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...

I had a company doing that for me for 2 years. The videos got hardly any views, although they ranked high. They had tracking numbers so the marketing company could track it, but they wouldn't provide me with hard evidence of what they did, just material they generated. I have since fired them and gone with Kukui for my marketing needs. I will continue to make my own videos and post them up to keep my rankings high, but there is no need to pay someone for this service when you can do it yourself for less than an hour a week... Search "bmw repair auburn, ca" and you will see the youtube videos we have up there. They are poor quality with cheesy editing, thanks to the people I have since fired....

Repairpal didn't work for me either. I have Kukui up and running, it is really cool. Time will tell. I was already paying close to this much for a service that didn't show me exactly what I was getting so I feel there is more value here, and they can't fake anything since it's all real data. Helps to differentiate from what actually works to what is just sold to you with hopes it will work. The websites are very nice looking and have specific landing pages so you can hone in on the customers you really want.

Welcome Sacto.... I'm not far away up in Auburn... We do just euro cars. Even still there are tons of options. I stock about 8 sets of pads for cars we work on often. It doesn't really benefit us that much, we get worldpac 4x a day so we can still have a car out in 2-3 hours by ordering in. I would say keep your inventory down as low as possible. You may pay a little more, but that's the cost of doing business on someone else's money. Say you hve 10 sets that never sell. You won't get your money back, and then you will be annoyed that you selected those pads to stock... Just not worth it.

I left my shop on my property because a competitor turned me in for a code violation. I picked an expensive shop right on the highway for a 3 year lease. It was 3200sq ft. I out grew it and moved to 8200ft in 2.5 years. I was barely making it before I moved and then turned a profit the first month in the 3200ft building. Now I make even more money in a bigger shop. Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith to get ahead. Be aggressive and commit to whatever you choose. Make it work like failure isn't an option.

Signed up 2 weeks ago. My website is launching on Monday. I have been happy so far! I will see how things go. I have been aggressive with Internet marketing so I know quite a bit about it. Time will tell. Mspec- you happy? We have similar shops on opposite coasts. Hopefully they are doing well for you!

I'm a german auto specialty shop as well and we are currently moving. I have been talking to the local businesses around my new building and letting people know who we are and what we do. It sounds crazy, but a box of donuts does WONDERS for this. I learned this trick from another shop owner in the area. He dedicated 2 hours a week for 1 year to going to all the local businesses and talking to them, dropping off a box of donuts and some business cards. You never know who you will catch and how they will react, but theres always SOMEONE who will eat a few donuts and its a conversation piece. They get asked who brought those donuts and they say "Oh, the nicest guy just swung by with him, hes got a cool German auto shop just around the corner, I never even knew it was there! My mom has a Bimmer, she should check em out!" Out of 2-3 stops, you will get a customer, and they will send a friend... German car customers are usually loyal to their repair facility, so it takes some massaging to get them converted, but get them and keep them and they will all flock to you.

You are not alone. This field is tough. I looked at UTI and ended up going to a city college auto tech program where I was already studying business. I worked for BMW for 6 years knowing once I became a master tech I was opening my own shop and leaving the dealer life behind me. I get a lot of UTI/Wyotech kids coming into my shop looking for a job. The amount of training and experience they have entitles them to around $12-$14/hr. For a 22yr old fresh out of school, this is almost acceptable. To a guy with a family looking for a new career, it certainly is not. I saw tons of them come into dealerships I worked at (BMW) and they were the top of their class. I never saw one last more than a year. They got kicked around and treated poorly by the techs and management. I think the tech schools pump out a bunch of students with no jobs to go to. Remember, education is a business too. These schools just want to make money so they cram the classes full and pump out students for a $30k degree. I have found that techs who are a bit more seasoned, 10-15yr veterans are past all this non-sense and actually have skills that will earn them good pay and a steady job. It's hard to see these kids struggle as I was once one of them too, but some do survive and the rest move on to other fields.

I work it into the parts. If I do a window regulator and I need 2 clips for the door panel I just mark the regulator up a few bucks... keeps people from getting mad over something they don't understand or didn't authorize...

Darn.... Everyone knows me as the kid... Am I the youngest shop owner on here? Anyone regret not starting their shop earlier in life? I started at 27...

Talk to your snap-on/matco/mac tool truck guys. They know who all the techs are and are in an unbiased position to help you. Tech's go and vent to the tool guys, maybe you can swoop up someone who isn't looking for a job but would move to you if the position was right. I did this 6 months ago and got the best tech around my town. He was upset with his last employer, my snap-on guy knew him and we connected. It turned out great for both of us. Craigslist brings out a different type of crowd. I got all the wrong candidates when I posted on there. Word of mouth is the best for advertising, so why not for employment too? If you have a few people that vouch for a tech, at least you know he/she did right by others so they might for you too.