Mercedes Benz Technician

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njl555

New Member
Joined
Dec 15, 2013
Messages
2
Car
bmw
Hi All
New guy on here and looking for advice.
Have been a Merc Tech now for 11years and service advisor work, been thinking about and looking into starting up on my own.
Just a bit worried to take the leap, rent, customers, the whole idea of working for yourself, is what i have always wanted to do.
I do have cars i take care of outside of dealer but need to be carefull. lol.
I already have star diag for a few years now, tools and kit are not a problem, its the advertising and customers, not many customers no money.
Any advise would be gratefully received.
Cheers
 
Where abouts are you?
 
Welcome. You drive a BMW though:fail

Just joshing, quite a few on here drive Beemers.

Your location or home town will help us sort you out.
 
My local guy works by himself and always has done.

He seems to do all right. Nice cars, decent house, good holidays and enough spare time to enjoy his golf.

Not expensive either and has a decent client base.

Although my new car is under a Service plan, he'll do my brakes etc. during it.
 
I am in worcestershire (cotswolds) lots of mercs around here.

Yeah did have a CLK320 sold it for a good profit. lol.
 
In the early days of setting up, invest the time which is not spent working on a Customer's car promoting yourself on the Mercedes forums. If you're good then you'll blossom as it will bring trade your way, both forum members and better rankings in search engines.

But there is a trade off, because if you're not so good then you're reputation may be tarnished more quickly and more visibly. There is a silver lining though: if you're going to fail them it's best to fail quick, so you can move on to your next success. :thumb:
 
Hi All
New guy on here and looking for advice.
Have been a Merc Tech now for 11years and service advisor work, been thinking about and looking into starting up on my own.
Just a bit worried to take the leap, rent, customers, the whole idea of working for yourself, is what i have always wanted to do.
I do have cars i take care of outside of dealer but need to be carefull. lol.
I already have star diag for a few years now, tools and kit are not a problem, its the advertising and customers, not many customers no money.
Any advise would be gratefully received.
Cheers

You will have to work on all types of vehicle to survive out there, its tough with so many "Eastern European" merc specialists now in the area where I am, I get approached almost daily by ex Mercedes mechanics looking for work from Lithuania down to Bulgaria.
I need a all rounder that's worked on all manufacturers they are worth more than a ex dealership Tech as they have so much more experience when it comes to a ball breaker problems and the usual "easy way" saving hours on the ramps thus saving money with extra work going through the shop.

I have found that unless you specialize in a particular field lets say "Injector removal" or "Autoelectrical" where you can work mobile and earn £200-£300 a day with no overheads for a workshop its a way to supplement the mechanical works which probably wont keep your head above water in the early days.

Mobile diagnostics are also handy but use of MB Star alone wont get you far, I have Tech2/3 GM MDI, IDS & T4, Lexis 3 PP200, Equus LCF, MB Star and a bunch of other diagnostic readers including the Wurth one and Bosch Snap On all costing a small fortune but necessary if you want to specialize and take work away from main dealers.

Hope I'm not scaring you just giving some ideas as to get going in a tough environment these days especially if you have a mortgage to pay and the usual crippling bills...........

:0)

Good Luck
 
Reminds me of one of Olly's first posts on here...

If you are motivated and have the knowledge then you will build up a client base very quickly... Plenty of custom out there.

It takes hard work to start and keep a business going though...

Lots of sleepless nights and problem cars/customers...

If you can hack it and still come into work with a smile each day then go for it... If not, best to stick with employment.
 
If you are good, like many of the indies on here, then people will come to you. PCS is located in Southampton and many do in excess of 100 miles to go there for a service.
 
Hi

Welcome

Im looking for a mercedes Mercedes Benz Technician to join my team :)

Acid
 
If you are good, like many of the indies on here, then people will come to you. PCS is located in Southampton and many do in excess of 100 miles to go there for a service.

Actually PCS are based in Horndean about 25 miles from Southampton:thumb:
 
Good luck njl555 if you decide to strike out on your own - its a tough world out there. I'm a recent returner to the MBZ world so defer to others on here with much more experience of owning and looking after "our" cars.

For what its worth,having run a weird assortment of cars old and new over the last 30 years, I will look for a reliable "indie" in preference to a main dealer every time. On grounds of cost, experience and general know-how, I'd rather trust my car to someone who wants my repeat business. My views are coloured by the age of the cars I drive (my SL dates back to 1993) as my experience is that the older the cars, the less enthusiasm the main dealers have for working on them.

"Who pays" is also a big factor for me - if I was running a new car on the firm and able to offset maintenance costs against tax, I'd be more inclined to use the local dealers. As I'm stumping up my own hard-earned (and trying to run a luxury car on a budget) I'm obviously going to have one eye on the bills.

The usual issues around starting a new business will apply unless you've already got these covered - I'm thinking premises/ tools + equipment/ insurance/ parts supply + credit terms in place/ finance + a business plan. Know your local market - I don't know the Cotswolds other than as an occasional visitor, but guess it might be similar to my part of the world; fair number of middle-aged + older and not short of a bob or two Mercedes owners willing to pay fair money for good service.

Dare I suggest (if you can do this without ruffling too many feathers) - you are probably looking after their cars already, let it be known that you will be offering the same service as a specialist indie.

Hope to see you receiving recommendations on here!
 
If you are good, like many of the indies on here, then people will come to you. PCS is located in Southampton and many do in excess of 100 miles to go there for a service.

Indeed - I do.

Olly in Horndean, Tony in Chesham, and Alfie and Richard in Lightwater are all experts in their fields and a visit is well worth the trip.

If you establish a reputotation for yourself you will not be short of work...
 
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Indeed - I do.

Olly in Horndean, Tony in Chesham, and Alfie and Richard in Lightwater are all experts in their fields and a visit is well worth the trip.

If you establish a reputotation for yourself you will not be short of work...

Definitely agreed I travel 160 mile to Tony at WIM, its well worth a day out as you know when your car is done it's done right and you wont be going back to get any issues sorted that wern't addressed in the first place. These specialists are worth their weight in Gold and in the long run save you money by doing it right and doing it once :thumb:
 
It's not easy to estimate your worth.
You are about to find out what it is.
Good luck.
Steve
 
Hi All
New guy on here and looking for advice.
Have been a Merc Tech now for 11years and service advisor work, been thinking about and looking into starting up on my own.
Just a bit worried to take the leap, rent, customers, the whole idea of working for yourself, is what i have always wanted to do.
I do have cars i take care of outside of dealer but need to be carefull. lol.
I already have star diag for a few years now, tools and kit are not a problem, its the advertising and customers, not many customers no money.
Any advise would be gratefully received.
Cheers

I'd say go for it. As they say if you're not in you can't win. Be careful about leasing a premises, insurances etc. Also remember it's not just about repairing cars it's about good customer service and thus customer retention - very important that bit.
 

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