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Joe Marconi

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Everything posted by Joe Marconi

  1. Joe Marconi
    Years back, customers brought their cars in to us 3 to 4 times a year for an oil change. About every 3 to 4,000 miles. That simple service gave us the perfect opportunity to inspect their car and sell needed services and repairs. It also sustained healthy car counts. Today, we see more and more customers ignoring the shop's windshield lube sticker, and willing to wait for that "Oil Maintenance" light to come on. Many times that could be over 10,000 miles on a Honda civic! This, plus the fact that car makers have been preaching to consumers that their cars need little to no maintenance, is a major contributing factor in lower car counts. If shops are not taking a proactive approach and adopt a culture of total car care, shops will find it very difficult to stay profitable in the coming years. It's crucial today to educate your customers, promote preventive maintenance, perform detailed multipoint inspections on every car, and make sure you get paid what you are worth. What tips to you have to be more proactive and maintain healthy car counts and a healthy business?
  2. Joe Marconi
    Business is slowly getting back to normal. (Wow, I actually called something normal!). While car counts are down, ARO is way up. One thing I have notices; many people have not gone back to the office for work and it seems that many will never work full time at an office again. How this affects business, only time will tell. Otherwise, no complaints.
  3. Joe Marconi
    Exit Strategy-Step 2 Have Clean and Accurate Financial Statements The value of your business will be determined by your net profit, cash flow and a strong balance sheet. Having clean and accurate numbers will be more attractive to a potential buyer, especially if your business shows growth over time. While you may value your loyal customer list, and your tools and equipment, it's the profitability of your business that will be used to determine how much someone will pay for your business. As an added benefit, having clean and accurate financials will also help you through tough economic times, and if you ever need a bank loan. Get your books in order and work hard on your business to show a profit.
  4. Joe Marconi
    This forum will outline the steps that I took the past three and half years, working toward my exit strategy. I will outline each step, each week, to give you information that I know you will find informative and useful. Please note, these steps are the ones that I took, and your situation may differ. However, you will find so many similarities, that I am sure you will obtain a ton of great information. Ok, here we go... STEP 1 - Get Your Business Ready to Sell Today You are never too young to begin thinking about your retirement or sale of your business. Work hard on your business to get it to run on its own. For quality of life, and to grow a sucessful business, requires having the right people, the right systems, a knowledge of the numbers, and a plan. Also, the more you are removed from the day to day operations, the more sucessful you will be and the more your business will be worth to a potential buyer. Here's another important reason to get your business to run on its own: A health crisis may leave you sidelined for months or longer, or may even leave you disabled to a point where you cannot perform the necessary duties as a shop owner. We all have heard of shop owners that either became seriously ill, were in a bad accident or passed away, leaving the business in a state that it cannot run by itself. Or, not worth much because the shop owner did not take the necessary steps to build the business correctly and not having clean and accurate financials. Begin today to start thinking about your business and when you want to sell, have family take over the business, or other options. Start getting all your financials in order, set your long-term goals, work on your business plan, review and refine all your systems and procedures, and talk to your family about your long-term plans. With each step, you may need help from either an accoutant, broker, attorney, or a business coach. Please don't make the mistake of thinking you can everything on your own. That's it for today- Next week I will discuss The Importance of Having Clean Financials and Showing a Profit Thank you and Stay Tuned!
  5. Joe Marconi
    Great points. Please also note that there are Federal and state laws, and that there may be changes to the labor laws that are we not always aware of. Do your due diligence with all pay plans.
  6. Joe Marconi
    Thanks Alex! I will reveal more information in the next weeks and months
  7. Joe Marconi
    Well, if you can make it at all, even for one day, it would be an honor to meet you.
  8. Joe Marconi
    Yes, my wife thinks it will hit me the day after the closing.
  9. Joe Marconi
    I cannot reveal all the details yet, but I am in contract to sell my last location. The deal is set to take place by the end of the year. I will use this forum to outline my journey the last 41 years in business and the steps I took to exit out of the business. My objective is to share my experience so that others can learn from my ups and downs and also to learn about the importance of an exit plan, no matter how old or young you are. I will give details on how I prepared my business for sale, how I negotiated with different companies, and different people, and how you can get the most for your business when the time comes. Plus many behind the curtain details on how to sell a business- the good, the bad and the ugly. Please feel free to contact me with questions. So stay tuned for more details, week by week! Oh, by the way, I am not going anywhere. I will still be active in the industry, invloved with Auto Shop Owner, continue to work with Bob Cooper and all the great people at Elite as a business coach and trainer, writing articles for Ratchet and Wrench, remain invloved with the Service Stations Dealers of Greater New York and more.
  10. Joe Marconi
    I am thrilled to announce that I will be the presenter at Elite's Fly With The Eagles course Oct 12 to 15. This is the first live event since before COVID. This will be held in Indianapolis. We are expecting a big turn out, so please check this out ASAP. Details below. The Eagles course is Elite's premiere event for Shop Owners and Managers- course covers: Leadership, Time Management, Goal Setting Financial Reports and Cost Controls Recruting Employee Management Marketing Click on the link below for more information. You can reply to this post too with questions. https://eliteworldwide.com/event/fly-with-the-eagles/
