xrac

I thought of you when I read this:

I had learned of Ask Patty (http://www.askpatty.com/) decided to check them out. They do not provide pricing information on-line but they want to present things in about a 30 minute phone call with you in front of your computer. I sat through that today. It could be a good program but it is too early to tell how successful they will be. Here is some pricing information about the cost of becoming a Certified Woman Friendly Shop. You will need to do on-line one time training of personnel that interact with customers ($100 per person). There is then a $250 one time set up fee to provide you with a mini-website, to link your current web site to Patty's, and for marketing and publicity support. Then the cost is $149.00 per month maintenance. Ask Patty is something I would really like to do but I do not think it would be cost effective for us at this point in time based upon our location and market. It is a little too rich for our blood.

We sell mostly new tires but I do save the very best used tires and sell them but I only hang onto popular sizes. The marginal used tires I hang on to and sell to a used tire shop locally for $2-$3 each. Everything else gets disposed of by a licensed recycler for $1.25 per tire. We do have quite a few tires awaiting disposal grabbed by used tire scavengers. The State of Indiana makes us collect a whopping $0.25 per tire as a state fee. We charge our customers $2.00 disposal plus the $0.25.

If you need more help maybe you could add a part-timer. I don't know how unemployment is in your area but I twice worked guys who were laid off. They were allowed to make a certain amount of money without endangering their unemployment benefits and I worked each about 2 days per weeks. I have also had guys with experience who were going to school who have wanted to work part time. However, none of this is the best solution. You may want to considered hiring another tech so you can grab the business you are losing now and also plan some type of advertising plan to drive more traffic. You may also be able to grow your business by expanding your hours. Our hours are 7a.m. to 5:30p.m. Monday-Friday with a one hour lunch (47.5 hours) and 7a.m. to 3p.m. on Saturdays with no lunch break (8 hours). They eat on the run with me buying lunch and having it brought in. This means that even on a Monday-Friday schedule only I have 7.5 more hours than you do which is like adding another day. By starting earlier we get more done.

If you have a good alignment/suspension tech you can find and sell a ton of front end and suspension work. That is one reason why we keep our alignments a little lower than we would like. We get a lot of suspension work and sell a lot of camber kits. We have a very good suspension tech and there is a lot of bad front end parts that are missed by shops.

Joe it is a totally different market in the deep south. I have only been to northern LA but I once did contracting work in Jackson, MS. It was totally different. A lot of vehicles there would probably not be allowed on the road in NY. Because the weather is warm snow and ice is not an issue and people tend to get by with tires that would get you in toruble in the north.

With the recession and chinese embargo are you having a hard time coming up with enough used tires? The guys around here just about kill to get a hold of 14" and 15".

No problem! I moved it! I am vbery glad you found us. Joe is a great resource.

AAA in Ohio bought a chain of thirty shops. http://tirereview.com/Article/66569/aaa_bu...l_business.aspx

Not nearly as avid as I once was. I don't seem to have the time or energy especially after 10 hours at the shop.

I think some of this stuff is the future but we are not quite there yet. Give it five more years and the landscape will be completely different.

Unfortunately, I do not have a big income to worry about at the end of this year! However, if one is on cash accounting you can take deliver of extra products such as bulk oil, filters, other fluids, bottled goods, etc. One can also pay for advertising in advance.

I totally agree with you. We were considering becoming an AAA approved shop but why would one do that if AAA are going to own and run shops. One of the things you are suppose to do to be an AAA approved shop is suppply the names of 300 customers amd invoices. If one does that now you are giving customers names and pricing information to a competitor. That is not very smart is it.

Curt, welcome! It is good to have you. I think that this can be a venue where we all learn from each other and help each other. I am a little older than you are but I only have about 11 years experience running a shop and zero years experience working on cars.

The November issue of Motor Age contained a lot of articles that I found worthwhile. I think this one about managing customer expectations is worth reading: http://motorage.search-autoparts.com/motor...e/detail/641559

It seems that RepairPal.com could be a competitor or do something similar to what Prundo is trying to do. Has anyone looked at RepairPal or saw any evidence that consumer are using it?

I do not think you are out of line if you can afford to do that. We just have never had the level of profitability to allow us to do those kind of things. Hopefully we will someday reach that point.

Not that I am aware of. Some pay Christmas bonuses some based upon productivity. We also collect all of the scrap (steel, aluminum, etc.), sell it, bank the money, and divide this among them. It will be $200-$500 each.

Very nice site!

http://www.carxevansville.com/

We do not pay Christmas bonuses although we always give the guys their choice of gift cards (Walmart, Gander Mountain, etc.) usually $100. What we do pay is a $100 cash bonus each month to each of our employee when we exceed $70,000 in sales for the month. This year they have collected about $900 each in bonuses (eventually we will have to raise the sales goal). My guys really like that. It really motivates!

No do you?

With the direction we are headed we need to add more scan tools although we probably see fewer Eurpoeans than you do. We also see very few Infinities, Land Rovers, and Minis. Please rate the scan tools in the order of importance to your business. If you primarily used a Modis what would be your next addition?

We do not REQUIRE training however we do have training provided by our franchisor. Our franchisor has classes that techs can be sent to and about once per quarter there is a trainer who will come to our shop and work with our techs either as a group or as individuals. We can select what training we want provided. Most of this is basic stuff. For more advanced training we utilize classes that vendors sponsor such as Standard Ignition or AC Delco. We have also used classes by Bill Fulton.

Our primary tool is a Snap On Modis. We use to use an OTC Genisys. Joe, what scan tools do you use and what do you recommend. We are doing more Europeans and coming up short and more body control stuff.