I run a mobile mechanic company. I feel like my business is doing pretty good because I’m fairly busy. I tend to be busy Monday-Friday 40 hours a week working on cars. But, somehow I’m still struggling extremely bad financially and I’m worried I’m gonna have to move to a cheaper state to save myself. So, I need some advice.

I charge $85 for “basic diagnostic” this includes things like, check engine lights on. Noises when driving, belt noises, smaller stuff. Or same for like an inspection if the cars worth fixing up or selling after it’s been sitting a while or their buying it etc.

I don’t charge any travel fee if they live within 15 minutes of me . But if they live like 25-30 minutes I’ll Charge like $15 extra for travel. This is a lot of my schedule I usually do like 2-3 of these a week.

Then my repairs, I charge $130/hr and base it off book time for the repair. So if it calls for 1.5 hour and I’m there 2 hours I still stick to the 1.5hr quote, so $195 made in labor, maybe $15 made in travel. But it probably took 3.5 hours or more of my day between the travel to pick up parts, then go to them and back, and the repair time. That’s like $50/hr then I have gas expenses on top of that and insurance on the van etc . Then my personal bills are very high cause this state is expensive to live in, rent is crazy.

And I’m drowning. I feel successful cause I’m busy, but I’m not making enough money to survive even though I’m working the equivalent to a full time job on cars, plus running quotes and talking with customers after hours.