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Are you able to maintain a good labor gross profit while paying $35 per flag hour? What's your labor GP target? I would be more leery of the guy wanting $1500 a week than the guy looking for flat rate. At least the guy wanting flat rate knows he can produce enough to make money. The guy wanting $1500 a week could be great, but more likely just has a high opinion of himself and wants to be taken care of whether he gets any work done or not.

Almost forgot the best part about my 29.95 full synthetic oil change. I used to run a 19.95 coupon oil change with a synthetic blend. Now with the full synthetic oil, I make $5 MORE per coupon oil change. I still don't make much, but I went from trading dollars to actually making a small profit. And I'm still $15 cheaper than the standard oil change at Jiffy Lube.

The oil is a dexos approved house brand from our oil vendor. My oil filters are also a house brand from Factory Motor Parts. If the customer wants anything else, or if it's a european car that needs a euro spec oil, it's going to cost a hell of a lot more. Of course diesels of any kind are not included. If the customer shows up with the coupon for euro or diesels, I kindly explain why I can't do that, but then discount their oil change by the amount of discount that the standard oil change people get. Never had a complaint. If the car is a run of the mill car that happens to have a weird and expensive filter, I'll generally eat it. I more than make up for it by being able to inspect their car and sell them needed services. I've had a few people ask about using a non-synthetic oil. We just explain the advantages of using a full synthetic, and that if they really want regular oil, we can get it for them at a higher cost. No one has asked to pay more money for worse oil.

I'm trying to figure out your aversion to offering a discount to bring in customers, but you are willing to spend money on other things that are much harder to track their effectiveness. I'd rather give a $10 discount on an oil change, be able to track what exactly brought the customer in, and what my ROI was on that offer, than spend $15 washing their car and not having a clue how effective it was. You're very fortunate to be staying busy while offering no discounts, and if that's working for you then it's a boost to your bottom line. But the original poster is looking for ways to market to a few specific groups, one can only assume that he's not happy with his current car count and sees those groups as an opportunity for growing his customer base. There are very few ways that I know of to rapidly pay for an advertising campaign than to offer a strong incentive to come to the shop. The items of value are nice and certainly enhance the customer experience once they're in your shop, but they don't drive people to act. If you're wondering what I consider a strong incentive, my current mailer coupon has a full synthetic oil change for $29.95. No trick or gimmick about it, just a full synthetic oil change for under 30 bucks. I don't even keep regular oil or a blend in the store. My ROI for that coupon is 680%. What's the ROI on a free car wash with every service or a longer warranty, and how do you track it?

I'm not saying that you shouldn't use a discount to attract new customers. I send 15,000 mailers a month with cheap oil changes and tiered discounts. Been sending them for almost 5 years straight and it's still working. My point was that he needs to think about how to best get the ad in their hands. Many traditional marketing methods don't work because you can't exactly mail to them. If you can't make them aware of your service, or a discount to incentivize them to come in, then all the discounts in the world won't matter.

Thanks!

You could do a discount for them, but more importantly, how are you marketing to them? It doesn't make any sense to offer a discount if they have no way to know about it. Generally, I shy away from giving discounts to specific groups like that. I have Garmin world HQ around the corner from me, and have a lot of customers from there including Garmin's company fleet. The only difference between them and people in the neighborhood that you might send coupons to, is how you get the coupons in their hands. That's going to come down to internet marketing mostly. Get your web provider to target searches to the hospital and university. Also check with the HR department at both. See if they'd like to include a "special offer" from you as a benefit. The offer could be exactly the same coupon as everyone else gets, but labelled differently. That way you don't have to set up anything special for them, but you can still track it easily.

One of my favorite sayings "If you lend someone $100 and never see them again, it was money well spent."

My thoughts on servicing the next gen cars? Everything breaks. Lefty loosey, Righty tighty. There was a time that guys were leery of servicing disc brakes. They would all obviously have to go back to the dealer. Then it was computer controls. Then fuel injection. Then flashing computers. And on and on. Bring it.

I'm fortunate enough to have a large enough operation to have checks and balances that most shops don't have. My bookkeeper is on top of the numbers constantly and cracks the whip if anything is off. If an advisor does anything that doesn't make sense she sees it in the morning and calls them on it. Then her and I audit books once a month. My biggest exposure is the bookkeeper, so going over the books monthly limits my exposure as much as possible. In an accounting class I took many years ago the instructor talked a bit about best practices. The one thing that stuck was that if someone wants to steal $100, three people should need to lose their job for it. It's hard to find three people who are willing to give up their job for $33 a piece. I'm not sure as independent repair shops we'll ever get to that point, but always keep it in mind whenever possible.

The coach actually has a shop in Colorado and they work nationwide.

