If you are considering starting a mobile auto service business in California, one market that is often over looked by competition is Ventura County and it is growing too. If you are thinking of starting a mobile oil change business then it is best to look towards the fleet business rather than personal cars. Now then let us put your market mix at 80% fleets and 20% personal cars. Obviously everyone has a car so it is best to first consider where to target your fleet accounts. The preliminary thoughts on fleets in Ventura Area for this practice case study would be to look at the largest city in the County. That would be Oxnard CA.

For Oxnard CA there are some really good Corporate Centers behind “Colonia” paralleling the 101 Fwy. I also recommend that you go to the car dealerships behind Price Club (fleets too) and talk with the Fleet Managers there, you might find some really good contacts and you can reciprocate by giving them leads.

Also in Ventura Barber Ford is a good contact out on the end of Ventura near the “Avenue” there are some industrial areas with lots of fleets. Across the 101 from the Old Ventura Drive In Movie Theatre there is lots of industrial area and it continues all the way down to Dealership row before the River on the West Side of the Freeway. Saticoy has a small area of fleets too along the Highway there.

You might also check all the businesses way out along the beach areas below Port Hueneme and Pt Mugu too (Hueneme Rd.) Oil field services, auto transport, sod, agricultural, heavy industrial too. Also check out E. Vineyard and the side streets on the River side of the road, tons of fleets. You really need to decide if you want to make money or show boat around with personal cars. I recommend that you go for the money first by getting fleet accounts and then build the consumer routes. Have you considered Boats? The Channel Island Marina area is packed. In Camarillo there are some good Corporate Centers near the “Camarillo High School” and up the hill in Newberry Park too, also off the Central Exit, across from Camarillo Airport. Lots of Fleet Business in these areas due to the agricultural industry. You see, the demographics in Ventura County are almost perfect. Up the hill in Thousand Oaks, which actually contains Newbury Park, has the best demographics of all Ventura County cities:

• Highest Average Income
• Highest Property Values
• Highest Sales Tax Generator
• Highest Propensity Of High End Car Owners
• Most Small Businesses
• Most Millionaires
• Over 70% White And Educated
• Highest Paying Jobs
• Lowest Unemployment
• Largest Automall
• Largest City Budget

The city of Moorpark is something else you should consider too, as it has a small population, 40,000 plus people. It’s mostly a family type town. Many people have bought homes there because it’s cheap. Over the last eight years the city has really exploded. It has major industrial areas containing more than 3.5 million square feet. There are three large industrial areas and one small one. One is off the 23 freeway, one is near the college and one is between Poindexter Street, the railroad track and the 118 old section. These industrial areas contain at least ten small fleets of five to fifteen vehicles. There are also many substantial fleets, fleets between 15-100 units. Some of these fleets include:

• Blue Star Ready Mix (100 Cement Trucks, 30 Heavy Pieces Of Equipment)
• Moorpark Unified School District (20 Transit Type Buses)
• City Of Moorpark
• Ventura County Cablevision
• Prudential Uniform
• Lagarmarsino Distribution

In setting up a mobile oil change business in this town, we noted that one would need to start thinking of this as a Grid Game, kind of like “zone defense” basketball and also consider that if your visits are every other week or once per month you can maximize your efforts by being in one city each day and doing lots of business each visit there.

Once the fleet business is established your target markets for personal mobile oil changes should be: Large Corporate Offices, Multi-Tenant Businesses, Retail Centers, Upper Class Residences and Golf Courses. But that is the easy part, first you need the business ramped up, then you can go get the gravy. Think on this.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is an online writer in retirement.

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