Ever dream of driving an exotic sports car? How about having a dozen of them parked in your garage, all being paid for by your rental customers? This week Shannon and Dave meet two entrepreneurs who have built a fast-growing and successful Small Business using the Turo car rental platform. If you’ve ever dreamed of that new Porsche or Jaguar, but couldn’t figure out a way to pay for it, this is the show you don’t want to miss!
Gurjit Singh and Kevin Chou started The Gentleman’s Garage about two years ago and have expanded it to a dozen sports cars with availability in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Vegas. The guys share their story today, talking about the challenges of getting started, dealing with problems and removing obstacles to growth.
You’ll learn about managing risk, protecting yourself (and your cars) and the importance of having a strong platform that backs you up with insurance and background checks. We discuss how Gurjit and Kevin divide up their duties and how they have fine tuned their rental business to insure that each car is profitable – removing older, slower performing vehicles and adding newer models to keep their fleet fresh.
One key aspect becomes clear during the interview, Singh and Chou are focused on creating and managing the customer experience for customers that value convenience over price. By distinguishing there rentals with concierge style service, they have built a strong reputation with continued plans for growth.
Join us today to learn about these topics and more, then join the discussion on the Small Business Support Group!
Chapters/Timestamps:
- 00:00:00 Small Business Show #141 October 18, 2017
- 00:01:36 Gurjit Singh & Kevin Chou – Using Turo as a Small Business platform
- 00:03:46 It all starts with two Mustangs … and a BMW
- 00:04:25 Turo covered the repair!
- 00:05:36 Beware the damage claims
- 00:06:47 Think about how people will drive your vehicles
- 00:07:58 Turo manages the risk
- 00:08:46 Turo valet service
- 00:09:20 Each car makes 2-3x monthly payment
- 00:11:31 The logistics of management
- 00:13:34 One-way fee
- 00:14:41 With affluent customers, you’re managing an experience
- 00:17:17 If you’re going to rent it out, don’t buy new!
- Certified Pre-Owned works very well for Turo
- 00:20:23 Managing the fleet – new cars, selling cars, registrations
- 00:21:38 The bankers slow you down!
- 00:24:46 Did making it a business ruin your hobby?
- 00:25:44 “The cars are still a thrill to drive”
- Converting to a membership business
- 00:27:45 Visit Gurjit and Kevin’s The Gentleman’s Garage on Turo … and Facebook
- 00:28:57 SBS 141 Outtro
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:30 — 13.6MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Podcast Index | RSS | More
1 Comment
James Panda · April 4, 2018 at 8:55 am EDT
I had two cars with turo but now it’s one. You are on your own if anything goes happens to your car. They will claim all technicalities to not pay while at the same time milking the renter and billing him/her for damages. Now I’m really careful who I rent to. My car had more than $700 damage and the renter admitted he had a minor accident. After months of mail exchange and asking me to get documents and take pictures all the time, I was given a $50 ‘compensation’ “to buff my fender”. The only positive is, majority of renters (at least in Minnesota) are very good people who will take care of your car, but once something happens to your car, Turo will never pay. It’s better to meet the renter who caused the damage and negotiate cs it’s also in his/her best interest as Turo will bill him/her and still not pay the owner. I do not see the company lasting for longer.