ATLAuto

Motley, I'm interested in hearing your experience with RaceDeck. It seems to be the Cadillac option as shop flooring goes.

So true. "The first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward and questions him." - Proverbs 18:17

Agreed. An SBA loan is the way to go for a startup. They will want to see: - How have you lift the last few years? Answer, very frugally and wisely. - How is your situation now? Answer, debt free. - How are you going to pay back the loan? Answer, a great business plan and possibly a side job for awhile. I found this list for our area. It showed the big banks in Atlanta giving loans. I'm sure one for Lincoln exists: http://money.cnn.com/smallbusiness/best_places_launch/2009/loans/districts/Atlanta_GA.html

This data needs to be calculated for your exact area. In reality, we were looking at 6 different shop locations in our city (Atlanta is pretty big). So, I did this calculation 6 different times. The data you need will be: How many people live within 1mi or 3mi from your shop (1mi for inner city, where folks travel less to get to shops, or 3mi out in the country)? What is the median household income for that area? With these two numbers, you can calculate how much wealth is in the area, and then take 1.5% of that to determine how much that area is going to spend on auto repair a year total. 1.5% is a national average that each household spends on car maintenance. This number will be lower in poorer areas and higher in wealthier areas. Then, you need to figure out how much of that total repair is going to independent shops vs. dealerships. This one was tough, as it can vary so heavily based on how new the vehicles area in your area. I stayed conservative and just said, "60% of the cars in our area are going back to the dealership." I have no idea if this is correct or not, but it's on the safe side for certain. Now you have the "demand" for repair in your area calculated. Now, all you need to do is calculate the "supply." To do this, I simply added up all the other indy shops in a 1mi or 3mi radius and guessed at how much work they did a year. It can be tough to figure out how much revenue another shop generates, but a good rule of thumb is $250k in sales per bay (link to R+W on this). With the demand and supply figured out, you should have a good understanding of whether or not the area can support another shop. Hopefully, the demand is much greater than the supply, and you can entire the scene. If not, I would stay away. Finally, even if the demand is heavy, I would recommend starting on a busy street or lighted corner where people stop and stare at your shop while waiting for the traffic to turn. This is debatable, but my mindset is "every dollar saved on rent in a poor location, you will pay out again in marketing to get people to your location." Hope this helps.

From the article, I understood that he kept them behind the counter and only pulled the demos out to help the customer understand the issues. The example he used was a customer with a quote $300 cheaper to do a timing belt at another shop. Naturally, the other shop didn't quote the idlers, tensioner, nor water pump. With his demo, he could show everything that went into a timing belt job and sell it. Do you have a copy of the slideshow from your TV? I would like to see it, if you don't mind.

We are in the process of subscribing to a shop data resource to add to our Identifix subscription. Right now, we are looking at Mitchell ProDemand and AllData. This is for repair data online, not estimating, RO writing, or shop management. I would rather keep that out of the discussion. I have used Mitchell OnDemand and AllData for years. Between those two, AllData wins hands down. AllData presents the data clearly in an easy to search format. Mitchell OnDemand had everything all over the place, and I spent valuable time simply looking through all the various links. However, I have not tried the new Mitchell ProDemand software yet. What do you guys keep at your shop, and do you feel that it is sufficient?

Motley, your TV slideshow reminded me of the recent R+W article from the business below. They build belt and brake displays for shops. I'm thinking about making our own timing belt display for a destroyed engine. Article: http://www.ratchetandwrench.com/RatchetWrench/November-2013/Educating-the-Customer/ Website for the displays: http://displaysinmotioninc.com/

Great post. I would like to hear some startup stories myself. I did the following analysis in our business plan to determine if our market area could support yet ANOTHER shop: The average US household spends 1.5% of its income on vehicle maintenance1. This includes scheduled and unscheduled service as well as parts purchased directly from suppliers. Based on the 3 mile demographic data in the following section, this allows for $77MM of available automotive repair business annually. A conservative estimate of 60% of this business will return to the factory dealership for service2, leaving $31MM in available demand. 22 businesses are competing for this demand of $31MM. The average US repair facility annually generates $364M in gross revenue3. Assuming higher revenue of $1MM due to the higher income demographics, this shows a supply of $22MM, or a demand-supply deficit of $9MM. Sources 1. ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/ce/share/2004/age.txt 2. http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/wholesale_retail_trade/motor_vehicle_sales.html 3. http://www.underhoodservice.com/issue/article.aspx?contentid=39966 It was a bit tough to get the numbers, so I had to make a few assumptions. When making assumptions, I always made them in a way that made the scenario look worse. If the business plan still works even under the worst case scenario, you should be set. Also, if you need a hand getting free demographic or traffic data for a corner, let me know.

