HarrytheCarGeek

Why not?

I have had a colorful journey which I will spare you much of the details. I had extremely early success, I began in the mid 80's just when cars were making the transition to fuel injection and solid state electronics. Since childhood I had been around trucks and buses, my grandfather owned a very large fleet of them. In my teens during my extremely rebellious period there was a small garage that I rented out, and across the street there was a parts store owned by an older couple. They saw me work there every day, and they extended me credit. By the 18th month thereabouts I had more work that I could handle, lucky an older guy from Central America made himself indispensable. In those days cocaine from Florida was making it up into NYC and there was a lot of car maintenance demand, I was lucky to sell the shop to a Dominican guy. Went into the Army for a few years, and when I came out used the GI bill for college. ( I want to say that was a waste of time and money, but it made me who I am) I was basically expelled from one university for questioning my economics professor's dogma. I have a somewhat analytical mind. Worked for some shops, one where the guy was a complete crook, which taught me that you can make an infinite amount of money legally than illegally. Got married and divorced, got extremely sick and got betrayed, got cleaned out and basically homeless. Started again. Lessons learned? 1. Business is about making a profit. Buy low, sell high, the difference after all your costs are covered is your profit. 2. All games have rules, referee are not always impartial. In the game of life law is the rule and judges are its referees. Learn law. 3. Government enforces the rules for those that know how to play the game well. 4. Money changes people, if they have to choose between being loyal and money, the very vast majority will choose the money over being loyal. 5. Know yourself well. Which type of man are you, one that would sell water or one that would sell the container that holds the water? 6. There are two types of wealth getting one by innovation and service and the other by usury. 7. Choose the people around you well, toxic people will destroy you. 8. You cannot make good deals with bad people, or bad deals with good people. ... edit:spelling

Last week we went over our all time gross sales by 1.7%, and I still have a month on the year to go. This should be cause for celebration, no? Well, it isn't. Profit has long ago stagnated. I have mined my data, and did tremendous changes to the business, profit was helped but it required me to completely rethink and relearn about what I think I knew about this business. In March I spent $20k on a EDDM campaign that NOT A SINGLE LEAD CAME THROUGH. I will be generous and share this with you for my lessons learned: 1. Profile your customers. We added fields to the customer database to fine tune the customer profile, for example, we now estimate the customer's age, number of children in the household, either if they rent or own their house, etc. This helps us to better model their free cash flow and disposable income, then we compare this data to their car data points and see if we can better sell them what their car needs to be in top shape. 2. Advertise only where your best customer's attention is. Once you have defined your best customer's profile and tested it, look toward where they spend their time and attention. One of the most curious and successful campaigns was for us to partnered with Chinese and Italian fast food places to get our message delivered, we picked up their bagging and menu printing supplies cost which carried our message to a very large industrial and commercial park area. The revenue cost is less than $3 per $100, I cannot be happier with that ROI. 3, Facebook, although more expensive than other mediums, we targeted people that needed their car to be compliant with emission regulations. This has been quite profitable, but the quality of customer has not been the best. 4. I have been able to draw many new customers from the dealer network. Profitable business, but not highly lucrative, on the plus side, less rust and more predictable turn around service which cost us less $ to deliver the service. Many of my competitors have been closing, this has had a good impact on our performance. I am hopeful with the new administration we will have better incentives coming down the legislative pipe.

Happy Thanksgiving, all! -Harry

We do likewise, and here is some background into the sale process. 1. Profile your customer, are they the type of customer that keeps their car well maintained? Would they benefit from keeping the car for a couple more years? These are excellent candidates. 2. Are they emotionally attached to their vehicle? 3. Is the car sound enough structurally to accept a new suspension, for example a rusted out 2003 Maxima may not be worth the investment for the customer. 4. Are the other suspension components good enough to to avoid comeback complains, e.i, are the control arm bushings sturdy, anti-swaybar links and bushings not excessively worn, tie rods and ball joins at an acceptable condition etc. We set the expectations, and then once the car is done and it drives and feels like a new car, customers are often extremely happy. This is one of those jobs where they can actually feel they are getting their money's worth. -Harry

Thank you, xrac! The feeling is mutual!

Great read, thank you for sharing such a great story. For myself, I don't miss digging foxholes in the sand, that desert sand that gets in every crack and grinds in your teeth. But one thing I learned from those experiences, we have some fine people defending America, thank God for that.

btw, if you are looking for some free content, you can find some here: http://www.carcarenewsservice.org/articles

I few days ago an old Russian dude told me that today in America we are more communist than the USSR ever was. Sadly it could be true.

I am in the center of one of the most competitive auto part markets, we use rockauto.com or amazon.com only when the cost/benefits is a win/win for our customers and us.

