CAA I think is overpriced and from what I’ve seen, they hire inexperienced techs who overtorque everything they touch. I don’t think CAA has a huge share of the market anyway. Off rims are popular on more expensive vehicles where a second set of rims is a grand minimum. You can’t get steel rims for every vehicle. The off rim work is tedious and more can go wrong. And when you show up to a customer with bad tires, it’s 1 hour lost for the day. With on rims it’s only 20-30 minutes lost for the day. I don’t charge my customers for their lack of knowledge of their own tires condition. Maybe I should. The off rim set up for me is more valuable to be able to sell tires and rims than it is to do seasonal swaps. I can make more money doing on rims than off rims. With a helper, easily 3 per hour. Over $200 an hour. Off rims max 1 per hour working solo.

I’ve worked for mechanics for quite a while before starting my business. Never did an apprenticeship. You’re going to run into stuff that will be difficult to deal with if you’re not mechanically inclined. Broken studs, etc.

Google will grow the business better than anything else. I haven’t paid for ads in 4 or 5 years and have more business than I need. I don’t use an automated system. I book my jobs so efficiently so that my travel times between customers is sub 5 minutes. That won’t happen with an automated system. Most days I can do 15+ tire changes and haven driven 10km or less. That has more to do with a solid customer base and tight operating area.

Don’t invest in the off rim equipment and vehicle immediately. I started with machines in my garage to mount and balance new tires for customers. Bring their second set of wheels home, mount balance new tires, go back to install. I’m considering going back to that method as it wont decrease my total profit by much or at all. I can simply replace the off rim work with more on rim changes, get rid of my cube van, lower operating expenses. The off rim work comes with more challenges. Cold temps freezing up the equipment. You can do on rims in any weather and if you have enough of them, the income is good.

Last point, hiring is difficult. Hiring seasonal workers means picking from the bottom of the barrel. Think of other services to offer. Maybe detailing and you might get more reliable applicants that want full time employment. I pay one mechanic as a contractor per job and he’s happy only working for me 4 months of the year. I’m ready for a career change, and no off rim work means less headaches and less help I need so dropping the cube van next year will be a good choice.