New member in Minnesota.

[dfrisby]

I bought a small engine and power sport repair business a year and a half ago. We have been aggressively adding auto service to the mix and downsizing the unprofitable small engine work. Anyone have any idea how difficult it is to maintain a high average on repair orders when working on $75 weed eaters? We have an interesting mix in our shop at any given time and that keeps life interesting. Last week we did a head job on an international dt466 and a 14.5hp Briggs and Stratton on the same day. Glad I found this forum and have been getting lots of great ideas so far.

 

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[PAPShop]

Welcome! Where in MN are you at?

[xrac]

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[dfrisby]

Welcome! Where in MN are you at?

Pengilly.

 

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[phynny]

Welcome aboard

[CARMandP]

Welcome. Good to have you here.

[dfrisby]

Thanks. I've learned a lot from here already and greatly appreciate everyone's input.

 

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[PAPShop]

Pengilly.

 

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Just a hop, skip and jump away! Beautiful area up there.

Edited August 14, 2015 by PAPShop

[dfrisby]

Just a hop, skip and jump away! Beautiful area up there.

Where are you located?

 

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[PAPShop]

Brainerd - besides general auto repair, we do performance. Retail store for aftermarket performance parts & performance services, auto repair on collector & classics, restorations, custom alignments, fabrication, engine building, chassis dyno services on cars, trucks, motorcycles & atvs, tuning, and ask if we don't list it.

 

Read your post about boats. We work on inboard motors and tuning. Not our favorite because they want it done now and the tech is doing yoga in a tiny box, but it is very profitable.

Edited August 14, 2015 by PAPShop

[dfrisby]

Brainerd - besides general auto repair, we do performance. Retail store for aftermarket performance parts & performance services, auto repair on collector & classics, restorations, custom alignments, fabrication, engine building, chassis dyno services on cars, trucks, motorcycles & atvs, tuning, and ask if we don't list it.

 

Read your post about boats. We work on inboard motors and tuning. Not our favorite because they want it done now and the tech is doing yoga in a tiny box, but it is very profitable.

Looked up your website. Looks like what I'm trying to create for my shop. We do the regular day to day work on cars and wheelers, but it's the classics and "something different" projects I really enjoy doing. Been looking at moving to a bigger shop and trying to grow, but finding top notch techs has been a challenge here. I'm on the third day this week being the only person here.

[Joe Marconi]

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[ATLAuto]

Anyone have any idea how difficult it is to maintain a high average on repair orders when working on $75 weed eaters?

I can imagine. If it helps at all, my friend is in charge of the power tool department of Home Depot. I had no idea that you could bring a weed eater to Home Depot and get it repaired, but apparently you can. Anyway, his main complaint is exactly the same as yours. The guys at the counter gave away repairs, did not charge for small tune ups, etc. It was a giant profit loss center for Home Depot for years. He remedied this in two ways... First, he made a standard menu price for all repairs. This was not difficult, because there are probably ten total repairs you can do on a weed eater. The front counter guys were not allowed to deviate from this list. Then, he changed their employee pay plan from hourly to commission based. While they still don't make a killing in this department, these two changes did bring them out of the red.

Edited August 29, 2015 by ATLAuto

[PAPShop]

Looked up your website. Looks like what I'm trying to create for my shop. We do the regular day to day work on cars and wheelers, but it's the classics and "something different" projects I really enjoy doing. Been looking at moving to a bigger shop and trying to grow, but finding top notch techs has been a challenge here. I'm on the third day this week being the only person here.

If you are ever in the Brainerd area drop by (hard when you're working all the time). I'd be happy to give you a tour and a little history about our shop.

 

When looking for a tech, try doing a working interview. It tells a lot about the prospect. We did that with the 3 guys we have now, which we feel are rock stars.