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Here is more of my daughter singing. This is in Birmingham at Church of the Highlands. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10202931077583731&id=1406931130

You shop owner friend may know cars but he doesn't have a clue about running a business. He needs to have some business management training. $65 an hour in Queens when we are $87 in Indiana seems ridiculous.

Anybody going to the SEMA show this year?

I guess the guy in your story learned that a back door approach don't work with you.

Your husband needs to tell them that insurance does not allow them to be in the shop. If he won't do that then you need to walk out there and tell them that.

My SMS spits out reports for the technicians production in each category and I hand figure from there.

This is for parts and labor: 5% on tires, 10% on oil changes and batteries, 30% on alignments, 14% on everything else. Every tech has a base guarantee that they will not be paid less than $XXX. Various based upon experience and ability.

We do business with TireRack and have for years. We have been a TireRack installer for almost 15 years. On the average set of tires installed we will get about $82 for installation and tire disposal. We have often sold these customers alignments and sometimes brakes and other repairs. Some of these initial TR customers have became good long term customers. In my mind it is a no brainer. I get customers into my shop that have never been there with no advertising dollars and Tire Rack customers tend to be higher end customers. We also occassionally purchase tires from Tire Rack. We have a wholesale account with them. On most tires we get about a 10% price break on the tires and shipping over the on line customer. If the tires are in stock in South Bend we have them next day. When we add in installation we don't make our usual margins on the tires but we don't lose money either. You can also pick up some extra dollars by selling them a road hazard warranty if they didn't buy from Tire Rack. In the early days of our shop it was much harder to be competitive with TireRack but shipping costs have risen enough to make it a more level playing field. Come on guys think about it! Get new higher end customers to come into your shop without spending any advertising dollars to draw them! I would say that at least 50% of the TR customers drive Audi, Merdcedes, Lexus, BMW, etc. However, it does bug me to know that often I could gave sold the same tires to them at a better price when they add together TireRack, shipping, and installation. What they did was give the profit to UPS instead of to a local business.

I steal them, I ask vendors if they know anyone, and I advertise on Craigslist.

Thanks guys. Obviously I am proud of her.

Gonzo said I should post this: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10202739424792531&l=3997917819553767879 https://www.facebook.com/gfrank.may/videos/vb.1406931130/10203109444482792/?type=2&theater https://www.facebook.com/gfrank.may/videos/vb.1406931130/10203109444482792/?type=2&theater

Ratchet and Wrench is the best magazine I have found for reading about shop business. Some guy on there by the name of Joe Marconi has been writing some great stuff lately.

I like it and it loads fast. Nice pictures.

No problem. Since I have moderator privileges on this thread I fixed it!

Ditto! Good look for a template.

You couldn't get me to do this either.

This class is sponsored by Jasper. They only have seats for 45 people to attend and all but seven were already booked up. People gave Nashville and st.mlouis have already signed up.

I just learned today that we have a sales class by Bob Cooper of Elite here in our city on November 22. I have two people signed up to attend.

A few years back I checked out becoming an AAA approved shop but did not pursue the opportunity. As I remember I too had an extremely hard time getting a hold of someone who could tell me what was involved. I left messages, etc. and finally had success on my third or fourth attempt.

For what it is worth this week I have been discussing SMS with my franchise area manager. The two favorites in our franchise are Omnique and VAST (http://www.mamsoftware.com/usa/vast-enterprise-retail). Wes Daniels who just opened a new independent shop in Atlanta investigated dozens of packages and selected VAST. However, my franchise area manager advised me to avoid Mitchell and Alldata. Does anyone of this forum use VAST?

If you are allowed to do it have a large banner created that reads CAR ER NOW OPEN in big bold letters and colors. Hang it at the top of the building. Purchase some of the streamers like the car lots use and hang them from the building. Anything to get yourself noticed. This is a minor point and I am not trying to nit pick but trim the grass growing up in the paving cracks. It just makes the place look a little neater. The struggle is typical. After three years in business we were still in the red.

That is a positive improvement for me.

A few years ago I got hooked up with a processor like that. Eventually the government went after them and I got some of my money back. I complained to the FTC and to the state attorney general and it helped.