Snap on Franchise

[powerbench]

Hey does anybody on here own a snap on franchise? I've been thinking about maybe taking the plunge and getting into the tool biz.Any positive or negative comments would be appreciated. It looks like a bit of money to get in , but i love their tools and i'm getting a bit tired of my current job. Thanks guys and gals.

[fastwillie 696969]

Originally Posted by powerbench

Hey does anybody on here own a snap on franchise? I've been thinking about maybe taking the plunge and getting into the tool biz.Any positive or negative comments would be appreciated. It looks like a bit of money to get in , but i love their tools and i'm getting a bit tired of my current job. Thanks guys and gals.

friend of mine is and if you like to work long hours 6 days a week and deal with all the little stuff of running the truck,he says its headache,but good money when they pay,thats another thing you got to be the collector too,you'll hear every excuse of why i cant paya until next week. and i do see turnover,but that one tool guy im sure the other ones thats been in the business would have better inside on pro -cons
good luck what ever you go into
Q

[Sillyoldman]

Originally Posted by 70blowngmc

pro -cons

Q

Sounds like Pros = professional bill collectors
Cons= Ex convicts to break some knee caps

[chipflyer]

I have a friend who became a Snap on dealer 25 years ago and he is still doing it and loves it. He is a good salesman and has told me about all the things mentioned above but honestly he has done very well with his business. Its not for just anybody though. I worked in a Deere shop for ten years and saw several try it and fail. I personally wouldn't want to do it, but some guys do ok and the brand pretty much sells itself.

[powerbench]

I do want all the bad things that could happen to be aired out here. I do , get the bill collector thing, but i have heard some good things as well. I think after 20 years in one type of job, i'm just getting bored, and to be quite honest, i don't think i could do my current job when i'm 60....I love cars and bs'ing with people about all the things i want to do to mine and like hearing about all the stuff people are doing to theirs. I still say, talk me out of it, it's a bit of money i don't have...i'm not a risk taker....ahhhhh cross roads

[djracer]

Don't do it. I had a Mac franchise and lost my butt. If I need to tell you more Pm me and I'll give you my cell.

[cableguy0]

all of the snap on guys i ever dealt with had a ton of money sitting on the street. too many guys change jobs often duck out on the tool bill. most toll purchases are done through the truck account which means each guy will owe you up to or around 500 bucks at any given time. i talked to a guy that had over 200k in tools out on the street and was fighting to get paid on most of it. I have also heard as well that snap on corporate always has the upper hand and even though you buy your route that they can pull you from the route at their discretion

[70GMCer]

Open up a "hot dog stand" You'll make more money. My neighbor just got out of from under his Snap-On fran. Took a beating.

[Tater]

The hotdog stand is a great idea.There's 2 girls around here that bought a hotdog cart and rented some space in a factory parking lot.They work 4 hours a day April-September and they each pull in $60K a year.That's not to bad for a part time seasonal job

[cdowns]

big troules that you need to extend credit out of your pocket and guys disappear

[powerbench]

Ya i kinda knew this was the case, I just got off the phone with a friend of my dads that use to be a dealer. He said he did alright money wise , but you have to be ruthless about your collections, ie: would go in on a sunday to a shop and repo stuff if the guy wasn't paying his bill. I would be worried about losing part of my area because they figure i'm getting to big for my shorts...I don't know. I might pm ya DJ when i get a few seconds here..

[dieselarmy13]

Glad i saw this. I was actually thinking about looking into this.

[fastwillie 696969]

Originally Posted by Tater

The hotdog stand is a great idea.There's 2 girls around here that bought a hotdog cart and rented some space in a factory parking lot.They work 4 hours a day April-September and they each pull in $60K a year.That's not to bad for a part time seasonal job

keep word here is 2 girls =chiching

[mclairmo]

I would try getting into something with less of an initial investment. This is not really the economic environment to be starting a new sales business. My brother in law just had his skateboard shop close down. I realize that this is different than tools, but my point is that sales is bad in general now unless you own a 99 Cent Store or Walmart.

