mspecperformance

Manually Time Clock with an appropriate system behind it or an integrated cloud based or digital time clock. I don't use either at the moment but these generally are the options.

I feel that it is a common practice property and business wise, not necessarily residential since it is fairly easy to get a house mortgage.

 

Ask your tool guys if they no of anyone selling there business/property or are disgruntled with the business.

 

Start with unoccupied lots. Since they are a complete liability to the property owner.

 

Then inquire about people selling business/property through tool guys or local parts houses.

 

Then look into disgruntled, fed up business owners.

 

Then look at people who are close to retirement.

 

Your biggest market will be disgruntled and failing shop owners.

 

There have got to be others on here who have been owner financed.

 

It's all about communication.

Again I appreciate the responses Andre. They are very enlightening and encouraging.

One of my biggest hang ups about property in NYC is that it seems a lot of it is snatched up by developers or parties interested in purchasing property to build up. Not only is the competition very fierce but many property owners have it in mind to sell to developers hoping to get a bigger pay day opposed to someone who will be looking to use the existing building. I recognize these are self defeating excuses and there has to be opportunities out there. I will investigate further.

All my deals were made through kindness, communication and fairly simple agreements of what I am willing to pay and what the seller is willing to accept. All other purchasing agreements are generic according to property purchasing procedures and legal jargon of contracts.

 

The first step I take is pinpoint a property. I would look for one initially fairly close by. I would look for an unoccupied piece that is not on the market yet. I would go to public records and get the property owner information.

 

DO NOT COMMUNICATE THROUGH A VIA! Brokers are necessary sometimes, I've never used one. Whatever you do never talk to tenants of a property, they will lie and dissuade you from purchasing for obvious reasons.

 

The owner is the owner and the decision maker. You need to establish a relationship with the owner or owners. Anyone else is a pawn and you are wasting your time.

 

Sometimes people need to sell but are not aware of it.

 

I am owner financed across the board. Alot of business/property owners are willing to finance you after the down payment because it's a consistent predictable income that pays them both principle and interest and saves them a ton of cash from income taxes. It's dependant on the person. I'm a 3 time winner of that process. And it's been a win,win for everyone.

 

You have to be willing to ask. One guy did not want to finance me, it took me about 2 to 3 years, before he saw the light. It should not take that long, I was not focused or sold enough on the deal. You have to show the other person the benefits and value of your offering.

Andre, is this owner financing a common practice? Are there resources you used in terms of explaining to an owner how this would work out legally? I would be interested in exploring this option and doing my own leg work and research in finding opportunities. I fully understand this is a bit more unorthodox and also reliant upon expressing the plan and confidence behind it. It is very intriguing.

Hey man we have all been there!

I can't speak for the rest of the guys but I am by nature rather pessimistic. I have moments of great optimism however being a business owner you get curve balls thrown at you left and right and i have moments of despair, depression, burnout, bad attitude etc. Just this week the city decided to cut up the street to get it ready to pave so I am basically out 3 days of this week and probably 1-2 days next week. Practically killed my month.

I wish I was blessed with a consistent positive optimistic attitude but unfortunately I am not and I don't think many people are. What I do believe is for those of us who take the leap to be in business for themselves have an inner passion and drive to succeed through our own results. That drive may manifest itself in different ways and some may show it more than others but the one constant all of us should have is to push through it, work smart and work hard, meet and exceed our goals and brighter days will be on the horizon.

In regards to what you are experiencing other than your feelings and mindset, having a consultant or joining a 20 group may help you alleviate your troubles by helping you work smarter and more efficiently. It has made a world of difference for me. To be honest I probably have just as much anxiety but at least we are making 2-3x more than last year, bills are getting paid, and I can hire good help so the day to day grind doesn't fall solely on my shoulders.

Andre, thank you so much for your posts they are very enlightening and a great insight to a real process!

Question - what was the process that you took to finance after the down payment? I am largely unfamiliar with commercial mortgages and loans for property. Other than downpayment Credit score and proof of income is the largest factor for private property mortgage qualification but I am told commercial property process is completely different.

Thanks guys for the great responses. I was actually hoping to get a response from Andre so thanks for that!

Andre, did you look directly at applying for and using SBA backed loans when you were looking into purchasing your next locations? Any advice on applying for these loans?

I am entertaining the idea. In my market, purchasing property is daunting so leasing is more of an option to get a business going.

No good deed goes unpunished. When you set rules on how you do business stick with them. I have a soft spot for people with sob stories and I always get burned. Both employee and customer. Can't have that anymore.

Hey ASO community! I wanted to get a conversation started about multi shop ownership.

How many of you guys out there are multi shop owners?

What prompted you to expand to more locations?

Do you have partners?

Were they branded the same or do you fly your shops under different banners?

Did you take over existing shops or build them from the start up?

What avenues did you use for financing? Cash on hand? Bank? Investors?

Did you purchase the property too?

What do you believe your competitive advantages were?

What do you believe your competitive challenges were?

