HarrytheCarGeek

No contest from me concerning used tires, I agree with you all. Nevertheless I am always looking for liquidity in the market and the opportunity to market the shop. Clearly these guys are bringing a tool to promote business, If I can get the customer's ear, I may be able to upgrade them to a new set of tires.

I was wondering if any of you sell used tires. If you do, these guys are coming online http://www.myusedtireshop.com/ I know a guy in South Amboy, NJ that has over 2,000 used tires in stock that uses this great tool.

Cute. How is it a money grab, if you present the facts and the customer gets to make his choice? Do it or not. His choice. We are in the mechanical field, things are engineered by design. That's why manufacturers spend billions on reseach and development. What is the "service life" of the components in cars? Why not ask the manufacturers and follow their recommendations? They know what they engineer them for. When do you think is a better time to have a tensioner and belt replaced, before it breaks or while you are driving out in the open highway or in rush hour traffic? Is it prudent to always drive a part past its useful life that exceeds into the design's marging of error? There is no free lunch in our business, no super natural power, no hocus pocus. Material engineering is a science, we have the data, use it. The difference between poverty and wealth is knowledge and action, the customer may pick me, but I get to choose him. I have no fear of missing out, because I know my business. Likewise, if the customer does not understand what I am doing, I give him the knowledge to make an informed choice, then it becomes his choice to keep picking me if he knows I give him value. Think about all the death traps that come into your shop for lack of proper maintenance that have exceeded the parts useful life; Are you comfortable knowing they are out on the road where your wife and children may come across them? Sell the maintenance, save a life.

You know, like I said, the data now is ready available from your service records to those of OEM parts manufacturers. Clearly a single shop operator does not have the breadth of information available from his records but that information is ready available from other industry sources, namely parts manufacturers. Trucking, aviation, and other industries have been using information like this for decades, and not to mention the insurance industry has been using data like this to make predictive business decisions. Our customers have been practicing "run-to-failure" type of maintenance management, that is to say we only tend to fix things until the vehicle has been put out of service. Do some sampling from your own shops, draw a budget and from the next 100 alternator and 100 starters you replace, inspect them and qualify the reason for failure, you will see some clear patterns emerge, from worn bushings, bearings, carbon brushes, burnt windings, diodes or rectifiers. Compare that to the service data and see what you can extrapolate and then test it. The point is, you can make the recommendation to your customer from facts and let them decide what action to take from your recommendation. Having said that, think about where our industry is heading, and that includes the probability of having driverless cars on the roads in the not too distant future. Who do you think will be servicing those vehicles? I am not too comfortable discussing this things in an open forum, as it eventually leads to discussion of political implication for the industry.

www.harrythecargeek.com, shop size is about four bays plus alignment rack.

I suspected someone would bring this up, what better source of knowledge in the field of preventive maintenanace that those that run critical systems: "An Introduction to Predictive Maintenance" By R. Keith Mobley http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Predictive-Maintenance-Plant-Engineering-ebook/dp/B004N3CN8W/ref=sr_1_1/177-9018369-7711051?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1446309546&sr=1-1&keywords=9780080478692 http://www.ruylecorp.com/pdf/TheBasicsofPredictivePrevMaint0124.sf.pdf That's why the guy's car that comes on the back of the tow truck is always in financial trouble.

Map out the lifecycle of your typical customer at your store. Check your perspective as to how you view maintenance vs repair, what is the lifecycle of the consumables in today's cars. Would you rather keep the dollars in your store or give them to the towing companies when customers have breakdowns? Let me give you some specifics, I use three wonderful tools, I use Autotracker PLUS and DemandForce by Intuit, and another program for financial profiling of my customers. Check your numbers and see how much it costs you to acquire a customer, I was not pleased with that number to be honest in my case, so I changed my strategy to get more customers in through my doors at a lower cost. I had a partner that did insurance photo inspections, but his people hated doing them. Since I wasn't in the bodyshop business, I hadn't given it any thought in bringing that business in. So I asked his people why they hated doing insurance inspections, and they said it was time consuming and they would never see that customer again. Light bulb went off in my braincell.... Think about the wealth of information and opportunity you have when a customer comes in for an insurance photo inspection... I developed a welcome package, offered them a free safety inspection and profiled the customer and car. Input all this data into your systems and map out the possible revenue for the next three years for those customers. If the vehicle is a brand new car, you know they will go to the dealer, but you still have the data and you can still map out services and make offers to them. if there are recalls, let them know, this builds good will and trust with them, if they have other cars, they will bring them to you. Mine your service data, and see at what mileage are you changins alternators, starters, batteries, etc. Then take the manufacturers recommend service maintenance, develop offers from those that information. For example, car has a five year old battery, sell the cables and terminals they most likely are sulfated, and it's a six year or older car, recommend selling the starter before it completely fails. You have the data. Same for brakes, struts, ball joints (suspension), tires, tune up stuff, consumables, wheel bearings... just like a farmer tills the land, you have to be pro-active and start pre-selling the consumables, have your customer budget for those big ticket items... Make them an offer, give them an option to buy in early, take a small deposit to lock them in psychologically, give them value and they will reward you in kind. Then there are the customer that doesn't listen, he is always coming in on the back of the tow truck and he is always broke. Profile him as such and take his business accordingly. My $0.02 cents.

