How can I start a successful car repair garage business in Kenya?.

Here are six tips from very successful Kenyan Garage owners that will help you avoid any mistakes and pile up your business smoothly towards success.

Car garage business in Kenya is one of the highest paying businesses in the country today, but only a few entrepreneurs have been able to accumulate high earnings from their motor vehicle repair businesses.

In Kenya, motor vehicles are one of the most bought items, this means that Kenyans are literally buying cars every single day.

Not mentioning that a single person in Kenya may own around 3 cars on average.

These cars are machines, which means that they need maintenance and repair regularly.

That’s where a car garage business comes in handy in Kenya.

If you are thinking of starting a Very Successful Car Repair Garage Business, and not just a business.

In this article, with the help of 2 successful car garage business owners in Kenya, we have provided 6 of the best tips of starting and running a car garage business in Kenya.

With that being said, below are the top six tips from successful entrepreneurs in Kenya on how you can start, scale up first and run a successful garage business.

How To Start A Car Repair Garage Business In Kenya [6 Expert Tips]

1. Be Smart With The Garage Location

The location of your business matters more than you can imagine.

The garage should be located in a very easy to access area and you should also ensure that the road where the business is located at is well established.

Of course you can not take care of the entire road that leads your customers to your business, but at least make sure that you set up your garage business where the roads are well maintained rather than a place where the roads don’t even favor the cars of your customers.

You want your customer’s vehicles to arrive in the garage and leave the garage as a new vehicle, but this can be interrupted easily if your business is not located in a very reliable area.

The location of your car garage business should also be close to the road (main road) as possible.

Your car repair garage is not necessary supposed to be that close to the road, but the business is dedicated in repairing and maintaining vehicles, and vehicles use the road, which technically means it is a huge plus to be close to the road.

According to one of the car garage owner who helped in the research of this article.

He owns a couple of car repair garage businesses in Kenya and he says that he has come to realize that most of his customers are more likely to visit a car garage shop that is near the road than the one that is far from the road.

This means that his car garage businesses that are closer and easily accessible from the road are performing way better than the garages that are far from the roads.

2. Employ Skills Not Papers

To run a successful business and flourish in the car repair industry, you need skilled workers not learned workers.

There is a huge difference between a worker who has the skills to repair and fix a vehicle and a worker who has learned how to repair a vehicle. – says one of the garage owners.

There are many people who have gone to colleges to learn mechanics but only because they think they will make money from the career.

On the other hand, there are people who have gone to college to learn all about mechanics or maybe not even stepped a foot in college, but they are passionate about mechanics.

These people are genuinely interested in the mechanics, machinery and repair sector, which makes them excellent in their work because they have obtained the skills needed, the knowledge required and the determination needed to succeed at their section of work.

Your business should only have employees who want to work at a garage, the people who are interested in cars, car parts and designs, the people who are willing to do their own research not only to educate themselves but also to make the customers happy, the people who want to be better than they were yesterday.

Other than that, the reason you should employ skills and not papers is because of the customers themselves.

You want your customers to enjoy the company of your employees as much as they enjoy their repaired cars.

Customers are more likely to come back and even suggest your car repair garage to their family and friends, if they feel comfortable and welcomed every time they visit your car repair shop.

Skilled mechanics will ensure the business runs smoothly with high productivity results that will always make the clients want to return back to the garage.

3. Quality Service Is Key

The services offered at your car repair garage should be top notch high quality services, only.

The customer is always right, and if you can not make a customer happy, you are not going to keep them for long.

Every single car owner in Kenya wants to take their car in a garage where their opinion matters, where they receive the best services and they generally get what they wanted from the car repair shop.

Quality service doesn’t only includes making the customers happy by offering amazing services but also includes keeping a happy, safe and rewarding working environment, for all your employees.

Quality services are likely to be offered to all your customers whether you are there or not, if your workers are generally in a good place to offer those services.

These includes, mentally, financially, physically and professionally.

The other factors that will ensure high quality services are car repair equipments.

You should work on always improving the business with high quality equipments, mechanical tools and advanced technology to make work easier.

When your clients get nothing but quality services, you will not only win their trust but they will all advertise your business for free to other car owners through Word Of Mouth, and your garage business will grow quicker.

To make your customers even happier with your services, you can consider starting a program like a “Loyal Customer Offer” where customers get discounts at certain services, only for the most loyal customers.

It’s all about keeping the customers coming back and hopefully recommending the car garage to other potential loyal customers.

4. Advertise The Business

People need to know the car garage and where it’s located to increase the number of customers.

How do you expect to get more customers if no one actually knows if the business even exists?.

The best way to reach a large number of people in your area is through advertisements.

Advertisements are not always expensive as they may seem.

You can decide to do cheap advertising and marketing campaigns such as paying a couple of people to go around giving out your business cards for free or mounting posters of your business at strategic locations.

Another way to advertise a car garage business is through social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

You can also decide to use influencers, to reach a wider audience of potential customers in Kenya.

Online advertising has also worked wonders for most car garage companies in Kenya, you can use banner ads to showcase your business, it’s location and all services offered to millions of people through banner ads.

To get a pocket friendly banner ad to promote your business on our websites, simply use the Contact Us page below to get in touch with us today.

5. Offer Flexible Payment Options

One of the best things you can do for your customers is to enable them to pay for the services how ever they want to.

Offer various payment methods to make it easier for your clients to make their payments through the payment method that suits them.

There are many payment methods to use in your business, to ensure that your customers can easily pay without worrying about any obstacles.

Set up a payment system for your business that favors all the customers in your business from different levels of life.

Consider using payment platforms such as;

MPESA (Paybill Number)

Accepting Cash

Accepting Credit Cards

Online Payment Method (PayPal) or any other method of payment.

You should also put in mind that this will require an extra work in accounting, keeping records of transactions and invoices (payments receipts).

A trusted and qualified accountant should be able to take care of all of the above.

6. Licences Your Business Accordingly

One of the most important things of starting and running a successful car repair garage business is to ensure that you are never at the wrong side with the law.

Do everything that needs to be done to run your business without any problems with the law of Kenya.

Pay your taxes, ensure you always have a business permit for all your car garage shops in the country, because eventually you will need to expand your business and all the business will need a permit in their respective counties or location.

Get your business permits or business license from your local authorities and ensure you are operating your business in accordance to the rules and regulations of the local government.

Those are the six best tips of an entrepreneur who wants to start or successfully run their car repair business in Kenya.