A face-saving business worth millions.
The source of the header image is | Pixabay
The author | Qin Zhangyong
Edit the | Wang Yan
After testing, car inspection, taking photos, when the red Ferrari SF90 in front of him is rented at a price of 14,000 yuan a day, usually the day before the customer picks up the car, Cheng Dong also needs to complete this series of standard operations.
It was already 11:30 at night, but it was close to the end of the year, and it was far from resting. In order to expand the number of luxury cars in the store, in half an hour, he will also appear at the dinner table to discuss cooperation with a car owner.
The COVID-19 epidemic has lasted for more than two years, and although there are still ups and downs, according to the forecast of the transportation department, the number of passengers sent during this year's Spring Festival will increase by 35.6% year-on-year compared with 2021. This means that train tickets will still be "hard to find", and accordingly, the car rental market will usher in a climax.
As a partner of a luxury car rental company, Cheng Dong is ready to continue to fight for the Spring Festival. What worries him now is that just entering the peak period of car rental, the car and manpower in the store are already a bit tight. "The previously scheduled Big Law (Rolls Royce) will not arrive until mid-2022", he can only consider starting a few BBA cars to "see if they can get on the top".
Compared with the traditional car rental industry, luxury car leasing has stopped many entrepreneurs with its high investment and relatively long return cycle. But high risk is also accompanied by high returns, and now this seemingly unpopular business is becoming more and more popular because of the curiosity of young people and the escalating consumption methods. Cheng Dong's business also began to focus on business reception and wedding rental from the early days to people's daily lives.
1
Use half of your savings to rent a luxury car for the New Year
At a woolen factory in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, Luo Bin worked for nearly three years. Because his hometown is in Hubei, since the outbreak of the epidemic, for two consecutive years, he has had to choose to celebrate the New Year in situ. "At the end of 2019, when others heard that your home was hiding far away in Hubei, there was no home at that time and did not dare to return." As the epidemic eased, he was eager to count the days of going home with his fingers crossed every day.
As a post-00s, Luo Bin likes to play League of Legends, and his idol is Uzi (e-sports pro). In addition, he is addicted to cars and browses major automotive forums almost every day. Over time, Luo Bin has been handy to the performance parameters of various brands of models.
For this he has his own judgment on the car. After driving the boss's Cayenne, he felt "very cool but didn't like it", Luo Bin's dream is to own a Porsche 911.
In the past few years, in various short videos, luxury cars have been like enduring traffic passwords. With brainwashed bgm and plot, from Mercedes-Benz Big G, Maserati to Rolls-Royce, luxury cars seem to be no longer unattainable. After receiving the holiday notice, because he could not buy a train ticket, Luo Bin secretly decided that he would also drive a good car home for the New Year this year.
Source: Porsche official website
For him, renting a car is the most realistic way to go right now. In the past holidays, Luo Bin often rented a car with friends, but considering the cost, they would only choose an economy car. "It will take 10 hours to drive home this time", and in order to make the journey of more than a thousand kilometers feel less long, he decided to "rent a good and comfortable one".
The reality is that there is another potential reason for choosing a luxury brand. Although he is only 22 years old this year, his parents have arranged two blind dates for Luo Bin this time. "We usually get married very early there, and 23 or 24 years old should get married and have a baby."
In his cognition, the girls' vision is now very high, "In fact, I am not in a hurry, I plan to save money to buy a house in Wuxi first." However, he said that he didn't care, he still had enough strength and planned to drive to the car to support the scene for himself.
In the rental market, the price of luxury brand vehicles is not low, coupled with the New Year, the price is rising all the way. After inquiring around the local area, Luo Bin learned that luxury cars not only limit the number of kilometers per day, but also pay a large deposit. Even so, he gritted his teeth and booked a Mercedes-Benz E300.
"The preliminary estimate is almost fifteen thousand." This is a big expense for Luo Bin, who earns only more than 6,000 yuan per month. The company does not provide accommodation on weekdays, and coupled with daily expenses, his savings are not much. "I only have about 30,000 now, but no way, the year is still going to pass."
