Southards

Yes, we own (paid off years ago) the land under the business. In the next 5 years I hope to sell the business and lease the land. Planning for that to be the ongoing retirement fund. Our property is on the main street, excellent parking, lots of appeal! We frequently get letters from realtors asking if we'll sell, HELL NO!! Maybe many years down the road, but not for quite a while. Thanks for the great video.

Thank you!! Watched the whole thing. Very informative.

11 years ago I moved from rock and chisel to Tabs Autofluent. It's awesome and easy. About 5 years into it I purchased the software and now just pay $73 a month for all the updates and any assistance I ever need. The staff is great and can talk me through an issue or remotely hands on fix or show me what I need help with. I highly recommend

Northern Californina (100 miles north of SF) $125

Like I had to tell my best friend/bookkeeper, her job has VALUE! Our services have tremendous value, we earn it and deserve it. We're providing a valuable service because the customer can't do this. And like the others said, there is equipment, specialty equipment that wasn't cheap to purchase. The ONLY thing I retract is the brake inspection charge, and only if we do the work right then & there. Other than that, everything that needs diagnosing gets charge accordingly.

I signed up for this GoMo and love it. So do our customers. Matthew has been very helpful, it's worth looking into. Now just need to learn how to implement it more to promote business!

I charge $25 a day. I only impose this if it's been one week after repairs are completed. The most recent one the customer cooked the engine and was from out of state. The storage charges started on Dec 23rd, she called her bank and surrendered the vehicle. The bank called and arranged to pick up the vehicle and pay the balance, including storage. This worked out great, THIS time.

WOW! You must be reading mine and my husbands minds! There is a shop two doors down from us that is this way. No! We DON'T get it. He had a truck sitting in the same cockeyed position, half on/half off the curb in his parking lot for 4 MONTHS, WTH is it? Is it a customer dispute, is it waiting for the "row boat" (awesome analogy), WHAT WAS IT. It drove us crazy, then one day it was gone and then another one sat in the same place for 2 months now. This particular shop we call "Eric the transmission god", but yet constantly hear that cars will stay with him for a month or more. More complaints than compliments. And yes, we too get the same customers that say "no rush" then turn around and call the same afternoon "just curious what you found". We don't get it either. A car sitting taking up space is not putting money in my register, FIX IT AND ROLL IN THE NEXT ONE! Awesome post! Juli Southard

I send Thank You cards, write a note related to the service we provided. I thank them for 1) CHOOSING US and 2) TRUSTING US. Both of those are the key reason we're all still in business. I had two rubber stamps made, one in blue in saying "Review us on Google, Southard Tire and Auto". The other rubber stamp in red reads "Review us on Yelp, Southard Tire and Auto". I stamp both of these somewhere on the inside of the card and include our business card. My Yelp's are good, Google isn't so good as it seems to be tricky to do for some reason. I am also a TireRack.com installer, I REALLY encourage my customers to leave reviews there, the ones on there have driven A LOT of new business my way, for tire installs, alignments and many other mechanical repairs and services. I get a lot of thoughtful responses because of these cards. Highly recommend it!!

I just love it when customers determine the time, some even go as far as suggesting a price for our service. I have to hold my tongue and giggling to a minimum.

Ya Know...... Some customers are just plain unreasonable & stupid and others are just laughable. This goes for every service oriented industry, my daughter tells us some real doosies in the restaurant business (you think we've got it bad!!!)

Ya Know...... Some customers are just plain unreasonable & stupid and others are just laughable. This goes for every service oriented industry, my daughter tells us some real doosies in the restaurant business (you think we've got it bad!!!)

The only paid advertising I do now is the local town phone book, and the local KOA & Thousand Trails camp grounds maps. I know for sure I get return from the camp grounds, the customers always tell me how they found us. As for the book, it's small but I feel necessary. So many good ideas here, but when I wear as many hats as I do (as we all do) I find I have no time to do the Facebook updates. I tried to do the local sponsorship for a couple teams, but now they don't add the logo because now they ask for they are reusing the shirts for the next year, strange as that sounds. Google and Yelp reviews ~ I had self-inking stamps made up "Review us on Yelp" & " Review us on Google", I stamp every customers receipt and circle with a bright highlighter pen. But I will think more on the referral business card idea, I like that one!