Opinion wanted on business idea

[loco340cuda]

Last night me and my friend were talking about a business idea and I wanted to get feedback from you guys here on the board. 

We are thinking about opening a small shop that does dyno testing.  The shop would have a dyno and the idea is that basically the customer rents the dyno.  We provide the dyno and do the pulls, the customer does the tuning.  Our logic is that this would be an alternative to tuning at the track since the track is usually only open on weekends (assuming good weather).  The shop would be open to all types of vehicles, not just muscle cars.  I have heard that most shops that have dyno's don't let you tune the car, if any tuning is done it is done by there techs.  Is this true?  The shop that I have gotten my car tuned at only let's their techs tune the car. Part of our motivation was to give the customer the chance to do there own tuning. 

So what do you guys think about this idea?  Do you think there would be good demand for this type of service?  Would you go to a shop like this?

I am interesting in hearing your feedback on this.  I also would be interested in hearing what you might do if you started this business or what other areas you might expand into if you owned this business. 

The main thing that I am interested in finding out is if this business idea is really worth pursuing.

-Thanks

[matt63]

I'm no business guru but you will need a business plan including all costs such as debt repayment, rent, utilities, insurance, salaries, dyno maintenance/upgrades, etc.  On the revenue side you need to project the number of clients and the associated revenue per visit. How many sessions per week, month, year will you run through?  The revenue stream might be a little narrow meaning you might have to provide more services or parts to get revenues up to a sustainable level.

I would think that the cost of the service would be a flat rate minimum for 1/2 hr to 1 hr plus an hourly charge.  Perhaps they would take the vehicle off of the dyno for tuning/changes if someone was waiting??  A tech might be useful as not everyone can tune the car which will cost them a lot in dyno time through trial and error.  On the other hand if you have a tech they may not know how to tune all vehicles.  Hopefully one or both of you are techs!  Good luck.

[loco340cuda]

matt63, thanks for the feedback!  Your thoughts are exactly the same as what I was thinking.  I figured before I go through all the effort of doing a business plan I'm first trying to gauge what the interest in this type of business would be.  If it sounds like people would be interested in using this type of service then I will pursue things further (i.e. put together a business plan to see viability of the business, a.k.a. will it be profitable).  Keep the feedback coming guys.

[asm74]

Seems to me like having the customer do the tuning could be a liability to your investment.  And would this be a chassis dyno or engine dyno?  I'm guessing chassis, and there, i think you have a lot more things that can go wrong if you are not in complete control of the environment.

[Moparal]

Im guessing you mean chassis dyno.  Insurance may be a killer. But, how is the demand in your area?  Around here we have close to a dozen tracks in a100 mile area so it may be useful for a person like me.  In a city you may have a noise and emission problem.

[ntstlgl1970]

Also what are the demographics in the area you would open the business in? chassis dynos aren't cheap. Maybe it would be worthwhile to look into shops for sale (if you have the capital) it would cost less to get up and running. How long would it take for you to recoup your investment (as in start to generate income). Would you let anyone bring in their car or just muscle cars? Hate to say it, but if you wanted to bring in a steady income, it would be worthwhile to cater somewhat to the import crowd. There are more of those guys out there than musclecar guys IMO. If there are other dyno/tuning shops in your area, what would set your shop apart from them. What kind of promotion/advertising would you do? When you open the customers don't magically appear. I've been wanting to open a shop for a while and the timing (I think) is getting pretty good if you want to buy an existing business.

[MJS73]

Having the customer do it is going to be a tough sell to your insurance carrier.

Not sure if there would be enough demand to justify, but might be a nice ancillary service to add to a small garage.

Mike

[DAYTONA]

several years ago we took some Vipers to be dynoed in Indy.....3 pulls for $100

...no idea about equipment costs etc etc....they were busy (Indy is a big town)....but they were mostly busy working on other cars in the shop...all the input I have, sorry

[Topcat]

If you do decide to have it where the customer tunes his own car, you could have them sign a release of liability statement first.

