Joe Marconi

I think you hit on a great point. I too value family and time off. That's why we work so hard. If the burden to work 6 days a week is on your shoulders, it will not work. We have adopted a rotation schedule so everyone has time off. I don't want to work 6 days a week, and I don't expect my people to do it either. But, I firmly believe that we need to be there for our customers. We are open Mon thru Fri 5-6 and Sat 8-3. Your thoughts?

Is your competetion open Saturdays? What are your reasons for not being open? Just wondering. I see you have 2 late nights. I'm just trying to get a handle on where the industry is headed. All major national chains are open Sat, many are open on Sundays. I can't help thinking that the motoring public wants the choice of weekend hours. They are too busy durning the week.

Welcome to AutoShopOwner.com and best of luck. You are in a great position to start an auto business today. Read my blog when you get a chance on my expansion. I have been in business for almost 30 years, and there are many other shop owners out there who are willing to help you. So post any question you may have. Joe Marconi AutoShopOwner.com Osceola Garage

Studies have shown that Thursady night would be the best day to have a late night. It depends on your local community. If your shop is in a business district, where people commute away back home, then late nights and Saturdays may not work. But, being there when the customers needs you, is top priority.

The older I get the more valuable time and family become. We need to find happiness within our own world. Our business should be there to support that happiness. Too many shop owners have businesses that are the source of their stress. This can damaging.

I'm curious too, how's things going?

Thanks for the vedios! This is great information!

I'm not a fisherman, but do enjoy going out once in a while. It's great you make time for fishing. That's important. It's not all about business. It's about the quality of life.

Thanks. This a big move in these economic times. It will take time to take off but I must have faith in what I'm doing.

You are so right!! And I am happy to hear you say that. I have attended many seminars, from a variety of companies, nothing replacing “real-life experience” as your primary teacher. However, many shop owners get stuck in the day-to-day operations and never grow their businesses. Many are unhappy and unfulfilled. As you say, shop owners have a wealth of knowledge, but still may lack the ability or know-how to go to the next level. I encourage you to post your ideas, comments or questions. With your background, it will be very valuable to all! I like your theme: "What I learned going backwards". By the way, did you get a chance to see my blog? It’s all about my expanding the business. Joe

Keith, Great to hear from you, old friend. It's an honor to have you onboard and thanks for the compliment. Coming from you, it means a lot. I try to bring real-life information based on my 30+ years in the business. Let's keep in touch, Joe

I agree, I just think that in this economy, the little ad-on sales can go a long way at improving one's bottom line. I know many shops that spend countless hours diagnosing a check engine light, and never speak to the customer about service work. Some shop owners never even check the car out for service items. I know you can't sell everything, but if you never tell, you'll never sell.

With 2 months to go before we launch our expansion, things are little hectic. So much to do and so little time left. You can read about it in Joe’s Blog. It traces all the steps in detail: From the conception of the idea to putting the first shovel in the ground. Join me as I complete this project. Joe Marconi

With two months to go before the grand opening, I reflect back to 7 years ago when I first had the vision to expand. It took a few years to actually begin the process. There were things I needed to learn and a tremendous amount of fear to overcome. I can tell you honestly that the fear never goes away nor does it get any easier to handle. It’s there and I accept it. The hardest part was to pull the trigger. Once you make the decision, only look forward. It makes no sense to look back and second-guess yourself. Mistakes will be made, but that’s how we learn. The past 4 years were filled with countless hours talking to engineers, bank loan committees, town planners, general contractors, site engineers and architects. But that’s only part of the story. I spent almost every minute that I wasn’t working doing research on the auto industry, quick lubes, franchise models and other large companies. I also studied other companies like Toyota, Star Bucks, GE, General Motors, Disney, South West Airlines, McDonalds, Apple and Microsoft. Thank God for the Internet. I read books on leadership from great people like Winston Churchill, Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln. In addition, I studied the works of Dale Carnegie, Jack Welsh (former CEO of GE), Jim Collins (the author of Good to Great), John C. Maxwell and The Art of War by Sun Tzu. Not a day has gone by in the last 4 years that I did not work toward my goal. And reading was a big part of the process. So once you acquire knowledge, what do you do with it? The answer? You give it away. By sharing knowledge, you make the poeple around stronger, which will only make your stronger. We hold short meeting at my shop almost daily. These meeting only last about 10 to 15 minutes, but in these meetings I slowly share the knowledge I acquired. My goal is to share every aspect of the project and what is needed to be successful. I share the entire process including the numbers. It’s like a baseball team or an orchestra: although a team or orchestra is made up of individuals, they all work in unison toward a common goal and all the players know each other’s job. Power point presentations were created and after-hour training sessions were held and will continue to be held on all aspects of the business. From procedure, to policy and basic training on topics such as understanding charging systems, starting systems, ABS brakes, wheel alignments, steering, suspension and other service procedures. Probably the most important thing I learned the last 4 years preparing for the expansion is that every member of the organization must fully understand our goals and implement the plan. If the knowledge I gained, remained only in my head, that knowledge becomes useless. Stay tuned!

