If I didn't Get Into College

In most households in America the recipe for success is quite simple and formulaic: high school followed by college followed by a decent paying job. Maybe a little big of grad school to spice things up. But what if there were no college? What if every college sent me that dreaded "thin envelope" that starts off with "We regret to inform you..."? Being an Indian student with less than a 4.0 gpa this is a real possibility. As Murphy's law states: "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong", therefore I need to prepare for the worst. Here is what I would do.

1. Save up some money

I work weekends making $250 a month along with my cell phone bill getting paid. So for starters I would keep this job and save up all the money I could while continuing to mooch off my parents (a very acceptable custom in India until one gets married....so in my case I'll never have to work a day again!). Using this money I would invest in cars, old and cheap junkers that need a ton of work. And as my weekdays are free I'd fix these cars up and resell them for a decent profit. I am mechanically inclined so in addition to this I would also  offer to fix cars for a lower price than any shop around. After all if you let a 16 year old fix your car why pay him like a 35 year old? With a little bit of street cred and low prices I could attract a decent clientele. I would continue this cycle until I saved up a good amount of money.

2. Start a business

Image from: cartoonstock.com

Everyone has some type of skill they have that an employer wants. Despite this many employers refuse to hire potential employees due to the lack of a diploma. In this case I would decide to cut out the middle man and offer my services directly to clients by starting my own automotive repair shop. A little bit of research shows that a 3 car garage can be rented for between three to four thousand a month. Let's take the higher number to play it safe. Four grand a month just to rent for an empty space with 3 hydraulic lifts and a tiny office. So that's four grand a month. Next would be to stock up each bay (each individual garage with a lift) with tools. Each bay would need an air compressor and a good set of air tools such as a cut off wheel, impact wrench, ratchet, rivet driver, air hammer all that good stuff. So here's a list for all the tools from harborfreight.com and their cost.

1. 29 Gallon 150 PSI Air Compressor: $350
2. 50 Ft. air hose: $90
3. 3/8ths Air Ratchet: $19
4. 1/2 Impact Wrench: $27
5. Air Impact Screwdriver: $20
6. Air Hammer: $15
7. Air Cut Off Wheel: $10
8. Air Riveter: $35
9. Metric Impact Socket Set: $11
10. SAE Impact Socket Set: $11
11. Metric Deep Impact Socket Set: $22
12. SAE Deep Impact Socket Set: $22
13. Total: $632

That about covers the air tools which make life a thousand times easier for mechanics. Next up are the hand tools. You simply cannot survive without a good set of hand tools. Lets run down the list shall we?

1. 301 Piece Mechanics Tool Set: $190. (Includes every SAE and Metric sizes imaginable. A good variety of Allen heads / hex keys. A breaker bar, 3 ratchets and good set of open ended wrenches in both SAE and metric. A decent assortment of screwdrivers and pliers and some socket extensions and adapters.) 
2. 14 Piece Metric and SAE Ratcheting Box End Wrenches: $54
3. 5 Piece Hammer Set: $16
4. 4 Piece Pry Bar Set: $10
5. Total: $270

That about covers the hand-tools. There might be some I'm missing but we'll cover that later. So these tools will need to be in every bay so I'll add up the totals and multiply by three. That comes out to $2706 if my math is right. Next we'll add in about $500 for specialty tools for specific jobs such as a ball joint press or an inner tie rod tool. That brings the total to  $3206. Now let's add the various bolt in shop tools. This is where the money adds up. 

1.     11 Drawer Tool Cabinet. $200 (Times 3 for each bay) 

2.     Workbench with lighting: $100

3.     4' Swivel Vise: $45

4.     6' Bench Grinder: $45

5.     20 Ton Shop Press: $200

6.     5 Speed Drill Press: $70

7.     Tire Changer: $40

8.     2.5 Ton Floor Jack: $80

9.     2 Sets of 3 Ton Jack Stands: $50

10. Engine Hoist with Leveler: $258

11. 800lb Transmission Jack: $140

12. 20 Gallon Parts Washer: $100

13. Total: $1728

And finally we have all the tools to surround our shop.  Total comes out to $4934. Lets add in disposable gloves, shop towels and hand cleaner and round it off to an even $5000. So at $9000 we have our first month's expenses. Lets add in a $1000 for electricity and water and $1000 to set up the office with a decent computer, a desk, chairs, file cabinet and bunch of files for customer records. Now let's see how much we can make with this 11 grand investment. I'll hire 3 ASE Mechanics to work in each bay and pay them $25 per hour they work. I realize that business might be slow for a while so I'll have to pay expenses with a loan and the capital I have accumulated. After a bit of advertising let's say they work half the day each day. While this is a rather low estimate it's a good idea for what happens if business is slow. So four hours a day times 3 mechanics equals 12 worked and billable hours per day. I charge $60 an hour to the customer for labor and they handle the cost of the parts. That makes a gross income of $21600 a month. Minus $5000 for utilities and $1890 for Maryland business tax we arrive at $14710. Then subtract $9000 for the total salary of all three mechanics and we have $5710 left over for me to take home. Not bad considering all I do is background office work. Keeping track of customers, ordering parts, handling tax forms, basic managerial task. All of which do not require a full 8 hour day allowing me to work at $60 an hour when there are an excess of customers. Subtract income tax and that leaves me with a good $5000 a month working 4-5 hour days. Not bad for a guy that got rejected from Harvard right? 

Image from: webmoneymaker.net

3. Expand The Business  

Now that I'm making a decent monthly salary and know the workings of running a business through my own trial and error (personally my favorite way to learn albeit I have many trials and tons more errors) I can now expand my business. I already know the costs of starting up another shop so I'll look for a garage in an area that won't take away business from my current store and open up a second shop. If my expenses stay the same and I manage both garages from one office I make around $10000 a month. Working basic 8 hour days. Or I could hire a separate manager for the second shop and make a net of maybe $1500. But at that point my pay is 6500 per month still working these half days. An above average salary with minimal work and no college degree, and no college debt for that matter, is a situation most wouldn't hesitate to be in.

So what have we learned here? College isn't everything. While most of us, myself included, do plan on going to college we shouldn't go with the hopes of just landing a job. The objective should to be put our parents hard earned money into learning something we can not only make a living out of but one that we enjoy learning and doing. After all who would you rather be? A tight business executive working wall street doing a job he hates making 150k a year or a nurse making 65k a year doing a job that makes him happy? Money can't buy happiness but happiness can buy money.......Okay that was a load of bull but the point is money shouldn't be your primary objective, doing what you enjoy should be your number one goal. Agree? Disagree? Post in the comments! And as always thanks for reading!