Problem no. 1 is that you're managing off your feelings. What's your gross profit on parts? GP on labor? What's your break even? What's your car count? You're inspecting every car aren't you? How many jobs are your techs finding per RO? What's your average HPRO? What's your rent factor? What's the benchmark you should be aiming for on all of these numbers and many more? If you're managing by your feelings, what happens when you have 2 shops? Or 3? How do you manage those shops if you're not going to be present in each shop every day? I could go on and on, but the point is that if you don't have a good handle on your numbers it will be very difficult to be a profitable shop. I looked at your demographics, and your customers are not wealthy, but that doesn't do very much to change the cost of auto repair. It is what it is. If you're feeling uncomfortable about what you're charging, run the numbers and find out what you should be charging. The numbers don't have feelings.

Automotive coach. Good guys that own (still own) a very successful shop. They helped a lot with getting the sales and gross profit side in order. They helped me get a lot of things fixed, but I feel they neglected the expense side more than they should. They came on site, interviewed all the employees, went through all my processes etc. After that it was strictly over the phone and reporting numbers to them. They were worth the money, and I'm still friends with them. Knowing what I know now, I probably could have got more bang for the buck, but it was the right fit for me at the time.

I let a tech go that was a consistent 65 hour a week producer. That certainly hurt. But.... He threw temper tantrums. The other techs hated working with him. His diagnostics sucked. He always had an excuse for why his diag was wrong, or why it wasn't his fault. The shop is better without him.

How much would it be worth or how much would I pay?? The knowledge would be worth somewhere around a cool million. How much would I pay? Obviously nothing because it took me 12 years to actually hire a coach of any kind. When I finally pulled the trigger, I paid $2000 a month on a 2 year contract. Spendy for sure, but I made a lot more than I paid.

It's very simple. Just give the payroll company the number of hours the tech is to be paid for, and make sure they understand the tech doesn't get overtime. That's just about it. If you pay flat rate only with no guarantee like I do, then the tech isn't eligible for overtime. It makes life easy both for payroll and legally.

Get some training that covers both the sales side and the expense side. Maximize sales, minimize expenses. I belong to a 20 group and it's been great. I would caution you about expanding until you've figured out how to be profitable in your current situation. There's no reason to go from being a very busy but unprofitable 5 bay shop to being a very busy but unprofitable 10 bay shop, or worse, 2 unprofitable shops. Funny story about being unprofitable. For many years I was running by the skin of my teeth. My general manager went to training a little more than a week ago on how to read your financials in an automotive business. The trainer included some samples of P&L and balance sheets in the training materials. He recognized the balance sheet as one of mine from back in 2013. The trainer told the class that the shop in the example was probably not losing money, but was dangerously close to getting into trouble due to lack of cash. He was right of course. Since then I've gone from barely scraping by month to month to having 250K in my checking account and 100K in an investment account, all due to knowing what benchmarks I need to hit not only on the income side, but on the expense side.

Retirement planning is important, but what many shop owners fail to do is plan for the sale of their business. If selling the biz is a big part of the retirement plan, as is mine, then you need to make sure the biz is making maximum net profit without YOU. This means growing and structuring the business so it functions with minimal input from you. Currently, I'm the shuttle driver and coach for the guy I just put in as GM. Soon to be just shuttle driver. Replaceable with zero impact on the business = a sellable business.

Convenience store coffee, 1 scoop Casein Protein (creamy vanilla flavor), 1 scoop Whey Protein (vanilla ice cream flavor), about a 1/2 cup heavy cream. Tastes fantastic. Not hungry until lunch.

