Jerrys Auto Center

I just gave 1 of my men a cost of living adjustment (COLA) of $70 / week in the form of tool payments… Tool truck payment, something he needed through Amazon or even the Freight store. The money is tax free to the employee, so he gets to spend 100% of it, I have no tax match on it and I get to write it off as an Expense. Win, win for all.

So apparently I’m the kid here at 66😬, I still work Monday-Friday, 8-5 but have toned things way down! We’re a shop of 2 1/2 techs and myself. We’re in the community since 1979, on 3rd generation customers. We’ve had no issues closing for extended weekends and at least 2-3 weeks a year for “Mental Health” time off. If I close, Yes, my guys get paid. We’re actually talking about going to a 4 day work week, possibly with alternating 4 day weekends. Week 1 would be Monday to Thursday, Week 2 would be Tuesday to Friday. I have found that if you stay profitable, and loyal customers allow you to do that, you don’t need to work like an animal. My wife and I both take weekly salaries, I pay myself a real rent every month and I really don’t mind going to “Club Jerry” during the week. I have typical Motor Head hobbies… motorcycling, snowmobiling, hot rods, etc. and all the friends that go with it!! I’m enjoying life just as it is. 👍

Bottom line is there has to be some kind of long term financial plan/ goal/ exit/ retirement strategy in place…. With some kinda safety/ secondary plan in place because there is no guarantee of anything anymore! Just my take on the world today. 🤷‍♂️

“The moneys in the dirt!”… A comment that been made to me numerous times… And Yes it is!! I purchased my property 1998… 1) Certain months when I couldn’t afford to pay ME rent… I didn’t throw ME out! 2) My commercial property is my main and largest retirement asset, I’m 66 now. 3) I did, what I did, when I wanted to with the property. 4) In the 22+ years MY repair shop has paid ME just about $1.5M in rental income. MY Used car lot has paid ME just about $1M in rental income. To me… The moneys definitely in the dirt!!

Especially since new car dealers are pushing purchasing over leasing! It’s a lot easier for a customer to swallow a $1500 repair/ maintenance/ “Let’s get this baby fixed up” bill than $30K PLUS for a replacement vehicle.

I’m in Long Island and grew up in Brooklyn/ Queens, I also grew up in the gas station (Esso) and race car (Island Porting Service) sector of this industry. I’m just waiting on my son to determine where he’s going to settle down, he graduates The Ohio State U this year and then I’ll work on getting out. I would love to find a medical tenant for my property and do a land lease. We’ll see, all in the works, all in time.

And I thought my February was bad!… I HAD 2 1/2 technicians ( 1 was really, really short!😂) My part time man works nights for the City of New York and worked for me M-Th 8-12… He got transferred to days 2 weeks ago… So I lost him. One techs cat had puppies for the last time on my watch… He’s gone! The last tech unfortunately lost his mom in El Salvador and needed the week off to fly home. I literally went to work with ZERO employees this past week!! I made appointments for next week, did end of year stuff, caught up on planning and changes for this year. After being in business since 1979… You learn to accept what you can’t change, You change what you can and with QUALITY customers it all works out. Every customer scheduled for this week got rescheduled for next week. The comment from EVERY customer… “Is everything OK?” I love my customers!

I aim for 60%-63% overall GP on parts except batteries and tires which are both usually in the 30%-35% GP area. I don’t look at parts and labor relationship to each other but if parts are limited more labor is charged, such as diagnostics which is billed at 1.5 times our regular labor rate.

Most of the time I’ll price tires about $20 over TireRacks retail web pricing… I’ll include mounting, plus $30 per tire balancing, plus a valve or TPMS rebuild. Tire sales are fine. For my customers that want to “Help me pick out tires”, I tell them go on tire rack and pick out what you want and I’ll get it for you. There have been times where TireRack is $50-$60 over my cost of a tire. I’m fine with that!!

Happy new year all! Browsed through this almost 4 year old thread and very happy to see rates trending in the correct direction. Located in a working middle class in Long Island, NY… 1/1/22 raised labor rate from $137 to $153.

Agreed! We actually had a better than average summer. My wife and I were just speaking about all the major brick and mortar stores that are just closing their doors. Very scary, for long term economy. Agree with being very financially secured. As usual the strong and smart will survive.

I have been with BayMaster since it was a DOS program!!! Amazing support, has stayed current with integration, texting, emails and postcard marketing. Wish they had better tutorials on their advanced features but I know that they are working on it! Great team, especially Tina!

We've been doing this for a couple of years now. We take a quick video with sound, 30 seconds or less, with a smart phone and email it to the customer through a dedicated business email . The customers can respond right through the email or call us back. We find it helpful in selling front end work, leaks and under car, things that customers can't readily see. Digital technology makes things easy and also lends professionalism to what we do.