Paying for College Tuition by Restoring Old Boston Whaler boats

[jmcrutchley]

My son and I are looking for side work that will help pay his college tuition. We thought about buying used Boston Whaler boat, then restoring and re-selling them.

Give me advice about this approach to paying for college tuition.

[Jefecinco]

To restore used boats for resale at a profit, a ready supply of used boats would be needed. A sheltered work place suitable for year round use would be helpful.

Q1: do you or your son have the tools and skills to perform any needed repairs to old two-stroke-power-cycle outboard engines, and do you have a ready source of parts?

Q2: do you have a storage space for completed boats awaiting sale?

Q3: would the work space be at your home?

Q4: would your neighbors appreciate the noise?

Q5: is your work space located in a place zoned for commercial enterprises?

Q6: do you have a business license?

[jimh]

The notion of buy low and sell high after some minor input of labor is not a particularly great approach.

The first problem is to buy low.

Q7: Have you looked at the prices for older Boston Whaler boats?

Older Boston Whalers are probably about the most expensive "old" boats you can find for their age. People that own older Boston Whaler are usually not oblivious to their value. Sure, you might find the classic situation: an old Boston Whaler taking up space in a widow's two-car garage, and she just wants it out of there, so you can get a boat worth $5,000 for $500. But that is the exceptional situation, and you have to be a bit unethical to take advantage of old widows whose assessment of the value of a boat is based on it being a nuisance, not an asset.

The next problem is the restoration. The ideal candidate is a boat that just needs a good cleaning, removal of gel coat oxidation, compounding, polishing, super-gloss finishing, and waxing. But that is actually quite a bit of work, and special tools are need, and moderate quantity of the various products needed for that work, which are not cheap.

Another problem is missing parts and hardware. Fabricating new wooden parts for old Boston Whalers is not a good business model. There have been four or five guys who tried to make a business of it, and they all closed shop after a few years. Missing hardware is also a problem; a lot of the fittings on old Boston Whalers are no available any more.

Now you want to sell high. Used Boston Whaler boats that are priced at the top of the market do not tend to sell immediately. The boats that sell fast are ones that are in very decent shape, have all the original parts, are on a trailer that is road-ready, have an engine that starts and runs well, and are asking a fair price. Those are the boats that sell in less than a week on the market.

Q8: how are you at working on boat trailers?

I think a better approach for your son and you would be to specialize in cosmetic improvements. You can do this work at the boat owner's premises. All you need is a few power buffing tools, a lot of lambswool pads, a big stash of products for gel coat restoration, polishing, high-luster finishing, and top quality boat wax. In this way you can work on ANY brand of boat, and in most cases you can go to the boat, rather than have the boat brought to you.

Also, you have no capital tied up in buying the boat, no expense is advertising to sell the boat, and no problems about storing the boat.

Your outlay to get into the cosmetic service will be low: some good hoses, good brushes and mops, some buckets, a really good orbital polishing tool, some extension cords, and a lot of bottles of really good boat soaps, gel coat restorers, polishes, finishing compounds, and boat waxes. Some towels, some really good cloths, and the secret weapon, a really good water filter so when you rinse the boat it looks fantastic, no water spots, no streaks. That's maybe about $1,000 to $1,500 invested, and if you can get $500 a boat, you are into profit on your third or fourth job.

Oh, maybe you need a nice truck to carry around all the gear. Now that could be expensive. Or maybe you already have a suitable vehicle. If you shown up in a nice truck with a business name of the side, your customers won't flinch when you tell them the work will be $500. And maybe you can tax a depreciation deduction for the truck and shelter all of the income your new business produces.

Q9: do you plan to do all this for cash-only, no records, no taxes, no state tax ID?

[jmcrutchley]

Those questions are helpful. I will use them as a way to think this through. Jimh, if you were determined to buy, restore and resell Boston Whaler boats, can you think of any possible business model that may work? York County Marine has made it work, for example.

[fno]

You probably want to start with a million dollars of working capital before you get started. That way in several years you might still have $500,000 for the kids education.

[jimh]

FNO's comment is just about identical to what I was going to say.

There is an old saying:

Q: How do you wind up with a million dollars after being in the boat business for one year?

A: Start with two million dollars.