When folks start out in their own business there are many critical things to think about. There are so many options. Let us consider this case study. A gentleman wished to start his own business; a mobile oil change business. So he looks at all the options, as there are so many.

There are Franchises, many of which are nearly turnkey or very close and advertised as such. Even come with pre-purchase videos explaining the whole thing. Then there are Business Opportunities, also almost turnkey; manuals, equipment, training, the works; 5 of them to chose from. Next is the option of building your own unit and going for it? Of course one would have to be mechanically inclined and know what they were doing right? Then the gentleman would need to get hooked up with quality vendors. In discussing this the gentleman stated;

Seems like a ton of inventory to go the whole 9 yards. From an equipment standpoint my WY father is a welder/pipe-fitter and all around "mechanic." If I knew where to acquire the various pumps and things we could probably put together a nice little trailer package.

Yes, that makes sense, you could just look at various designs and build yourself a unit, pay attention to weight and balance and get some 1/8 inch diamond plate to put on it to dress it up a little, then paint it Polyurethane and a bright color, then take it to the sign guy there and put on a "simple message" in vinyl lettering? Makes sense to me.

Finding the vendors with all the specialty equipment is not so tough, lots of catalogs such as Granger, J.C. Whitney and Online Directories for Industrial equipment too. You see when considering going into business for yourself you have many executive management decisions to make and you must consider them carefully and make sure they fit. I hope you will think on this case study analysis in 2006.