Greatest Advantage?

Greatest Challenge?

Any pitfalls you experienced?

What carried over from your first location?

I hope we can get some good feedback from the brilliant ASO minds!

I use a matrix but my target goal is 25% overall. I don't do a lot of tires so my purchasing power is relatively low so in order for me to be competitive in another way, I package my tires with the protection plan included.

We use a matrix. I'll send you mine later. I think mine is a bit higher than most.

Carl Sewell's book 'Customers for Life' is an excellent read and would be a cheap place to start. I have taken a select few courses from Elite, and I would say the customer service aspect of Sewell's book is better (and much cheaper) than what I have seen from Elite. Elite does a great job at teach sales from what I saw, but Sewell literally wrote the book on customer service.

 

If your employees are paid based on commission, Sewell does a great job at explaining how much a customer is worth over their lifetime. That should give your employees a good idea at how much each customer is worth to them in terms of paychecks, and in turn, encourage them to really work for customer satisfaction.

Carl Sewell's book is very good. I am going through it now. Reinforcement is what is needed. Carl Sewell mentions why we go to church is to reinforce our faith, morals and values. The same has to happen with anything you want your employees to constantly stick to. If you want your shop and your people have a culture of premium customer service you have to have constant reinforcement and frequent meetings.

My mention of Elite's master course is that it is the only course that I see that sticks to the principles of reinforcement. Other courses, seminars, and classes are great and there is plenty of value there. I just think Elite takes it a step further with their program.

I would suggest you look into hiring a person to exclusively work the front end of your business. You'll see a big increase in technician efficiency without them having to answer phones and attend to customers.

Besides that I would look into an in person training course. What has been working very well for us is the Elite Masters Course. If you need more info you can contact me via email at [email protected]. It is not a cheap program, its rather expensive compared to other programs but if you are looking for lasting results and behavior change conducive to customer service then there are few to no substitutes at least in my experience and research.

What kind of customer concerns do you have?

I just had one that I bought. 2005 Chevrolet Diesel with 355K miles. It was a learning experience or at least that's what I am chalking it up to. We installed a radiator and hoses before the customer was taking a trip pulling a 40' horse trailer with living quarters. The customer overheated the motor when his EGR cooler hose blew and he drove it a little too far. I had heard about the mishap through his girlfriend who is a very good friend of mine. I called him up on Monday since this happened on Sunday night. He explained that he had it towed to a dealership since it was late at night and wasn't sure he could get it in my lot. I asked what happened and he said he didn't notice a check engine light but got a warning of severe engine overheat. The wrecker driver thought it had a loose radiator hose which is when I made my first mistake. I told him if that is indeed the case then we have some liability in this and we stand behind our work.

The dealership threw us under the bus and told the customer that the water pump was leaking and that was the cause of the engine burning up and we should have checked it. They never even put water in it to see the EGR hose blown. I had the truck picked up, paid the towing, paid the "diagnostic" fee of $135 and thats where we found the hose was blown and that there was not a loose radiator hose. I did go back to the dealership and they agreed the customer is at fault but were instructed by the service manager to not say that to the customer. After looking at the freeze frame data, We found that he had a turbo issue which set a check engine light and the coolant temp was 217 degrees at the time. He was also driving 77mph in a pretty hilly area. I'm not sure of the sequence but the fuel rail temp was 260 degrees which tells me the block temp was well above that. The melted wiring harness sheathing was the next indicator.

I told the customer that I didn't feel we had any liability in this and that I didn't owe him anything and that anything I did would be out of the goodness of my heart. That's when it got ugly and the threats started coming. I pretty much left it at that and told him my reasoning and that the data that was initially provided to me was flawed. I listened to all the threats of lawsuits and social media posts. I just informed him that if that's route he chooses to take and that makes him happy then have at it. It just made me sick to my stomach since I would have to look at this guy at church and other social events because of his girlfriend. The only thing I felt we did wrong was not documenting the pressure check after replacing the radiator or documenting the seepage from the water pump. Everything on that truck had some seepage given the miles on it.

I thought about it and when the customer called back to threaten me some more I just offered him $4K for the truck. That just made him even more mad. After the customer cooled down and called back later he thought that would be best and we would never mention it again.

My reasoning was that if I would have never gone and had the truck picked up, we probably would have ended up putting a motor in it with a $1K deductible. If I would have just let my insurance handle it, it would not have gone through our E&O portion because we didn't do anything wrong. It would have gone under a different portion and we would have had a deductible plus would have had to deal with court issues. I then thought about the time I would spend addressing social media post and possible time in court and felt it would be best just to buy the truck, sell it as is. So in the end it will cost me a couple thousand.

The bad part is his girlfriend called me a couple days later and was unaware of all the details and just found out about it and was calling to apologize. She then told me she had broke up with him a few days earlier because he was bipolar and had serious anger issues along with a bit of a police record. I didn't say anything but thought, I wish I knew this a few days earlier as I probably would have handled it differently.

