Shop Owners Need To Define Themselves

[Joe Marconi]

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[CARMandP]

Great reminder and a hard thing to do when you started out as a tech.

[ncautoshop]

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 positions was ridiculous. This way of thinking leads to burnout and disappointment.

 

Learning your strengths as a leader is crucial.  Knowing the strengths of others in your shop and helping them become better is a gold mine. Thinking that the world surrounds us and that we need to have our hands in every element of the business will lead to our demise.  When the second baseman is not performing, the coach does not take his place on the field, he gets another second baseman.

 

Once we assume the role as business owner, our life changes.   If we don’t clearly define our role and all positions in our company we will not succeed. Trust me, until I realized that it’s the people around me that leads to my success, I struggled daily.

 

Running a shop is not easy. It’s perhaps, one the toughest jobs out there. But it can be rewarding both financially and emotionally. Work on your role first, and then go to work making others around you better at what they do. Your happiness and the happiness of others depend on it. 

 

 

 

I currently hold the role of the tech, book keeper/office manager, service writer, manager and owner. Even though I'm a MUCH smaller operation than most anyone on the board it can be overwhelming for sure!

 

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I don't have a problem defining my self as a boss. I can take control of a situation and I can be stern to my employees. (3) The thing is that I'm not allowed to. Why is beyond me.

 

I have noticed that my husband is not that all stern. His employees tend to stop working when he does, and at times pick up conversations with our customers. To me they need to leave that up to us. I'm not allowed to tell them otherwise. That is my husband job since he is over the shop. I'm more time in the office. I still pay attention to things that go on at the shop and Im not always happy. This causes alot of tension in between us.

 

Yesterday my husband stop working for about 20 minutes and one by one his employees stop along with him. I believe it was my husbands job as a boss to tell them to go back to work and keep working. He never did and instead let them go back on their own when HE (husband) started back to working. UNACCEPTABLE in my eyes.

 

I think that he wont let me make decisions or be verbally stern with them for fear of his employees not respecting him or probably because Im a woman!

 

What do you guys think?

 

I want something done about this. He is not good in taking in criticism especially if is coming from me.

 

How can I approach this situation without him being mad or offended. He sees that this is a problem due to lack of productivity but Im not quite sure he knows how to take initiative to solve it.

[Jeff]

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I was gone for 3 weeks. I left in the middle of a disagreement we had about the way the shop needs to be ran. This is my first week back and I must say that I shouldn't have never left.

[Gonzo]

LOL, my wife used to work in the office..actually for about 15 years. She used to call her job "Damage Control" cause if I got pissed at something she was there to smooth it out, me included.

 

Being the manager, or the boss... takes a whole different set of values....something we all learn with years of experience.

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"Damage Control" lol I like that term.

[Jmazur]

you and your husband need to specifically define who does what job, in relation to the two of you running the shop. It can be very difficult to have a husband/wife team, because any disagreement between the 2 of you changes the "feel" of the entire business. I would suggest that the two of you get away from the shop, and determine who will do what job. Communication is key, and my wife has learned to present things to me in a particular way to keep me from getting defensive. Though she is not involved in the day to day operations any more, she still is my #1 counselor and idea filter. Staying married is tough, but staying married while running a business is even tougher. But it is worth it! Hope this helps.

[ExclusiveAutoCare]

you and your husband need to specifically define who does what job, in relation to the two of you running the shop. It can be very difficult to have a husband/wife team, because any disagreement between the 2 of you changes the "feel" of the entire business. I would suggest that the two of you get away from the shop, and determine who will do what job. Communication is key, and my wife has learned to present things to me in a particular way to keep me from getting defensive. Though she is not involved in the day to day operations any more, she still is my #1 counselor and idea filter. Staying married is tough, but staying married while running a business is even tougher. But it is worth it! Hope this helps.

 

 

Thank you for your input. Yes, it is very tough thing to do do. We are working on it. That is the problem he gets offensive when I try to present an idea or when I suggest a way to do things different. I recently spoke with him about communicating things to each other. Hopefully he will stay committed in everything he said. I want the business to succeed. As for him as long as he is working on cars he is a happy camper.