Marksas

I also think it has to be a good fit along with their experiences, references and reputation. You first need to understand what you want to gain out of the coaching and make sure your coach is aligned with the goals you have. You also have to understand that at times one might out grow their coach or the coach simply is not able to take you where you want to go. I have seen coaching used in various ways and I have used coaches before. I have never used a coach specific to our industry as in my mind business is all the same, you're manufacturing, selling or repairing widgets. It's all about dealing with people. With that said I talk to a number of people in the industry also. I have used coaching for the simple reason of having accountability, and if we read, study and are out in the industry we sometimes know what we need to do but as an owner we may not have anybody holding us accountable to get it done. For the most part in my mechanic shop, I just coach, as I don't run or get involved in day to day operations, but I also know that there may be areas that my manager would benefit more from by having a different coach. Coaches can bring a wealth of information and experience especially if they are dealing with many players. I myself will probably look at some coaching in the next year. I just came off of a two year coaching, accountability group that just became to burdensome and time consuming as they wanted us to be be involved, participate and attend too many other activities. I simply did not have the time and felt I was not leveraging my investment the best I could. I was already out of my businesses pretty much one week per month when I evaluated all my other commitments. We have used Elite Training for service writers and yes it could be considered costly but in the end it really isn't. What makes it work is the mandatory accountability calls and reports. In the end a good coach will take you where you can't get to by yourself. And yes cost is something you have to consider also. Be interested in who you choose and how well it works for you.

I do have some concerns about an integrated package as usually one or the other suffers. I have a hard time even considering Mitchell since we ran their management system in our collision shop and the customer service was bad and the software wasn't really that good. I don't have a problem using gotomypc.com but it's another monthly cost that must be factored in. That's some great feedback regarding the pros and cons. Something we will be investigating further.

I briefly considered bolt on but became sold on AutoVitals after spending time at a shop that was using AutoVitals. Once I saw that it would meet our needs and looked at the cost of it, I just paid for the whole year. We've been very happy with it and they have been very responsive to any issues we have had. We spent some time with some other users in the past year and started using even more of the features. In my opinion it's a great tool and very reasonable. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

We have been a long time user of RO Writer (10+ years) but feel it is somewhat behind the times when it come to features. We are also using AutoVitals on top of it which we absolutely love. We have been using it for a little over 2 years. Along with that we are using The Back Office for our Quickbooks interrogation. We also use an outside payroll processor to handle all benefits, payroll and retirement. I used to handle all this through Quickbooks and chose to outsource a couple of years ago to reduce some of the administrative burdens of dealing with healthcare, 401K etc.. Based upon my managers and AutoVitals conversations, ROWriter is becoming difficult to work with regarding the latest updates. I am really looking for a fully integrated product, preferably web-based solution. We are currently evaluating a demo version of MaxxTraxx. I really want something I can look at remotely without having to dial into the onsite server. I am a hands off owner and don't get involved in day to day operations but I look at numbers and stats daily. It also needs to support multiple locations. Any input or recommendations would be appreciated. We are not taking this lightly as we know its a lot of work to convert as we just went through this last year in our bodyshop.