Thanks, it's a different strategy, but one I think will pull us through this economic mess. Spread the word about AutoShopOwner and I promise to keep giving you more ideas to help your business. Joe Marconi

Raising your labor rate and trying to increase your average ticket dollar amount in an effort to increase income may not be the way to financial stability. In fact, it might just make you fail! Before you send for the men in white coats and call me crazy, please have an open mind and read on. Like many of you, I once shared the belief that a high labor rate, quality work, high-ticket averages, and superior customer service was the business strategy to create a successful repair shop. I also believed that the customers should never control the flow of work in my bays by dictating to me when they need service and that I should carefully plan out the day. There was also a time when I would refuse a walk-in for an oil change because I had too much work in the bays. Well, I’m here today to tell you that for me, this strategy is dead. It died along with the carburetor, points and condenser. The quality of your work and providing great customer service still holds true, but in today’s world, it’s not enough. Look around at the world today. Has anything changed? You bet! We live in a fast pace world where people balance work, family, fun, Church, and other obligations. Both Mom and Dad have careers and are running from ballet to baseball. The media has been drumming into our head for the past thirty years that great service is getting what you want now and fast. Why do people today value their time so much? Because they have so little of it. So, here’s the scenario. It’s midday, Tuesday, at 2:00pm and Mrs. Smith arrives at your shop unexpectedly with a check engine light on. You politely and professionally tell Mrs. Smith that you would be more than happy to take the car in on Thursday. Now, she’s starts processing in her mind what she needs to do on Thursday: She needs to leave work early to bring her daughter to the dentist at 1:00pm and needs to be back at the office by 4:00 for a meeting, then dinner at 5:30 and the P.T.A at 7:00. “No, Thursday won’t do”, she says. Respectfully, you answer, “how’s next week?” At this point she gets frustrated and says she will let you know. You just may have lost a customer. You viewed her problem as a check engine light and how you would fit her car into YOUR calendar. She perceived her issue as another way to balance an already demanding schedule. Now let’s talk about labor rates and average repair order dollar and I will hopefully tie all this together. Concentrating on bigger tickets and labor rates as a way to overcome inadequate car counts and low profit will simply not work. I’m not saying you shouldn’t charge what you are worth. I don’t give anything away in my shop and charge accordingly. But, what I’m more concerned about in today’s market is opportunity. I concentrate on increasing my car counts to give me the opportunity to sell more. Today’s cars are not like those built in the 80’s. You don’t have the highly profitable repair work anymore and cars are more reliable. Also, take a look at what the automakers have taken away from us: Timing belts, plugs wires, fuel filters, distributor caps, rotors, etc. Not to mention long life coolant, transmission fluid and extended oil change intervals. This means you will need to increase car counts in order to give your shop the opportunity to sell profitable service work. This also means that you will need to be very proactive in managing your customer’s vehicle maintenance. You will need to be very innovative in your approach on maintenance and service and diversify your services to fit a broader range of consumers. Successful Big-Box stores understand the law of compounding and moving product. Even in these disastrous economic times, Home Depot would rather sell 1,000 cans of paint a week and make $6.00 on a can, then make $10.00 per can and only sell 300. Plus, having that many people coming through their doors buying paint increases sales in other areas, such as paintbrushes, primer, rollers and drop clothes. Again, when you increase the number of customers, you increase the opportunity to sell more products. This is the law of compounding sales through opportunity. Before you go lowering your prices, STOP. Most of us sell at a fair price already. What I’m suggesting is that when you increase car counts you give yourself more opportunity to move product: such as air filters, cabin filter, batteries, wipers and other items. Plus, you are working on building a customer base that will more likely return in the future because your willingness to work around their schedule. You may have loyal customers, but if you’re not perceived as convenient and not willing to accommodate them when they need you, you may not be capitalizing on your potential to fully satisfy a customer. How do you increase traffic to your bays? Say yes as much as possible. Be more accommodating. Try to work around your customer’s schedule, not yours. Be more flexible. Your daily planner is not written in stone. Promote while-you-wait service. I don’t understand why so many shops distain the idea of people waiting for service. We now welcome walk-ins and promote while-you-wait service. It’s a goal mine of opportunity. Remember; opportunity equals profit.