Hi, y'all. I was wondering if anyone could recommend someone that is producing good quality content for autorepair websites or blogs. Thanks, Harry

xrac, I have tried many exit strategies, some where wonderfully successful, others a total nightmare and horrible crash. Due to privacy and estate planning I cannot share with you anything in this open forum but if you want to read some ideas, shoot me a PM. -Harry

Jeff, I like your post. But you know, one can be responsible for oneself, but in the way the economic system operates, you know "bank notes", IOUs, the system draws you into the collective. The way it is designed, you cannot only be responsible for yourself, one also signs up to take care of others just by using their "hybrid credit/monetary system."

We do this, a 70% markup for about 41% gross margin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCabT_O0YSM

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+26&version=ERV

Do I know you? Pretend to be all pious? What do you know about my religious belief, did I even impose my religious views on you? What even makes you think I am Christian? My view is simple, we get the government we deserve. If the people would follow the simple commandments we wouldn't be in this mess, that's my view. What do you stand for? What are your principles? Do you even have any, other than trolling people?

They are ignorant. Simple as that, if not, they are criminals. We know right from wrong, if you have being desensitized by the public education system to waver and to see truth a malleable, that means one has no principles to stand upon. We are in very dangerous times, people seem to have forgotten about God and His commandments. They think of Him as being the same as Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. Morality has been thrown out, virtue is no longer virtue, depravity and licentiousness rule the day. I fear for all of us, and pray He will have mercy on all of us and our nation.

David, I don't pull wrenches anymore, but still i try to keep up with the technology and innovations to stay up to date. Last week one of the local BMW dealers sent us an 2010 x5 d35 that would not pass emission inspection. They had replaced several parts, from the glow plug control module to the urea heated primary tank. It had no DTCs active nor pending, but it would not set the cat, heater, and egr readiness codes. I scanned it, no codes, I reset the system and took it for a test drive with one of the junior techs, on the drive as I watched the scanner five of the monitors set, the prior three I mentioned didn't set. What did I find? I found the engine was running too cold for the chemistry to take place. The vehicle needed a thermostat. The next day I received a call from their service manager, he asked me how did I found out what was wrong with the vehicle? Simple, chemistry I said. He wasn't happy with my answer, although replacing the thermostat fixed it. The moral of the story? If you know what you are doing, you can make things look easy, what he didn't understand was all the time I have spent understanding the technology behind the scenes.

Jeff, I am with you, man. I used to think that ASE was going to change things, but it didn't. What do you think we can do to turn things around? Any ideas?

Look, in the business we are in, we do business with all kinds of people from the scum bags to very honorable people. I take pride in my work and my people to do the best job as the professionals that they are, if we made a mistake on a job we take responsibility for our actions. The problem present itself when you have opportunists and people of low moral values, they are just waiting for the opportunity to fleece you, what then? Are you going to allow yourself to be victimized? Do you have the ability to stand up for yourself and not be taken advantage of? Do you know enough to handle your lawyer and not be victimized my legal fees? I didn't until I took the Jurisdictionary course, best $250 I ever spent. (Full disclosure they give you a referral fee.) Anyways, My point is that we are in business to make a profit, and part of that profit making endeavor is the responsibility of hedging risk. You can have the best customer service and use the best parts in the world, but if if you are not charging enough to stay in business and to handle a warranty claim you would soon be out of business. Knowing that is part of being a savvy business man.

That's why I said I am part of the AC Delco and Federated programs.

Realistically how many of your customer's travel out of state with their cars? I have a few that travel to Florida from New Jersey, their cars are well care for, and I use the AC Delco plan, I also subscribe to the Federated program, but realistically none of my customer expect me be responsible for their car down in Florida if they breakdown over there. Although they do expect me to be honest with them and let them know the condition of their vehicle if they were to embark on such a trip.

Yes. Indeed.

tirengolf, You are not the only one, I am with you on the same boat. The way I understand it, it is not the dealerships per se. It's the whole way the economic system is structured. That's why it is important we get involved in the Right to Repair movement. This tells me you don't understand the fundamental issue behind emission control. That's too bad because you could really prosper by servicing vehicles that need to be maintained to keep from spewing excess poisons. We know the compromise, we want to drive but not enough to pollute us all out of existence. We are really in a tough spot, we want to play Capitalists as a society, but what we have is a very corrupt society where the very privileged few want to privatize profits and pass the cost and liabilities to the public. We have a crisis of ignorance, the majority of the people do not even have the necessary basic knowledge to know what's in their best interest. Having a car that meet a minimum of safety and pollution control is a cost that impacts your and my quality of life. No one knows this better than anyone that has been to polluted China, Philippines, India, Mexico City, etc.