I've been through enough coaching sales pitches and had a couple of coaches. That doesn't make me an expert, but I've noticed some patterns. One of the things I've noticed in the sales pitches I've been through is the shops they hold up as an example of their "Management Success". One recurring theme I saw was the length of time in the program. Without fail, these shops had been in the program less than a year. The salesman of course pitched that as a positive, of course owing to their program working so quickly. The example shops that I talked to of course were thrilled with the program. But then I started asking specific questions. How long in the program? What was your car count before you started? What's your car count now? What was your average RO before/now? Labor rate before/now? Parts GP before/now? and on and on through a list of key metrics. Then you see a pattern emerge. Without fail the shops who were held up as a success were in the program on average 6 months. The had a very high car count before they started with the program, and were still enjoying a high car count, but it was down slightly from before. These shops all previously had the cheapest labor rate in town, and had been coached to increase their labor rate dramatically. They were also coached to pad the labor hours, some shops a little, some shops a lot. The parts GP had been taken from a very low percentage, usually parts store "list" or less, (some shops were selling parts at cost) and were now getting a reasonable GP of 45-55%. The shop was now enjoying high car count, and a very good average RO with a good GP%. Success! I'm not saying that these shops didn't need to make dramatic changes. Nor am I saying that these changes were wrong. What I'm saying is that the shop's current clientele were going to these shops because they were the cheapest in town by a long shot. Suddenly they were no longer the cheapest in town. A high percentage of these shops go out of business. I personally know 2 shops that spent a large fortune (they have you put it on credit cards up front) and subsequently went out of business because their client base left them plus they were now having to pay off a 30K credit card bill. I know another 2 shop owners who went through the program, and years later (20 for one shop, 15 for the other) they are both mediocre shops. I personally know zero long term successes with this model. This is not to say there are none, but this model is 0 for 4 in my personal sphere. My personal coaching experience is different. 1st coach I hired was a system based on the E-myth book, and modified slightly to apply to the automotive business. This was my wife's idea for me to do. Everything was done over the phone with no delving into the numbers of the business. It was good stuff, but like many technicians I didn't relate well to the touchy-feely approach. Maybe it would have been good for a business in the stages where I am now, but at the time I really just wanted a step by step plan (repair procedure?) to get me from A to B. Money spent, no real effect on my business in no small part because it wasn't my idea and I never bought in. 2nd coach was much more effective. He visited the shop to do a two day evaluation including looking over repair orders, reviewing GP percentages, interviewing staff, and reviewing the facility. After that it was strictly phone coaching like every other coach. As time went on it was obvious that their approach focused almost entirely on the sales process, including inspections from the technician and the advisor selling process. They also wanted me to start a direct mail campaign, but they strongly encouraged me to use their "proprietary" mailers. The mailers were expensive (about 3 times the going rate) and I didn't have the resources to do a proper mailer campaign with any kind of consistency. We NEVER talked about expense control. In the end I got my money's worth from them as my sales were up, my GP was up, but it was done in a way that didn't chase off customers. I still like those guys and speak well of them. They did do a lot for my business and I'm were I am today as a result of their coaching. I hope that in the 6+ years since I left them they're doing more on the expense side and the books in general. But even if they aren't the sales benefits are still great. 3rd coach actually isn't a "coach" but rather a 20 group. This is the whole enchilada. Low cost to the business. Great marketing ideas, and where to get it done cheaply. Great sales coaching from other group members, and also where to send your sales staff for the most bang for the buck on sales training. Continuous review of the books, including GP performance, expenses, salaries, all of it. Plus, you're forced to learn how your own books work and what all the numbers mean. Maybe it's been so good for me because I was ready when I got there. No question that my previous experience with my 2nd coach played a big part in getting me ready for a good 20 group experience. The other members of the group are also a huge factor. If you join a 20 group and are dissatisfied with the results you're getting, move to another group within that coaching company, or to another company's groups. If you still don't see dramatic improvement in your business, it's you.

I use Mudlick. There are others that do an equally good job. I've been mailing with them long enough and with enough volume that I get a really good deal. It went up recently, so I think I'm paying 0.35 each. But don't quote me on that.

Yup, best way to go broke is to put the (former tech) owner at front counter. I don't write service for exactly that reason.

Everyone hates cheap oil changes. You have to change your mindset about the LOF. It's not a Lube Oil and Filter. It's a Labor Opportunity for the Future. It's only purpose is to get the car in the bay so my techs can inspect the car for other work.

The mailer program is simple. Good looking full color stand alone oversize postcard. Cheap oil change coupon which is the main driver, a progressive savings coupon (buy more, save more), and something seasonal. I send 15,000 a month to the same addresses, and I don't exclude anyone. Some guys want to exclude existing customers, I don't. I've been mailing the same addresses every single month without fail for 4 1/2 years. Get a good mailer company, set it up to happen automatically, and don't monkey with it.

I know this topic is old, but since it got pushed to the top, I'll chime in. There are a couple of people here who want you to hand it all over to an accountant or outside bookkeeper and "let them do what they're good at" and "quit wasting your valuable time" on such tasks. I couldn't disagree more. Do you want to own a business or do you want to own your job? There's a big difference, and an intimate knowledge of your business financials is the first step in moving from owning a job to owning a business. Step 1. Take accounting 101 at the local community college. You absolutely must know basic double entry accounting. Without this knowledge, how on earth do you even know if the person doing your books is doing a good job? Step 2. Buy Quickbooks and get the chart of accounts properly set up. Your financial system is there to help you MANAGE THE BUSINESS. It's NOT to simply to keep track of how much tax you need to pay. The chart of accounts is the heart of your financial system, and it MUST be set up properly. The problem is that most people rely on an accountant or bookkeeper to set up the chart of accounts instead of someone who knows how an auto repair shop needs to run. The accountant will set up your chart of accounts to make it easy for THEM to do your taxes, they will NOT set it up so you can manage your business because they don't know how to manage your business. Step 3. Do your own books. You can literally do this in 15 minutes a day if you set up your systems correctly. It will be slow and difficult at first, but from that point on you'll be in tune with how your business is operating. You'll be able to spot a problem when it happens, not 6 weeks (if at all) from when it happened. Most people I know who use an accountant for their books end up tossing the envelope with the P&L in a drawer unopened because they have no idea what it means. They only know how little they made during the year because the accountant announces "Good News, you don't owe any taxes". I don't like paying taxes any more than the next guy, but I'd rather pay taxes on 300K than get a refund on 30K.