What do you expect/want from your boat mechanic?

[TovinoThomas]

I’m starting out working for myself as a mobile boat mechanic/systems tech. I figured I’d ask this sub what you would expect of me.

I have 12 years professional experience on boats, starting out as a laborer in a boat yard, then working on boats as crew mostly in the engine department.

I have USCG engineering licenses for chief engineer, a captains license, and experience with engines from 2hp outboards to 5000hp diesels. I’m one of those people who can fix most anything, but mechanical and electrical is my niche.

I’ve worked on everything from fancy sailing yachts owned by hedge fund folks, to giant tugboats, to wooden tall ships.

My plan is to say that I’ll come meet you and see your boat for up to an hour for free. I won’t charge travel time within a range that covers the two nearest marinas to me. After that, shop rate is $70/hour and I would bill for all the time I dedicate to your boat unless I screw something up and it needs to be redone.

Does that seem to be market rate? What else would you expect, want to see? I’m in the Pacific Northwest.

 

[roffey]

I have been self employed for years and ran a computer sales and service business for a few years. I found no charge house calls don't work as people will ask you to look and give your onion and then see if they can get a cheaper rate from the next guy. The next guy has the advantage of knowing what your going to charge so my advice is charge for the call but maybe be at a cut rate to get your foot in the door. Charge him for the hour but give it back if you get the job. I charged $80 per hour and it was not enough, travel time is a killer. You might spend an hour on site but two hours travel time back and forth... sure eats up the $80, gas, insurance and time on the road are a killer.

Good luck with your new venture and welcome to iBOATS:welcome:

 

[dingbat]

Don’t know about the NE but around here a large percentage of the business are outboard powered boats. Most techs have factory certification from one brand or another on top of their gas and diesel certifications

Again, don’t know about your area but locally you can be denied access to a marina if they have on-site services

Forced a friend of mine to offer “at home” service as well. Travel time was whipping his butt physically and financially so he rented a shop. He still does mobile service but you pay very dearly for it.

 

[Scott Danforth]

For a mobile mechanic

I expect them to be prompt, courteous, and knowledgable.

I would like to have them factory trained

They need to be honest, and they need to communicate

They need to have access to tools, equipment, parts, etc faster than I can find on my own.

They need to have a network of hydraulic shops for hoses, cylinder repair, pump repair, etc, a network of machine shops for engine work, a network of prop shops for props and shafts, as well as the good financial standing to get work done and billed properly

In the PNW, that rate sounds low

 

[ahicks]

Offer a service with quick turnaround from the time of the phone call! In Mi, and many other areas with relatively short seasons, 2 week out appointments, or longer, when you have a boat that's down/out of service, is a major bummer. A lot of normal "service" work can be put off, but a boat that's "down" cannot.

I would think a service that offers a priority in that situation would be pretty popular and could do well. You take care of a guy that's hurting, and you'll be on his short list when he's not in so big a hurry. Awesome way to make new customers and show them you know exactly what you are doing. We both know 9 out of 10 dead engines have something very simple preventing them from running. Simple to somebody that knows what they are doing anyway......

After that, it's about your ability to diagnose issues using proper trouble shooting procedures. Don't be "that guy" that throws parts at an issue with no clue what's actually wrong.

 

[highfigh]

If the electrical problems aren't easy to solve, hire someone for those or get the needed training- that's the stuff people have a hard time doing right, even if they have decades of mechanical experience.

Don't give your time away- your experience and knowledge are worth money, just as they are for your competition.

Have a list of references. As the FNG, if people don't know you, they won't necessarily hire you unless they're fed up with everyone else and willing to try anything, as long as it's not one of the others. Kind of like ATT vs cable companies.

Make sure you have access to info and people who can help with troubleshooting.

Know when to decide that you're done for the day when the boat owner wants to be on the water and train them to call well before that time- if it will take two hours to reassemble everything and pack up to go, finding our 1/2-1 hour before doesn't work and deciding to do one more thing will delay their time on the boat. Also, it's no fun working feverishly when people are loading all kinds of crap onto a boat and crawling over you like ants.

Make sure your ducks are in a row WRT local, state and Federal registration, the IRS and make sure to have enough of the right kinds of insurance.

If you don't like to do paperwork, re-think this plan.

 

[garbageguy]

Real good info and answers to your questions already posted in the preceding replies. Wish you were in the NE as I'm having more done by others these days

 

[TovinoThomas]

I have been self employed for years and ran a computer sales and service business for a few years. I found no charge house calls don't work as people will ask you to look and give your onion and then see if they can get a cheaper rate from the next guy. The next guy has the advantage of knowing what your going to charge so my advice is charge for the call but maybe be at a cut rate to get you Mobdro https://pnrstatus.vip/ https://sarkariresult.onl/ r foot in the door. Charge him for the hour but give it back if you get the job. I charged $80 per hour and it was not enough, travel time is a killer. You might spend an hour on site but two hours travel time back and forth... sure eats up the $80, gas, insurance and time on the road are a killer.

