Three illustrated guides for running a mobile mechanic business: your labor rate, parts markup, insurance and the rules; finding customers, quoting and running the day; and the van, safe lifting and ten jobs drawn step by step. One idea a page, each one drawn.
Real pages from all three guides. One idea a page, drawn.
The Mobile Mechanic Business, Finding Customers and Running the Day, and The Van and the Jobs, Drawn. 108 pages, one idea each.
The idea, the picture, the costly mistake and one line to remember. Read it in the van between jobs.
Phone-sized PDFs to check in the driveway or at the parts counter, yours to keep. Nothing to cancel.
You know how to fix it. Nobody taught you the business.
Most of the money a new mobile mechanic loses goes quietly: a rate copied from the shop you left, parts sold at cost, a repair done "because it needed it" that nobody agreed to pay for. Every one of them has a page, and every page names the mistake.
Where mobile mechanics lose money:
A drawing is easier to take in between jobs than a paragraph. That's why every page in the kit has one, and one line to keep.
Every page has the same parts, so you always know where to look. Here is Book 1, page 21, Quote labor from book time, with its lines quoted from the guide.
Quote labor as book time times your rate: the same price however long the job takes you.
The guide says 1.5 hours for front brakes. You finish in 1.1. You still charge $165: the same 1.5 hours any shop would bill.
Charging your stopwatch time. You punish yourself for skill and can't quote before you start.
Book time × your rate = labor.
Quoted word for word from Book 1, page 21, Quote labor from book time. Every page carries these parts plus the drawing, and where a rule changes from state to state, a note that says so.
Setting up, the rules, insurance, pricing, the paperwork, money and taxes, one idea a page. Five parts: Starting out, Insurance, Pricing, Paper and Money. Start with what one billed hour really costs.
From the first call to the handover and the next booking, in the same layout.
The van, the gear and the work you sell: which jobs to take and which to refer, safety and fluids, and ten everyday jobs drawn step by step.
Total value: $95
One-time payment. No subscription. Keep the files forever.
Digital guides (PDF), in English. We email your library link right after purchase, and you can download the files again anytime. Plus sales tax where applicable.
Mechanic Made Simple is an independent guide for people running a mobile mechanic business. It explains rules in plain words and is not legal, tax or accounting advice. It is not affiliated with any licensing board, government agency or vehicle maker.
You can fix the car; the business side is new. Book 1 lays out the setup, the registration pattern by state, the insurance that covers the customer's car, then what a billed hour really costs.
The calendar is full and the account is still thin. Your labor rate, book time, the parts matrix, the trip charge and booking the week by zones each get a page, worked with example numbers you can swap your own into.
Before you take on a fleet account with net terms or your first helper, see what they expect, how to price and invoice the work, and the paperwork to have first, one page at a time.
No gimmicks. Public federal rules, state rules as labelled examples and makers' service information, drawn clearly, with the source named on the page where it matters.
The rules pages follow federal rules, IRS and EPA guidance and state agencies' own pages; the air conditioning page follows the EPA's Section 609 rules; the job pages take every spec and procedure from the maker's service information. Every page was checked against its named sources before release.
Repair shop registration, what an estimate must show, where you may work on a car and sales tax on labor all change from state to state and city to city. Those pages teach the pattern, label any state rule as an example, and point you to where yours lives.
The money pages work the same example rates all the way through: $88 of cost in every billed hour, a $110 labor rate, a parts matrix, and a front brake job at $365. You can see where each number comes from and swap in your own. The examples are examples, not prices for your market.
Not affiliated with or endorsed by any state repair bureau, the EPA, OSHA, the IRS, ASE, any vehicle maker or any government agency. We answer to the owner.
Use the kit for 7 days. If it isn't for you, email us and you get 100% of your money back. No fine print, no hassle.
Right after purchase we email you a link to your library, where you download all three guides as PDFs. You can come back and download them again anytime.
One-time payment of $27. No subscription, no recurring charges, and nothing to cancel. All three guides are yours to keep.
People running a mobile mechanic business in their first few years, solo or with a helper, and mechanics about to leave a shop to work from a van.
Every state. The books teach what works the same way everywhere: your labor rate, parts markup, insurance, customers and the jobs themselves. Where a rule changes by state, like registering a repair business, the page says so and shows you where to look up yours.
No book can. Book 3 shows the van, safe lifting, how to diagnose before you buy parts, which jobs to take and which to refer to a shop, and ten everyday jobs drawn step by step. For the car in front of you, the maker's service information comes first.
No. Mechanic Made Simple is an independent guide for people running a mobile mechanic business. It explains rules in plain words and is not legal, tax or accounting advice. It is not affiliated with any licensing board, government agency or vehicle maker. Your lawyer, accountant and insurance agent apply the rules to your business.
No. The kit is complete on its own.
At checkout there is one optional add-on, The Labor Rate and Parts Markup Workbook: your cost per hour, your labor rate and your parts matrix worked out with blanks for your own numbers, and common jobs priced at the kit's example rates beside a blank for yours. It's $9, unticked, and you can skip it.
Both. The pages are portrait and phone-sized, so you can check one in the driveway or at the parts counter, and the PDFs print if you want a page in the van.
We don't promise that, and we'd be wary of anyone who does. The guides show you how each piece works and the mistake that costs money, with the numbers worked on the kit's example rates. Which jobs you take and what you charge is still your call.
Email us within 7 days of purchase and we'll refund 100% of your money. Details on the refund policy page.
Spotted an error, or a rule that works differently in your state? Email [email protected]. A real person reads every message, and fixes go into the next version.
Every job with your own name on the van teaches you something about the business side, and the expensive lessons come with a bill. You don't need another midnight forum thread or a rate someone swears by. You need the page for this decision, with the idea drawn and the mistake named.