meowpox

Started using a whiteboard and its been awesome! As said in previous post, we still use Google calendar for all appts, and its shared with everyone. Google calendar is awesome for small shops, in my opinion. Decided to use a whiteboard to get an overall "glance" of everything. It's pretty simple but the team seems to like it. Top red row are daily tasks. We look at the Google calendar and write in those appts on that row, each evening before. Everything else below are the big car projects they are working on. We thought about doing large square magnets so they can re-position them based on priority, but decided to just write numbers next to it. (Grace starts on Monday so she has not been assigned anything big just yet ) Priority is based on number of things like waiting on parts, how fast customer needs car back (is it daily driver or just an extra fun car), etc.

Oh that's exciting! I love getting a new space and planning it out. The top things our customers love about our lobby is: counter next to window to get work done on their laptops, coffee machine, and TV with Roku. Want to start selling race gear but waiting to build second floor for more storage. EDIT: you can see some photos oif our lobby at the bottom of this page

Good idea but wondering how you would go about looking for out of staters...would you just list your job ad under the other state? and how would you pick where to post or which state to look in? This month was the first time we actually had a hiring process and put ads for mechanics. We got a couple of out-of-state and out-of-country applicants. But there were a couple things that we had to think about. We are in the SF Bay Area, which I think in 2015 became the #1 most expensive place to rent in the US, so we have to make sure we can provide a pay that is reasonable. which also means we have to make sure that person is worth it....but then how can you know this for sure until they actually work in your shop for a while? You really have to take big leap of faith. Then we were thinking how much pressure that is because we wouldn't want to put anyone in a bad living situation. Definitely a big decision. I think people want to live here but they look at the rent prices and are like NEVERMIND. lol One of our reasons for denying applicants who were qualified (on paper) but coming out of state was because someone who is already involved in the car scene in CA can bring in more potential customers (from old jobs) or have contacts in the community (vendors and organizations etc)...meaning they have more to bring to the company than just being able to work well on a car...as opposed to someone just moving to the area, not familiar with the scene, the local organizations, etc. But if there was someone extremely qualified, we'd still be open to the idea. This was just out thought process.

I think its a great idea! Having any type of event just shows you want to be involved with the community. We had our one-year anniversary party a couple months ago and it was so huge. Some things that I think made it a success that might help for yours: Free food: this was a pretty big expense because we had it catered but people just like free food so BBQ with burgers is always easy Games: we had raffles and a drift trike autox setup --perfect for adults AND kids Hype: our event was hyped up all over the internet. But I think since your event is more geared towards the neighborhood, I would hand out fliers We didnt do charity but this is always a good idea.

Congrats on the new biz! We are still new (1 year 4 months) but we've been non-stop busy. Went to your website and looks like you specialize in a lot of cars we do so thought I'd give you my advice. Our first month or two was hard though. This is what we did: Grand Opening with free food: we hyped up our event to the car community by offering free food and nice cars to look at. We had our friends' restaurant BBQ the food and our Biz partner who is active in the community brought all his friends with nice cars. Also, customers from past shops that my boyfriend worked at also hyped it up and organized drives to our event in the car forums. About 60 people showed up. If you havent done a grand opening, I think this is a great way to show your community that you are open for business and it lets customers see what you got.Side note to free food and nice cars: We also just had our 1 Year Anniversary this past October and 300 people RSVPed on FB and over that amount showed up. From 60 people to 300+, they all say they came because we are the talk of the town, plus the free food and nice cars. Business cards on cars in parking lots geared towards the market you're going for. First, make sure your business cards are nice and up to date looking. Second, go to the parking lots of car show, meets, and events. We got a couple customers this way. Also, helps to make bigger cards that can show photos of your shop (must be nice photos!) Partner with car leaders/orgs of the community: being a nice new shop, we were approached by several people/organizations to make deals. For example, a popular car organization wanted to offer its members discounts on labor at our shop in exchange for them promoting us in all their media and events. Another example is a person who has tons of Instagram followers wanted a sponsorship on labor in exchange for him promoting us. At the very beginning, we said yes to most of these type of relationships and its proven to help a lot. We are known in the community because of this. I do want to mention however, that we said yes even to groups who were not necessarily aligned with the market we are going for...which obviously can present some issues later. Social Media: looks like you guys are pretty active on Facebook and Instagram -- always always a good thing! Post nice interesting photos. Nothing blurry, shop must look pristine in every single photo. No trash in the background, no oily floors. Events, Networking, Memberships: we are closed on weekends so that we can attend events. We do a lot of trackdays with customers but if that's not part of your biz model, I would go to meets and car shows. Networking is essential in most industries. Also, find car organizations that cater to your market, become members, and attend their events. For example, BMW Car Club of America, Porsche Club of America, Sports Car Club of America, etc.....volunteer or just attend events. The term networking sometimes scares people because putting yourself out there is intimidating...but just going to events..they will start to recognize you and remember you. Your shop looks nice also. I'm sure it will get better, just gotta keep at it and be patient.

