John Wooden, the legendary basketball coach from UCLA, once said, “In my forty years of coaching, I never took a shot at the basket, never scored a point and never made a rebound. That was not my job”. John Wooden understood his role as a coach and the role of his players. We, as shop owners need to do the same.
For too many years I wore way too many hats. This notion that I, because I was the “Boss”, had to be the best technician, the best service advisor and essentially the best at all po
Everyone has their own perception on life and the world around them. This perception becomes reality and it’s the only reality that matters. At least for most. This does not always hold true for shop owners.
As shop owners, we don’t always have the luxury of viewing things from our perceptive. There are other people around us and their families to consider. As the owner, and the leader, our concerns and issues take a backseat to the concerns and issues of others. This is something I know
AutoShopOwner.com is proud to announce it now has over 1000 members! This truly is a milestone and exciting to see how ASO has grown in just a few short years.
AutoShopOwner.com was founded on the concept that there is a wealth of business knowledge among automotive shop owners, and by bringing these shop owners together, great things can happen.
Thanks to its loyal member base, AutoShopOwner.com has exceeded expectations. It is within the forums that shop owners engage in dialogue, comm
A good customer called me the other day to let me know that he has concerns regarding the quality of our work. Last week we installed an exhaust system on his Maxima and two days later it sounded like the muffler had fallen off. There was so much noise he was afraid to drive the car. We went to his house to pick it up. We found that the baffles had broken apart in the brand new muffler we just installed.
About two month ago this same customer had to bring the Maxima back due to a grinding
About a year ago I hired a service advisor that I believed at the time would be a great asset to my shop. He had a lot of experience, knowledgeable about the business and well-spoken. He showed all the right credentials.
Soon after being hired, I noticed something that I did not pick up in any of our three interviews; he did not smile. How was it possible I did not notice this? A few more days turned into weeks and I could see that this person’s personality, or lack of personality, did not
Everyone has core beliefs; those values and ideals that determine your personal success. Notice I said, “personal” success? That’s because success is defined by your goals, your desires and your individual talents and potential. Not by the achievements of others. A great athlete may study other great athletes to see how they achieved their success, but ultimately it’s the talents, work ethic and the potential of the individual that will determine personal success.
Below is my list of co
Losing My Patience, Never My Passion
As a shop owner, that began his career as a mechanic 36 years ago, the effort of building a business has taken its toll in many ways. While I have not lost my passion for what I do, I have lost my patience with many of the things I see around me. I have built a business from a small 2-man operation to a 2-facility company with close to 20 employees. It’s often said that you need great people around you in order to achieve success. But the truth is without
A Customer Teaches Me About Life
I will always remember the first day I met Mort Rubenstein. He was in his early 70’s at the time, about 18 years ago and used a walker to get around. He told me that he preferred to wait with his car while it was serviced and that he didn’t mind waiting, no matter how long it took.
I remember as he was leaving my office for the first time, I offered to help him to his car and tried to hold the door open for him. Since he used a walker, I felt I was doi
This article is from my business partner, Terry Keller, who owns Keller Bros. Auto Repair in Littleton, CO. For more information about Terry, you can check out his free ebook on our website, "Is My Story Your Story?" Click here to get it!
Benchmarking
Most of us shop owners understand the process of comparing our numbers to a set of benchmarks or standards. I remember way back over 35 years ago, I had monthly meetings with my accountant where he showed me my shop’s financials with the pe
Back in November, the Federal Reserve announced that it would purchase $600 billion in U.S treasuries. What does this mean? What could it mean to your shop?
Very high inflation will cause prices and the cost of living to go way up. That will hurt your customers and your business in several ways. Is it possible to fix it? What can we do right now to stay busy and profitable in the face of high inflation that may continue for years?
If you've been wondering what Quantitative Easing II, in
This is part two of an article from my business partner, Terry Keller, who owns Keller Bros. Auto Repair in Littleton, CO. For more information about Terry, you can check out his free ebook on our website, "Is My Story Your Story?" Click here to get it!
The Missing Piece of the Puzzle
It wasn’t until I discovered a way to measure performance that the light went on. Let me caution that measurement by itself will not ensure sustained improvement. However, I found that just by measuring, im
Managing Your Most Important Asset, Your Employees
A practical guide for shop owners
By Joe Marconi
We all know that without customers, your business would not survive. The strength of your customer base insures the success of your business and that success is directly related to the quality of people who work in your company. The only way to insure a great customer base is by building a great team of employees.
When Yankee legend Yogi Berra was asked, “What makes a great manage
This article is from my business partner, Terry Keller, who owns Keller Bros. Auto Repair in Littleton, CO. For more information about Terry, you can check out his free ebook on our website, "Is My Story Your Story?" Click here to get it!
I can just imagine some of you thinking, “Why waste time reading this when I’ve already tried everything to train my people to act right and perform well AND IT CAN’T BE DONE?! Why keep beating my head against the wall?”
Or, maybe you’re not so cynica
Hopefully you're getting ready to attend CARS in a few weeks. If you're coming, be sure to stop by our booth and see us!
But no matter what your plans, I wanted to address a problem we dealt with in our shop for years: training that didn't stick.
There's no denying that one of the greatest things that ever happened in our shop is service writer training. We have tracked our training experiences and how they affect each individual, and have at times actually experienced an increase in ou
Are you coming to CARS in Las Vegas this year? You'll want to stop by the Auto Profit Masters booth!
We're giving away two iPads, a VideoStik tool for diagnosing hard-to-see repairs, and much more...
Plus, we're going to be showing off the earth-shattering RPM ToolKit, the SCAN TOOL you've always wanted for your shop!
I hope to see you there!
If you've missed the past couple blogs, I've been sharing the secrets we use in our shop to increase our Lube Lane tickets by $200.
To quickly recap, on every oil change ticket...
1. Tell the customer that you are going to perform a complete inspection on the vehicle when you first sign them in.
2. Be SURE that you begin asking questions about the HISTORY of the vehicle, and WHICH services have been performed as far as the PM goes!
3. Get the vehicle pulled around and out of sigh
Hopefully you saw my first entry for "Timing the Advisement of an Oil Change!" It covered the first two things you should ALWAYS do. To recap:
1. Tell the customer that you are going to perform a complete inspection on the vehicle when you first sign them in.
2. Be SURE that you begin asking questions about the HISTORY of the vehicle, and WHICH services have been performed as far as the PM goes!
Here are the next two things that can add $200 to your ROs if you do them EVERY TIME:
In a session with a client last week, something I had been trying to teach everyone for a long time suddenly became brilliantly clear to both of us…and it’s going to mean a HUGE difference for his shop this year.
I call it the “first quarter” of the sales “game” concept. It’s the difference between a $15.00 oil change and a $350.00 average ticket!
The idea is this: when a person comes in for a quick service like an oil change, it’s important that we understand that we are dealing with an
The RPM ToolKit I mentioned a few weeks ago is so close to being ready to go live it hurts!
We're finishing up the ability for shops to be able to compete with other shops, service writers with other service writers, and techs with other techs on benchmarks...it's got me excited and our clients excited and I wanted to share it with you, too!
But that's not my only reason for sharing...I thought I'd ask you: how often have you ever thought about being able to compare your shop to other