[kevmic28]

Yeah I hear you on the crossroads. I took an early retirment from my other career of 14 years and decided to go back to college to be a teacher and moved across the country to go back home to start my new career. Ill be a teacher in another year and a half.

[68C15]

take a strong lengthy look at the auto repair industry in your area. sit on a busy intersection watching what age of cars go by. talk to shop owners and techs. talk to the other tool guys, ie. Matco, Mac, Cornwell and see what they think about the local industry. is the trade going to stay steady, increase, or drop off. with unemployment high many techs will stay put instead of bouncing. get a feel for the integrity of your prospective customers.
basically you need to remember you will be riding the shirt tails of the auto repair industry.
when times are tough techs will stay put but spend less. when they are good they will spend like a drunken sailor but jump from shop to shop.

is there an association or unofficial club of tool dealers you can tap for info? I have a bunch of people who I talk to about the working end of tools as I am gearing up to be a shop owner in 3 or 5 years. I keep a close eye on the new car-old car ratio out there.


edit: do you have a family? the first 3 years or so will be tough and family life may suffer.

[Tx Firefighter]

My friend ran a route for a few years. This can get lengthy, but let me tell you two if his stories, it's a good read I promise.

Story 1) He sells a big giant torque wrench to a guy. The guy is torquing a set of head bolts on a 3406 Cat engine. The torque wrench head fails, and the handle hits him in the jaw, breaking his teeth and making a mess. Guy sues the company and my buddy, the truck route guy. Ultimately, my buddy gets off clean, but he spent over 10k dollars on attorney fees defending himself from this stupid lawsuit.

2nd Story) Bruce sells a guy an expensive Dynabrade air sander, like 500 bucks. Guy promises to pay him 50 a week towards it. After a few weeks, Bruce shows up for his weekly stop and the guy and quit the shop and disappeared with his tools and the sander too of course. Bruce can't find the guy, sander is gone for good. Guy won't answer the phone or return letters. About a year later, Bruce is driving his truck down the road and sees the deadbeat's pickup at another body shop. He stops in to collect his money or the sander. Guy is out to lunch, so Bruce takes the sander out of guy's toolbox in front of everyone and tells shop boss that it's being repo'd for non payment. Later, at another stop, the Sheriff pulls in and arrests Bruce for theft of sander back at the other shop. Turns out, when someone buys on account like that, it is theirs to keep. If they don't pay, you can sue them for the money owed, but not repo the tools. It's just like buying on a credit card. Once bought, it's yours, whether you pay for it or not. It's up to the creditor to collect it through the legal system.

Ultimately, he lost a bundle and had nothing but heartache from the whole tool franchise deal.

[Tx Firefighter]

Double post, sorry.

[powerbench]

It's kinda like the good the bad the ugly...I've talked at length to a guy who owned , a guy who operated but didn't owned, and a couple who didn't last...collections seem to be the biggest deal , but if you keep track of who owes you and do a good paper chase, they are not to hard to find....From what i have gathered , it's the guy who you think is your buddy,he's the one that will screw you over....i don't know...give me more feed back .The few guys i talked to said compairing other dealers( happy dealers and bad) said don't even compare other tool companies....and so the saga continues...looking for all input...keep it coming

[71big block]

I was a Matco distributor for 3 years and I was happy with it, I made a good living and didn't work an excessive amount of hours (<55 hrs a week). I was very impressed with the support Matco gave me and would recommend them to others. I investigated Snap On, Mac, and Matco before I went in and felt that Matco offered the best chance for success.

Skips can be a problem but in reality they are a very small % of your total sales (it will still bug you because it's your $$$) but in the big picture they arn't that big of a deal. We had a very good network of Matco dealers in my area and the skips usualy would usualy showup somewhere in another dealers route. In Wisconsin I could repo anything that was not paid for and the law would back me up.

I know you get get into Matco for about $35K

[msgross]

all of our aircraft mech have huge snap-on boxes that the gov bought. I can see that the 50 guys that have boxes probably helped our local snap-on guy (or we bought them on contract from someone else, who knows) but hopefully, especially in aviation, they don't need to ever buy another tool due to loss... what's the repeat business like would be my question?