million rubles in the business.
Another promising type of car tuning, business in this direction, is the conversion of ordinary car models into sports and aggressive ones. This is achieved by changing the size and shape of fenders, bumpers, spoilers, moldings, etc. The estimated profit is 30% of the cost of the “bells and whistles”.
It is very promising to organize a VAZ tuning studio. They talk in detail about how to earn very decent money from it in classes at the Business Youth training center.
Hi all! Today I will tell you how I started a tuning studio with a limited budget and capabilities. So where to start? That's right - it all starts with an idea. Do you need to decide for yourself what type of tuning studio there will be? Either you can only do external modernization, you can remake the interior and interior trim, but the last option is tuning the engine. The choice of equipment, materials, labor and much more will depend on the decision.
Unobvious features of the auto tuning business
First of all, standard car modification services involve increasing engine power.
This interests street racers, the number of which is growing rapidly. In addition to increasing power by changing the engine design, there are other areas of tuning. Engine power can be increased by adjusting the control unit, which is called chip tuning. Interior specialists can make changes to the car's interior design by installing modern acoustic equipment, upholstering the seats in leather, etc. Finally, changes in the car can be purely external; for this purpose, moldings, spoilers, and anti-wings are installed. This gives the car a sporty look and is in high demand among people who decide to join the sport.
A tuning studio usually works in one direction; there are few companies providing full tuning services. Car manufacturers are jealous of any changes to a production model, especially if they are the work of craftsmen who do not have special equipment and controls. In addition, the slightest change in the design of the engine can lead to premature wear. The increase in car power is not registered in the tuning studio, and it is impossible to detect any changes when inspecting the engine.
Not every car can be tuned. Even the most experienced specialists prefer not to tackle some car models. And it's not that these machines are perfect. On the contrary, their engines quickly fail after the changes are made. And responsibility for the breakdown falls on the tuning studio. Be that as it may, engine tuning is in great demand, which will only grow over time.
It is somewhat easier to start your own business in the field of improving interior comfort. All modern cars provide the same opportunities for installing new equipment. Therefore, the changes made depend on the amount that the car enthusiast is willing to invest in modifying the interior. Modern acoustic equipment can be equipped with both a modern car and a car from the 80s. The cost of equipment installation services is 50% of the cost of the equipment.
Where should you start first?
Many people, when discovering such things, do not understand that when an idea is born and before its implementation begins, there is quite a long way to go.
To begin with, it is worth calculating the profitability, finding all the necessary equipment and premises that will allow you to reach a certain starting amount. Since I was on a limited budget, my search took several weeks. Moreover, all the equipment that I found was supported.
Since all the action was supposed to take place in St. Petersburg, it became clear that purchasing equipment here was expensive. A long search on the Internet bore fruit, and after calculating several options, my friend and I decided to settle on the option of engine tuning, since both of us had worked in this area before.
It was decided to purchase equipment that we found in other cities of the great country. Having called all the offers and decided on the cost, we plotted the route, took the money and went.
Selection of premises
Since it was planned to tuning a middle-class studio, the selection of premises was appropriate.
After much searching and deliberation, we found a small room 12x22 meters on Vasilevsky Island in St. Petersburg. The entrance was directly from the street, and therefore it was decided to buy and install vertical gates, which are installed in many car services, like a door to a box. At first we wanted to buy a new one, which would have cost 35,000 rubles, but we accidentally found a used one that suited us perfectly. We paid 22,500 rubles for it. Of course, installing this door cost us 7,000, but we were unable to reduce these costs.
Next, the entire room was cleaned and whitewashed. We found tuning posters at the market and pasted them up as part of the decor. I had a lot of old furniture at my dacha, including a sofa that I brought. Thus, comfort began to be created in our small enterprise.
Later, it was decided to separate part of the work area in order to have a place to eat and relax. We bought pipes, boiled them together and covered them with black cloth so that it would not be visible.
Forgot to mention the rental price. After a long debate with the owner of this premises, we came to a consensus. At first he wanted 50 thousand a month. But, it was decided this way: we pay 30,000 rubles. and we are doing a little renovation there, since the floors were in terrible condition. After calculating everything, it was decided that it would be cheaper for us.
What equipment do you need?
