Considering a shift to specialize

Joshjmellor · October 29, 2012

Hello all! I am fairly new to ASO and its been a great resource, Thank You!

I am part way into my third year of business and looking to continue development and progress of my business. The first year was a lovely rollercoaster full of the perils and victories many of you have faced. The second year saw some traction and althought not a lot of profit, an understanding of what needed to be done to make it. Now for the third year, starting to make some money and run the business rather than that clawing on for dear life I experienced earlier.

So, I am seeking opinions and advice from the community on the idea of creating some specialties within the full service scope of my shop.

Some background. We are very full service, Domestic, Euro, and Asian. Good selection of scan tools, info, programming, etc. I do have a niche that we have been developing-- hybrid cars. We are one of the only shops in the state that does any serious work to them, battery rebuilds, transmission, inverter, etc. I plan to continue chasing these customers and giving them an alternative to the dealers. But! I also have a decent base of euro customers and I like those cars and customers, both profitable niches on there own.

I just made some moves with my techs and I have in place a team that could specialize in both with some investment in tooling for the german cars.

How do you guys go about courting a specific group without losing the other?

Is it worth specializing in one area versus trying to be everything to everyone?

I initially was shooting to be a hybrid specific shop, but the german cars followed me as well as all the general repair work, and I'm grateful, but I would like to define who we are and be the best at that.

I appreciate the comments and advice given.

Thanks! Josh