Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2007 22:08:14 -0400
Reply-To: Benny boy <huotb@VIDEOTRON.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Benny boy <huotb@VIDEOTRON.CA>
Subject: Re: Going towards a new era...
You don't mind if i get into this one :-), anyway, i'm outside, in my Red
Westy, with my laptop (WiFi), with a beer, the outside temp is 72F, yea, way
above average for Montreal... so it's a nice night.. i'm relaxing!
I had a dream... have a shop one day (i had a pretty good job at that time
$$$), at the time, i didn't know exactly what kind of shop, i thought a
motorcycle shop... so a few years ago, exaclty 2.5 years, i starded my
oficial Westy shop! (was working beside the house before), i had a 30K
margin (can i say that in English?) and maybe 10k of cash.... since 2 years,
i have been working HARD 6.5 days a week, between 8-10 a day. today, I'm
still in the deep minus of my margin (but climbing hard now), i have a nice
Red van (fully paid) that i could sell and have no company debt but i have
decided to keep it! he he. My shop is (finaly) fully equiped. I began with
not much, you should see some pictures, but someone (who made a lot of
money) told me, buy the minimum, and if you need something, think twice! ask
yourself if you really need it! So i went slowly, very slowly, never taking
risk money wise, even for parts, i took a lot of calculated risk, i bought
use vans, thay could have been scrap vans but i was lucky, with the help of
some friends (including Paul Gusyk and Hans from Vanaru) i was able to buy
some decent vans for a cheap price, even then, each van took me over 200-250
hours of restoration, and at that time, i was so much in need of money that
i sold thos for a few k of profit... just to get going.
If all goes good, by october, i should be a free men with 0 deficit. So what
they say is true, it take about 3 years of hard work to get a small company
going, and that, and only if you have a GREAT product or services.
That said, a company is always moving, changing, adapting, what will i do in
my shop in a few years! i have no idea, maybe westy, maybe boat? I don't
know. Now, i have failed before in many attempt, but this time, i think i'm
ok, so, why did i fail before? Energy? wrong product? bad timing? who knows!
The only thing i can tell you is hard work, and.... hard work! a good idea
and some potentiel customers even before you open. And one last VERY
important thing, you have to love what you do! PERIOD! if your preety good,
have some money, great idea, hard working... you have a chance, only a
chance... if you don't have those, no chance at all.
So, for your project! why not, your in the US, 300 millions peoples, get a
good crew, a small place.. advertise on the web. Why not. Now, is the
Vanagon platform a good idea, i'm not sure...
Yea, i'm sitting in my van and looking at it, 300+ hours of hard work, it
was a piece of scrap when i got it... about 19k cost invested + the Vanaru
engine comming this week + an AA Transaxle + a few other small things left,
total... pfffffffff. let say that the retail price of the van is 23k, + 300
hours (2 months) 8-9k + a vanaru engine 7.5K + a trany 1.5K, what! about 40K
for a 22 year old shell that look like a new one, would you pay that? I know
i would.
Now, ask yourself if insurance or banking company would do a loan of 40k for
a 20+ year old vans??? not a collection van but a hard woirking one... where
are we with this???? most 20+ yo vehicle are collection vehicle, no, this
one is different, it's a small old rebuilt RV. And if you have 40k cash to
spend, would you buy a restored Vanagon camper????? Answer that question and
you will make my day, because i can't.
Me, i'm not dreaming no more. By the way, thanks Larry Chase (yea, the
Roahaus guy), you got me going with your intelligent advices that year, yea,
near that St-Laurent river, yea, the year i helped you going with your
engine... and trany. The year that some here "blasted" you for willing to
finish your trip without much money, wile "they" were sitting at home
dreaming of your trip. they were just jealous bro, nothing else!
Keep on driving and see you out there. North America is not perfect, far
from it, but it's a nice spot on earth, we just need to take care of it a
bit more.
For the sake of a nice discussion.
Ben
http://www.benplace.com
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Benny Boy wrote: > We are going toward a new era, fully rebuilt Westy around
20-35K. > I love being part of "going toward a new era." I bought an 85 for
$1400 a year and a half ago with a strong engine, six alloys with new snow
tires on two of them, all the brake, steering and suspension work done, only
two spots of rust found after taking everything out of the interior, and
treated seam rust in three spots on the exterior. The PO was loathe to let
go of his baby, but it was no longer practical for him.
Reading some of Ben's comments over the last couple weeks and other messages
coming cross the listserv it very well may be that there is room for more
small "coach" businesses to turn basic vanagons into campers. Maybe I'm a
throwback, but I like the setup of the Westys from the late sixties and
1971. I bought an 82 diesel and bought the interior of a wrecked 89 Westy
for $1100, including front seat swivels, and installed it. I never felt
comfortable in it. I like to face the person I'm eating with, or playing
cards with, or drinking with, and the front seat setup where you can do that
just felt hokey. I like the seat facing the rear behind the driver's seat,
with storage underneath.
As I think about moving on from my current job and preparing to enter (or
leave) my mid-fifties, what with the ease of web advertising and
word-of-mouth recommendations of a couple early adopters, I think with a
decent sized shop and the right tools,a couple guys could have a going
concern in a couple years. The key is thinking "modular." The range of
laminates out there is astounding from luan to the kind of plastics found on
westy interiors. The same goes for flooring and upholstery. Stocking ice
boxes and refrigerators, faucet assemblies, etc. might be expensive at the
beginning, but eventually stuff would not be in the shop for very long.
I imagine you could take a vanagon, one the company bought anywhere in the
US and got back to the shop or the customers, strip it from the front seats
back, and install an interior to a customer's requirements in a day,
especially if they had mocked it up on the web and chosen all the surface
accoutrements that personalized the interior. Someone has to be the
upholstery person. The key is "modular." I'm sure a couple guys could
brainstorm five or six basic configurations, with 10 or so major style
options, and another 100 personalized options within that 10. I think the
key is starting with a stripped vehicle - nothing is left inside from the
original interior. Any time spent grinding rust and rust-proofing is
additional. Sound/temperature insulation would be included in the price. I
suppose a guy could include sand blasting, priming and finish painting too
at some point.
A business plan might include opening an engine conversion operation as well
three or four years into the venture - once the coach business was on solid
financial ground. Whether a subaru or zetec, increasingly more sophisticated
engines will be coming onto the market and a good business plan would have a
couple year period of developing the capacity to choose what to do and
develop a good marketing plan.
This would be different from what GoWesty does that warrants those $30K
price tags. In the beginning the business is nothing more than "coach
building." Two guys in a 30' x 40' shop with $20K in tools, and day jobs...
That's the kicker of course. Starting from the day job and transitioning
into the dream job, establishing all the procedures and protocols and hiring
employees you train. Having a strong business plan and self-discipline are
the two requirements for success... I've known too many "guys" who had
skills but no marketing plan, no business sense, and not oddly enough, poor
social skills. Ya gotta be able to talk with affluent women and
full-of-themselves men and be able to lead them into a vision of what the
bus will do for the quality of their lives.
Ahhh... Sunday afternoon dreaming...
Jeffrey Olson Martin, SD (Deep in the flyover zone)
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