Mobile Cycle Mechanic......

Pudseyp

chewitt11 wrote:

Hmm,

I have changed the service link on ge website now which completely goes against what you have just typed. But was done before you replied.....
Ok £35 bit much for puncture maybe, how would we get round that?.....

Have gone (so far) with the no call out min charge £15, also cut down to 15 miles.

This is the hardest decision, no call out or flat charge then £15 for every half hour????

If you do this you will not make any money...so for £15 you will do a 30 mile round trip which would take a minium of half an hour at least and then work for just under half an hour all for £15 ??? that is just crazy...

Work is work obviously but with your own business time is money...again look what other mobile mechanics charge, as if they are in business then they are probably making money....at the end of the day it is easy to reduce prices but difficult to put them up all the time.

chewitt11

This is hard,
I favour the flat fee but all other mobile sites I have checked offer free call out. The prices they charge are there or there abouts the same as i have listed. Maybe they are that busy that it covers it.
So if you called me and I said its £25 to come to you this includes the first 30 mins, after that it would £15 for every 30 mins after. That would be ok with you?

This would be £10 fuel then £30 p/h labour + parts........

Pudseyp

chewitt11 wrote:

This is hard,
I favour the flat fee but all other mobile sites I have checked offer free call out. The prices they charge are there or there abouts the same as i have listed. Maybe they are that busy that it covers it.
So if you called me and I said its £25 to come to you this includes the first 30 mins, after that it would £15 for every 30 mins after. That would be ok with you?

This would be £10 fuel then £30 p/h labour + parts........

I think that is fair to be honest...if you compare your price to my local store it is fairly similar but your offering the bonus of you going to them which will appeal to a lot of people....
http://www.cheshireoakscycles.co.uk/workshop.php

Anyway, good luck with the new venture and I hope it all works well and you can make a decent living !!

Pud.

nicklouse

another thing to look at is businesses that have a lot of bikes outside.

you could offer a collection deal. Say every wednesday the second week of the month you will collect 5 bikes for srvice at 8:00am and return them by 16:00.

booking in could be on the web so they can see if there is room. Invoicing by Email as you have their infos from the company.

You will not need many of these to make things work well. and depending on the van size if you work on site or at home.

chewitt11

Nicklouse,
Sorry I am being a bit slow this morning, bit confused ???

Pudsyp,
Thanks for your input, will change things and go flat rate.....

Pudseyp

chewitt11 wrote:

Nicklouse,
Sorry I am being a bit slow this morning, bit confused ???

Pudsyp,
Thanks for your input, will change things and go flat rate.....

I think Nick is suggesting that you contact a few local large employers and offer a on site service (collection and delivery) then you could work on a few bikes at a time too keep your costs down...if they are a credible employeer then they should have no issue as it's the safety of there employees at heart.

chewitt11

Thanks for explaining that,

I have already draughted an email to a similar thing, but that idea as well will be added.

Ok Pudseyp, changed the site and gone flat rate.

Thanks again, you have helped allot....

diy

If I was looking to get employers attention I'd be focusing on the benefits of increasing the no. of employees who cycle to work and how you can help them meet their sustainability and corp social responsibility objectives by offering competitive services for their emps.

Pudseyp

chewitt11 wrote:

Thanks for explaining that,

I have already draughted an email to a similar thing, but that idea as well will be added.

Ok Pudseyp, changed the site and gone flat rate.

Thanks again, you have helped allot....

Cheers, IMO it looks a lot better...on your services page you still have D&E and ABC have gone so may be best to include these again and use your flat rate fee's outside your fixed service charge as your flat rate could cover a multitude of things from a new chain to a new BB...

Overall though it looks rather good !!

chewitt11

Yeah ABC disappeared last night for some reason, but all up and running now.....


Cheers again

handful

Will keep an eye on this thread and your website as I live only up the road from you.....maybe when you've had a bit of practice.

chewitt11

Cheers chap..... Hope to see you soon

ESHER SHORE

definitely get in touch with large local employers - especially those who are signed up the "cycle to work" type schemes as a good number of their employees will be riding to work

when I worked for Evans in Chiswick (W London) as a mechanic one of our regular jobs was servicing bikes at the BSI (british standards institute) which was only 1 mile down the road from our shop

another mechanic and I would take 2 bikes each back to the shop, service them and return them - easily did 20 in a day between us


Evans also have similar contracts with GSK (Glaxosmithkline) and BSkyB in Brentford

very lucrative business, and much easier travelling to 1 site than driving all over the place!

diy

Esher Shore - probably commercially sensitive that info - don't ya think?

ESHER SHORE

diy wrote:

Esher Shore - probably commercially sensitive that info - don't ya think?

not at all

Evans have bike shops (on site) at both GSK and BSkyB - which are well known to the 6000 employees at GSK and 14,000 employees at Sky, and the public in those areas

the BSI contract is well known because the BSI advertise it as one of their "perks" to employees and family members