What's to stop you from what BG Services does? Developing your own program is not that hard, albeit you have to give it some brain power. I sell maintenance at 80-90%, I don't do tough intermitten diagnostics if I can help it. I work hard to pull regular maintenance from the dealers and their customers into our stores, I TRY NOT TO MARKET OIL CHANGES. I use nexpart and use their buyer's guide to see the parts I need to craft maintenance programs that I can sell to segment of my customers, then I make them an offer they can get onto my programs to keep coming back to my stores. We are no longer a mechanic shops, we are basically a marketing company that profiles their best customers and see how we can keep them happy and coming back to us, the point being, there are other auto repairs shops but why use them when I can take care of them with no hassles. Having said that, I do not market to nickel and dime customers that are not value generating, I steer those to my competitors.

Before buying any equipment, first do your research for pricing on the fluids and time involved so you can make a projected income on the return on your investment. OEM fluids are very low margings items, unless you know how to position them, the value is difficult to present to a customer if they have not developed trust in your business, as there are many fraudulent operators out there. OEM Fluids are engineered products and you have to give the customer this knowledge as to the essense of using the correct fluid and product. If you can substiture branded product for aftermaket comparable product with your customer approval your margings can certainly improve. I found a way to educate the customer, get their commitment and to keep them coming back for service maintenance. that was the only way I could justify the upgrade into more expensive service equipment.

The mental picture you gave me with your comment made me laugh so hard I thought I was going to die. The thing is, if you have the car business in the blood, you can't just walk away from it. I have built buildings from concept to turn key operation, but I never got the satisfaction I get like the one of a broken car coming into the shop, fixing it, and the customer driving it away without complaint. In over two decades of service, I have only received 3 calls from customers to let me know they are happy with the way their car runs after a repair, even then I don't see my work as a thankless job. Customers show their gratitude by returning to have their car serviced with us. I was a great mechanic, but to make the money I wanted to make to live the life I wanted to live, I figured I had to own my own shop, just to find out that meant I had to stop being a mechanic and turn into a businessman. I also didn't have a exit strategy until one of my old employers dropped dead at 45 years of age and his shop was liquidated. That was my lesson to think way ahead and see where I wanted to go with my life and business.

Knowing what you know about your business, if you had a pile of cash to invest, what would you pay for your business and what would be an acceptable return on that cash investment? I have bought shops at $0.10 cents on the dollar of appraised equipment, to other where I paid a 300% premium because I identified an undeveloped opportunity. You brought up an interesting point, in my perspective most business people I have dealt with do not have an exit strategy from the business they are in.

You become a banker, change your business model. Put your money out on interest to accrue 24 hours a day, and let someone else worry about efficiency use.

You have the property depreciation deduction.... big advantage there when you own.

Jeff, I am not much of a worrier. That has led me into some very stupid situations, I tend to see how I can quantify the risk and push through. The times I have been kept up at night were when I would over extend myself and the cash flow was not there and I had payments coming up due and did not have the liquidity to make it, but somehow Good Providence always has come through for me. I think working as a sole operator is the hardest thing I ever did. There were not enough hours in the day for me to do everything that was required, the second hardest thing was finding a complementary parter/employee to work with and be prosperous. As a sole operator I would go through feast/famine times, I would market like crazy, bring in the work, and while doing the work, marketing would suffer, slowing things down, until I would get so slow I would have to market again like crazy and the cycle would repeat. Likewise, cash flow would suffer putting me in very tough spots. I was finally able to see the pattern, and then I began to budget to get the right amount of volume to break from that vicious cycle.

oh, I forgot, LEARN TO SAY "NO."

Ok, I am back. Like I was saying, Do not expect anyone to help your vision if they don't understand it, or if you don't communicate it. Set realistic expectations, there are only 24 hours in a day, don't overextend yourself or your resources beyond their capabilities. Comprehend that there are bad people out there, bad as in malicious, predatory, evil, don't put up with them, avoid them if you can. There are also toxic people, just like you would not let a thief into your home, do not let toxic people's ideas and attitures pollute your mind, or steal your dreams and ambitions. Do not spend time on idle thoughts, grudges, or ill desires, they will harm you. Commit to your cause, and do not look back. You are a leader, you must lead, those that will follow you - need you to lead. Know that knowledge is potential, it needs action, to make things happen. On the other hand, action without knowledge is dangerous action. In sum, choose to be successful, think successful, act successful. Your attitude is the engine that powers the outcome of your actions, knowlege is the potential, action is the consequence of your thoughs. I hope these words help to alleviate your burn-out. -Harry

