Mike the Mechanic

I purchased my shop from my friend and boss in 2000. There were 4 of us. My brother wrote service, 2 techs and myself. In 2005 I joined ATI. Today there are 13 of us and we purchased our own property in 2006. With the cost of overhead and the high rate of inflation you must find a way to charge more for your service. We do not quote jobs broken down. We quote the finished job. Do not make it easy for people to shop around. We charge $48.75 per 1/4 hour. Seems a lot less than $195 per hour. We use a parts matrix. This allows you to charge more for low price parts. a 20 cent fuse should sell for $2. A 10 X mark up. Obviously you can not charge this for a $100 part. Your average margin at the end of he day needs to be above 50% and shoot for 65%. How are you calculating your margin? Part cost X 1.5 is not a 50% margin. Part cost divided by decimal percent yields the correct margin. $12.50 cost divided by .50 % margin is $25 . You cannot survive on the suggested margin of the parts store or dealer. Remember your competition is manipulating the hours charged for jobs even though they may have a lower rate. Also if you cater to cheep customers that is all you will ever have. Never sell on being cheep. Always sell on the high quality parts and skills you provide. You must take off your mechanic hat and put on your businessman hat. If you do not learn how to charge appropriately you will never grow and likely not survive.

My first boss was very Victorian in his employment practices. It was assholes and elbows at 8 am. It was the same at the end of the day. Last 15minutes you stopped and put your stuff away and grabbed a broom or mop. That being said everyone in my operation is on time or early.......that is our culture. I have 3 employees that have different starting times as the have family needs to get kids to school. That time is scheduled and they are reliably there when they say the will be. If someone is 2 hours late I am not worried about the $50 bucks he looses, I am cranked about the $400 lost opportunity. Most of my staff is flat rate and they are motivated and conscientious.

Coming into 2022 we were able to see the direction inflation was going. I scheduled quarterly labor rate increases of 2.5% this year. I also scheduled 10 1% increases for pay across the board for the staff. It was not a "pay raise". It was just trying to keep even with inflation. A cost of living adjustment. It was recognized and appreciated by the staff. The unfortunate part is that it probably is not enough. Our inflation is calculated differently that it was in 1979+. Currently energy and food increases are left out of the cost of living. How can you live without energy and food? I believe from my observation our actual inflation rate is 15%. The good news is the no one has complained about the rate increases and business seems to be holding up well. Our market is higher end Euro and Asian products. Regards to all Mike

Kimball Midwest has been excellent. We also us Wurth as an import shop they have Euro stuff. Mike

We just finished the shop floor. The surface was ground to remove the old surface. Tuff Top waterborne epoxy for the first coat. 2 coats Rust Oleum waterborne Catalyzed Urethane top coat. Its gasoline and brake fluid proof. It is very resistant to scratching and forklift traffic. Mike