Anybody want to go in on buying Hurricaine?

[Bill Bess]

Jay

To add a little perspective from what I've seen, heard, and a few folks that I have been in contact with. Here is what many say, "I really like the Hurricane but You don't see that many of them around and there is not much representation at shows".
There is also a lot of interest from people at car shows,and rallies.
I had a friend go to another kit company because Hurricane wasn't able to produce the kits (at least two cars). Just check the forums history and see how many people wanted or are interested in the Hurricane, I think a lot.
There are also some folks out there that have produced their own version of the Hurrricane and called it something else and did a good job and have sold several of them.

Bottomline, the company needs to be very aggressive with there advertising, improve the production levels, while delivering a better quality product. There are plenty of good examples of Cobras out there...just deliver the product that beats all the competiiton in all categories.

I really think its possible! Bill

PS. if I was younger and richer, I would be interested.

[fostereast]

This is an interesting time to buy a business that makes replicas.

1) Raw and processed material prices are increasing with no end in sight.
2) Home prices, both primary and secondary are way down. People are leaving keys in the mailboxes again as they move out and abandon mortgages.
3) Discretionary income now that the Home ATM's are tapped out (Read home line of credit) is back to normal.

Several questions.

Has anyone checked to see if orders are up or down at the main kit car manufacturers? How long is their backlog compared to previous quarters. Kirkham and ERA should be more recession-proof than others, so you can't judge the market by their business very easily.

Are there more Cobras for sale now than in previous years?

Thoughts:

Get a conservative accountant to put together a spreadsheet for forecasted sales and cost in a way that lets you play 3 scenerios related to sales and manufacturing costs; good, OK and a little worse than OK and be conservative about your cost, everything always cost more than you think it will. Be very open about what you would like to get as a salary or return, because that is important in this. And see if it makes sense. Most of us could probably put together a draft spreadsheet, but you need to get a conservative professional opinion to help make this decision.

Selling something is a lot harder than most of us ever consider. Selling something once is not to hard, but building sales into a repeatable process is pretty hard, factor that into the equation. Repeatable sales that you can forecast is what provides cash flow. This can take years to get a handle on and until then you will have to rely on lines of credit or your money to pay the bills even if your books at years end show profit.

One other point be very conservative about how much time you have to spend on this because time is like money, you always find yourself wishing for a little more. Even if you are a silent partner, do you want to feel the burden of customer problems that can happen even in the best of plans.

If you think it will cost 250K to get started, you probably should be ready to back it up with another 500k or so.

Make sure you are making an asset purchase, if you buy a corporate structure you also buying all the liabilities and I would not want to own the liabiliites that can be associated with a lifestyle business.

Enough rambling, for all I know most of you have more knowledge about this stuff than I do. If any of you jump in I hope you have great success.

[patrickt]

Never go in to business because it would be fun to do. Business is about making money; hobbies are for fun.

[RedBarchetta]

Originally Posted by fostereast

If you think it will cost 250K to get started, you probably should be ready to back it up with another 500k or so.

Originally Posted by patrickt

Never go in to business because it would be fun to do. Business is about making money; hobbies are for fun.

Great advice on both counts. Most businesses run out of working capital before they can "get over the hump." I do M&A work for a living (domestically and internationally). I've seen what this recession can do to what appeared to be a solid business model.

Good luck with your venture...I hope it brings you prosperity and satisfaction.

-Dean