I'm no lawyer, but we have a place near me that lets you parachute free fall in a vertical wind tunnel. They make you sign a release of liability beforehand. So I figure if they can do that, you should be able to also.

[loco340cuda]

Just to clarify how I invision this working is that I would setup the car on the chassis dyno and I would do the pulls in the car.  The customer would only be allowed to make modifications (i.e tuning) while the car was shut off, he/she would not be allowed to be near the car while it was running.  I think by doing it that way there should not be any liability issues.

ntstlgl1970, I think your comment on the tuners is right on.  I was thinking that same thing (though I would like to just do muscle cars), I could really see the tuners as the market that brings in the money.  Also another market here that has a lot of potential is sand rails.  The shop I had my car dyno tuned at could not get me in for over a week due to it was sand rail season.

I live in Phoenix AZ and there are a lot of car enthusists here that is why I think this business might have a shot, I'm just not sure if providing a dyno only service is enough to keep it as a on going concern.  I really do not want to get into a repair shop situation, but I might be interested in doing more of an add on/modification business (i.e. sell and install performance parts).  As part of the dyno service I would also stock carb parts incase the customer did not have on hand what they needed.

There are other shops local that have dynos and I believe there could be room for more, but again, just not sure if dyno only service is enough to keep me in business.

[Chryco Psycho]

I have a good friend doing this & I use him a Lot or well my customers do , , he allows you to operate the car & has the customer sign the release for any liability of damage for his car , he will do the tuning or allow you to do it , he is a computer Whiz & generally sets up the tune up for computer cars , he has told me many times that there is no way he could make a living doing this but has retired young & this is what he loves to do. The highest percentage of what he does is reprogramming newer Efi computer controlled cars so you would need to be very good at that as most customers cannot do that

[jeryst]

I would let the customer run the car. That way, if an engine blows, they cant say you did it. Everything else sounds pretty cool. You will really have to do your homework though, to see if it would be profitable. Like it was mentioned earlier, if you have a lot of reace tracks in the area, you will get a lot of repeat business, but if not, most people will do it once, or only whenever they do an engine mod, so you would need to have a big customer pool in that case.

[73Chally]

Have you looked into any other local dyno shops to se what they are charging?  If there is already a demand, then I would imgine there would be several at least.  If there are no existing shops, then there might not be enough demand to support one.  I imagine it's a lot cheaper to take a run down to the local track for a test & tune.  It's a great idea, but a big step.  Unfortunately I don't think you will get a good unbiased opinion from this site, because almost to a man (or woman), we will say go for it.

[nivvy]

Not worth the gamble...... 

I would only run a chassis dyno as an extra benefit to an already established business..... not a dyno service alone...... I know of 2 around my way and they are about 200 miles apart or more..... 

[HP2]

Phoenix is certainly a different market than where I'm at, but, around here there is no way a "dyno only" shop could make it. The shops that do provide chassis dyno service are regular automotive shops that also provide additional services, which include the possibility of dyno time, or are emission testing facilities that are working to minimize emissions. But I live in an area of only half a million people. Phoenix is what, 2.5 mill?

I've been to three different shops with dynos. All three times they were part of a club activity so they weren't really "tuning" sessions. Everyone there that day got three-five pulls just to see what we were putting down. Speaking to the operators, they do offer regular tuning sessions that are typically $100 an hour. They all allow the vehicle owner to assist in the tuning process, but have said that typically customers want to maximize their time on the dyno, therefore they end up do much more tuning than the customers. This is because they do enough cars that they can more quickly interpret the data and make adjustments than a customer can.

Testing on a dyno isn't any more stressful than stomping on the gas while driving a car. This is another part of the reason the shops want to control the pull. They will monitor the output and stop the pull shortly after the engine peaks in output whereas many owners may continue to try and push rpm beyond a necessary point. Really, if power is dropping at 4500 rpm, why continue the pull to 6000. Suprisingly, many cars do not need the rpm, nor produce the power, many owners think they do.