If you look at the margins from a percentage aspect then margins are lower in the bodyshop. I realize you don't pay bills with percentages, you pay with dollars. The dollars are higher because the average ticket value is much higher. I have both a mechanic shop and a collision shop. I would choose my mechanic shop over the collision shop any day. I have been in the collision business for about 30 years, the last 16 as an owner. I've had my mechanic shop for 12 years. We repair on average about 70 vehicles per month with an average ticket value of $2400 in the bodyshop. our mechanic shop averages about 420 cars per month with an ARO of $257 (That number includes state inspections for $7 each which impacts ARO. We run our KPI's with inspections and without for tracking). They are two very different business and it seams that its two very different set of employees. The customer transactions are much different as the collision transactions are more of an emotional transaction (someone wrecked into me, my spouse crashed it, my kids crashed it and they are all upset no matter the circumstance) and take much more time. I think some of our challenges have to do with space as we operate out of a total of 7500 Square feet for both businesses. I am currently building a brand new facility for the mechanic shop on a separate property so this should alleviate some of the daily chaos. My mechanic shop has 8 employees and the body shop has 13. I have a part time outside marketing person. My plan is to build another Mechanic shop and continue to leverage the customer database to promote both businesses. We will see many more mechanic shop customers several times per year. The average motorist only has a wreck once every 7 years so its tough to market to someone who only might need your service once every 7 years. Once we have them in our mechanic shop we become their trusted automotive person and they will typically listen to what we recommend. There is a great deal of steering of customers by the insurance carriers through carefully worded word-tracks that attempt to create doubt in the insured's mind if the shop they selected is not on their "approved" list. A shop just cannot be on every ones list. Once we let the customer know what word tracks are used they are more educated to stop the bs by carriers claim staff to steer them to a particular shop. We do participate in some of the networks. It used to be a fun business with much better margins but there is so much insurer control and administrative work that it is not near as much fun. The main thing is that if you are small and you have an employee out it really hampers your production as you typically have an estimator, body tech, paint prepper, painter and detail/buffer person needed to complete one car. If anyone is out your production is severely hampered. If I have a mechanic out someone else can typically do the job and will step up. A painter isn't going to do bodywork unless it's very minor, A bodyman isn't going to paint a car. There used to be combo men that could do both both but typically they weren't that good at either and the finishes are much different today. When it comes to parts procurement, it used to be we would order most parts from a dealer or another vendor so you didn't have to deal with a number of different vendors. Today we might have as much as 15 vendors per car. They general rule of thumb by most insurance carriers when it comes to choosing repair parts is Used parts first, then aftermarket, then alternative OE, then OE. OE parts are a last resort unless the car is in most cases current year model, There are a lot of junk aftermarket parts and most used parts come in damaged so there are numerous delays in the repair process. And every carrier is monitoring your cycle time and have contracted with rental car carriers to get constant updates from you. So you have a customer that you are updating, an insurance company, a rental car company all wanting status updates. Most husbands and wives don't communicate so we also ask who should we update with status. Email and text have helped tremendously as it allows us to keep the customer in the loop when requesting supplemental damage inspections form the carriers. Some are very slow to respond. Today it seems we spend much more time administratively on a claim than we spend actually repairing a car. Both of my businesses have done well but I will tell you that 95% of my challenges are in the bodyshop. Part of the reason for separating the two is to have the ability to market the collision shop should I decide to exit that business. Most mechanic shop buyers want nothing to do with body shops and most bodyshop buyers want nothing to do with mechanic shops. I would be happy to share info with you by phone if you want to send me a private message.

The labor rate is interesting. My experience is that we get a handful of inquires each year regarding our rate. A guy once told me "if you don't have people complaining about your rates you aren't charging enough". Typically when someone asks about the rate the 1st thing that goes through my head is this is not the customer I want.. When I was writing service I would just tell the customer "I can make the rate as low as you want, just tell me what rate you want. It's just going to take us a lot longer to fix the problem. Don't get wrapped up in a published rate" and then would go to let them know of the value we offer. I don't recall ever losing a job. I do like the $2 bill idea in the fuel door.. I could see us making a small card with something along the lines of "have a cup of coffe or drink on us".

I have used this training, there are 3 basic classes totally about 1.5 hours. it's inexpensive and very informing. It also allows you to test your people if your emails are all the same domain. They are very helpful and easy to work with. I signed all my staff up as well as techs and family members. https://www.knowbe4.com/

I am also in the collision repair business and this is common practice. In my auto repair business we pretty much do what Joe does. Really the insurance company is not your customer, they are middle men trying to work on behalf of the customer and limit their exposure. The reality of it is that you give the invoice to the customer which is then "proof of loss" the carrier has contract with the customer to cover repairs. If the carrier disagrees then that's between the customer and the carrier. Even in the collision business I have had people run in my children and I just instruct the shop to repair the vehicle and give me an invoice. I call the carrier and send them the invoice and the want to argue every time because I used OEM parts and they located used and aftermarket.. I just tell them I really don't care what they found here is my prof of loss, either pay the full bill or I will just file against the other driver and you can represent them in court.. They always pay the bill.. Don't show them invoices.. We don't have anything to hide either. I don't ask my insurance carrier to see their costs for my insurance. I tell them I went to the grocery store the other day and bought some tomatoes.. I thought they were a little expensive so I asked the manager if I could see the invoice for what they paid, they laughed at me.. The insurance person always says that's different and a dumb analogy. I tell them it's is just as crazy as their request..

