If you are considering starting a mobile auto service business in California, one market that is often over looked by competition is Ventura County and it is growing too. If you are thinking of starting a mobile oil change business then it is best to look towards the fleet business rather than personal cars. Now then let us put your market mix at 80% fleets and 20% personal cars. Obviously everyone has a car so it is best to first consider where to target your fleet accounts. The preliminary thoughts on fleets in Ventura Area for this practice case study would be to look at the largest city in the County. That would be Oxnard CA.For Oxnard CA there are some really good Corporate Centers behind “Colonia” paralleling the 101 Fwy. I also recommend that you go to the car dealerships behind Price Club (fleets too) and talk with the Fleet Managers there, you might find some really good contacts and you can reciprocate by giving them leads.Also in Ventura Barber Ford is a good contact out on the end of Ventura near the “Avenue” there are some industrial areas with lots of fleets. Across the 101 from the Old Ventura Drive In Movie Theatre there is lots of industrial area and it continues all the way down to Dealership row before the River on the West Side of the Freeway. Saticoy has a small area of fleets too along the Highway there.You might also check all the businesses way out along the beach areas below Port Hueneme and Pt Mugu too (Hueneme Rd.) Oil field services, auto transport, sod, agricultural, heavy industrial too. Also check out E. Vineyard and the side streets on the River side of the road, tons of fleets. You really need to decide if you want to make money or show boat around with personal cars. I recommend that you go for the money first by getting fleet accounts and then build the consumer routes. Have you considered Boats? The Channel Island Marina area is packed. In Camarillo there are some good Corporate Centers near the “Camarillo High School” and up the hill in Newberry Park too, also off the Central Exit, across from Camarillo Airport. Lots of Fleet Business in these areas due to the agricultural industry. You see, the demographics in Ventura County are almost perfect. Up the hill in Thousand Oaks, which actually contains Newbury Park, has the best demographics of all Ventura County cities:
Highest Average Income
Highest Property Values
Highest Sales Tax Generator
Highest Propensity Of High End Car Owners
Most Small Businesses
Most Millionaires
Over 70% White And Educated
Highest Paying Jobs
Lowest Unemployment
Largest Automall
Largest City Budget
The city of Moorpark is something else you should consider too, as it has a small population, 40,000 plus people. It’s mostly a family type town. Many people have bought homes there because it’s cheap. Over the last eight years the city has really exploded. It has major industrial areas containing more than 3.5 million square feet. There are three large industrial areas and one small one. One is off the 23 freeway, one is near the college and one is between Poindexter Street, the railroad track and the 118 old section. These industrial areas contain at least ten small fleets of five to fifteen vehicles. There are also many substantial fleets, fleets between 15-100 units. Some of these fleets include:
Blue Star Ready Mix (100 Cement Trucks, 30 Heavy Pieces Of Equipment)
Moorpark Unified School District (20 Transit Type Buses)
City Of Moorpark
Ventura County Cablevision
Prudential Uniform
Lagarmarsino Distribution
In setting up a mobile oil change business in this town, we noted that one would need to start thinking of this as a Grid Game, kind of like “zone defense” basketball and also consider that if your visits are every other week or once per month you can maximize your efforts by being in one city each day and doing lots of business each visit there.Once the fleet business is established your target markets for personal mobile oil changes should be: Large Corporate Offices, Multi-Tenant Businesses, Retail Centers, Upper Class Residences and Golf Courses. But that is the easy part, first you need the business ramped up, then you can go get the gravy. Think on this.
Tag Archives: services
What Are The Greatest Changes In Shopping In Your Lifetime
What are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime? So asked my 9 year old grandson.
As I thought of the question the local Green Grocer came to mind. Because that is what the greatest change in shopping in my lifetime is.
That was the first place to start with the question of what are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime.
Our local green grocer was the most important change in shopping in my lifetime. Beside him was our butcher, a hairdresser and a chemist.
Looking back, we were well catered for as we had quite a few in our suburb. And yes, the greatest changes in shopping in my lifetime were with the small family owned businesses.
Entertainment While Shopping Has Changed
Buying butter was an entertainment in itself.
My sister and I often had to go to a favourite family grocer close by. We were always polite as we asked for a pound or two of butter and other small items.
Out came a big block of wet butter wrapped in grease-proof paper. Brought from the back of the shop, placed on a huge counter top and included two grooved pates.
That was a big change in our shopping in my lifetime… you don’t come across butter bashing nowadays.
Our old friendly Mr. Mahon with the moustache, would cut a square of butter. Lift it to another piece of greaseproof paper with his pates. On it went to the weighing scales, a bit sliced off or added here and there.
Our old grocer would then bash it with gusto, turning it over and over. Upside down and sideways it went, so that it had grooves from the pates, splashes going everywhere, including our faces.
My sister and I thought this was great fun and it always cracked us up. We loved it, as we loved Mahon’s, on the corner, our very favourite grocery shop.
Grocery Shopping
Further afield, we often had to go to another of my mother’s favourite, not so local, green grocer’s. Mr. McKessie, ( spelt phonetically) would take our list, gather the groceries and put them all in a big cardboard box.
And because we were good customers he always delivered them to our house free of charge. But he wasn’t nearly as much fun as old Mr. Mahon. Even so, he was a nice man.
All Things Fresh
So there were very many common services such as home deliveries like:
• Farm eggs
• Fresh vegetables
• Cow’s milk
• Freshly baked bread
• Coal for our open fires
Delivery Services
A man used to come to our house a couple of times a week with farm fresh eggs.
Another used to come every day with fresh vegetables, although my father loved growing his own.
Our milk, topped with beautiful cream, was delivered to our doorstep every single morning.
Unbelievably, come think of it now, our bread came to us in a huge van driven by our “bread-man” named Jerry who became a family friend.
My parents always invited Jerry and his wife to their parties, and there were many during the summer months. Kids and adults all thoroughly enjoyed these times. Alcohol was never included, my parents were teetotallers. Lemonade was a treat, with home made sandwiches and cakes.
The coal-man was another who delivered bags of coal for our open fires. I can still see his sooty face under his tweed cap but I can’t remember his name. We knew them all by name but most of them escape me now.
Mr. Higgins, a service man from the Hoover Company always came to our house to replace our old vacuum cleaner with an updated model.
Our insurance company even sent a man to collect the weekly premium.
People then only paid for their shopping with cash. This in itself has been a huge change in shopping in my lifetime.
In some department stores there was a system whereby the money from the cash registers was transported in a small cylinder on a moving wire track to the central office.
Some Of The Bigger Changes
Some of the bigger changes in shopping were the opening of supermarkets.
• Supermarkets replaced many individual smaller grocery shops. Cash and bank cheques have given way to credit and key cards.
• Internet shopping… the latest trend, but in many minds, doing more harm, to book shops.
• Not many written shopping lists, because mobile phones have taken over.
On a more optimistic note, I hear that book shops are popular again after a decline.
Personal Service Has Most Definitely Changed
So, no one really has to leave home, to purchase almost anything, technology makes it so easy to do online.
And we have a much bigger range of products now, to choose from, and credit cards have given us the greatest ease of payment.
We have longer shopping hours, and weekend shopping. But we have lost the personal service that we oldies had taken for granted and also appreciated.
Because of their frenetic lifestyles, I have heard people say they find shopping very stressful, that is grocery shopping. I’m sure it is when you have to dash home and cook dinner after a days work. I often think there has to be a better, less stressful way.
My mother had the best of both worlds, in the services she had at her disposal. With a full time job looking after 9 people, 7 children plus her and my dad, she was very lucky. Lucky too that she did not have 2 jobs.