I'm 18 and going to college this fall for a Bachelor's in Business Admin. My dream is to own an offroad product store selling lift parts and accessories for jeeps and trucks, wheels, tires, ect. and to install what I sell. What I'm wanting is some incite on what to expect, is there an opportunity to become successful, what would be the best items to sell? Just wondering if any of you guys own your own store or know of any information about this topic.

 

How do you make $1,000,000.00 owning an OffRoad Products Store?










Start with $2,000,000.00

 

step 1: collect underpants
step 2: ????
step 3: PROFIT

 

wrong area. and you essentially want to be like 4wheelparts.com

 

find a banker that loves jeeps and would be willing to give you a huge loan. look for a jeep thats constantly in the parking lot to be able to pick out the right bank. Should have it in the bag.
hahaha

 

It's already a crowded market. One way to be successful is to cut prices. The margins are probably all ready thin. Another, is to be customer focused. Provide good communications to your client. Another is to offer something that no one else ofteres. That is going to take a bit of imagination to figure out what product that may be.

Remember the phrase "Better, Faster & Cheaper"

 

There's no money to be made on parts unless you're HUGE. The internet undercuts virtually every brick and mortar store. You need an in-person presence that offers stuff Quadratec doesn't. Aside from parts, you need to offer in-house installation, repairs and fab work.

You need to setup in an area where there's enough wheeling to support your business with people who show up from recession-proof military/government payrolls and want you to build them a credit card Jeep. Start by looking at the biggest bases and then seeing which have major wheeling areas around them.

tl;dr

1. Sell service, not parts.
2. Exist where the money is.
3. ???
4. Profit!

 

You have to sell a service rather than goods. Like someone else said, the internet undercuts everything.

 

You mean like up here around Fort Drum/ Watertown NY. No 4x4 shop around but tons of 4x4 owners. And privates with disposable income!

 

Hey 21-posts dude, did we give you any ideas or just shatter your dream or what?

 

Like all are saying sell service better hours most shops close at 6 and if you live in a metro or suburbs lets fact it after work no time to make it

 

i could be wrong but i think step two involves some sort of explosion!
hahaha

this is just my opinion, by no means an " ultimate answer "
instead of focusing on jeep oem parts which is what it sounds like you wanna do
i would think to try fabbing up some new parts.
start small on the vendor sections in cherokeeforum and others.

like b lee racks for example
my guess is he just does the racks as a part time thing on the side
but because he took time to fab up something that not a whole lot of people make hes able to get some sales.

you could do roofracks bumpers and siderails and if you design yours to look cool and function as well or better then competitors then you could probly make some profit. but i say probly as pretty much all business ventures start at a loss. lol at least from what ive heard im only 19 so i dont have much experience but i have designed products before and sold them on here to make money.

 

I would say offer custom fabrication!

 

There is no money in the parts... You will starve to death or bust your butt to break even. Unless you can provide proprietary items of quality that people want, the money is in the service.

Good luck...