It's like someone asking you how much for a timing chain? Well it depends on what's included and the quality of parts. Insurance pricing depends on coverage and a number of other issues as well as sales volume. I shop several companies every year. This year I had a company come back with a quote significantly lower than my other bids. I agreed to sit with the guy but told him he needed to review his coverages because he has left something out. He did leave something out, all of our shop vehicles and rental cars. When it was all said and done he was slightly less than my current provider but not enough to make me want to switch. I usually will stay with a provider at least 2 years before I make any changes, I have 2 that have been very good and competitive. Sentry and Universal Underwriters (Arrowwood). I pay around 12K but I also have collision operations, 15 bays and $2M+ sales, so your quote may be a little high.

We call every customer including the $7 state inspection customers. We call on Mondays and Thursdays and usually call in the AM. We really only hope to leave a message thanking them for their business. New customers not only receive a phone call but also a welcome letter package. Just about everything is paperless in our shop except the final bill that we have them sign. We attach the CC receipt and image it. Then the invoice is placed in a call back file which we use for the call backs. We shred them after that. That seems to be the easiest because all the information is on the invoice as to what was done. If we just used the delivery report from the system it just gives you basic information. Most of the customers are emailed and surveyed online also.

http://schertzauto.com/ http://www.schertzcibolorepairs.com/ http://www.autocollisionworks.com/

We never call anything bonus. We call it "profit sharing". There has to be profit for any extra funds to be distributed. As for Christmas since I do give out cash I started calling them Christmas "gifts" since that's what they really are. This year I am writing personal notes for each employee with a Christmas card rather than the typical money envelope so many people use. I will distribute at our Christmas dinner where we invite the whole family and/or boyfriends/girlfriends.

I would agree on waiters. We do schedule all oil changes and we spend time going over the vehicle for needed service. We never really try and sell them at that point. We make them aware of the service needs and schedule the appointment for any needed repairs. Our "waiters" are customers for the most part that have scheduled an appointment. It's pretty rare for us to just do an oil change for a walk in. Most of the time we will tell them to "let me check to see if we have an available lift and technician available" knowing full well we most times don't but it keeps us from just immediately reject them. We then educate the customer on scheduling the service so we can spend the proper amount of time inspecting the vehicle and that although the lube center across the street might offer a 10 minute oil change, it's kinda pointless if you have to wait in line for an hour before your 10 minute oil change. Plus how well are the really inspecting your vehicle for needed service. We also let them know we are not like the doctor's office and schedule multiple people for the 9:00 appt. If you have an appointment we will have the resources available to service you at the scheduled time. I do like the terminology of the Oil Service rather than Oil change.

We use Alldata, identifix, and Motologic. Definitely don't need all three. I like motologic and if I just cancelled Alldata the guys would learn to navigate motologic. There biggest complaint is they have a harder time finding the information they need in Motologic. I think it's more of we have always used Alldata so that's what they are accustomed to. I find it hard to justify the almost $400 for Alldata vs the $110 for Motologic. I do think you need at least two.

