IDB Racing is now a 'real' shop, update #1

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civicious

Buck Futter
VIP
Well, got everything moved in and up and running...actually was able to hit the ground running, I only opened the doors yesterday and I've already got the shop full of work, and there are three more cars on the way here today.

I'll post more updates and such once I get the shop finished (the office isn't even done yet, and I've still got to re-do the floors and install the second lift, among other things), but I figured I'd throw up some photos for now.

It looks rough as shit right now, but once we get the office finished and can start on the shop, I think within 3 weeks I'll have the place looking IMMACULATE. I'd planned on using the first week or so of business doing that, but since I've had a LOT more business than I expected to show up without me even advertising, I'm stuck 'finishing' the shop in the evenings and at night - I've probably had 3 hours of sleep since Sunday. I need to hire a secretary, too.

We're still waiting on the property owners to fix the AC in the shop (wasn't working before we moved in) and fix the tint on the windows in the front, I would say they're dragging ass BUT they went above and beyond what I'd think was 'normal' to get us in the shop ASAP - it would usually take 2-3 weeks to get everything set up and get us in the doors, and after we had problems with the initial agent they fired him, flew another agent here from their corporate office in San Francisco, and had us in the door in a matter of days - so it's understandable that they didn't have everything ready to go. I'm perfectly fine with that, if we had waited to move in like a 'regular' tenant everything would have been set up to go already. White people problems.

Better to be swamped with business than to have none though!

More to come soon...for now, a few pics of the shop.

Here's the location, it's in a nice-ass business park that's right off of a main highway here in Houston, but not directly ON the highway. This is great, because it's in a convenient location, but it won't attract a lot of drive-by window shoppers, AND it's somewhat 'incognito', which is EXACTLY what I wanted - I lucked out and got a damn hear perfect location. I've also got the only standalone building in the business park, which is freakin' sweet IMO.

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Here's an example of one of my 'generic' fliers, I've got some other vehicle-specific ones (BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Audi) that list manufacturer-specific services and my cheaper-than-anywhere-else-but-still-makes-me-good-profit-since-I-hardly-have-any-overhead prices.

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...and the shop itself, even though it's dirty and rough as shit right now (although, it's still a lot nicer than some of the other high-end shops I've worked at)

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...and as I'm typing this, a wrecker just showed up with ANOTHER car. Holy crap, time to get back to work.
 
Cool deal man. Very excited for you. Keep the good updates coming! I'm glad you're doing what you enjoy for YOURSELF.
 
Thats awesome.. looks like u will probably have steady business... shop looks good IMO.. very presentable from the outside
 
Sweet Wil. Now all you need is a phone system from me. I'll be happy to drive down and install it.
 
Now u need to build a shop car to park out front

Whatcha think the Swagger Wagon is for? You can expect to see that bitch barreling up Pike's Peak in 2014 with something that has pushrods powering it :D

Sweet Wil. Now all you need is a phone system from me. I'll be happy to drive down and install it.

Oh jesus, the entire phone system here was FUCKED because the previous tenants tried to wire in their own alarm system...
the whole time I was sitting here dicking with the wiring to get phones back in the office, I was thinking to myself "James must HATE his life, this shit SUCKS...these wires are so tiny, and they keep poking my fingers!"

That, and apparently there's NO type of 'code' or 'standard', because they appear to have used whatever the fuck color wires they had laying around to run the phone lines. Ugh.

when you need a (well paid) shop bitch, lmk. lol.

whats with the civic in a high end shop? haha

Got one of those already, haha...he owns a wrecker though, and he's SUPER reliable - I've known him pretty much longer than I've known anyone else that I associate with on a regular basis (except for Mike, but I don't really see him day-to-day or anything), and he doesn't have a lot of experience in a shop but he's catching on super fast.

The Civic is a friend of mine's brother's; he sends a LOT of work my way, and on top of that I'm willing to work on any make/model for the time being - everyone's money is the same color. They're doing the signage right now, actually (at 9:30pm); and the office is supposed to be finished by the end of the week, BUT I won't have AC for another TWO weeks (long story, I'm pretty irritated about that situation, but it is what it is), so I won't be pushing my advertising or bringing in too many of my really high-dollar clients until everything here is tip-top. That, and the guy who's brother it is has sent me a TON of business over the past few years, so I'd pretty much fix ANYTHING that he sent to me, be it a car or lawnmower or generator.


Had an INSANE day today, made more in one DAY at my shop that's been 'partially open' for two days than I made my entire last paycheck at my last shop - and that's profit, not just what I took in.


I think this was a very, very good decision.
 
i need to move to fucking texas, i want to be worried about a/c not working in october instead of freezing my ass off
 
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