New Business Owner , Need Marketing Help And Advise

[Guest omiyasports]

Hi all,

 

My name is Phil and i am 25 years old. I started the mechanic shop in Cary NC . I took over as a running business next to a used car lot with app. 150 cars.

We have about 60% of the business from them. My shop has 10 bays with 8 lifts and a back area can store another 5 cars.

We have 5,6 shops around us , and few tires and body shop around us. Most of the people did not recognize us and think that we are part of the dealership or the mechanic shop next to us. I finally got permit to put up wall sign and light box by the street. In this 6 months of ownership, have 5 mechanics come and go. Finally I hired a L1 tech i can trust and we can break even in May. Right now, i have 1 manager , 2 mechanics in the back. I recently bought an alignment machine and tire machines. My plan is the expand the business with enough of fleet works and street customers and get 1 or 2 more mechanics to utilize the shop.

 

Being an Asian, i try to focus on this group of people. We have approximately 20,000 people in this area and most of them has the language barrier and willing to find a trust worthy shop for repairing. I am gonna advertise on local newspaper and business to get our name our there.

 

I want to specialize in Japaneses and general repair for all models.

 

 

My manager will be focusing on fleet service. I joined the chamber of commerce months ago and i am researching the potential business ,such as construction and plumbing company, to see if they have fleet vehicles for us to work on.

 

This first 6 months in to business is really hard for me and i am frustrated all the time. i really need some advise to keep us running. Please let me know if i am doing it right or wrong and tell me what i should do next.

 

I graduated with a mechanical engineering degree in 2011. I am always want to work with cars and i decided to start up my own business in the beginning of the year. At first my parents is not supporting me, and think that i should get a job. but now they seems changing their mind as my passion in it and my hard working. I hope my dream will come true and my parents can retire soon.

[CARMandP]

Welcome to the "wonderful" world of shop ownership You will gain a lot of insight from the "older" shop owners on this site.

 

Have you checked to make sure your online presence is good? Google places, Bing, Yahoo, and such. All of this is free and since more and more people are searching for shops online this is a must. We are one of the only ones in our small town that have this setup and I get a lot of people from it. Also if you have never seen it Google has added a panoramic view that you can add to your google places page. This is a really cool feature that will allow people to see your waiting room area or how your place looks from other than the street. Costs a little money to have someone take the pictures but this is something that we will be doing soon.

[Guest omiyasports]

i have my website and we are on YP . Im still waiting for the pin for google place.

How hard is to get some fleet service from other business.

Since we are so close to railroad, we have a lot of construction firms around.

[CARMandP]

Not hard if that is what you are looking for. I would personally visit some of your local fleet businesses and make sure they know you are out there. Personal contact for those type of customers is very important in my opinion.

[Guest omiyasports]

U have any ideas about getting more car counts in the shop?

[phynny]

I don't think you can get any better than passing out flyers and having giving your customers multiple cards to pass out. My shop is also right next to a used car dealership and we have been preparing a sort of "gift basket" for any new buyers. Maybe a coupon book with some oil changes, coolant flushes etc. We also do a TON of used car dealerships warranty work and we are not cheap. Our key has been quality work and get it done on time. With fleet cars and dealerships you have to understand that everything is going to be last minute and needs to be done immediately so be patient.

 

A friend used to tell me in the customer service industry you are always going to eat crap, the only difference is whether you're going to eat crap on a paper plate or fine china.

 

Do you have a budget and goals written down?

 

Charlie

[Joe Marconi]

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