Looking for a place to add a Quick Lube away from your Super Wal-Mart Competitor? Down Town Revitalization, Why You Should Be Part of Such a Committee. A study showed that within the next five years 20% of LOF- Lube, Oil and Filter Independent Owners said they had plans on adding one or more facilities. So the question is where? You should be thinking on Location Strategies for Quick Lubes and Where Everyone Will Be Going. Right? Yes this is true. And we have talked about this trend lately. A good place to be is at either end of a down town revitalization district? Why? Well oil company brand names want to be in front of those customers just as much as you do. Also you can get incentives, tax breaks, quick loans from local banks in with the projects as well as free stuff like revitalization monies for retrofitting an old gas station or garage along with sidewalk benches, planters, signage upgrades, old fashioned lights out side and poles on the sidewalks. People can drop off their car walk into the down town area while you have lots of time to do the services also this brings in higher end clientele and that means you can get more up sells. Look at this trend happening around the nation: Downtown Benefits revitalization plans have been in the news while economic development do their PR dance to attract players to invest and find matching funds, look at these articles; "EVERYBODY'S going downtown in Cookeville" in The Tennessean, TN http://www.tennessean.com/growth/archives/...Element_ID=4468 For instance. You will see thousands of such articles in local papers throughout the country as towns revitalize their downtown areas. After reading these articles you need to ask yourself is the down town area in your city near a good customer base? Is a ten-mile radius out of a Wal-Mart Zone? Are there less than 2 other competitors within the zone? Look at the Demographics in your down town area, if there is a Revitalization going on, get on board and get on the committees, these down town areas are not only Little Town Americana's Chance to economic recovery and jobs and defeating crime. Is it also your chance for low interest loans, tax incentives and a great customer base? I bet if you contact the brand of oil you use they want to be there too. Perhaps you can get a 30K grant based on estimated oil purchases from the oil company or a 100K-150K loan interest free and trade the oil company for the incentives from the revitalization monies, grants and tax incentives. This could be a good power play for financing a second or third unit. I am not sure I recommend this for a new comer into the business. But you can bet companies which are franchised like Jiffy Lube are watching this trend as much as us at the Oil Change Guys and the Car Wash Guys. |
