I am 22 and am looking to start a business selling cars need advice

**Dominion** · 04-11-2006 12:00 PM

I finally have a decent amount to invest into my business about $20,000 and I am wanting to know if there are any pointers that anyone would like to give that has experience with this,I have a business name(not registered yet) and I am going to look at theft and salvage car auctions they mostly have low mileage vehicles and arent that screwed up and are cheap to repair so this is my plan so far and Im open to suggestions.
Thanks for any ideas

**sarcastik** · 04-11-2006 03:52 PM

Thats sounds like a shady idea. Car salesman are already notorious for not being trusted so you should at least start off attempting to be honest. Are you going to tell people they are salvaged? Salvaged cars usually lose integrity in their frame and interworkings and parts fail and they are not safe in an accident. Thats why I car worth 10,000 will go for 5,000. Either way depending on what you're trying to sell you can't really get one half decent car worth selling for 20,000 let alone a lot full unless you want to sell a bunch of junkers worth 3-4k each.

**Dominion** · 04-12-2006 08:24 AM

Originally Posted by sarcastik

Thats sounds like a shady idea. Car salesman are already notorious for not being trusted so you should at least start off attempting to be honest. Are you going to tell people they are salvaged? Salvaged cars usually lose integrity in their frame and interworkings and parts fail and they are not safe in an accident. Thats why I car worth 10,000 will go for 5,000. Either way depending on what you're trying to sell you can't really get one half decent car worth selling for 20,000 let alone a lot full unless you want to sell a bunch of junkers worth 3-4k each.

First of all I am very serious when it comes to business and if you screw your customer you screw your self out of the best advertisement (word of mouth) and before you decide to post a reply why dont you think about if it is going to be helpful or not,Your post is pointless and has no constructive value and only shows ignorance,you didnt even take what I posted into account! look closely (THEFT SALVAGE!) missing headlights,stereos,wheels,doors not flood or act of god,what are you even doing on this forum? I was looking for someone that has experience in this type of business, instead I get the only deet-da-dee here that doesent think before he posts anything and should be working at mickydees! now can I get to talk to a real business owner or someone that has done this before? or did I waste my time sighning up for this forum?!
IM HERE TO MAKE MONEY WHAT ABOUT YOU!

**akula** · 04-12-2006 08:48 AM

Originally Posted by Dominion

I finally have a decent amount to invest into my business about $20,000 and I am wanting to know if there are any pointers that anyone would like to give that has experience with this,I have a business name(not registered yet) and I am going to look at theft and salvage car auctions they mostly have low mileage vehicles and arent that screwed up and are cheap to repair so this is my plan so far and Im open to suggestions.
Thanks for any ideas

Ok..that's interesting. Let me share some observations with you.

Building a successful business is dependant on three things: the market, you, and luck. These words have inordinate, special meanings.

The market: The outcome of whether you will be successful or not is dependant on the general trends in your industry (microeconomics) and economic indicators (macroeconomics). If you'd like to, we can discuss some issues facing the automobile market and what perils/opportunities apply to you situation.

You:The outcome of whether you will be successful or not is dependant on the actions you take in building your business. In other words, your fate is dependant on how well you exercise your skill as an entrepreneur. In that sense, building a business requires a certain skill set. This skill set will impact on how you complete your four main roles as an entrepreneur; the role of an investor, the role of founder, CEO and company director.

In addition to discussing the market, we can talk about what is considered best practice in terms of entrepreneurial skill.

Luck: A business as a metaphysical entity, exists within a complex system. Because there are so many variables (including where you live, to what your competitors do), an outcome of any nascent venture is subject to randomness. In addition to discussing how to go about doing your job as an entrepreneur, we can discuss how you can deal with uncertainty and the kind of steps you can take to be in the running for winning the startup lottery.

What do you want to talk about?

**Dominion** · 04-12-2006 10:39 AM

Originally Posted by akula

Ok..that's interesting. Let me share some observations with you.

Building a successful business is dependant on three things: the market, you, and luck. These words have inordinate, special meanings.

