I’ve talked at length about how every megatrend points to RVs, but if we don’t plan on selling RVs or buying RV parks, how do we sell picks and shovels to those that do?
Mobile RV repair.
Did you know this stuff can cost $150-$200+ per hour? But repair shops only pay their guys $30-$70/hour? That’s your opportunity. And yes, most RV repairs can be done without a repair shop. My RV repair guy is remote.
Repair shops are often booked out for weeks, especially in the warmer months.
We’ll take the exact same business model we are doing with Fast Tree Care and apply it to mobile RV repair. Here’s why I love this biz:
What more is there to love?
What are we doing with Fast Tree Care?
We’re a sales and marketing company that happened to pick tree trimming.
You’ll be a sales and marketing company that happened to pick mobile RV repair, thanks to this newsletter.
This business model revolves around two things:
If you can do both, you can be rich. Here’s how to do both:
Finding Mechanics
Go to FB Marketplace and find guys advertising for mobile RV repair and start reaching out to them. Seek to get on the phone, because FB chat is notoriously horrendous and impersonal.
Hop on a call and be transparent about your intent. Ask them:
Do this until you have a bank of 3-5+ people. You don’t have any clue if they are any good or not, so you need a good bank of folks.
Take them to lunch of coffee and get to know them. These guys won’t literally be your business partner, but in a sense they’re acting as such. If the vibe isn’t right then don’t proceed. If they seem shady or can’t keep their story straight then go with your gut and don’t work with them.
Sometimes you’ll be able to learn this over the phone. Sometimes the vibe won’t be right but they’re actually great.
You can also find mechanics by printing fliers and placing them on all the cars at the RV dealerships and repair shops around town, right when they open.
If you place them right when they open you can be sure that you aren’t spamming customers.
Will this piss off the owner? Oh yeah. That’s ok. Only do this if finding them online isn’t fruitful.
Relationships with competitors and RV dealerships will be good to have. You never know when they might need your help managing overflow.
Also, if you get a job that needs a physical shop, you can refer them out to your competitors for a share of the revenue.
Finding Jobs
Take these three letters and tattoo them on your forehead: G M B. Google. My. Business.
That will be the basis for most of your free inbound leadgen. Get started on building your profile on day 0.
Use your home address as the business address but don’t elect to show the address., You’ll want to use a service area by county, not by city. It’s a wider net. Add all the counties that you want to service.
Add a zillion pictures and videos that you find from images.google.com and YouTube.
Fill out every single form on that GMB profile. You want to show Google that you care about your profile.
Start adding “Updates” to your profile every day, right here in this section:
This will show Google that you are actively working on your business. Even if the update is “Looked for more mechanics today!”
Do you see how often we’re posting?
Think of it like Twitter. You want the algorithm to see you’re invested. This will pay massive dividends after weeks and months, because no one else is doing this.
Start soliciting some 5 star reviews from friends and family. If they can’t review you for your RV repair skillz, they can give you 5 stars for your character or smile.
Seriously!
Other Marketing Channels
If you found your mechanic on FB Marketplace, then don’t compete with him by posting on FB Marketplace as well. Play the long game. It’s fine, there are dozens of other channels that he isn’t using.
Start joining FB Groups for both locals and RVers. Ask the RVers what their most common repairs are. What grinds their gears. Trust me, there are plenty and plenty of things that break on those things. I’ve owned over 10.
This is you mostly learning, but you might also find customers in here if they’re local.
You will find dozens of local FB groups that aren’t RV centric. Join those too and start asking around and posting on a regular basis. Build some trust for a week or two before doing any pitching.
Create a Google Ads account and start playing around with a $20/day budget for PPC ads.
Drive around to all the RV storage places and ask the manager if you can leave business cards. Bring them donuts and make friends with them. Don’t position yourself as a taker, position yourself as a partner, a referral partner, someone that will also GLADLY send them new customers as well.
You can do the same with RV dealerships.
Hire a VA to start messaging individuals selling RVs on FBM from your personal account, asking if they need any repairs or tune ups prior to selling.
Tell them that for every $1 they spend on repairs they’ll get back $2-$4 in resale value. No one wants to buy an RV that already needs things to fix…
So your marketing strategy looks like this:
I promise you’ll find some leads.
Use what you learn to speak the RV repair language.
Buy some shirts with your logo to give to your mechanics to wear to all the jobs.
Mark up his hourly rate 100% exactly. That’s your 50% gross margin. Your net margin will be 40+% plus your time. Your only costs are for software and gas money.
Be sure to be the one to interface with the customer as much as possible.
You be the one to send the invoices, that have your name, business name and logo on them.
You be the one to check in afterwards to see how it went and ask for a review.
You be the one to put them in a drip campaign to reach out every 6 months to check in.
You don’t want the mechanic going around you! We don’t have this problem in the tree biz, but it happens all the time in most other industries if the setting calls for it.
Your business cards should have YOUR number on it, not the mechanic’s!
You can also stop by local RV parks and develop those same relationships. Shoot, ask the park owner if you can go pass out fliers to the tenants. Why not?
All of your dang customers drive a massive house! You can’t miss ‘em! Go fish where they fish!
Tech Stack
Conclusion
This model works. We know it works because we aren’t reinventing the wheel.
Let me know if you plan to do this and I’ll be there to encourage you!
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As always, thanks for reading!
Chris Koerner
chrisjkoerner.com