Good luck with your new venture and welcome to iBOATS:welcome:

my issue has been solved!!

 

[Lowlysubaruguy]

I own two automotive shops. In the early days I did a fair amount of mobile work. My personal advice here is to make sure you have your limitations in check before committing to mobile repairs. The best way to kill your reputation is to take on work you may not be able to handle. Without having a shop especially with boats to store them and work on them year round you cannot take on work that is out of your possible repair ranges. People will accept the fact that a particular job is out of your reach.. You may be perfectly cable of many repairs with the right shop but unable to complete some task correctly or in a timely manner without. So be brutally honest with yourself and your customers on this area.

Our local boat shops are usually months over booked. Leaves a big door for someone to perform the tasks they can and want to do at a customers house. Pick those jobs even if you need to cover the rent and some job that you know or suspect is going to be tough to accomplish in the time frame and with the customer watching you work. Personally having the customer around makes it a no way for me but I’m so far over that hurdle its easy for me to say that.

Billing customers for your time is rule number 2. Charge for diagnosis and inspections up front and on the spot before you start any type of diagnostics or repairs or service. With the boat not on your property you cannot leverage the customer for any payment. Getting payment if the customer declines in that situation is very hard. If you want to waive a diagnostic or even show up to give a 5 minute opinion before starting a repair offer something like this. Say you have 45 minutes getting there thats 1.5 hours plus gas. Your now out 2 hours before you even left the door. I’d have a $150 payment via credit card before even showing up. And then offer either a % of that applied to retain repairs done within a certain amount of time. It’s noble to think you’ll show up and start estimating repairs for free. But you will have a very high level of people wanting your knowledge with no desire to pay for it. I struggled with diagnosis fees from day one once I woke up and decided that I will not be able to provide a service that my customers want and need if I dont make enough money to cover my costs of living.

In a lot of areas a skilled boat repair guy will make close to 6 figures. You cannot give your time away any of it. You can work it into repairs. I think our local shops are $120 an hour but thats a figure I’m swagging at. I now its something near or above that now. The worst customers to have are ones that do not appreciate the value of your experience and training. Our shops are specialized. We loose a number of jobs to lower bids but many of these people turn out to be our best customers when they find out that we charge for our expertise which is far and above all of our competitors. So being the cheapest guy on the block does not make you the best nor does it bring you good customers .

Like others mentioned keep your schedule let people know when there are delays and cost overruns, over bid your work I’ve never seen a customer upset if the price was lower than quoted but running over an estimate is a different story. Get a point of sale operating system in motion from day one and a way to take credit card payments from the start Quickbooks is cheap and easy. Nothing says I’m small time like a hand written piece off paper that is not recorded or easy to access or having to pay with cash. Eat the fees of a CC transaction and be happy when your credit card fees hit $40,000 a year and you never have to chase down a bad check.. Credit card fees suck bounced checks suck worse. Good water proof long lasting business cards start with 500 to 1000 and pass them out. Got a web sight address yet pick something out thats easy to remember Something else if you want to give something away for free look into boat key chain floats with your name and number on it. My business emails are both very simple to remember no semi colins backslashes etc keep this simple which is getting harder every day as these domain addresses are impossible to find that are not taken..

DO NOT HURT YOURSELF on man show I did that for 8 years no better way to end up in the food line is a major injury. I have employees now I used to put myself at risk a lot. I cant tell you how many one mans shows I know of that are now guys working for example at a grocery store. Ok Ill close for now. I have lots of ideas for you. Very similar fields. If you like any of it you can contact me through the server I’d be happy to share what ever I have learned over many years of trauma.

 

[Sprig]

Honesty, Competency, Dependability , Quality, that’s what I want from a boat mechanic and any other service business.

 

[Watermann]

Lots of big moored boats in the sound and lake WA, I would focus on them, going to someones house to work on their cobbled up garbage while kicking their pitbull off your leg is a loosing proposition.

 

[jkust]

My mechanic comes to my house and performs the simple stuff right on my boat lift for a $50 charge. I expect honesty from them and that they respect my boat whether it is in their shop or at my dock. I am indifferent as to how much they charge for their service as I just want the boat in working order during our, at most, 90 day summer.

 

[JimS123]

Honesty, Competency, Dependability , Quality, that’s what I want from a boat mechanic and any other service business.

That's the answer. Also, be a repeat customer so you get put ahead of the line in the future.

I had a mobile mechanic come to my house for the last 25 years, Now, he apparently is so rich that he only works on select customers. My son tried to use him and he never showed up. He lost my business as well.

 

[KD4UPL]

Around here in VA most Marina based shops charge about $90 an hour. I would think a mobile service could charge more since it saves the customer hauling the boat to the marina.

 

[jkust]

Around here in VA most Marina based shops charge about $90 an hour. I would think a mobile service could charge more since it saves the customer hauling the boat to the marina.

Think we'd need to go back at least a decade to see 90$ in MN. Needed some service done a few years ago in April to get ready for the summer and the local marine shop was booked out until September.

 

[GA_Boater]

Cleaning out Hong Kong spammers