The market: The outcome of whether you will be successful or not is dependant on the general trends in your industry (microeconomics) and economic indicators (macroeconomics). If you'd like to, we can discuss some issues facing the automobile market and what perils/opportunities apply to you situation.

You:The outcome of whether you will be successful or not is dependant on the actions you take in building your business. In other words, your fate is dependant on how well you exercise your skill as an entrepreneur. In that sense, building a business requires a certain skill set. This skill set will impact on how you complete your four main roles as an entrepreneur; the role of an investor, the role of founder, CEO and company director.

In addition to discussing the market, we can talk about what is considered best practice in terms of entrepreneurial skill.

Luck: A business as a metaphysical entity, exists within a complex system. Because there are so many variables (including where you live, to what your competitors do), an outcome of any nascent venture is subject to randomness. In addition to discussing how to go about doing your job as an entrepreneur, we can discuss how you can deal with uncertainty and the kind of steps you can take to be in the running for winning the startup lottery.

What do you want to talk about?

Thanks Akula for posting I was worried I got into a forum of wishers and wannabes,Im in maitland Fl a main part of Orlando and there are alot of people that dont have transportation and this area is growing rapidly, mostly all about 70% of the apartmennt complexes are condos now and the bus system is crappy so there is a market for car sales, the intersection of 1792 and Lee rd have 2 small dealerships and 2 major crammed next to one another hyundia,dodge,and two small owner operated outfits one sells Hummer,Bmw,Mercedies for visual and all have full lots so I am confident that I can add a off to the side type of Biz in the begining and grow the question is where should I look to get stock? I have no real Idea of what to look for because all the places online that offer $29.00 to get info and and $39.00 for "lists" and crap like that look like scams,I dont want to waste my money, Im a newbie to owning a biz but not sales, I guess what I would want to start discussing is the best practice because I have no one willing to spill the know how only a friend of a friend of a sister's brother who is in his 50's and is a drill sgt type whom Ive only met once and looks at every young person like a whiper snaper lol.

I am very serious I just dont have any help this has been my plan for about 3 years just didnt have any $, This is what I have figured out,After bills are paid I will have $18,000,I have a market and ebay at my disposal I have knowlege in auto repair,I have tools and have abition just no practice what so ever just theory of what to do and no one to answer questions like ,if I had a client that wanted a car but didt have the full amount of cash,How would I finance them trough a bank or would I even want to do that ,see what I mean? things like that, the step by step kind of things that would guide me through the process so any help would be appreciated greatly I dont want to work at walmart when Im 60 handing carts to people.
Thanks

**asabbagh** · 04-12-2006 11:31 AM

Starting a business is always great! However, planning correctly from the start will save you a lot of time, aggrevation, and costs down the road. Two words of advice from my own experience. having been a business owner myself since 1997.

1) Hiring a good attorney is very important. Make sure both of you understand what you need from each other in that relationship so that costs don't get out of control. You can agree on retaining attorney by paying a monthly retainer fee, the lower the fee the more likely he/she will bill you by the hour whenever a situation arises where it requires more of his/her time. Attorney's hsould help you setup your corporation and seperating your personal assets from the business. They should be able to help you with partnerships if you plan on bringing partners in later stages.
2) Hiring a good account to help manage your cashflow and taxes. Tax laws change regularly. A good and trusted account should help you plan for your taxes as your business grows.

Remember, being a business owner "it is lonely at the top" you will experience many days when a situation arises and you'll have no one to talk. Having a good attorney and accountant whom you can hang out will release a lot of pressure from you and sleep much better at night. Good luck with your endeavors!

**Dominion** · 04-12-2006 12:42 PM

Originally Posted by asabbagh

Starting a business is always great! However, planning correctly from the start will save you a lot of time, aggrevation, and costs down the road. Two words of advice from my own experience. having been a business owner myself since 1997.

1) Hiring a good attorney is very important. Make sure both of you understand what you need from each other in that relationship so that costs don't get out of control. You can agree on retaining attorney by paying a monthly retainer fee, the lower the fee the more likely he/she will bill you by the hour whenever a situation arises where it requires more of his/her time. Attorney's hsould help you setup your corporation and seperating your personal assets from the business. They should be able to help you with partnerships if you plan on bringing partners in later stages.
2) Hiring a good account to help manage your cashflow and taxes. Tax laws change regularly. A good and trusted account should help you plan for your taxes as your business grows.