We are currently having the same issue. It's been crazy busy at our shop, we're booked 2 weeks out. So we started searching the beginning of this month. Our facebook job ad was super popular, and tons of people shared it and tons of people tagged mechanics. But not too many resumes were actually submitted. Also have ad on indeed.com....which was free but only started getting traffic when I "sponsored" the ad for $5/day. Still no applicants Craigslist got a couple bites but no one qualified. Tried autoservicejobs.com which was recommended on this forum and this one is getting some traffic but no applicants. Monster --have not done this because says its $290 for 30 days. Not sure if this will even work. We've interviewed several people. Found two awesome techs...both by personal referral and not by job ad. Offered both techs more than they're making now, but they both had commute issues and I think leaving their stable job for a new shop (we've only been around 1 year and 4 months) was too risky. I'm new to this and have to say...this search is pretty frustrating. Maybe I'm just being impatient.

Yeah I see where youre coming from. I think everyone finds value in different things and it also depends on the type of shop you have and your type of customer base. Our team is small and we dont have walk-ins so anyone coming in already has an appointment (thus already knows our pricing) so it wouldnt be that beneficial for us. Being cohesive is more simple than it sounds, in my opinion. I have the RGB and CMYK code of every color used and reused in our logos and digital marketing materials. Then you pick the same fonts throughout. If you have a header with a certain font and style in your website, you can carry that into your print outs or your digital menu. I love being creative but I'm not a mechanic so I have some time to dedicate to these sorts of things. But I get that not everyone does have that time or if you do, probably dont want to spend that time on picking colors and fonts lol. Welp, whatever you decide, cant wait to see photos! We dont have a smart TV as well, we have a pretty old and heavy flat screen that we werent using so brought it to the office. We bought a Roku 3 (one-time $100) for it to make it function like a "smart" tv. Chromecast is cheaper (one-time $35) which we have at home, but set up is different. Roku: you have all the "apps" in the console. For example, customer just has to use the Roku remote to go to YouTube or Netflix or the Car Channel on our TV. Chromecast is a device that just enables screening---so you would need a smartphone or tablet with Netflix on it, then you can 'cast' it to whatever device the Chromecast is connected to. Hope that helps.

If youre looking for something fresh and modern to make your marketing materials, I sometimes use canva.com. A lot of the pieces and artwork there are free, and the templates are beautiful and not your typical ad/coupon design. I use this when my graphic designer cousin is too busy lol.

I only briefly looked at the truDigital Signage website so I could be missing something but...I dont see what it has to offer that you cant get anywhere else for free. If I understand correctly, if you want a digital sign, all you need is a TV, internet, and something for streaming like Roku or Chromecast. Similar to what stowintegrity said, you can make your own slideshow on excel or iMovie or really anything, upload to youtube, and stream it onto your TV for free. When we have events, I use our Roku to stream our Facebook photos (which has all sorts of car projects and other fun things to look at). With all the streaming options and easy templates for everything digital, I wouldnt pay for this service.

Coffee & wifi seem to be the most popular here...we have a lot of customers who are able to work remotely.

I really like how you have a customer feedback survey on there. Do you find customers fill those out more on their own? Or do you usually mention its there...