  11. Joe Marconi
    Back in my day, you didn't get a lot of praise from your boss. And, you never really looked for it either. You did your job, and the only way you knew you were doing a good job is if the boss didn't reprimand you. It was different back when I started, 1974. Times have changed and the way we manage people has changed too. If you want to motivate people, make sure you praise them when they do a great job. Be sincere and be honest with your praise. People crave positive feedback from their leaders. By giving praise often, your employees will feel good about themselves. Their self-esteem will get a boost and they will be more likely to repeat that great job again. Now, this is not to say you should ignore when things go wrong. But make sure you give at least 5 to 8 "at-a-boys" to every one reprimand. Trust me, fill someone's emotional bank with sufficient "at-a-boys", and they will be more willing to listen to you when they drop the ball.
  12. Joe Marconi
    I agree. 125...129...same
  13. Joe Marconi
    Nice! Proud of you. Trust me, all will be ok. Shops around the country are realizing that labor rates need to increase in order to stay in business, pay our bills, pay our employees and build for the future. Good for you Frank!
  14. Joe Marconi
    I am seeing more and more labor rates hitting the $180 mark and higher for the same reasons you state. Good news. Let's hope all the shops around the country act on this. We really need to collectively raise labor rates.
  15. Joe Marconi
    Ha! I am 66 and there too. I will let everyone know soon my next chapter in my life. After 41 years in business and 47 years in the auto industry, it's time to turn the page.
  16. Joe Marconi
    With so many baby boomer shop owners retiring, there is great opportunity for shop owners looking to add new locations. In addition, there are many shop owners that have not survived the COVID crises. Is anyone looking to open new locations? If so, it would be interesting to hear your strategy and the reasons why. Oh, if you are wondering If I am thinking about expanding. The answer is no. I had three locations, down to one now, and I am close to announcing exciting news very soon. So Stay Tuned.
  17. Joe Marconi
    2021 started off real slow, with Jan and Feb being the worst months. March to August were very good, with sales hitting our goals. September is a little slower than we like it to be, but I feel we are trending in the right direction, with customer coming back to us that we have not seen in over a year. No complaints. Could it be better, of course. But all good and moving forward!
  18. Joe Marconi
    You guys are lucky. I pay 10 cents a gallon to dispose of the used oil.
  19. Joe Marconi
    I was asked recently if it's possible to be a true absentee owner. Here are my thoughts. First, it really depends on the staff, your position in your business and how the business is structured. There are shops that are run totally by a manager and the owner is not involved in the day to day. There are shop owners with multiple locations. There is no way to be at all locations at the same time. Build the business by having a strong team. Find leaders in your business. Give others control and allow others to grow. You, the owner, do not have to be in on every single situation, and you should take time away from the business. But remember, you are the owner and the primary leader. You set the tone. Those are my thoughts...yours?
  20. Joe Marconi
    JP, I agree with you. The EV still has brake systems, steering, suspension, tire balance, tire rotations and wheel alignments. In addition, EVs have a heating and A/C system, sound system and all the other electronic features of its gas cousin. The biggest change is how the EV powers itself. The industry will change, but it always has.
  21. Joe Marconi
    I agree. In my area, about an hour north of NYC, the better shops are $125.00 to $185.00 - Dealers are more, some Euro dealers are around $200 and more. By the way, good for you to provide that pay scale program.
  22. Joe Marconi
    There is a lot of talk these days about the Electric Cars, and no doubt they will become more and more accepted during the next few years. All car makers are investing big bucks into EV's and battery technology. While we are a ways away from EVs becoming mainstream, what are your plans to prepare for this? How do think the EV will change our business model? Thoughts? /
  23. Joe Marconi
    This Sept 11 marks 20 year when four planes were hijacked, the Twin Towers were destroyed and 3000 people lost their lives in the terrorist attack. The day after, Sept 12, Americans came to together as one. Let us all once-again reunite as Americans. Let us never forget what happened on September 11, 2001.
  24. Joe Marconi
    Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a big proponent of understanding your numbers, and the need for bottom line profit. However, we can sometimes get side-tracked by focusing too much on the numbers and not enough on people. I have seen time and time again with struggling shops that have their numbers dialed in properly but can't achieve their goals, and the reason all too often is their culture. Focus on people. Find out what's important to them. Your employees have dreams and goals. Find out what they are. Align their goals with company goals. When an employee sees that by achieving company goals, they can achieve their own goals, then you have the right culture and a powerful team.
  25. Joe Marconi
    Let's face it, we all know you can't find techs, and it's time that we do something about it. We all need to implement an apprentice program at our shops and hire entry level techs. And we need to start tomorrow. I know many of you are saying that you don't need a tech right now. Well, trust me. You will. And I don't want to hear you can't afford to do this either. No one is going to help us, and the best techs have jobs. If everyone in the industry commits to hiring an apprentice, we will solve the this shortage in a few years. There are many apprenticeship programs available, like the NAPA program, and more. Oh....worried that you train someone and they leave. Let me ask you, How Did You Start Out?

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