Carbtech27, this is a priceless post for you. I'll be honest, I am too selfish to go out on a limb and advise anyone other than my children like Andre has done here. I have just a wee bit quible with it, he pointed out the obvious to you for those of us that have been through it, he didn't really tell you how to come out of it. Like he pointed out, first you must accept responsibility for your own condition, and the culprit for that condition you find yourself in is your mind set. You need the proper training to have the knowledge to prosper. First step, stop acting like a victim. Second, understand even the best people that love you and have the best intentions toward you will present obstacles in your life. You must overcome that. Only you know what you want for you, and if you don't, you will always end up lost and burned out. ( I know this by my own experience, even when extremely financially successful you can feel lost and burned out.) Third, charge the proper amount for your goods and services that will allow you to live a comfortable life. Do your numbers, know your numbers, if you do quality work at a cheap price you will not enjoy your work, you will end up feeling cheated. And if a customer comes back for warranty work, you will not want to deal with that customer. On the other hand, if you charge a premium, you will gladly take care of your customer because he is a source of value. Fourth, give and be charitable only with things you can afford to give and be charitable with. Take care of youself first, then your family, then others as you have in excess; this includes your precious time and knowledge. Fiifth, be strong enough to ask for help, study, seek knowledge, pray or meditate and ask for guidence, strength and wisdom to overcome all obstacles. Learn to give thanks and praise, learn to receive graciously and gladly. Six, learn to communicate, learn to listen and detach your emotions as you hear constructive criticism. There is more, but I have to run a conference call with my people for now.

How many of you guys out there are multi shop owners? I am one. What prompted you to expand to more locations? Greed, stupidity. Do you have partners? Yes. Were they branded the same or do you fly your shops under different banners? Both, some are the same franchise, other are held under different brands. Did you take over existing shops or build them from the start up? Both. What avenues did you use for financing? Cash on hand? Bank? Investors? Own savings, personal loans, owner financing, structured financing, investors, partners, banks loans. Did you purchase the property too? Yes. Primary goal is always to control the real property. What do you believe your competitive advantages were? Disciplined: Ambition, curiosity, drive, optimism, greed, desire to serve. What do you believe your competitive challenges were? Overcoming: Greed, ignorance, overly optimistic, naive, incompetence, stupidity. Greatest Advantage? Faith, desire to learn, humility. Greatest Challenge? Overcoming self arrogance. Educating customers. Presenting value. Any pitfalls you experienced? Theft, unfaithful partners, gov. overregulation, incompetent employees, financial predators, fraudalent claims, parasitic lawyers, corrupt courts, losers, time sinks, stupid people, evil or maglinant people, etc. What carried over from your first location? Customer service and production processes.

Yes, I get it. On another note, talking about storage. I charge for storage from $25 a day to $49.95 a day. I do enjoy this business immensely, but I am in it for the business, that is to say to make a profit. Do this exercise for shts and giggles, figure out the max profit your shop can give you on a monthly, weekly and daily basis if it was running at 100% efficiency. Then compare that to your present numbers. On the other hand, also figure out how much is your shop costing you have to keep it if you have the doors closed and you are not receving any revenue. Very enlighthing experience...

To generate traffic into the stores, we offer to read the codes for free. To test further we do charge. For example, we have been successful with q three tiered system, at an hourly rate, a flat $89.95 to test a particular system systematically, and a flat $149.95 to find the exact problem.

I didn't think I needed to be overspecific, I agree with you everythings is in the presentation, a "show" if you will. I would sell the wiper set as a kit with pricing being "installed", or like you say, I would just add the $7 bucks to the unit itself. for example my cost per blade being $3.50, I would double it to $7.00 given that the local autozone sell the lowest blade at $10, I would offer the installed kit priced at "$34.95+tax" installed.

Thank you.

I was checking my local listing and notice that Yahoo and Yelp my have combined. Anyone know what is going on?

This may help, think about it this way. What if you had to hire an apprentice just to do the little things all day to keep good customer service. Say you would have to pay him $10/h plus overhear taxes at 40%, 10 x 1.4 = $14/h cost. Marking that up x 3 for the time that he is idle when there are no customers 14 x 3 = $42.00/h So let's say he can change a pair of wipers in 20 minutes $42/60=$0.70 $0.7x20= $14.00 So just add $14 to a pair of wiper blades. Quite simple once you get used to doing it and it greatly benefits your bottom line.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2014/09/06/stop-and-seize/ I have a customer that runs several hot dogs stands, the cops took his cash, after nine months he has not got his money back. If you don't know about this as a small business owner, check what the cops are doing according to the Washington Post at the above link.