Like the title says...how has business been? Our little hobby industry is funded by people's "spare money" and as gas prices skyrocketed in '08 there was less and less of that to go around. I'm seeing and hearing of shops and small manufacturers going under left and right. I'm about as small as you can get so I've been weathering the storm OK, but things certainly have changed. I have a full-on project car going for a customer so I've got plenty to keep me busy, but parts sales sure dropped off. Suppliers I used to have to chase after now call me regularly fishing for orders and offering deals. Anyone else out there feeling the squeeze and care to post about it? How about everyone else, the hobbyists? Has your "Mustang budget" been impacted severely?
The economy really hasn't changed my budget at all. I have a buddy in my area that runs a restoration shop and he is keeping very busy so far. He is doing one car that is a full Rotisserie along with several other pretty involved projects and has one out to be blasted right now....the one being blasted is going to be a major custom job when they get started on it.
Pete, right now I'm shared scitless about financing a PRCA rodeo in 4 weeks. Sponsors/advertisers are avoiding me, had one of our "big" sponsors go Chpt 11 last month. I'm supposed to be running year two of a three-year "Make it big again" plan; and it's just falling on it's azzz. It's not the same as your bread-on-the-table; but it sure ain't pretty. It's spooky....
Best it's ever been honestly. But only have from the day we opened to compare to. We have had to hire a guy to about 30 hrs a week, and may need another soon. Have 4 complete cars at paint right now. I'm doing nothing but the 69 right now so Rich gets to do all that and the daily repairs. Parts have dropped off, but we've never counted on that at all anyways. Not much money in it anyways.
From the hobbiest side it's definitely slower (from my point, anyway). Like you shop guys, I'm also self employed as a tile contractor and my business is definitely off. Fortunately, paying the regular bills has not been a huge problem but there is definitely very little $$ for my stang. I've been in the planning/part purcuring phase for a T-5 swap and interior restoration and both have not progressed much due to $$. Fortunately, my car is on the road so I can still enjoy driving it which I do at least weekly .
Yeah, I have to turn away shop work, but the parts end has gotten really slow. Seems like the guys with the $$$ still have it, but everyone else is feeling the squeeze. I can book $10k suspension/brake jobs but can't sell $50 parts...
Yep, but honestly hate to admit it's nice. Less hassle that way. You do it for the customer service of it, but that's all you get out of most of the parts.
Things have been pretty steady on this end... I have heard some of our competitors are scaling back a bit toward the end of last year. We kinda lucked out when Scott Drake moved to town, so we scaled back the size of our operation in 07. Changed some things last year in the management area and things are moving right along.
We are a manufacuture and we are seeing some shops busy and growing along with us, and others are slowing down. It just seems to be a case by case thing, no major overall trend, we are on pace for another record month.
My restoration business has been booming. We had a big drop in sales and the quick day to day project have slowed a little. People who have money, have money. I am very thankfull to hear that our line of work has endured such hard times. To help people out I have adjusted my hours on jobs. Its a way for me to feel I am giving back to the people.