Yeah it does. It lets you choose from tons of numbers that are available...you can sort by desired zip code. Most of the time it's available. But one time when I wanted a personal number, I had to pick a neighboring city's area code. Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

Every shop has different needs but this is how we've saved money on our phone system. We're a small shop: 4 techs + me and this is what we're on: -Google Voice: Free phone number -Obi202 VoIP Phone Adapter with 2 Phone Ports & Fax: $63 -This phone with 2 handsets: $130 -No monthly fees So we're running on 2 lines, 1 phone number. Everything is super clear but that will depend on the quality of your router and internet. Fax DOES NOT work with Google Voice, but fax can be easily done online for free...or pay for a fax line. Our phone has an answering machine. If no one picks up in the office, my boyfriend has it set up to ring on his cell (you can disable this on Google voice or have it set to screen first). Hope that helps. Everyone else's setup sounds nice too. Pro Call sounds amazing.

Thanks for the tips! We do have a specific target market, which is very abundant in the San Francisco Bay Area. Majority of our customers are car enthusiasts, not so much soccer moms. They are people that love to take their cars to driving events, such as autocrosses and trackdays, or just car meets and drives. We wouldnt turn down a 2005 Honda accord or soccer moms, but it isnt the type of car or clientele we are going after either. Regarding the phone number, it is in the footer and in "The Shop" page. We deliberately made it so that the contact form is easier to find first because we are still a young shop and very busy. We find that we are more efficient with our time and more accurate with our quotes if we can get requests via email/contact form. We know some people prefer to talk to a human, so our phone number is also on yelp, facebook, instagram, and google. Thanks for the feedback! That is something to think about.

Great idea! Newly graduated students just starting their careers usually need to build their portfolios, so are willing to do a lot of work for free or cheaper

OOH a topic I really enjoy because I love interior decorating lol. ALL of our office was designed using IKEA furniture except our Kitchen. Open area: We tore down some walls to make our lobby have an open feeling...its something I was always used to in the tech startup industry. Idk why, it just feels better this way in my opinion. It feels open and more spacey, and we are on a more personal level with customers with not so much blocking in between. Also painted the inside walls gray and red to match the walls of the shop. We dont have a counter and use IKEA galant desks. Pros are its cheap, large, and intimate communication with customer (talking at the same level). Cons are its open and they can easily see mess (if we let it get messy), and they can see the cables so its not as "clean" as a typical reception counter. TV, books, snacks area: Flatscreen is old and used TV that we never used much so brought to the office. ROKU: me and my partner stopped using cable TV at home and replaced it with a Roku (one time fee about $100 or less), then use it for Netflix, Youtube, History Channel, Car channels, food channels (we only pay for Netflix about $8/month, the other channels are free)...etc. So I brought this idea to the shop. This is so much fun for our customers. I just leave the remote on the table and they have soooo much to choose from. Also, very kid-friendly. If your customers have young ones, there are tons of kiddy channels like PBS that will keep them quiet and glued to the seat. TV helps with customer patience, but allowing them to choose what to watch---they'll just forget about their car lol I call this our Work-and-Watch station. Bought 2 shelves from IKEA (I think like $30 each) and then the brackets which were like $3-4. Charging station and plant also from IKEA. The charging cords--you can find cheap at electronic stores. This is a popular spot for customers that get to work from home and want to be able to look up to see the progress of their car. Restaurant Book: I've gotten into a weird habit of collecting menus from restaurants and organizing it at home. I started doing the same thing for the shop with nearby restaurants and restaurants that deliver to our shop. Sometimes, things come up where the customer has to stay longer than planned and our free snacks isnt enough. They love that they know which restaurants deliver. Also that little plaque I made that gives customers the Wifi password, tell them we have coffee and water and free snacks, show them that we have a Restaurant book if they need to order food delivered. Every time some one asks for it, all I have to say is oh its there on the plaque (instead of spelling it out lol) Kitchen: I was not involved when our biz partner had these built but the fridge is a hand-me-down, the plant from IKEA, the K-cup machine gets a lot of use and you can buy this anywhere. Toaster and microwave are cheap brands as well. Would love to get the toaster oven though! All dishes used internally are from IKEA. Customers use disposable cups. I bought the knobs from Home Depot for a little over $2 each. Deco & live plants: I like modern but classy. I got a gift certificate for my bday to this store that sold these brass plated hanging planters. I bought the plants from Home Depot ($5 each) and for some reason, my partner already had tweed rope in his supplies lol. Normal price, these brackets are $40 with the pot, 30 without. Most guys would never spend a dime on decoration (including my partner), but every single new customer that walks in leaves not only impressed with the work, but with the peace of mind that when they come back, they come back to a very comforting lobby that looks great and makes their stay much more bearable. Decoration doesnt have to be expensive too. So much good stuff at dollar stores and clearance sections. Also, I think plants, especially succulents, make any office look better. Succulents (like cactus) dont require much water either. Our bathroom...thats something we had to put on the back burner in terms of decorating because its small, single person, and not much room to play with. So really right now all we do is keep it clean. So in summary, the most expensive was: kitchen, painting walls, tearing down walls. Cheapest: furniture, decorations, TV/Roku. Other tips on cheap decorating: we go to liquidation warehouses, craigslist and moveloot.com for things that we wanted but didnt want to spend much on it like a large white board, trash bins, tool organizers, sturdy work tables for the shop, and other things. Snacks we get from Boxed.com which is like going to a club warehouse but not having to go in-person and not needing a membership.