After calculating everything for a long time, we wrote a list of what we would need, but this list was regularly updated. At the same time, our budget was decreasing, and we were wondering whether all this was worth starting. But it was too late to give up. So, what tool, at first glance, should have been needed:
- A set of tools that included sockets, screwdrivers, ratchets, etc. Our choice fell on the Ombra 82-piece tool set, which cost 2,200 rubles. I bought it in one of the tool hypermarkets.
- Set of wire cutters. In the store I saw Topex, which cost me 340 rubles.
- Pullers of different sizes. To begin with, I took a small one with a diameter of 10 cm, and then it was decided to take it as needed.
- Oil filter puller. In one of the car tool stores, I found one for 400 rubles.
- Also, you will definitely need a wrench to install the piston rings. It then cost 450 rubles.
- And most importantly - a tester, without which it’s impossible. The price of pleasure was 800 rubles.
Of course, you will need several knives, and a bunch of small things that you have already acquired during the work.
Having dealt with the basic tools, it was decided to move on to the equipment. Since it was large, it was decided to borrow a 5-ton car from a friend and drive it to pick up the equipment in order to pick up everything at one time. Now, I will tell you what equipment is used for what:
- Metal lathe. On it, it was decided to grind the pistons and make adjustments based on weight. And also grind out the necessary consumables. This equipment cost 10,000 rubles. in Kursk.
- Further, in Orel we bought two more machines. Boring machine 4VT20 and honing machine 3G833. They paid 32,000 rubles for both. It is not expensive. On the way home, we ordered hones for the machine.
- A lift that cost us 100,000 rubles. I don’t know the name, the main thing is that it’s a worker.
In principle, this is all the equipment we wanted to buy, since it was decided not to bother with boring the block heads.
This is an expensive tuning and it requires capital, much more than we had. Of course, to be honest, with a budget of 400,000 rubles, we were able to buy everything. There was even enough left to purchase the first materials that were purchased for the first client, namely GAZ 3102. Everything was not as smooth as it seemed from the very beginning, but that’s another story.
General information about other tuning studio options
When making calculations, I came to the conclusion that opening a tuning studio requires a lot of money. Now I’ll tell you what I could do according to my calculations if a different type of tuning studio had opened:
- External tuning.
When purchasing initial equipment and consumables, as well as renting premises, such a pleasure would cost 1.4 million rubles. - Interior reupholstery.
Cost price: 1,000,000 rubles. This includes the purchase of materials for all machines and the first month’s salary for workers, if you don’t know how to do it yourself. - Tuning of chassis and exhaust system.
650-800 thousand rubles.
Thus, our enterprise was quite cheap, but the equipment was purchased second-hand.
If everything was purchased new, then the cost would be about 2 million rubles. In light of this, I must say that we still opened cheaply. I sold my share in the tuning studio to a friend in 2014 and moved to Ukraine because I needed
According to experts, every fifth car plying Russian roads passes through the hands of tuning masters. The demand for this service is constantly growing, and competition in the tuning business is small. And if we talk about business transparency, only a few work according to tax laws. For enterprising people, it's time to start vigorous activity.
Paperwork
In order for your studio to operate officially, you will need to complete a package of documents.
- Open an IP.
- Specify OKVED. For Russia these are codes - 45.20, 45.20.1, 45.20.2.
- Sign a lease agreement for the premises.
- Obtain a work permit from the SES and fire service.
- Recruit staff.
- Have certificates for the equipment and materials used.
After the client contacts your tuning studio, you will enter into an agreement with him, which will indicate the volumes and types of work, deadlines, and responsibilities of both parties. To draw up the correct package of documents and a template agreement with clients, you can contact a lawyer in your city.
Tuning styles and directions
In tuning there are several styles focused on national characteristics. For example, Americans like the gangster-rapper slant. The Germans put comfort first, while the Japanese gravitate towards the racing genre. Russians have not yet decided on a style, so all varieties are present in our country.
Among the areas of tuning, styling and technical modernization dominate.
Styling implies a visual transformation of the car. Exterior styling most often begins with the installation of wheel rims. This simple procedure immediately improves the dynamics of the car, and the appearance becomes “catchy” and presentable. Next, bumpers, sills, lights and other body kit elements are subject to reconstruction.