Business people who deal with cars have long been accustomed to it. Not long ago, the second-hand car dealer Du Liang spent 70,000 yuan to collect a Nissan Xuanyi, "the owner is a young man, turned around and spent 20,000 to rent a Mercedes-Benz S-Class to prepare for a blind date." ”
2
A million-dollar "face business"
"We do luxury car rental, in fact, it is more of a face business." Running a luxury car rental company for six years, Sson said bluntly. "Driving a domestic car and a Mercedes-Benz, there must be a big difference, after all, others will only look at you outside, will not ask you how much money you have." 」
However, the need to "support the scene" alone does not seem to be enough to support the huge industry. Si Sheng remembers that in the early days, it was still based on business needs, "Elfa and Mercedes-Benz S-Class are all bare-handed models." ”
In recent years, the luxury car market has become more and more lively. From the perspective of new car sales data, in 2021, Rolls-Royce delivered new cars by 50% year-on-year to 5586 units, a new 117-year record high for the brand. Bentleys rose 31 percent to 14,659 units, and Lamborghinis rose 13 percent to 8,405 units, both at a new high.
The market, catalyzed by strong demand, has also made people outside the walls extremely red-eyed.
Source: Pixabay
By chance, Gao Ning learned from a friend that the luxury car rental market is rising, and as a second-hand car dealer, he has long been not optimistic about the investment rate and return rate of the second-hand car business. "The fixed parking fee alone costs 150,000 yuan per year, and the second-hand car requires as much inventory as possible and increase the turnover rate, and once it exceeds the time in hand, it must be sold in order to protect the capital."
After understanding the needs of the local area, he decided decisively to transform. At first, out of concern about turnover, Gao Ning only dared to put 10 vehicles to test the waters. After operating for a while, he found that "the liquidity is very high, and there is basically no need to consider the source of customers." ”
As customers expanded from fixed businesses to individuals, he also increased the number of cars in his hands to 27. At present, in addition to Maiteng, Volkswagen CC and Passat, "the rest are luxury and ultra-luxury brands such as BBA, Land Rover and Porsche." ”
When the income began to rise, Gao Ning's investment gradually became larger, and his investment amount is currently more than 9 million yuan. He calculated that the company's annual gross profit is one million yuan, excluding the various expenses and labor costs of opening a store, and the net income is more than 700,000 yuan, which is twice that of his own second-hand car.
For Ruan Hong, it is an accident to engage in luxury car rental. After earning his first pot of gold in Jinan by running a restaurant in his early years, he bought a BMW 5 Series. Later, someone invited him to run a wedding car at a price of 350 yuan, "running in the morning is more than some people earn a day", after discovering business opportunities, he also began to gather car owners and form a team.
Although in the early days, with the price advantage, it also had the upper hand in the local wedding car market, but in the intensifying price war, Ruan Hong's team still lost. In 2019, although he only had two cars, the BMW 5 Series and the Maserati Levante, Ruan Hong still set his sights on the luxury car rental business.
He has calculated an account, even if he borrowed a loan to buy a second-hand Mercedes-Benz S-Class of more than 500,000 yuan, the monthly repayment plus maintenance costs looked the same as the income, "but after 3 years of repayment of the loan, and then sell more than 300,000." In its view, the residual value of vehicles is an important source of profit for this industry.
As a practitioner, Cheng Dong also holds a similar idea. He believes that compared with stocks and funds, "even if the car will depreciate, the income brought by its service life and the value of the vehicle itself are far more than the depreciation." ”
3
The big fish pit in the water is also big
Today, Nguyen Hung manages 68 vehicles and has been in business for many years, and he knows that risks are everywhere. "It is a fact that the investment in luxury leasing is high, and once the capital chain is broken, the impact is devastating." In order to cope with the unexpected situation, he prepared a risk reserve of 240,000 yuan for himself, "this money will not move until it is forced." ”
The reality, however, is that the money is far from enough to fill the pits you've stepped on. He once met a customer who rented a sports car and escaped from an accident, and the insurance company refused to settle the claim, so he could only admit it, pay his own money to compensate the owner first, and then spend money on repairs." ”
The difficulty of rent collection has also caused Gao Ning to suffer heavy losses. A company rented 10 cars in one go and promised to rent them for 1 year, thinking that it would be a big order to make money, but because its capital chain was broken, it was difficult to pay the rent. After dragging for a few months, he had to tow the car back from various cities himself. In this single alone, its loss is more than 300,000.