This is such a great thread and something me and my partner constantly work on. Our shop is only one year old, but coming from the law industry, I know all about burning out and it is NOT BENEFICIAL for anyone and any business. You might think, oh the biz wont survive if I dont pull in hours and hours and stay glued to my phone. What it really does is put you in a very negative state of mind which translates into how you treat everyone around you, how you treat your work, and just crappy situation for everyone. It is a marathon, not a sprint. Fresh mind is always needed. The quote I live by is "Work to live, not live to work" --easier said than done, I know. In my opinion, too many people think success is making millions of $$$. To me, success is being happy. If you are in this industry, like mspecperformance said, its because you have some type of passion for cars or just running a biz that contributes to the community. There must be something in there that you can reach and grab onto to see the positive...like "hey, i dont have to deal with a terrible boss everyday" That said, here is what me and my partner do and it helps but we still have our days: 1) Closed on weekends. Although I constantly suggest to him to at least be open 1 day of the weekend and close one day of the week, he doesnt budge. However, our techs seem to be very thankful and also gives time for my partner to "reset"--he sometimes accepts dropoffs or does extra work on the weekend but other than that, he seems to be liking his weekends doing little things for the shop but not full days of work. Sometimes I come in and do extra cleaning so that its all ready by Monday. 2) Phone notifications! Something that stressed my partner out is that he would come to his phone and see so many notifications. I constantly go through them all with him and ask which he really needs. Sometimes, they are just notifications from FB groups that he adds and it defaults to "notify each time a person just says something in the group"--so I clean that up for him to minimize it as much as possible. Also, your emails...if you get emails from things that you NEVER read, get into the habit of unsubscribing! 3) Day-vacations: if you are still unwilling to take a vacation, think of things you enjoy that wouldnt take more than a day. Like my favorite thing is to take my dogs hiking...in which I tell my partner to put his phone away and we have great conversations. Or go to your favorite restaurant. Or see a movie (great distraction because you cant look at your phone or else people will get mad lol)...the point is.....dont look at your phone and try to distract yourself with something calming and enjoyable! 4) Accept help. This is something I still need to work on. During our 1-year anniversary party, over 300 people came and I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off...even though all my friends/family kept asking "Let me help, how can I help?" --sometimes its hard to accept help because you think, "I do it best" --well you cant do it all!

This is a hilarious topic. We deal with this from time to time but one thing that has been SUCH A GREAT TOOL is our Appt Request Form on our website. My bf was hesitant and was like "Are people really going to wanna fill it out"....trust me, some people prefer talking over the phone but in this digital age, a lot of people actually like email. On our FB page, I set up the Call to Action button as a "Book Now" button which, when pressed, takes them straight to our website request appt form. So far, we get about 4-6 new entries a day. That's 4-6 phone calls that didnt have to distract us from other work....and now, we have their email and phone number stored in our emails so we dont have to write it down or look at the caller ID to find the number again. And also, the form gives us time to come up with the numbers, look at our schedule (lets customers pick their preferred days and times, etc. We LOVE it.

