Owning a successful business takes time and a lot of hard work. As the UK begins to open up and people start preparing to go back into offices, now is the perfect time to grow your car garage business. The average age of cars on UK roads is 8.3 years, so ensuring they’re maintained correctly and running well is imperative.

To help you grow your business, we’ve got some simple things you can implement today.

Establish an online presence

We are in the Age of the Internet, there are no two ways about it. If you don’t have any sort of online presence, you’re doing your business an injustice. For many people, especially younger generations, if you can’t be found online you don’t really exist. Put some time into establishing even the most basic website – it’ll get your name out and add to your business’s legitimacy.

Create incentives

Word of mouth is still the best form of advertisement all around the world, people trust people, so it’s important that you create incentives for customers to tell others about you. It can be offering ‘refer a friend’ discounts, after three services they get a free car valet etc.

Encouraging repeat custom and encouraging your customers to tell others is the secret to good marketing – and an easy way to grow your business.

Ask for reviews

Reputable reviews make it much easier to figure out which businesses to avoid, saving consumers time and hard earned money, two very precious resources. Ask customers to review your service – and then shout about the great reviews you have.

There are a number of review sites that you can link to your website, and with 88% of customers trusting online reviews it’s a simple, but smart move! Make customers happy and they’re likely to spread the word on your behalf.

Look the part

Looks are everything when it comes to people trusting that you know what you’re doing, so it’s important that you look the part. Invest in a pair of hard wearing work trousers, and heavy duty boots, as well as tops that allow you to move freely without restriction.

And of course, because you’re working with machinery, it’s important you wear the correct PPE to help keep you safe.

Find new distributors

If you’re finding that bills from your parts distributors are cutting into your profits, it’s probably time to start looking for a new distributor – without compromising on quality.

There are lots of companies that make high-quality parts that aren’t warrantied by the car manufacturers that work just as well or better than OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) parts. Get to know all the companies working in manufacturing parts for the kinds of cars you service.