Johnsautoworks

The advice given by the other two shops is great advice, I am on the ms program/ was on their program and it does have some great points and stats to track and does give you some good ways to improve yoyr business. It is however very expensive and on going. I guess it did save my marriage but I coiuld have saved a bunch of money finding and talking to other successful shop owners. Once you are on the program and almost finished with a course $5k plus, each one, they prep you for the next course and the next one, and so on.... There are pluses and minuses to all programs and I have spent tons of money searching out what works and doesn't work. MS will tell you and show you what works and how to do it their way but that gets very expensive. I became a shop owner after watching my bosses make all the money, I was a tech not a business owner so I needed the help to change my mindset, because as you know the owner does not make a ton of money, no matter what the techs think. I don't know if you can post phone #s here, so check out my website and contact me there, autoworksserviceandrepair.com. I'll help anyway I can, thanks

Yes I do, and several people, my tax lady, accountant and my wife have said that I am paying my techs too much. My response is this, my people are loyal, dedicated and even tempered, which cuts down on my stress level and puts my customers at ease. My people are salaried and I use them where they are most efficient and comfortable, but I can use my diagnostic guy to do an oil change when in a bind or when we have a new customer that thinks his Audi is special and needs to be coddled. I also don't have to worry about techs over selling parts to make a bigger paycheck or cutting corners to save some time. I have been paying this way for several years now and only hire the best qualified people and they realize they have a good solid company to work for. In the winter I may be paying alittle more in wages, but here in Arizona we have long summers which is very busy and most profitable for my shop. It's also nice knowing how much payroll is any given week of the year. I have thought about flat rate and have been paid flat rate myself, and yes I have complained that I didn't get my .3 for changing a caravan air filter, or the .2 for changing a tag light bulb. I dislike tick tack complaining and whining that the other guy gets all the gravy brake jobs and somebody else gets all the alignments, whaa whaaa whaa. Hire good people, pay them what they are worth and they will work for you forever and not complain about staying a little late sometimes or even work a Saturday to make up for a day they want off during the week.