Remember, being a business owner "it is lonely at the top" you will experience many days when a situation arises and you'll have no one to talk. Having a good attorney and accountant whom you can hang out will release a lot of pressure from you and sleep much better at night. Good luck with your endeavors!

Thanks for bringing that up about taxes because its easy to get occupied with any part of the business and forget something else but the attorney issue ,should I need one in the beginning? and about the tax issue I may have some one that can help,My fiance's gf's mother does taxes for people that are too busy to wipe lol so that may be covered not shure though,
in my head this is what the way I see it
Im the Owner/Mngr.
Later on anyone I employ would help advertise the vehicle (drive it)
and get comission say if I make a $5,000 profit the employee would get $200just an idea
,they would be responsible for gas and I havent checked out insurence yet but all that has not been planned yet as far as employees are concerned
so
1.Get a car/suv/pickup
2.Fix it up or repair it
3.Advertise it papper/ebay
4.Sell it
5.Get the profit and reinvest it into a more profitable vehicle or two economy cars.
6.Do it again and start putting a good part of the profits into another account and save for a facility to repair the vehicles and buy equipment
good plan? this is what I have on papper so far I just havent done it yet.

**NeeJam** · 04-12-2006 02:42 PM

Go to car auctions, you can get a car for a very decent price and you can even sell them to a car supermarket for a profit of 10% + in some cases.

Nevertheless, you could by some and sell them in a car magazine like the autotrader here in the uk. This can push the price of your car even more and you can make more profit here.

**sarcastik** · 04-12-2006 04:09 PM

Originally Posted by Dominion

First of all I am very serious when it comes to business and if you screw your customer you screw your self out of the best advertisement (word of mouth) and before you decide to post a reply why dont you think about if it is going to be helpful or not,Your post is pointless and has no constructive value and only shows ignorance,you didnt even take what I posted into account! look closely (THEFT SALVAGE!) missing headlights,stereos,wheels,doors not flood or act of god,what are you even doing on this forum? I was looking for someone that has experience in this type of business, instead I get the only deet-da-dee here that doesent think before he posts anything and should be working at mickydees! now can I get to talk to a real business owner or someone that has done this before? or did I waste my time sighning up for this forum?!
IM HERE TO MAKE MONEY WHAT ABOUT YOU!

A salavaged car is a salavaged car numbnut. If you don't tell customers you're they are salavaged then you're liar and if you do tell them they will head for the door faster then an old school impala. Not to mention you only have 20k. Didn't you hear dude say you're gonna be making 10% a whip? (if that)...10% of a 5,000 car = NOT ENOUGH TO PAY YOUR DAMN RENT (and thats if you only have 4 cars, no lot, no advertising, no lawyer, nothin...So best believe if your avarage half decent car cost more than 20k you're gonna need a lot more than that to start a whole lot. I'm just keepin it real man.

**Dominion** · 04-12-2006 04:25 PM

Originally Posted by nik_b02

Go to car auctions, you can get a car for a very decent price and you can even sell them to a car supermarket for a profit of 10% + in some cases.

Nevertheless, you could by some and sell them in a car magazine like the autotrader here in the uk. This can push the price of your car even more and you can make more profit here.