I am selling my Branick Wall Mounted strut tool. Anyone interested, make me an offer. I paid about $650.00 for it when it was new.

I need help with this one too. We recenlty bought the launch, it's ok, but does not do it all. The problem is you need many scans tools to get the job done. We are independents and work on a variety of cars. We can specialize. We also have the snap-on, I pro, Master Tech, Ford scan tool, BDM and a few other I can't remember. And it's not enough!

It is getting touch out there. Just be careful and not get into a price war. Also, it may hard to raise prices once the economy comes around. Instead of heavy discounting we are giving customers options. Talk with your customer; see what their budget is. I had a customer the other tell me that my 90k service was $100 more than the dealer. When we compared the dealer 90k to mine, the dealer wasn’t going to do all the things we were going to. But, I listened and gave the customer the option to do those service items only, so as not to loose the job. Also offer value packages instead of discounting. We have a mid-winter promo for $69.95, which includes an oil change, tire rotation, BG fuel and oil additive and a safety check. It works well, the customer gets a lot of benefit, feels good and we maintain our profit margins. My fear is that we will feed into the fear of the consumers.

Congratulations Brad! There could not be a better time to get into the auto service business. I wish you the best of luck. It will be a long hard road but well worth it. After 29 years in business I still enjoy it. One word of advice, work ON your business. I know in the beginning you are going to wear all the hats, but to grow you will need to let go of the daily operations, hire people and market the business. Please feel free to post any questions, ideas or comments. We will help you with your progress. Good luck Joe Marconi

Great idea, thanks

You make great points. I don't think that a shop has to become part of franchise. But, while studying how to grow my business I looked at the franchise business design and a lot of their basic business principles work. Franchises promote an atmosphere where people are more apt to buy. There is something to be said about a clean, flashy environment. Franchises have a business plan; they practice consistency and do a lot of marketing. Our industry could learn a few lessons from them.

I got them too, works great

Now that we are close enough to pick a date for the grand opening, we need to start the promotion process and make plans for the day of the grand opening. We need to jump start this business with a big splash in the community. Having momentum right out of the gate will be important to the success of the project. To help promote the business I have greatly increased our advertising and marketing. Prior to this project the only advertising I did was in the local yellow books, sport sponsorships and ads with local charitable organizations. I concentrated mainly with my existing customer base through newsletters, emails, service reminder cards, promotional flyers and specials. In order to increase market share, we need to expand our horizons. We purchased mailing lists and started a post card campaign introducing our company to people who are not our customers. We target a five-mile radius from our shop. We also use a company to send offerings to all new residents in our area and we are part of the local welcome wagon organization. Last spring we shot a TV commercial and started airing the commercial the start of the summer. This has been a great success and is more affordable than you might think. We just shot a new commercial last month, which will feature the new facility. In January we started with radio. It’s too early to tell how affective this will be, but customers and friends tell us they hear us. And if they are hearing us, others are too. We hired a press agent to help us with getting some free press in all the local newspapers. It’s amazing how newspapers like to promote local businesses. I convinced my bank to feature us in their newsletter. This was a good move. I had a new customer just the other day that walked in for service because of that article. Six weeks prior to the grand opening we will start to invite people to the event. We will invite local politicians, bank officials, local businesses, local Chamber of commerce, all the people involved with the construction and, of course, our customers. We will also hold a series of consumer clinics as a way to showcase the new facility. We will use the clinics as fundraisers for local charities. This is great end around marketing. The day of the grand opening will be a daylong event. We will have food, door prizes and other products to give away. We will make sure that we obtain names and addresses for all who attend. We will cap off the day with a ribbon cutting ceremony and will drive the first car onto the first lift for an oil change. We will ask selected people to say a few words and I will also present a speech. Promotion is key. I want to cause a lot of excitement in the community. Stay tuned!