xrac

We could have been potentially scammed out of close to $3,000.00. Be on guard of anyone you dont know placing a large order for tires. This is commonly what they try to do.

Joe, I wasn't working so I got my facts more straight. See my revised post above. The time to order the tires allowed them to be caught. Made for an interesting day.

Got my story straight since I wasn't present. Thursday a first time customer wanted a quote on $3,400 in tires. Tires were ordered with Friday pickup scheduled. This was a ring making fraudulent purchases with stolen credit cards. The police had a license plate for a truck used in this scam. They had scanned it crossing from Kentucky into Indiana. The local police detective called all the tire shops looking for someone trying to make a purchase. When the police contacted us we worked with them to set up a sting for Friday when they came to pick up tires. Three people were arrested. Police said it was a crime ring they had been trying to catch for some time trafficking stolen credit cards. They had scammed three different business the previous day.

Joe, we had a similar experience. The results were just not worth it.

I think as owners and managers we have to not only approach things from a profitability standpoint but also an employee welfare standpoint. Having an intact happy family helps create more productive happy employees. Our decisions need to try to find a balnce between all interests. When is an employee with small children going to be able to take a family vacation other than when school is not in session?

That is a great way to deal with it!

Employee vacations during peak seasons is tough. However, when employees have children who are still in school or spouses who work places with mandatory summer shutdown it is not fair for them not to be able to take vacations with their families. I do not like it but we let employees take vacations whenever they want as long as they clear it far enough ahead. We just lived through being without one of our techs for two weeks since he is in the National Guard and they have two weeks camp every summer.

Never go against your first instinct. I interviewed a guy who was so cocky it was a turn off. However, we needed someone so bad we hired him. However, for a short while it looked like a good hire. He knew more than we thought he did and could give him bigger jobs. But it only took a few weeks for the worm to turn. He had a bad attitude, his jobs started coming back, and his productivity was non existent. He cost me a lot. What a huge mistake.

We will consider both options. I would prefer to lease the real estate.

I will be 70 in December and have ran a shop 24 years in March. My shop is for sale. Covid hit and killed a potential sale. Another sale was killed because another less expensive shop came up for sale during due diligence. We have had five shops or body shops change hands here in the last year.

We liked the look of Shop Boss. The two strengths of it that stood out was a very robust scheduling tool better than any we have saw on the programs we have evaluated. The other feature is the Digital Video Inspection which is a strength of Tekmetric. I haven't looked at Shop Ware but I have heard a lot of people that like it. We use a program called Omnique which also owns Shop Boss. Omnique is not one that I would recommend. However, it is being improved at a pretty steady clip.

Welcome. Good to have you in here and your perspective. Based on the various jobs you have done I bet you are fairly young and still tough as nails.

Business has slowed but is still strong. I think business will be strong until people are able to buy new and used cars again at a decent price and adequate selection. Then things may fall off the cliff.

You nailed it.

I am not close friends with any other shop owners but friendly with several. It is good to maintain good relationship within our specialized community. Could I benefit from a better connection? I think definitely yes!