Im deffinately going to center my business around auctions,My fiance's freinds brother makes over $100.000.00 a year off of them and he goes to many but do you mean like exporting vehicles to the UK? That would be sweet if I could get more money that way but what about customs and things of that sort, shipping costs too? wouldnt it be a pain in the ass to do that or would it be easy?,I did see something a while back somthing about shipping to people in South America and they pay around $60,000US for a land rover thats is sold for $30,000 in the U.S I mean I could be wrong I havent done to much research on it but Is there a good market for US vehicles in the UK? I mean it never even crossed my mind that anyone in the UK would be interrested in our POS cars, all the good stuff comes out of Germany and Japan lol, btw I want a Nissan Skyline GTR (my dream car)or just a Mazda RX7 with a Dodge Viper engine hahaha(Im self destructive jk). All I just need to do is find a car auction place but Im still waiting for the call from my lawyer "Hey your check is here!". Maybe in the next week or so Ill here from him, 6 weeks is a long time to wait for cash when you have plans! It would be nice if I could go to a few auctions with the guy I talked about then I could learn first hand what is involved in the process and ask questions but he's old and has a bad atitude from what I heard but I asked his sister to ask him if he could give me some pointers anyway haha I mean what could happen,him saying no? oh well Ill do it anyway and learn on my own but it is better to have a mentor to teach you the tricks of the trade but when I become successful Ill share the wisdome that no on wanted to share when I asked them ,oh crap I kinda wondered away from the main point of the post eh? opps! hahaha

P.S. This forum rocks! Its a great info hub that I hope never goes away!

**Dominion** · 04-12-2006 04:51 PM

Originally Posted by sarcastik

A salavaged car is a salavaged car numbnut. If you don't tell customers you're they are salavaged then you're liar and if you do tell them they will head for the door faster then an old school impala. Not to mention you only have 20k. Didn't you hear dude say you're gonna be making 10% a whip? (if that)...10% of a 5,000 car = NOT ENOUGH TO PAY YOUR DAMN RENT (and thats if you only have 4 cars, no lot, no advertising, no lawyer, nothin...So best believe if your avarage half decent car cost more than 20k you're gonna need a lot more than that to start a whole lot. I'm just keepin it real man.

To:sarcastik

Ok so we got off on the wrong foot here,I admit I was harsh in standing my ground but that comes from having been a garage tech asst mngr and having kids working for me that were around my age (19) at the time up until I was (21),that was my job (to be an ass) so I am serious about this and am sorry for going off but I thought you were just making assumptions that were incorrect about my plans and it just frustrated me for being misunderstood and not being asked what exactly what I am wanting to do? or some thing constructive to see how I could be helped.,So if you still wish to help me on this matter along with Akula I welcome any knowledge that you want to give,I guess there are just diiferent ways of teaching and different ways of learning so we just clashed, I hope every thing is cool and we can laugh about this thanks for your help and I will deffinately consider what you have previously posted about my business idea.

**akula** · 04-13-2006 08:16 AM

OK, best practice it is. Before I go on to outline the structure for entrepreneurial best practice, one item on the agenda is leadership. One important aspect of entrepreneurial best practice is emotional control and gratefulness.

Please alter your original reply to sarkastik to something like "Thank you for taking the time to give me feedback. I am grateful for you having shared your perspective with me. I will certainly consider the issues you are raising. In the meanwhile, please tell me if there is anyone you know of, that I speak to about this venture. Likewise, I would find it invaluable if I can tell you more about my plans and interest you in some kind of a working relationship. I look forward to being able to learn from you."

Now...I really didn't want to raise the issue of leadership at this point, because it's not on your list of priorities, but you should know that building companies is hard, people like sarkastic are about as nice as you can possibly hope for, and you ought to find a mindset to be able to deal with these things in a positive manner.

Entrepreneurship best practice # 1: Keep your cool, be grateful. Even if somebody says, "Dominion, you're a fucking idiot".

Please alter your post, send sarkastic a PM and I'll set you a set of milestones you need to achieve in order to build your business. Finally, knowing full well that your ego is hurting, you still need to do what you are being told because a large part of entrepreneurship is about being humble and following directions. This is not a pissing contest and pride has no place where startups are concerned.

**Dominion** · 04-13-2006 09:25 AM

Originally Posted by akula

OK, best practice it is. Before I go on to outline the structure for entrepreneurial best practice, one item on the agenda is leadership. One important aspect of entrepreneurial best practice is emotional control and gratefulness.

Please alter your original reply to sarkastik to something like "Thank you for taking the time to give me feedback. I am grateful for you having shared your perspective with me. I will certainly consider the issues you are raising. In the meanwhile, please tell me if there is anyone you know of, that I speak to about this venture. Likewise, I would find it invaluable if I can tell you more about my plans and interest you in some kind of a working relationship. I look forward to being able to learn from you."