Just as an FYI we don't call anything bonus as everything has to be driven off of profit, hence the term "profit sharing". Since our efficiency was low going into this arrangement we have just gradually increased it over time. Each year we bump the minimum up by about 5%. It is based upon the overall efficiency of the team. anything under 80% - no profit sharing. We want them to win and I love paying profit sharing. They hit some level of sharing each and every month which is what I want to drive. My techs have told me they like the hourly arrangement because they know we are going to get paid for about 45hrs each week. Granted they get overtime and we budget that into our profit projections and overall labor margins. The profit sharing is as follows and this is for a biweekly pay period. 80% - $100 85% - $150 90% - $250 100% - $400 What this does is allow a tech to budget and smooth out their income. They know that they are going to make a consistent check each pay-period and then have the opportunity to make a little more. But if we have empty bays or a slow week they know they are not going to suffer. It also forces the estimator and manager to make sure they are doing everything they can to keep the schedule full. Do we have slow times? yes, not often but a lot of times the techs will get together and there is always one that would not mind going home early to take care of projects or leave a little early on Friday. They manage it. There are times when they realize that if they send a tech home early that it may boost them to the next profit sharing range. So while a guy may give up an hour or two, that everyone will receive a larger profit sharing check and then it's much better for the team. They do a great job of managing this themselves and the shop manager makes sure they know where they are as a team as the manager and service writer also receive the profit sharing, so they help drive it. As for Autovitals, I love it and it's worth what we pay for it. See my post regarding the use of "Whiteboards" on another thread. We are using digital inspections and smartflow. I would not want to go back to paper. We don't force techs to punch in and out of jobs in autovitals. That will change in 2016 as I will start driving it through my shop manager. We have to know where we stand on each job as I feel on some of these diagnostic problems we are not billing correctly but we don't have solid evidence. I also think there are times where we are just not as efficient on some jobs and we need to find out which jobs and why. It comes down to accountability on the techs part, and the manager has to sell them on the why we want to do it as well as the benefits for them and the organization. I hope this is helpful. It may not be for everyone but it works for us. That's the great thing about these forums as it allows us the opportunity to learn from one another.

We use the scheduler/Calender built into RO writer. It works well and the techs check the calendar when they clock in in the AM to see what is on the schedule for the day. Plus everyone has access to view it. We can block off times when we know a tech is going to be out or if we have some kind of training going on, or if we feel we are overbooked. We have 3-4 different people scheduling work so to using a paper calendar becomes to cumbersome. We also use Auto Vitals to push jobs to the techs and it is very easy to see what techs have which jobs. One of the neat things about Autovitals is that I can check and see what is going on in the shop when I am away if I choose too. I can see the vehicle inspection reports the repairs, what the current statuses are as well as what techs have what jobs and which order they are scheduled to work on. I have used white boards in the past and have even installed large monitors in the shop so everyone can see what is going on. The thing about white board is that it really is additional work and you need to have decent handwriting so that everyone can read it. You could also consider using post it notes stuck to the board instead of having to actually write on the board. If you feel a whiteboard is the way to go, maybe an option would be putting a large monitor in the shop and maybe doing your schedule in a spreadsheet and displaying it, That way you can just drag and drop jobs very easily and it would be easily read.You could also use color coding for hot cars or VIP's. It's just a thought. I don't want to sound like a salesperson for AutoVitals but there are some great benefits to using it. I understand there is a cost but I can tell you I pay around $1800 per year and have 5 techs, 2 service writers, admin person as well as myself using it. I would not want to go back to dispatching jobs and printing work orders. The program runs in a standard browser so it accessible from anywhere. We purchased the most inexpensive ipad mini's and a $15 colorful childs case for them and have yet to damage one, we have been using them for 2 years. The techs then have complete vehicle history at their fingertips as well as any declined service items from previous visits. They know if their parts have arrived as well as whether jobs have been approved, without having to track down a service writer. They also have Alldata, Motoview, and identifix at their fingertips. It's about keeping them in their bays where they produce and giving them all the information they need. It cuts down on the service writer going back and forth from the office as well as the techs. It also keeps us from having to decode hieroglyphics (tech handwriting). We preload various conditions based upon the job so the tech doesn't have to type or do text to speech. We monitor if a tech is having to type the same thing on various jobs and if we see some consistency then we preload it into the system as select-able text from a dropdown. We also use Demand Force which picks up on our calendar appointments. We have it set to send appointment reminder texts or emails to our customers at various times. This works extremely well and it makes it easy for our customers to notify us of any schedule changes without ever calling us. I have found most people rarely cancel but they do request to change an appointment. I am not that thrilled with Demand Force but I like the appointment requests as well as followup that is automatic and takes no effort on our part. We used to use Customer Link and loved their marketing and demographics information. When they were purchased by Demand Force they best things they were doing went away. Consider the time you are going to spend updating a whiteboard and who will update if you are not there. For a shop that is not high volume or only has one or two people scheduling the work then it would work fine. I like to think about how scale-able is what we are doing as well as how easy is it to train someone else to do it, and can we duplicate it easily. I also understand that all these options have a cost associated with them and a shop may not be in a position and just may not want to commit the funds towards the technology.

