Even cheaper servicing at av performance

[Conan_the_Librarian]

THIS IS A FEELER THREAD ONLY

Many of us know (or know of) Ben Williamson who owns and runs AV performance. Some of you will have read his thread here. If not it's worth a read before reading on.
The condition he has is Cone-Rod Dystrophy a short description of which can be found
here. The prognosis is invariable and as of now there is no cure. Ben's sight will eventually go.
Faced with that most people would be in a bucket. Not Ben. I was with him the other day as he is providing a lot of technical help on my project and we spent the whole day laughing and taking the P!ss.

The crux of this thread. Ben is a one man band. He does all right and supports his family. But his sight is his livelihood and when it starts to go he will not be able to do what he does best, maintain and tune our cherished VAG cars. But he does have other skills. One of which is management. He has managed a much larger independent garage with a multi skilled workforce and did it well. Having set up on his own, his expectation was always to expand the business and build a company with a reputation that he himself enjoys (and deserves). Now though, the one thing he may not have is time to make the incremental jumps, building a strong business with the reputation for high standards he wants that would normally be the way of doing it.

After a long chat which we have had a couple of times, Ben agrees he needs to make a quantum jump, and for that he needs capital.

I have suggested, that instead of burdening himself with traditional debt, that he (for want of a better description) mortgages his skills and reputation by selling service plans to his regular customers.

The suggestion is simple. He will offer, for an up front payment, a significant discount on his labour charges and parts at cost until the up front payment is expended. For example: An A8 3.0TDI with a fixed service annually costing £300 a time could be done for a one off payment of £500 for 2 years servicing. A saving of 17%. If you are a member of the A8oc this would be on top of the 15% you already enjoy.

Remember this is a capital raising venture, so up front payment is what Ben needs. This is not a monthly plan.

I have put this up here so that I can get comment on the plan from agroup of Ben's clients so that Ben can get feedback on the idea.

Sincerely,

Mike (CtL)