Those were the words that echoed in my mind when my friend called me out of the blue to ask if I wanted to jump into the automotive industry with him.

Funny enough I really believed them to my core.

All I have to do is login into our states website register an LLC go thought the process and just wait then we can start.

Very quickly we found out that we jumped the gun when we set off with this venture.

I'm 21 he is 23, and something you do not think about when you do something like this, (well at least I didn't.)

is...

ZONING!

He brought me on board to handle all the "business" stuff while he handled operations.

Only one real task in for me and I'm already screwing up.

You get those feeling a lot if i'm being honest with you.

Background

I have spent 4 years in the hospitality industry, 1 as an assistant manager, and 1 as a Manager.

I got very lucky to have be giving those opportunities at an early stage in my career.

I was use to running small teams between 8-13 depending on the season.

I got use to scheduling, inventory management, payroll, customer service, and all that good stuff.

I had studied 2 years at University for Hospitality Management but dropped out and just started getting practical experience.

My Partner went to school for Automotive Technology and had started working in a shop at 16.

When we was 21 he got his first shot to run a mechanic shop. I would go visit him and see how he was doing and hear all about it.

(He can fix anything that has a combustion engine in it, it's amazing.)

All while managing the place he would also be all hands on deck working on cars and help get customers vehicles completed.

He got use to invoicing, making purchase orders, understanding scheduling for customers, and so much more.

We both have similar experience just in different industries. You could see it as having the best of both worlds. In my opinion

I though with both of our experience combined we got this (which we do everyday) lets do it, nothing can stop us...

The Roadblock

Funny enough nothing got in the way, in the beginning.

Reason being is he knew somebody who was renting out a "shop".

We would pay him every month and business would operate as usual.

I got us all registered up, we went and opened a business bank account. Got business debit and credit cards.

We had a logo and cards made everything was working good.

In the beginning I was surprised how many customers were coming through the garage bays.

I mean this is our first month officially opened.

During this time I was trying to get the proper licensing to run the shop.

I looked at all we needed to do and what we would need to pass inspections. But during this time I was not aware of the most important thing of all.

Zoning

It had completely crossed my mind. I believed that we were good I mean someone else is running a similar business at the same location.