We just try and avoid these situations as they are not our ideal customer. They just waste our time and they expect us to drop everything and take care of them. We will tell them that we are booked up and won't be able to get to it for several days and that usually convinces them to use someone else. No matter what you charge it is always too much in their eyes because anybody can do what we do, or at least according to them. Customers like that have friends like that, they run in packs. I'd rather they bad mouth us because we were to busy to help them vs bad mouthing us because they thought we were expensive..

We also manage it on a weekly basis. We have the capability of them clocking in and out of their jobs on their i-pads (Auto-Vitals) that each have. i don't get to involved in the day to day operation and I haven't forced the manager to make them start using it. I don't want to micromanage but I also don't like it when we don't use tools that we have. I think it would be good data to review weather or not we are efficient on various jobs and whether we are charging properly or inefficient at certain jobs. All my techs are hourly and we pay profit sharing on efficiency as a team so they work well together and help each other out when needed so that they are efficient as a team. The manager watches it closely as as he and the other service writer also receives profit sharing for tech efficiency. It works well, I have great techs and they will take care of efficiency issues with techs. We just released a tech because he was not a good fit with everyone. They somewhat self police themselves which works well. They recently had a case where a general service tech was good at what he did but simply couldn't come to work on time. I told the manager he needs to go. It put the other techs in a bind because we scheduled the bulk of our work and they would have to pick up the slack until he decided to show up. Everybody liked him and he was a great guy, but it really came down to a lack of respect for others as well as a lack of discipline. But I just offered them advise and let them decide how to handle it. I suggested to them just to prove a point that they could change his hours so he could come in a little later in the day and I bet that he wouldn't be on time. They tried that and he still didn't come in on time. They decided that they would terminate him since they could not depend on him. Back to the original question, I have also gave $10 guys stop watches to time themselves.

It's all about relationships and trust. That what drives most purchase decisions.

