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In my opinion the two key factors in starting an auto repair business are (1)location and (2)people. A location can make or break you especially if you haven't already been in the business and developed a clientele and following. The guy who is a hands on technician and has a following may be able to go to some back alley low rent location but it will impede growth. If you have no following you had better be on a main drag. We are a Car-X franchise and Car-x says we need to be in a high traffic (think 30,000 cars per day) destination type location. Our shop is located about 1/4 mile from Walmart and we are surrounded by restaraunts and businesses. They are building a VA hospital behind us. The only problem we have now is our lot and building are too small but it was all we could afford ten years ago. If we had started in an out of the way location we would not have made it. The second thing is people. The article is right, help needs to be screened as carefully as possible. The problem I had coming into this business is that it is pretty easy to be fooled without having worked around this business. I am much better now at judging potential employees having ran a shop for ten years. We hired a service manager and our sales have grown from $560,000 tp $900,000 in three years. That's how much difference the right employee can make. The service manager who we had before thought this business was in declined and that we had topped out when we reached $605,000 in sales. Location and people are the most important factors in my mind and of the two good people are the hardest to find.

This is thinking outside of the box:

Do any of you use Identifix? Is so for how long? How useful has it been to you? Is it worth the cost? We use to use Identifix but got away from them about four years ago when we changed service manager. Now we have a new tech who swares by Identifix so we are looking at them again.

We want to do some used cars but do not have enough parking lot space. I bought a piece of property that we could have done it with but sold it turning a quick profit. Then the recession hit. I am glad that I held off but still would like to work something out.

Car-x in larger markets has worked out loaner deal rates with Enterprise. We have a couple of shop vehicles we use as loaners but we don't advertise it. It has been a positive but ofcourse, insurance rates in this area are much better.

Congratulations. It was a lot of work wasn't it but it will be worthwhile.

It is not too bad of a schedule. Obviously most guys would like to have Saturday off but unfortunately it doesn't match the needs of our customer base. I think the smaller shops that have an established customer base and large percentage of drop off business may be able to get by with being closed on Saturday but they are losing some business they could have if they were open. I really can't take credit for our schedule though it was devised by my service manager. He is absolutely outstanding (he was an Army Ranger). Through his efforts our sales have grown from $560,000 to $887,000 over the last four years and we have won two consecutive store of the year awards for our region with Car-X.

We rotate schedules. Everyone works five days and we schedule to give our service manager and technicians at least one three day weekend per month. In other words the guy who gets Saturday off this week also has Monday off the following week. Everyone enjoys that. I personally only worked about one Saturday a month. Our guys work 7-5 but we are open until 5:30 for pickups and dropoff. The guy who gets the three day weekend also only works 8-5 that week. They also enjoy coming in an hour later. We run shorter hours on Saturday (7-3) verus weekdays (7-5:30) and we also buy everyone lunch on Saturday. That way instead of them taking an hour lunch everyone takes a short lunch and gets the work done so we can all go home at 3:00. We are about as productive on a shorter day verus a full day.

We are open six (6) days per week also. The advantage is we are taking care of our customers, growing customer base, and utilizing fixed assets. If I am open on Saturday my rent, insurance, etc. are covered. I have these costs whether I am open or not. If I am not open on Saturday and my competitor is there is potential to lose my customer to the compeititor. Our community has a population of about 180,000 with not a lot of shift work. In this market the evening and Sunday hours haven't seemed to be very profitable and haven't caught on.

May sales are about even with last year. We may finish slightly down but not by much. My regional Car-x contact tells me that the Cincinnati market is taking a beating this month.

Joe it has become much harder to survive in this business as a specialist. The muffler brake franchises are not called that anymore but have now become "auto service". New car dealers are now selling tires. The quick lubes are expanding their service offerings. Each business is fighting for market share and customers like one stop shopping where they can go somewhere and get everything done. When we reach a new customer we work to capture their business and be their one stop for everything. If you go the performance route it will probably require some astute planning on your part. In essence to do that you are chosing a market niche. The effect of selecting a niche is to exclude a large portion of the market. Performance business is also more discretionary spending. What has happened to those in the performance business over the past year with $4.00+ gasoline, a recession, and a bear stock market? I have also found that those interested in performance are also those who try to do most of it themselves and are harder to get to spend money.

Joe, welcome! I am in the minority here because I am not a guy who loves cars. To me a car is only a tool to get from one place to another. I didn't get into this business because I love cars but as a business investment. Ten years ago I didn't know anything about cars. It hasn't been easy but I have succeeded because I am a good businessman. The business side will make or break your success.

Looks like we finish April down about 14% below last year. It was also ridiculously slow here. We had a $500 day when our average is over $3,000. Business finally came back alive the last week.

I noticed where you are from. My youngest daughter lives in Cleveland, TN, and I am wrtiting this from the computer at her house.

How has business been during the first months of 2009? Our January-February was strong March was o.k. April has fallen off the cliff. So you will know where I am coming from we had not had a down month to month in 4 years until March. Can we compare notes?

We are a Car-X franchise (http://www.carx.com/). I came into this industry with no automotive background at all. The franchise gave me tools to succeed although it was a long hard pull. It would have been very, very difficult to do what we did without the guidance the franchise gave. However, once we were successfully operating the franchise does little for me. The Car-X name is not a strong brand in this part of the country. Based upon what I NOW KNOW if I were opening a new shop today would I be a franchise? Probably not! I would think long and hard about it because of the fees. But with that said I have also gained a BUSINESS perspective of what it takes to succeed by being a franchisee that some independents lack.

Please post your shop's monthly average car counts.We had 379 cars in March. Average monthly count: 350 How many bays: 7 Hours of operation: M-F 7-5:30 Sat 7-3