Thanks for the link! Ill definitely direct questions I have, thank you for offering. Winworks does have parts catalog integration with the vendor we buy most of our parts from so thats good. It does have QB integration but I am looking to get rid of QB all together LOL. But yeah I figured I wont be able to find an all-in-one SMS without spending millions to build it myself lol (I think Post office did that!) I've heard of Mitchell, and also was thinking of getting demo from RO Writer. How do you like Mitchell? Btw, any advice Ill take, since I am new to the industry (but yeah, I am super organized which is why these softwares that dont have a lot of functionality bothers me so much lol)...but Im glad this forum will encourage me to keep finding ways to improve.

Hello, we are a new shop (open for 1 year) and right now, we work on a lot of different types of cars. We have been lucky enough to have a great customer base and enough work that keeps everyone busy every day (sometimes have to be selective), but the question I discuss with my significant other (owner of the shop) is Should we specialize in a type of car? If so, when? This is how I see it: Pros of specializing: -People trust techs that work over and over on their type of car -Easier for techs to become masters of their work -No more spending on tools/manuals that are specific to other cars Cons of specializing: -It would close the door to a lot of potential customers -We find that the variety keeps day to day interesting Thoughts?

thanks!

This is great advice. I have thought about different pays according to what we think will motivate them more (its true in our shop that every tech is motivated very differently) But I didnt think about considering what type of work they usually do (basic alignment/oil change vs big projects) and how we can assign it more strategically to make sense for all of us. Will definitely discuss these suggestions with the boss. Thanks so much!

Thanks everyone for such a warm welcome! Seems like such an active forum, very excited to read everything and finally not feel alone in all of these situations! I did here about AutoVitals and was interested, unfortunately missed their free class/demo at SEMA. I will look into Bolt On as well. Thanks for this! One thing that I wish existed (and if you know of anything, let me know)...is a program that's more of an all-in-one. For instance, the company Wave. You can send invoices, collect payment, no paper needed unless you want print outs, all the data and reports are there, payroll...and one thing I love is that you can connect your business credit card and bank account so that every time you pay for something for the business (let's say for office supplies), it is automatically shown there and you can categorize it. The only thing is, its not geared towards automotive so really cant use it. Right now how we do it is: Jon (owner) inputs work orders on Winworks. Collects payments via CC thermal printing machine from FirstData, prints 2 copies of the receipt from machine and 2 copies of the invoice from Winworks. Gives one set to customer, gives one to me and writes down on the paper which mechanic did which and for how many hours. Then I input that invoice into Quickbooks, plus all the parts purchased from vendors. Seems like a lot of unnecessary inputting and double inputting. I know Winworks does have QB integration capabilities, but I'm not sure if its seamless so Im still a little afraid to try it. As for financial side, we do have a CPA that comes at the end of the year, but she is not involved throughout the year (is this normal?). I do all the bookkeeping, file the quarterly taxes (which I've already caught costly mistakes done by the previous person that worked here), try to analyze the financial reports with our biz partner....but now that I'm learning there are classes specified for this, I will definitely look into Elite and read more on this forum. Can you link me to the Elite site? Truly truly appreciate this help

Nice sites everyone! Our website gets a lot of traffic, due to engagement via blog, fb, and events. www.trackspecauto.com We feel that the most effective are simple, yet new and modern looking. Why? If its busy on the first initial page, people get overwhelmed and often skim info shown. If you start with a simple home page, they can decide via your menu what they need to see. Which, in my opinion, is more comforting than being shown everything all at once on the first visit. Some people go to your site just so find contact info or location. Some go to see what you're all about, read about the employees, etc. Each person has a different mindset going into it, so it is my opinion that its better to let them choose what to see first.

Hello! I am so sad I didnt see this forum earlier. Our shop, Trackspec Autosports, is 1 year old. I was a lawyer, then left to do non-law tech (SF startup) and loved it until we got acquired by a big company...then a couple months ago, quit to help my significant other run his business. We have 3 techs, 2 owners (1 is my significant other, the other is a financial backer), and myself, who runs everything besides working on a car. I am here because I am always looking on ways to improve, even if we are doing okay. Coming from law and tech, I dont know many people that run an auto shop biz, which is unique in several ways...including taxes & workflow management. My big thing is efficiency, and even though I've made many improvements, I feel like it can always be better. I need it to be more paperless overall and also need it to be more efficient with accounting. Seems hard when the entire industry doesnt seem up to date. Looking for suggestions so I found this forum which is awesome! Thanks for reading