I just had one that I bought. 2005 Chevrolet Diesel with 355K miles. It was a learning experience or at least that's what I am chalking it up to. We installed a radiator and hoses before the customer was taking a trip pulling a 40' horse trailer with living quarters. The customer overheated the motor when his EGR cooler hose blew and he drove it a little too far. I had heard about the mishap through his girlfriend who is a very good friend of mine. I called him up on Monday since this happened on Sunday night. He explained that he had it towed to a dealership since it was late at night and wasn't sure he could get it in my lot. I asked what happened and he said he didn't notice a check engine light but got a warning of severe engine overheat. The wrecker driver thought it had a loose radiator hose which is when I made my first mistake. I told him if that is indeed the case then we have some liability in this and we stand behind our work. The dealership threw us under the bus and told the customer that the water pump was leaking and that was the cause of the engine burning up and we should have checked it. They never even put water in it to see the EGR hose blown. I had the truck picked up, paid the towing, paid the "diagnostic" fee of $135 and thats where we found the hose was blown and that there was not a loose radiator hose. I did go back to the dealership and they agreed the customer is at fault but were instructed by the service manager to not say that to the customer. After looking at the freeze frame data, We found that he had a turbo issue which set a check engine light and the coolant temp was 217 degrees at the time. He was also driving 77mph in a pretty hilly area. I'm not sure of the sequence but the fuel rail temp was 260 degrees which tells me the block temp was well above that. The melted wiring harness sheathing was the next indicator. I told the customer that I didn't feel we had any liability in this and that I didn't owe him anything and that anything I did would be out of the goodness of my heart. That's when it got ugly and the threats started coming. I pretty much left it at that and told him my reasoning and that the data that was initially provided to me was flawed. I listened to all the threats of lawsuits and social media posts. I just informed him that if that's route he chooses to take and that makes him happy then have at it. It just made me sick to my stomach since I would have to look at this guy at church and other social events because of his girlfriend. The only thing I felt we did wrong was not documenting the pressure check after replacing the radiator or documenting the seepage from the water pump. Everything on that truck had some seepage given the miles on it. I thought about it and when the customer called back to threaten me some more I just offered him $4K for the truck. That just made him even more mad. After the customer cooled down and called back later he thought that would be best and we would never mention it again. My reasoning was that if I would have never gone and had the truck picked up, we probably would have ended up putting a motor in it with a $1K deductible. If I would have just let my insurance handle it, it would not have gone through our E&O portion because we didn't do anything wrong. It would have gone under a different portion and we would have had a deductible plus would have had to deal with court issues. I then thought about the time I would spend addressing social media post and possible time in court and felt it would be best just to buy the truck, sell it as is. So in the end it will cost me a couple thousand. The bad part is his girlfriend called me a couple days later and was unaware of all the details and just found out about it and was calling to apologize. She then told me she had broke up with him a few days earlier because he was bipolar and had serious anger issues along with a bit of a police record. I didn't say anything but thought, I wish I knew this a few days earlier as I probably would have handled it differently. I figured after being in business for about 20 years and this is the first time something like this happened that it was just a small price to pay for for years of trouble free business. I explained to my manager and lead tech the reasoning for my decision, and why we must document everything. Although they didn't like the fact that I bought the truck they agreed with my reasoning.

We have somewhat of a 5 minute rule but we also don't allow any parking lot fixes. i.e the tech or service writer to go take care of something in the front parking lot. When we perform a free repair we usually hand the customer 2 business cards and tell them to just give them to a friend or make a post on social media. As far as wipers go, we will comp them on occasion but for the most part we charge a flat $19.95 for the pair of standard blades. I don't know what or if others charge but I suspect the majority of the local shops do. If the customer thinks it's too expensive they can go down the street to the auto parts store and purchase and install them, we never take offense and I would say about 99% of the time we install them. Owners usually make terrible service writers because they tend to give to much away. I've been guilty of this and since I grew up and have been very active in the community where my shop is , everybody is my "friend". Best thing I did is stop writing service. If someone comes in and ask for me and my "gatekeeper" lets them get to me then I just take them and introduce them to one of my service writers and explain that they will take excellent care of them. I explain that they are excellent at what they do as well as much more knowledgable and up to date on service requirements than I am. I tell them I am very good at running the business and am not so good at fixing cars or writing service and that's why I hire great people.

I just try and stay out of their way. I get frustrated when I have purchased tools (software) and they are not utilizing them to the full potential. My team actually does a great job of getting cars done and utilizing the scheduler. I tend to take more cars in when I am there. If someone wants to give me keys I take them and set the expectation. If I load the guys up they get it done. I've come to realize that I just need to set the expectation and get buy in from them, then let them run with it. I write this from a cabin in the Rocky Mountains where I've been for the past week hiking. I just checked the daily numbers and they are above plan for the week, month, and year and I received several great reviews. So I can't complain. I did receive a bad review because of a screw up from the rental car company that made us look bad and I would bet that the manager is already on top of it with the customer and rental car company. When my manager is out I will hang around more but I just stay out of the way. It's the manager's job to have his assistant and the lead tech handle the day to day operations. I tell them I don't want to fix cars or customers, my job is to fix the business. I trust those guys to handle business and I am actually going to start working out of my home office to make room for some additional employees to support our collision operation. I'll still come in on a daily basis but do the bulk of my work from home. I think this is going to be a little bit difficult for me in that I am used to being there almost everyday. Just last week I moved all of my tools to my house to create space and I haven't worked on a customer car for years so they were just taking up valuable production space. It was still a bittersweet moment to see all my boxes loaded up on a trailer. Working from home will help prepare me for the opening of our new shop this next year where I just won't be able to be at our collision operation and general service operation at the same time. I don't always agree with everything they do and as long as they work within our core values then I am ok with it.