I'm going to agree on the less-is-more strategy. We are already inundated with information, and our brains simply cannot digest every thing presented to us. I just came across this this last night in a web-design book I was browsing (ironically, I didn't even read the whole book, just skimmed it):

Whoa! I was wondering where he was going with the story. Excellent ending! Merry Christmas.

That surprised me too. I'll stop by Advance tomorrow morning and ask. Did you get the maxiDAS or the maxiSYS? EDIT: I went by Advance this morning. They had no idea what I was talking about and took me to look at their $30 generic OBD-II scanners. I left fairly confused. They must not be a nationwide supplier but more on a store-by-store basis.

I agree. However, a lot of the small companies have a "fleet manager" that is just a regular manager with the additional added responsibility of handling the fleet. Many have no experience in handling a fleet and need someone to walk them through the best practices. It's easy enough to do with software and helps build a relationship.

Agreed. Would like to test one of these out myself prior to buying.

Glad to hear you budgeted too high! Unless you are covering medical, the agents should not be asking for any employee information whatsoever. All they care about is your gross sales for workers comp and your building size / value. Make sure you are using an agent/broker and not working with just one company. My agent shopped around a list of almost 100 companies for workers comp. He is excellent and based in Atlanta if you are interested.

I cannot speak for the northeast, but payment terms in our area are typically between 30 to 60 days. They will want to know your standard pricing on all their PM items (tires, brakes, oil, tune-up, etc), which should not be too difficult to break down for a fleet of similar buses. If I were you, I would try to find out what their current terms and pricing are before making them an offer. It puts you in a better position to negotiate. I would also figure out why they are looking for a new shop to service their fleet. A typical complaint in our area is shops not being able to provide detailed reporting to the fleet managers (example, a fleet manager might want a list of all the service done on his fleet in 2013, broken down by service type and then by VIN). Many shops cannot / won't do this. Let us know how it goes!

Wow. Had not seen that the MaxiSYS was released yet. Great news. The scope, the battery, wireless, and J2534 are HUGE benefits. Here is a comparison sheet between the two. Thanks for the news. http://www.autel.us/pdf/MaxiSYS_Comparison.pdf MaxiSYS_Comparison.pdf

Excellent article, Joe. Thank you for taking the time to type it all up. I have been thinking a lot about hiring a relatively cheap receptionist to backup the service advisers. A live human answering the phone is MUCH better than someone hanging up without leaving a voicemail. What responsibilities do you give your receptionist? Do they estimate and/or book appointments? Or just a phone answerer that states, "We will call you back regarding this in 10 minutes."

Update to this story. Kleargear is getting slapped with a $75k lawsuit. Looking forward to seeing how this plays out. http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=21018224

Great article! My favorite are the conspiracy theorists ... "Maaaan, they built this car back in the fifties that got 300mpg. They government kept it down and destroyed the patents, dude." Riiiiight. Favorite MythBusters of all time - Gas Saving Devices Busted Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90szKQAjhfo Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb7vhHKaGYw

Angelo, could you elaborate on "dispatches" a bit? I am assuming your question is, "Who brings the jobs from the service writer to the tech, and how is it decided who actually gets which job?" Please correct me if I'm wrong. If so, I am curious myself on how other shops handle this, and what is the best practice.

Would you mind elaborating on this a bit with some pros/cons vs. Mitchell? I am very interested to hear some details on this, especially from someone that has been "hands on" with the software and not just a demo.

This is the route I am considering. They can either wash their uniforms on site or bring them home and do them there. The main part that I like, though, is that the uniforms would be theirs and their responsibility overall. I like your thoughts on the procedures and clear expectations. Has anyone gone down this route and gotten away from the uniform services?

Frank, could you elaborate a bit? Your opinion on this software is much more meaningful than an online demo or a salesman's pitch.

I think the same thing with some of the advertisements in R+W ....

Holy smokes. Just installed a Tough One this week and had the same problem. Starter would only work half the time. The rest of the time it jammed before hitting the flywheel. Glad I'm not alone on this either.