RyanGMW

We have Aramark. I tried to fire them when unifies was trying to win my business. They threatened to sue me for $7800 in damages for the 2.5yrs left on an auto renew contract. They are blood sucking thieves. I’m 13 months from done now and will never hire another company that wants any sort of contract. If they want my business they can try to earn it and keep it by doing a good job. We bought our building and don’t have to answer to anyone except the state. Good riddance to these shady uniform companies. They are all horrible. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

RobMax- thank you for that. I was starting to think I should charge for this, but I increased my labor rate to offset the costs so they are just hidden into the labor. It's much easier to add .1hr on a job where you needed a few odds and ends and easily core for them without the customer feeling like you "nickel and dimed" them to death.

We run a dexos full syn and it's cheap. We are a high end euro shop. Most customer don't care. If they do then offer them other hooves like lubromoly/Castrol/etc whatever makes them feel better. 90% never even ask so why not use an oil good enough and make more money? Last I checked, Oil doesn't have a logo when it's in an engine. Just be sure it's quality and you are good to go!

Dead serious. Their base price when I had them was $999/mo with a 12mo minimum contract. I stopped it at the 12mo end.

I will share my 2 cents. I joined Kukui with the thought they would make my sales soar. We had a .06% increase in sales over the previous year. Once I dropped them and got a web guy who really knows his SEO and landing pages for every area around me and the cars I work on (all things Kukui promised and never delivered) then I really started to take off. We have had 20% sales increase for 2 straight years and dropped them 22mo ago. I let my 1yr term run out and quit. The recorded calls are cool, I caught a few mistakes from my service writer. The dashboard is super slick and cool to have all the data at your quick fingertips. But I don't miss it. I don't miss getting billed $999/mo either. I now spend 200-300/mo for my small local guy and have better traction and a personal touch of someone coming to my shop once a month to check on my progress and make it work for me. Kukui is good for big shops, but I am a 3 man operation, and we just couldn't justify the expense to benefit ratio. I firmly believe in having a strong web presence. We built this shop on the internet, in the age of the internet (6yrs old now) and it really works, but there is nothing better than word of mouth among friends! Hope this helps.

At some point you have to weigh out the pros and cons of running such a business. If you accept the fact you are going to have upset customers due to working on shit cars and dealing with shit people then you just need to set some rules in place and have your guys follow them. I like my customer base paying $125+/hr so I typically only get 1-2 shitty customers a year. The rest self-sort and end up as someone else's problem... Just deal with them with respect and calmly get rid of them. I think anyone can be talked down from an escalated conversation with some patience and respect. Sometimes people just want to be heard so just listen and then educate them on the facts and what it will take to fix the cars problem.

My ARO was around $350 at 52% profit. Now we are $675ARO at 62%. On pace for a 1.1M year (5th year in biz) with just 2 employees and myself in the shop. One top tech, myself wrenching and a service writer. Hitting over $100k/mo gross several times this year and averaging $96k. I have had my share of bad employees. Key is to not be held captive and fire them as soon as you know it's not right to keep them. Your better off on your own being efficient and doing it right then doing it wrong and having to repeat it over and over.

You will know when you need a guy. If you have more work than you can handle in 8-10 hours, it's time. Your new tech will quickly lighten your load and you will have a lot of time to build your business. I hired my first guy when my sales exceeded 30k/mo gross. Your needs will vary...

I agree with targeting people with more money. We are a German exclusive shop and there's cars we turn away because they are too old, too worn, ect. We have more work than we can handle and I'm struggling to find a full time master tech. Sales are up 19% over last year and approaching the 1m mark annually with a staff of just 2 and myself. The key is to trim out the customers that can't afford you, they suck the life and time out of you. This is a business, not a charity. Help people who are deserving. I'm sure all areas of the country are different but you still have to be one step ahead of everyone else around you.

I got a killer deal through a friend of mine. I bought the machine outright which does chip cards, pin debit, it's a touchscreen standalone unit on Ethernet by first data. The key is to see what they charge as basis points. The interchange rate is fixed and nobody can do lower on that for you. But then they charge more for their own benefit. My provider is at 6 basis points. That's .06% on top of interchange. And $.15 for debit transactions. Key is to swipe as much debit as possible since it's nearly free. That brings your average down. I use jrctedit.com they are a 2 man crew and very helpful. Helped me every step of the way and answer emails and phone calls in a manner of minutes. I highly recommend him. I've had 3 others and they were all nightmares.

We get quite a few customers from our yelp page. We have 23, 5 star reviews that are all real and legitimate. My competitors struggle to break 3 stars because they don't care about their customers the way we do. People who search the internet to find a shop use yelp to gain some trust before they come in for the first time. The more positive feedback you have, the better chance you have to win these types of customers from your competition. it's not worth paying for, but it is worth caring about. Search "German auto repair in Auburn, CA" or "BMW repair Auburn, CA" and see the difference for yourself.

I call this phenomenon "Last Chance Garage" where people come to us because some other shop couldn't figure it out. It's frustrating because I wanted the business in the first place, and the other shop took all the easy money and shipped the car with problems over their head... then I get involved and pride takes over so I do whatever it takes to make it right and impress the customer without costing them tons of money. Makes for a very low profit margin on the job in hopes of winning the customer over so they come back later for the gravy. I built my business like this because I would actually fix the problem people were concerned with, but its a fine line between being the nice guy that fixed it and making money... Hard to do both.

We rent a large shop of 11,000sq ft for 5k/mo gross lease. Has 2 lifts and overhead oil reels, plus waste oil/waste coolant storage tanks. It is low for our area but was built as a dealership and has a 1400sq ft parts department storage I hardy use...