Now...I really didn't want to raise the issue of leadership at this point, because it's not on your list of priorities, but you should know that building companies is hard, people like sarkastic are about as nice as you can possibly hope for, and you ought to find a mindset to be able to deal with these things in a positive manner.

Entrepreneurship best practice # 1: Keep your cool, be grateful. Even if somebody says, "Dominion, you're a fucking idiot".

Please alter your post, send sarkastic a PM and I'll set you a set of milestones you need to achieve in order to build your business. Finally, knowing full well that your ego is hurting, you still need to do what you are being told because a large part of entrepreneurship is about being humble and following directions. This is not a pissing contest and pride has no place where startups are concerned.

Your right Akula I should have beed more understanding and not so limited to my own point of view and should be more receptive to the matters that arise like this,Ive pretty much have had to wing it and obviously didnt have any good managers to to learn from just ass-holes so I am open to any thing you want to tell me and help me understand what I should do to be a better entrepreneur.

**Wowzerz** · 04-13-2006 11:35 AM

LOL - my god. First of all you don't have to talk like a robot (BizGuy does this and does he REALLY connect with any of us?). Speak your mind, just don't be a jerk.

Secondly, don't sell salvage vehicles. I'm in the auto business and I do quite well with it. BELIEVE ME, it's worth the extra money to buy lower mileage, near-mint vehicles that you don't have to talk the customer into buying. If they have been searching for a Toyota Tundra, they like those types of trucks and the one you have available is a NICE vehicle with good paint/body, excellent mechanical condition, they're going to buy it even if it means stretching a bit financially. Purchasing a car isn't a small ordeal, at least not for most people. They have to live with this thing for 2-3 years, many times even more. People take pride in their automobiles, so don't shaft 'em, give them a reason to have that pride by selling them a nice car.

Don't try and get rich off of each sale. Pad it $1,000-$2,000 (or accordingly depending on the value of the car) and leave the deal knowing they're not going to go home and run an AutoCheck or CarFax report and see that they've just bought a lifetime of problems. You'll sleep better at night and you have a happy customer that's going to refer others to you.

**Dominion** · 04-13-2006 12:25 PM

Originally Posted by Wowzerz

LOL - my god. First of all you don't have to talk like a robot (BizGuy does this and does he REALLY connect with any of us?). Speak your mind, just don't be a jerk.

Secondly, don't sell salvage vehicles. I'm in the auto business and I do quite well with it. BELIEVE ME, it's worth the extra money to buy lower mileage, near-mint vehicles that you don't have to talk the customer into buying. If they have been searching for a Toyota Tundra, they like those types of trucks and the one you have available is a NICE vehicle with good paint/body, excellent mechanical condition, they're going to buy it even if it means stretching a bit financially. Purchasing a car isn't a small ordeal, at least not for most people. They have to live with this thing for 2-3 years, many times even more. People take pride in their automobiles, so don't shaft 'em, give them a reason to have that pride by selling them a nice car.

Don't try and get rich off of each sale. Pad it $1,000-$2,000 (or accordingly depending on the value of the car) and leave the deal knowing they're not going to go home and run an AutoCheck or CarFax report and see that they've just bought a lifetime of problems. You'll sleep better at night and you have a happy customer that's going to refer others to you.

I deffinatly want to know what you know since you've done this,Is this what your currently doing? because I wont be able to get more than one car because Im just begining and from what you have said about customer service,I was in sales for a long time and know about word of mouth being your credit and if you screw that you screw your self so that is no prob for me I just dont know the machanics or what to do at first but with the salvage idea this is some thing Im looking at heres a link http://cgi.ebay.com/2002-Acura-3-5-R...QQcmdZViewItem
it books for around $24,000 in the KBB so repairs around $1500-$2000 I would ask around $16,000 but be fine with $15,500 so thats a $2500.00-$3000.00 profit give or take and considering any other costs., Im just putting what I think up here,Im also going to look at auctions around the city ,police inpounds,seized,and others so what do you think?