Joe Marconi

Consider yourself very fortunate. I pray for snow storms to happen on the weekend. A Wed or Thurs snow storm will kill sales for the week. We still come to work. We work the day cleaning up the lot, but everyone cancels their appointment. If we are lucky enough to have a few big jobs, like an engine or transmission, we work on those jobs.

We are closing Sat too. Christmas is a big holiday. That one day off does will pay off down the road.

We had our annual Holiday Dinner last weekend. I invited all my employees along with their wives/husbands and girlfriends. It was a huge hit! We rented a room in a local restaurant and were treated like royalty. My staff thanked me over and over and talked about the party all week long. Sometimes a job is more than just a job. People want to be appreciated for what they do, and it’s not always about money.

With the winter approaching, we need to carefully plan our marketing. We are located about 40 miles north of NYC and the winters can be tough. Major storms can cause hurt business. It may be good for body shops, but we often have to close for the day. Also, people in Jan and Feb are too concerned about paying their credit cards bills from Christmas, heating their home and paying taxes. Each year we come up with innovative ways to maintain sales and do ok. How are sales in other parts of the country during the winter? Are shops in the south less impacted during the winter?

Most shops understand the importance of technical training, but what about management training? I would like to know what shops do as far as business management training.

It is worth the effort (most of the time). Just make sure you get paid what you are worth. You need to negotiate pricing that you can live with and watch for the discounts they may take off the top. We do a lot of fleet service work. I don't look for it, it's just there.

I really hate that. I want to be honest. I have always run an honest business. They make me do something that goes against my character!

We do work for fleets. It's been just ok. The issues I have are calling for approvals on some jobs (it takes too long), the negotiations can be a bit tough and many fleet service companies take a percentage off the top. You need to factor that in your price. We can't afford to give them a 10-12% discount

Thanks, a laugh to start the day...you are the best!

I think there are many shop owners today that are at that age where they realize that they need to plan for the future. Too many shop owners years ago walked away after a lifetime in business, only to lock their doors with very little to show for their years of hard work. We are of a different breed. We work hard, but want more than just memories.

I agree with Curt. You need to maintain and manage your customer base through a business management software program. To grow a business, you will to advertise and market your business. You can start by marketing to your current customers and eventually advertise to get new customers. Focus on customer service. People today are very busy. If you make the process of getting their car serviced and repair and easy one, you will win over a lot of people.

Nice site. Do you see the off road business expanding in that part of the country?

I think your most important move right now is to get those other bays in operation. Maybe another helper in you shop might help productivity. This will increase car counts. You can't turn away work. With the added 4 bays, you will have the ability to do more service work.

So, you have a total of 6 bays? How many repair/service techs?

Let's start with a few questions. How many bays to you have and how many techs?

My shop goal for productivity is to be above 100%. That's for my techs. Lube/tire techs are different. If a tech cannot give you a least 100%, then something is wrong. It could be the tech, it could be you are not estimating a job correctly or the shop environment has too many obstacles that prohibit the tech from achieving his productivity. It could also be the time that’s wasted when the tech is waiting for approval on a job. To achieve high technician productivity requires following systems and constant tracking to find out the weak areas. My techs are paid by the hour, but get a bonus when the reach certain productivity goals.

Right on target. There is a lot of money in steering and suspension work, if you have the right people. Most shops in my area do not do alignments. This gives me a competitive advantage over them. What cars do you sell camber kits on?

You need to get your billable hours up and they only way to do that is to have more manpower. You cannot afford to turn away work. People are too busy these days and if you are not accommodating they won't come back. Part time techs are an option. When I was expanding I hired “B” rated techs part time with the opportunity for full time as the business grew. I also paid them a wage that was lower than they would expect, but paid them commission based on productivity. I found that techs like this. In a busy week they can make money. As our client base grew, I put them on full time. In my opinion, the most important thing you need to do now is concentrate on getting your car counts up. And this requires not turning away work. Another thing, your manager needs to manage. That's the way you make money. Keep him out of the bays. I struggled with the same thing. Trust me, do this first.

Gary, nice clean site. Visually pleasing. Colors are nice too. A few thoughts, expand the info on your services and also put a page about you and your staff. If you are invloved in the community, put that in there too.

I was wondering what other shops do for their customers during the holiday season. We send out cards to all our current customers along with calendars. We also give out $5.00 gift cards at the service counter and pens.

Now that's funny. I am glad to see that there still are a few smart people left in this country.

Do you have a cap? I have some people with me for more than 20 years. We also rent a room at a local resturant for our anual Christmas Party.

I guess the key is to try to calculate the return on investment from a program such as this. This will require accurate tracking and a sufficient amount of time to estimate the overall value. What other forms of advertising do you do?

That can be a problem. That's where your sales skill come into play.

I have a Hunter Alignment rack. It's 12,000lb scissor lift with jacks to do other work. I have it flush mounted so I can get any car on the rack without the worry of damaging the front of the car. We do sell a lot of alignments but we also do a lot of other work. We service about 180 to 200 cars per week and sell about 25 to 30 alignments per week. We also do alignments for other shops. Are you having a hard time selling alignments?