In order to recover the rent and maintenance costs, Ruan Hong had to exhaust himself and sue. But he found that "for those old lai, litigation will not help." "It took a lot of energy and financial resources, and the majority of the arrears that could not be recovered still accounted for. He had roughly estimated that the losses of rent and maintenance costs alone amounted to hundreds of thousands.
In this industry, the source of cars is roughly divided into two types, one is its own vehicle, and the capital investment is large but relatively easy to control. The other is to cooperate with the owner or business to sign a lease or mortgage contract. Over time, Gao Ning found that some rental companies can still rent money even if they don't have cars.
He told Future Auto Daily that some people will sublease the vehicles they rent from other companies below the market price through the operation of "low rent and high pledge", and then collect higher deposits, and then make profits by deducting deposits. "For example, if a car has a scratch, they will open their mouths for five thousand, and in fact, they may be able to repair it in a few hundred pieces." What's more, in order to squeeze more fees, there will be malicious fraud incidents, "profiteering is too testing human nature." ”
In his years of experience, Cheng Dong has seen some people lose themselves in money, and some people overestimate their abilities, expand indefinitely, and finally collapse in the belief of "vigorous miracles". However, there are also people who are constantly changing and quickly adapting to the emerging nuggets.
4
"If you don't do traffic, you'll die"
Open the door to do business, the most afraid of the lack of popularity in the store. In the past year, with the gradual saturation of the customer channel and the significant reduction of new customers, Ruan Hongyin felt that the company had reached a bottleneck period. "It's okay to live comfortably for two more years now, but if it doesn't change, it's bound to close."
In order to seek a breakthrough, Ruan Hong has traveled to the first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou to learn from the experience, and in Sanya, where luxury car business is everywhere, he also specializes in the local rental market. He found that business was going online, and everyone was trying to drain from the line. In the social platform, luxury cars have also become a weapon for various accounts to "suck powder".
"What we lack is not cars, but traffic." After finding out the doorway, Ruan Hong also began to turn to the front. Brushing short videos became part of his daily work, learning how his peers operate and promote, and he also began to start shooting and opening accounts on major social platforms. "Now we have 23,000 Douyin fans, which is not much but it is all real." Speaking of his achievements over the past year, Ruan Hong could not hide his excitement.
Running a luxury leasing company in Changsha for 6 years, Luan Tao has summed up a set of his own methodology for online extension. There are no special circumstances, every day he will appear on camera to shoot 1-2 short videos, covering talking about cars, exposing industry routines and sharing business economics.
The topic is carefully designed to create its own "sincere" personality and increase the sense of trust of fans. After more than a year of operation, his followers on the short video platform have exceeded 160,000, and sometimes online orders can account for 30% of the month.
In order to improve the quality of the video and ensure a more stable output, Ruan Hong chose to cooperate with the Internet celebrities and outsourced all the photographic editing. Sending 10 videos a month costs thousands of yuan or so, and the cost is still manageable, but in the many similar videos, he does not feel much competitiveness. He plans to train a host and recruit two college students to do new media promotion and operation work full-time.
In July 2020, when he was visiting Beijing, he overheard a "net red" car wash shop with good business that impressed Ruan Hong. Two months later, a store with a similar temperament from decoration style to business model was also opened in Jinan.
Source: Future Automotive Daily
"At that time, we didn't know anything about the car wash business, we had to grope for everything, and I took my staff to train in Beijing for a month." Ruan Hong said that the decoration of the car wash shop was designed by partners in Beijing, both rest areas and photo punch elements with words such as "Fujiwara Tofu Shop", "In the future, we will also increase the brand peripherals and accessories grocery stores." ”
With the name of "net red" in the car wash shop, although Ruan Hong's car rental business is also out of the local market, the high investment also makes him bitter. Renovation and a year's rent for the venue alone cost more than $1 million, and according to the 90 yuan per car, even if the three car wash spaces are 24 hours a day, they can't balance this account.
Or in order to seek psychological comfort, Ruan Hong reminded himself of the original intention of opening a car wash shop, not expecting it to make money, but to drain the luxury car rental business, "Customers who come to wash cars can also introduce customers and expand our channels." ”
After more than 4 months of operation, the car wash shop has already had a good reputation in the local area. However, he still set a deadline for this money-losing transaction, "at most two years, the future may also be changed to a cave or other style, all for traffic." ”
(Note: The interviewees in this article are pseudonyms)
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