Going Mobile: The Experienced Mechanic's No-BS Guide to Going Independent

By Cole Vance

Most books on going mobile will tell you to get insurance, set your rates, and find customers. They won't tell you which insurance, what your rates should actually be, or what to do when a customer files a chargeback on a job you completed correctly.

This one does.

Going Mobile is written by a working mobile mechanic for mechanics who are serious about building a real business - not a side hustle, not a hobby with a van, but a full-time operation that pays its bills, protects its owner, and grows year over year.

Here's what that means in practice:

On business structure: Most books mention LLCs. This one explains how LLC liability protection actually works, and more importantly, how it fails - specifically the veil-piercing scenarios that courts use to hold owners personally liable when they commingle funds, skip the operating agreement, or run business expenses through personal accounts. If your LLC gets pierced in a lawsuit, the formation fee you paid means nothing. You'll know exactly what to do to make sure that doesn't happen.

On insurance: Three policies, explained in full - general liability, garage liability, and commercial auto - with the specific exclusions that apply to mobile mechanics in each one. You'll understand what's actually covered, what isn't, and why a standard commercial auto policy won't protect you if a customer's car rolls off your jack and damages another vehicle. Most books in this category mention the word "insurance" and move on. This one doesn't.

On pricing: Not "charge what the market will bear." The actual math, worked from your real monthly overhead to a minimum billable rate to a target take-home, with a parts markup framework and an effective hourly rate calculator you can run on any job before you quote it. If your flat rate on a brake job isn't accounting for drive time and parts sourcing, you're leaving money on the table every single week. The numbers in this book are real.

On what goes wrong: A full chapter on mistakes - the head gasket diagnostic that becomes a comeback, the discount spiral that trains customers to expect perpetual deals, the insurance lapse that voids coverage on the worst possible day. Another chapter on disputes - the chargeback scenario worked through with actual dollar figures, the pre-job walk-around that closes pre-existing damage claims before they open, and the paper trail that wins those disputes when they escalate.

What else is in here:

How to structure a work order so it functions as a legal document, not just a receipt
Van build-out and tool selection prioritized by what actually generates revenue first
Marketing from zero - Nextdoor, Craigslist, Google Business Profile, and fleet accounts - with specific tactics, not generic advice
EV and hybrid service: what a mobile mechanic can and cannot do, where the revenue actually is, and why a bi-directional scanner is the most important tool purchase you'll make in the next two years
Quarterly taxes, SEP-IRA contributions, and the bookkeeping setup that makes an audit survivable
How to screen customers before you drive to them, fire bad ones without a confrontation, and build a repeat-customer base that fills your schedule without paid advertising
Five ready-to-use forms: work order, customer record card, daily work log, van inventory checklist, and pre-job vehicle walk-around

If you've already read one of the short books in this category and walked away feeling like you could have written it yourself - because it told you things you already knew, without ever getting specific - this is the book you were looking for.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GTDPXKN5
• ISBN13: 9798250397001
• Release Date: March 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 90 Pages
• Weight: 0.51 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 8.5" x 11.0"