Brent07

Another question would be, would an online business that helped you fix your r/c car or truck be beneficial to you?

hollylx88

haha, sounds like you want to make a site like this.

Brent07

I am interested in a new idea like on-line r/c repair, where you send your r/c away to get fixed and then have it shipped back to you, i think it could help all of those RTR buyers, what do you guys think? Maybe even do the buying and selling for the customer>

hollylx88

i think a lot of lhs will help you with that kind of stuff. and i also think sending your truck out to get fixed every time would result in a ridiculous amount of shipping charges. also if they're having tuning issues, it'll be very hard to tune it to their climate/elevation if its sent out to a different part of the US. its a good thought, i'm just not sure it would be a good investment.

hands without shadows

This would absolutely not benefit me in any way. In my opinion people that don't work on their own cars shouldn't be allowed to drive them.

Think of the shipping charges.............

The Hedgehog

I don't think people would be willing to send it away for 3 weeks minimum. You wil have to receive it do the samage report, and then order the parts most likely. And then send it back...

The_Lost_Otter

do it people will be willing to ship there new kit to you and let you build it if they dont have the time. but you got to know your cars and be able to build them in less then a week. i built some of my kits in as little as 2 nights with every thig ready to go.

sheograth

Neither would be my piece of cake. Having someone else fix your car or truck is the antithesis of what a hobby is. As for the selling part, I have no trouble doing that myself on ebay or here on RCU.

Access

Maybe if your partnered with the shipping company... but honestly, this is what LHS are for.
Doing it online and shipping this all over, it just doesn't seem like it would be competitive.

Brent07

Yeah i kind of figured as such, does anyone else have an idea about an r/c related business?

Jeff Oliver

Well, it depends. If the person is new to the hobby the glow plug could be the simplest of all problems. The send it in, you pop a new one in, and charge them 30 bucks and make some profit. Thing is, what if it is a different situation. You find out the customers engine is totally ruined. You then have to buy a new engine, and they say there bill is like 200, and they might be in shock. It's hard to explain, but if sorted out properly you could earn a bit of profit. It's more of a thing to do just because you like the hobby and repair.

drevil

My Feedback: (5)

The thing is that you really need to know your R/Cs in and out. This isn't something you can wing as you go along. I guess a business like this could work but I don't think it's quite as easy as you think. A good part of a repair business is talking to customers and trying to make them understand why it is costing so much to repair their car. Most people aren't very happy when you tell them it's going to cost nearly $100 to repair a $3 part on a $180 car. Think about it though, a customer sends you their Stampede to repair a stripped tranny gear. By the time they pay for the part ($3 plus shipping from wherever you get it or gas to get to your local hobby shop), shipping both ways ($30-$40), and your labor ($50) it'll cost them more than half of what the Stampede costs new. I know what you're thinking, you're going to lower your labor costs but that isn't the right way to run a business. It'll just result in you doing tons of work for no profit. You have to remember that there is also a good amount of overhead even in a small business like this. For example, where are you going to get your customers? You'll need to advertise. How are you going to speak to your customers? Those long distance phone calls can add up. etc etc etc

Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to burst your bubble. Just trying to show you there is much more to it then it seems. I like the way you think though. Good luck with it if you do go ahead!


I'm just throwing this out there. If anyone is in this position send your kit my way and I'll build it for FREE. (especially if it's a truck!) I can't see why anyone wouldn't want to build one of things, to me that is a good part of the joy of owning an R/C.

Gex_61

I was thinking more of like a tech support line? RCsupport, please hold.

Nothing like this would benefit me, but I KNOW there are people out there.

hollylx88

if you really want to be involved in an rc type business, your best bet would probably be to open a hobby shop. but even so, all the lhs owners i've talked to say the same thing, there's no real money in it. There's a franchise in my area and they seem to be the only ones getting alot of business. i think this is a really, really tough business to get into financially, and the odds are kind of stacked against you depending on the area you live in. You will also have to be very knowledgeable about boats, planes, helis, ect. to keep a wide range of customers coming in. It seems like alot of the older guys that have the money to put into this hobby are flying, so i think it would be a poor choice not to offer support for them as well.

SManMTB

Not going to work.

hands without shadows

I think the only way to really get in these days is to be an online retailer (like we really need another), get lucky and have a good location with high demand to start a hobby store, or to build a track that sells parts. I have a local track with a small attached "hobby store." Its basically 2 racks of common parts thats open when the track is open.

Access

You have to be willing to think outside the box. Try to think up mutually supportive businesses where you control each particular aspect. For instance start up a local hobby shop, one that specializes only in cars and keeps costs down that way, tries to have the cheapest prices in town for parts and keeps the best stock.

Then think up some new way for people to wreck their cars, on-site, for instance a monthly jumping contest where prizes are awarded to the guy who gets the highest off the ground. For prizes you need to find one-of-a-kind things that people actually want, things that cannot ordinarily be bought elsewhere or are a true rarity. Now just run with the idea, try to think up as many ways as possible for people to wreck their cars a high-stakes demolition derby league that you sponsor, again with one-of-a-kind prizes, endurance races a 'dangerous' carpet track designed on a raised platform such that if your car goes over the side, it falls 25 feet onto concrete, etc.

Those are the kinds of businesses that suceed, maybe each individual part doesn't always make a profit... but overall they complement each other and make a profit. You might lose money on the jumping contests but you make it back in the days that follow assuming you can get all the repair business people are going to need, and so on.

Sure you can do something that someone else has already done, but unless you have some way to make yours better or are extrodinarily lucky, it will probably fail in time. The key is to find something unique that only you can do, that's the hard part.

MahnkenVille

The whole part of the hobby is fixing it yourself and learning how to do it yourself, not to send it out. I think you'd actually get a lot of customers through that though, because some people are busy, break something every time they touch their car to work on it, or are just super lazy. but like said above, financially it wouldn't work too well.


now THAT would be helpful! maybe we could end up getting some of the most knowledgeable people on here to start up something like that?

hands without shadows

Where do I send my resume?