Dreaming of Opening a Tire Shop? Start Here.

Your Expert Guide to Tire Shop Success

The tire industry presents a great business opportunity for entrepreneurs looking to get involved in an industry with dependable demand and strong potential for growth. To get rolling in the tire business, however, you need a solid business plan that gives you a roadmap for success. Here’s our step-by-step guide to starting a tire shop, based on our decades of experience as a trusted partner to tire shops across the country and the expertise of some of our valued clients.

Find Your Place in the Market

The tire business is highly competitive. Before you do anything else, you should analyze local demand for tire services and look at who you’ll be competing against--both local independent shops and national chains. You’ll also need to decide the focus and scope of the services your business will offer. Will you target passenger vehicles? Commercial fleets? Specialty tire needs?

Secure a Suitable Location

Location matters just as much for a tire shop as it does for other types of retail businesses. You’ll want to look for growing areas with high traffic, and lots that allow ample space for equipment, inventory storage, and customer parking. Make sure you thoroughly understand zoning requirements and lease terms before making any commitments. Kyle Captain, Director of Construction Services at Haltec, emphasized to us the importance of involving an engineer in the planning process, whether you’re building a new shop from the ground up or renovating an existing facility. You’ll need stamped engineer drawings before you can get construction permits. 

Obtain Permits and Licenses

Satisfying permitting and licensing requirements can be a tedious and paperwork-intensive process, but it’s absolutely necessary. A good engineering team will take into account any local regulations or permitting needs to give you a head start during the planning phase. Don’t neglect liability and business insurance considerations.

Build Relationships with Suppliers

Before you can open for business, you need to secure your supply chain. Finding yourself without essential consumables, tools, and equipment because of an unreliable supply partner can be devastating to your business. How can you find the right supplier? That’s all about asking the right questions. Find out about things like the location of their warehouses, their online ordering process, and availability of reps to visit you in-person to discuss your needs. You also should build strong relationships with local tire distributers to ensure quick and easy access to inventory. 

Maintain the Right Inventory

Regardless of what market niche your shop caters to, you'll need to keep a wide variety of tire types and brands in stock to meet demand from customers with different needs and budgets. Your inventory needs can fluctuate over the course of the year. For example, the onset of winter usually causes a spike in business at tire shops as people replace worn-out tires to be prepared for bad weather.
 

Invest in the Right Equipment

Tools like wheel balancers, tire changers, lifts, and alignment machines are essential for any tire shop. Cutting corners on your equipment is likely to cost you money in the long run because of broken tools and delayed jobs. Make sure you pick a supplier who can offer you the latest and greatest in tire shop equipment that will save you time and help ensure every job is done properly and safely. Also ask about available financing options. Equipment can be costly, and reputable suppliers should have relationships with finance companies to help you manage large purchases. This allows you to spread out payments over time instead of making one large upfront payment.

Build a Strong Team

Of course, tools are only as good as the people who use them. It’s impossible to overstate the importance of hiring the right people for the success of your tire shop business. If you don’t have prior hands-on experience in the industry yourself, your first priority should be to hire a manager with the knowledge and connections to help identify candidates with the right skills to complete your team. If you are going to offer mechanical services and automotive repairs, then ideally, you'll want someone with Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) certifications. However, practical experience is equally valuable and should not be overlooked. The key is to hire someone who has hands-on knowledge who can not only properly evaluate candidates during the interview process but can also assist with training and onboarding once hired. 

Training your staff should not be thought of as a one-and-done thing when you make a new hire, but rather as an ongoing process that helps your employees stay up to date on new technology and safety practices. Training programs and certifications from the Tire Industry Association (TIA) are the gold standard for the tire industry.

Don't Neglect Branding & Marketing

A full guide to marketing your tire shop would take another article. However, even with a good location, great equipment, and a well-trained team, you can’t just open the doors of your new tire shop and expect customers to immediately start driving in. Your branding and marketing strategy needs to be in place well before opening day. Design a professional logo. Create a user-friendly website and set up a presence on Google My Business and social media. Have a grand opening celebration with prominent banners and signage to catch the eye of people driving by. Joining your local chamber of commerce can be a good way to get marketing tips and build relationships with the leaders of other local businesses.

Keep Your Customers Happy

While you might pick up work from emergency tire replacement or repair jobs occasionally, especially at certain times of the year, the success of your tire shop will depend in large part on getting repeat customers. Ensure you maintain a healthy inventory of supplies at all times, so you never have to turn away business. Offer loyalty programs and free services like tire inspections. Collect and act on customer feedback. You need to consider the customer experience in every decision that you make.

Ready to Make Your Dream a Reality?

Being successful in the tire business takes preparation, planning, and an ongoing commitment to excellence. It also takes developing a strong partnership with a supplier you can count on. Rubber-Inc has been helping tire shops grow their business since 1939. Got questions or need help with starting your shop? Contact us for expert advice!