I've been running a small engine repair service both out of my garage and a trailer for over a year now. I started working as a dealership tech (John Deere then a Kubota Dealer) and then the economy disintegrated and I was laid off. I still work full-time (nights) as a maintenance mechanic. This will be the first year in the last five that I will not have a 2nd day-job (worked a greens crew on a golf course) so that I can focus more time on the business. For me, the biggest hump to get over as far as going full time self-employed is health insurance. With a wife and newborn at home, I can't go without and really can't afford to purchase outright.
I'm factory trained by John Deere and several small-engine manufacturers in addition to my High School Diploma and 1 year of college. (Computer Information Systems - turned out to be a waste of time and money but oh well...) I will need to update and re-cert for a few things as the business gets bigger and I would love to add warranty service sometime next year.
If there was one thing I could do different, I would have started the business in '08 when I was unemployed. I wasn't married, I was living with my future in-laws (next to nil for living expenses), and I was motivated! Going without health coverage then would not have been a big deal and I would have had years to get this thing moving instead of trying to fit it around a full-time job and a part-time job.
The double-edged sword in this business is the serious lack of qualified technicians. With stratocharging, digital carb tuning on saws, EFI on small engines, FADEC High-Pressure Common Rail Diesels coming for utility tractors, etc., the writing is on the wall for the guys who bury their heads in the sand. We'll get to a point where the average homeowner will no longer be able to perform all but the most basic repairs to his own equipment, much like today's cars. There is a LOT of resistance to high-level training at the dealer level since it's very expensive and employee turn-over is usually high due to low-wages. Having the ability to quickly and accurately diagnose a problem and correct it is the key to being able to repair this stuff as inexpensively and efficiently as possible. Part-changing is expensive!
The other nice part about my business is turn-time. Ever drop a unit at a dealer service department and be told it would take 6-8 weeks to get it back? That's actually pretty common at least around here. The mobile side of my business takes care of routine maintenence and quick, easy repairs on-site so there is no reason to remove a running machine from the customers hands. The more time consuming stuff is brought in to the shop so that I can go through it more thoroughly and without multiple trips to the customer. Even if I bring a unit in, I can still turn it around in most cases within a week, two max. Longer than that is a special case that both the customer and I have talked about before the machine was loaded on the truck.
The dream is a full-service dealership that is focused on quality-of-product and customer service but for now I'll settle for "Hey my mower is broke, you think you can fix it?".