There are many nice things about interior styling. The leather upholstery has already become boring. Now many people prefer a sporty design with imported seats and a small steering wheel. They also decorate the interior with special pedal covers, chrome and aluminum frames, stylish rubber mats, paint the interior with special paints, and “stuff” them with music components and navigation systems.
Technical or chip tuning most often concerns the “heart” of a car - its engine. You can redo the manual transmission, the braking system and the suspension. The “flight of fancy” depends entirely on your desires and wallet, since modifications sometimes turn out to be much more expensive than the cost of the car itself.
Reputable foreign manufacturers have their own set of tuning operations offered by the factory program. It is covered by the manufacturer's warranty, but such exclusive tuning is not cheap. Feel the difference: a factory-tuned Audi 4 costs more than $100 thousand, while a regular model costs about $45 thousand.
Tuning by car type
Tuning of domestic products can be identified as a separate industry. It is noteworthy that mainly two categories of car enthusiasts resort to modernizing VAZs: children of rich parents who gave their offspring a car for “road experiments” and obsessive drivers for whom tuning has been elevated to the rank of a hobby. Both of them have free money, turning an $8 thousand model into a 15 thousand one.
Finding spare parts for tuning is not a problem. “Underground” conveyors in Togliatti, Lipetsk, Moscow provide parts to everyone in need. Moreover, “gray” prices are 20 percent less than “white” ones. Just keep in mind that no one is responsible for the quality of “gray” products.
Tuning SUVs is also profitable. Anyone who dreams of making a monster out of their jeep is ready to shell out a “round” sum. For example, the most popular operation - a suspension lift - costs from $5 thousand to $7 thousand, equipping with a pair of electric winches will cost $850, installing differential locks will cost more than $1,100, and installing a snorkel for crossing water barriers will cost up to $900. The average tuning equipment for an SUV will cost 15-20 thousand “green”, and the most “sophisticated” tunings go “off scale” for 100 thousand.
Post-tuning service also costs a lot. Even the maintenance of a Russian UAZ will cost more than $1,000 per month, with the “lion’s share” of the funds going to the salaries of the craftsmen.
Owners of middle-class foreign cars are also not averse to upgrading their cars, but their tuning potential is somewhat less than that of SUVs.
Entering the market
Entry into the tuning market costs up to $100 thousand. The bulk of the money will go to the purchase of equipment: a guillotine, machines, a press and other small items. You will need your own production site and professional craftsmen.
For knowledgeable people, mastering the intricacies of tuning does not seem to be a difficult task. Many domestic craftsmen use their own “know-how” in their work, and the efficiency and quality of such new products are sometimes higher than industrial designs. You can also install ready-made equipment supplied by dealers. In any case, in addition to 100% payment for spare parts, the customer will add another 50% for the work itself to the final payment amount.
Many cars are tuned according to unique projects, known only to direct specialists. Therefore, you are doomed to maintain the machines you have processed until they are sent to the landfill. This means you will have work all the time. The annual turnover of a good tuning studio can reach several hundred thousand dollars. After a year or a year and a half of good work, you will return the money spent, and then you can spend the profit received at your discretion.
Prepared by editors: “Business GiD” www.site
Benefits
To open a full-fledged tuning studio at the starting stage you will need at least 30-35 thousand dollars. Expense items include rent, utilities and employee salaries. The lion's share of the funds will be spent on the purchase of expensive equipment and paints and varnishes. The purchase of parts for decorating a car is usually made to order, so you don’t have to spend money on them.
To attract customers, an advertising campaign is thought out and implemented. Information about the professional services of the tuning workshop is posted on the Internet, specialized automotive media, and business cards are created.
If your salon provides services at a professional level, uses high-quality materials and parts, car enthusiasts will quickly find out about the point. Your main advertisers are grateful clients. People will quickly spread the word about a brilliant tuning shop in their circles, increasing your popularity. People are ready to travel to competent specialists in this field from other regions.
A tuning studio is an interesting and profitable business idea. Markups on services and materials range from 300% to 500%, which makes the project’s payback very high. With a competent advertising campaign, a stable flow of clients and daily targeted work on your image, a tuning salon will pay for itself in 1-2 years.