I figured after being in business for about 20 years and this is the first time something like this happened that it was just a small price to pay for for years of trouble free business. I explained to my manager and lead tech the reasoning for my decision, and why we must document everything. Although they didn't like the fact that I bought the truck they agreed with my reasoning.

I've been in similar situations. Few and far between but enough to make me sick when reading about your situation. Customers are very easily "inceptioned" by other shops, friends, family etc. This makes dealing with a customer that has lost your trust very very difficult. The other problem is proper documentation. 99% of the cars and customers we see are decent people and normal cars. We still need to properly document everything in order to help protect ourselves from the odd ball customer and the problem cars.

What if a customer just wants you to pull the codes for a check engine light and they do NOT want diagnostic work performed. Do you all charge for that?

That is a red flag there. I would find out why the customer doesn't actually want to know what his problem. Maybe they have this idea that a fault code is going to tell them everything they need to repair the problem? It would be our jobs to educate that customer that that isn't the case. When you ask a lot of questions about a particular problem and then explain that a problem can be more complicated than what a scanner reads out you have the opportunity to convert a customer. If it is the case for instance of the customer just want to know if its say a evap code that isnt going to kill him if he doesnt fix right away then scan it for free with a smile and give him 2 business cards.

Yelp did not combine with Yext. Yext is another Local Listing service similar to citysearch.com or any site like it. These are local listing sites for businesses. They are important to have you listed as a confirmed business as they will help with Local SEO searches and also google map searches. Google has crawlers looking to authentic your business and if your business is on a ton of these local listing sites it makes your business appear more relevant and legitimate. The biggest key to local listing is NAP (name, address, phone) has to be EXACTLY congruent across the board. Slightly different business info can greatly decrease your ranking when it comes to local SEO and google maps ranking.

I guess we can agree to disagree. I have effectively changed our culture and methods of doing business which include our use of the word complimentary vs free which has doubled out revenue and ARO in a matter of a calendar year. I will try almost anything that I feel might make a positive change to my business. In my experience the small change of free vs complimentary made a big difference.

Some other food for thought (from my own brain lol)... not only are you receiving something of value that is complimentary rather than free but you are also receiving something complimentary because YOU are valued as a client rather than offering free free free which is available to any person off the street. Not sure if that makes sense but it does it my head

If you like using the word free and its working for you by all means keep doing what keeps you successful!

FREE = no value, COMPLIMENTARY = value. There is a reason why higher end services like a nice hotel or resort offer amenities complimentary rather than for free.

The "little" things are still service. Your technician had to take the time to perform the service for your customer. I don't think very many places in the world offer services consistently for free. If we are talking about replacing a set of wipers then I understand. When you go into replacing filters and batteries (sometimes replacing batteries are a BEAR) or performing diagnostic work for free I think you should reevaluate your thinking. Diagnostics for one are one of the most expensive services any shop offers. The tools are the most expensive and constantly have to be updated and subscriptions have to be paid annually. Also the technician assigned to diagnostic is usually the highest paid and highest trained tech. With that in mind I wouldn't want to give that a way for free, I spent a lot of money on my diag tools and tech! Also in regards to filters and batteries... I have a 5 minute rule. If it takes 5 minutes or less to take care of I don't see why we can offer it to our clients complimentary. If it takes more than 5 minutes and they have to use more than a screw driver then I am looking to charge for my services.

Another thing to think about is how your technicians are getting paid. Assuming if your techs get paid salary, you as the owner and service writer want them to be as productive as possible. You have no concern with other than keeping them busy and keeping the customer happy. If your techs are getting flat rate then there lies a problem. They will not want to do a ton of free work without seeing time next to job lines. I ran into this problem first hand when I switched over to flat rate. I immediately found the problem by looking in the mirror. We were giving so much money in labor away because I didn't want to charge for things I thought were a piece of cake. Since then we have charged appropriately and my techs get paid more, our shop makes more money and our clients are still giving us rave reviews.

Thats just my 2c.

P.S. I reread your post and I saw that you charge for diag but I felt it was valuable to leave my comments about diag in my post.

I'll e-mail you Matt.

Shoot me a msg I'd love to

Customer satisfaction index. Survey your client base. Csi should always be close to 100%

Day one- Ask any kid bring in a car for repairs to have their mommy or daddy call to authorize testing and repair costs.

Grown enough to buy his own car, apparently not mature enough to know that his actions are that of a POS human being.

I think Elon does provide value to our site. He has a lot of worthwhile things to say as well as a different strategy outlook which I can appreciate. Do I agree with everything he posts? No. I agree far less with many other members on here. I think it is obtuse and small minded to not accept different views. For instance, Elon posts a lot from the perspective from a tire dealer. It may not apply directly to a lot of what we do since we may not sell a lot of tires or operate our businesses differently but it doesn't mean its not worth reading.

Elon is also a paying advertising member which I am guessing gives him the right to promote his business. You don't have to click on it. If Elon was selling snake oil and venom I would certainly jump on this band wagon. I don't believe this to be the case.