Two years ago, I was talking with an individual who did mobile auto detailing in the summer months, and then put a snow plow on the front of his work van in the wintertime as a secondary business. He knew he could not detail people’s cars in the middle of winter because the weather was so bad no one really wanted their cars thoroughly cleaned.
Later, he realized that many of his customers also wanted mobile oil changes. It didn’t matter to him, he just wanted to make money, and he would do any service he could as long as he got paid for it.
Yes, this is the proper way for an entrepreneur to think, and most small businesses are wise enough to figure this out. His biggest challenge was that the equipment for the oil changing was much different than the equipment he used for his mobile auto detailing services. When the first snow came he would put on the snowplow and leave it on until spring, but it was different with the equipment inside. What’s the solution you ask?
Well, he put all of his equipment for the oil changing on a skid unit. Then he would pull out auto detailing equipment; the plastic water tank, generator, pressure washer, and vacuum, along with a supply box and load the oil changing skid into the van. It took him about 20 minutes to reconfigure everything. Eventually he realized that he could put his supply box, water tank, generator, and pressure washer on a separate skid unit and leave it all under his carport with a tarp cover over it.
Having a modular skid units set up for a work Van for all your equipment makes sense. It’s not difficult to do. Later on he realized that he could leave the portable generator in the van at all times because he used it for both operations. He put it up front and bolted it in place. He made a cut out in each one of the skid units. This made the skid units lighter and easier to put in and take out with only one person, whereas before it took two people because it was so heavy.
Modularizing your work van makes a lot of sense. Plus if you ever have to rent someone else’s van because yours is in the shop, all of your equipment is already on a skid, and you can slide it into the new vehicle as needed. It makes things so much easier, and a lot easier to clean which prevents oil and grease buildup inside the van, which is also a fire hazard. Indeed I hope you will please consider the strategy and think on it.