It seems like October comes upon us pretty quickly. Next thing we know it will be Jan and we won't have a plan. Once you start creating your projections for the year and you have good tools to do it, it really doesn't take that long to come up with a plan. Review your expenses and your sales history and you should be able to come up with a plan. Since I live in Texas we just don't really have the major seasonality that others have but we do have about 3-4 months where we perform the major portion of our a/c work derives from, I project a little differently. I really look at where we will finish the year out and what kind of sales growth I expect in the next year. Once we figure what that top lime number is, I just divide it by the number of work days and that becomes the sales target for the day. I then look at what resources are needed to obtain the sales figures as well as the breakout of parts and labor. I figure in what type of efficiency we expect as well as the gross profit required to meet our profit goals. I factor in planned wage increases,for various positions and review the the required amount of techs to achieve our goals to make sure we have the right amount of staff. You also have to factor in vacations and paid holidays. Once the plan is completed the manager and office staff buy off on it and we lock it down. We then just run a simple spreadsheet where they just enter the days sales and number of RO's and it lets them know where the are for the day, month and year. If the number is below it will be in red and if the number is at or above it will be green.. It's simple and it works. We don't win everyday and don't need to because we hit home runs occasionally. We also don't scramble at the end of the month trying to make a number. We play the game everyday. We've been using the simple sheet for about 3 years and we beat plan every year. Sometimes I think we aren't as aggressive as we should be but I want the goal attainable. Really the importance is in having the plan and knowing what we need to do to be successful. It makes it much easier to sleep at night and gives clarity to what we expect and want to achieve. It all sounds complicated but it's really easy if you track your numbers, plus I've spent time developing the required spreadsheets. Just to give an ideal of the detail, we budget what we will spend on toilet paper, hand towels, customer refreshments, and even hand cleaner. Some of it's almost anal but my nature is I the details.. I think another important factor is understanding your people and personalities. We do DISC assessments on all of our people. I am not a dominant type person (D) and am a strong ©. My manager is a high D who wants to be in control and in charge, he also scores high as a C which is not typical. How do I use this? I work with him him in the plan and he executes well. (Better than me) If you don't do this you should start, the assessments are about $30. I use peoplekeys.com Hope this is helpful... Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

We decline jobs quite frequently.. We don't need to be the "hero" and repair cars that other shops haven't been able to repair or take the tough jobs that are non-profitable and tie up stalls and techs while the good profitable jobs get put off. It never fails that when you might be a little slow and you just need to get a job that it's the one that spurs on 20 new jobs. Then you're spending all this time on that one job while scratching your head wonder why the heck you took that job.. It's no different than all the "good" opportunities that present themselves to successful (and not so successful) business owners. You spend your time and resources chasing good opportunities and then aren't able to act upon the great opportunities.. It comes down to disincline on our part. We also really try and vet our customers as we want those that are close by and ones that can and will tell others about us. I don't like those tow-ins at night or on the weekend that when you arrive at the shop on the am they are camps out on your front steps, thinking they got there first and there repair is the most important one of the day. We try and accord ate them but if we have a full schedule we just let them know that and refer them to another shop for their one time repair that takes to long and is too expensive in their eyes. Spread the wealth and let the guy down the street be the hero... While he's struggling with those jobs you take the great ones.. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I heard this the other day in a class and thought it was fitting. You don't manage people, you manage inventory. People should be led. - Ross Perot Successful coaches don't coach players the same way, just look at my beloved Spurs coach Greg Popiovch. I think this is were you have to understand the techs personality. I do DISC assessments on all employees and then share it with their direct report and other employees. They are quick 5-8 minutes and less than $30 or even free on some sites. I use peoplekeys.com. The assessments are a great tool for understanding your employees and how to motivate them. I have been using them for about 6 years. As for doing things my way, I'm okay with them doing it their way as I don't have all the answers. Let's do what's best to achieve a happy customer, a quality repair and a profitable job. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk