Jmazur

Agree with Shums Auto on this one. ATI has never impressed me because of the high pressure tactics, and the fact that you sign a long contract for their coaching, and they get paid 100% up front. Does not seem like a fair business model.

I agree with most of the sentiments here. Over the years i have used cintas, arrow, and now arrow has been bought by unifirst. I had very few problems with arrow, but since the buy out, it has been horrible. They do nickel and dime, my rates were changing every week, and the environmental and Replacement fees were sometimes 30% of the bill. I now have to audit the bill every week, and waste my time to make sure they are being honest. I believe that all uniform companies do suck, and i am highly considering just buying my own uniforms for the techs.

I have been with electronic payment systems for over 2 years, and my average fees for both locations are always right around 1.8% for the month. What i like better than anything is that i have a local rep that is excellent with customer service. If there is an issue with a machine, he comes out and fixes it personally, or he calls the company and handles it. I have never had to sit on hold waiting for support. That aspect is a huge value for me.

Joe, This topic has been an issue as long as i can remember. And that is why so many shops complain about no being able to hire quality techs. We pay our techs a base pay and then flat rate on top of that. It works out to about 50-55% base pay, and 45-50% flat rate. It provides a more consistent pay for them if there is a slow week. It also balances the burden of making sure there are cars to work on. My techs make from 50-75k, Our payroll numbers are good, we are averaging 17% net for the year, and everyone is happy.

Lots of good comments here. There needs to be a balance of work hours/lifestyle. But what Andersen auto is suggesting is something that I have considered for a while. What employee wouldnt want to work 4 long days and have 3 days off? As owners, we should not be working every hour the shop is open anyway, so it just takes work and leadership to train up a team that runs whether you are there or not. We are not currently open on Saturdays, but if and when we do, i will most likely use some form of rotation as opposed to working guys longer hours.

Most of the time a tow truck becomes an "overpriced toy" unless you dont have much competition in your area. Most of the time it is better, and more cost effective to sublet. If you do decide to do it, run the towing business like a seperate business, go out and get accounts, and expect it to be profitable. I prefer to develop relationships with the tow companies, treat their drivers better than any other shop does, and even pay a "spiff" if they refer a customer to me.

Taking over a second shop is quite a challenge. I did it 5 years ago. First off, There should be little to no debt on first location(my recommendation). First location should have people and processes in place to run independently without you. Take a 2 week vacation and see how many times the shop calls you, and how all of your numbers look. They should be the same as if you were there. When you take over the second location, you will spend most of your time there, and need to not worry about the first location. The second location will give you enough to worry about. And the end goal needs to be that each location runs independently whether you are there or not. It may be 2-3 years of hard work, but is worth it and could pave the way to more locations. Be careful, do your homework, and dont overpay just to have a second location.

Excellent article Joe! I have been struggling with this myself, and constantly need to remind myself of how much good there is in my life along with the "problems"

We stagger our benefits also, so as not to cause a huge expense if everyone gets paid vacation in the same month. I set the anniversary dates in my calendar so that i can automatically be reminded when the anniversaries occur. It also staggers out the employee reviews.

This is a tough topic, and one that i dealt with when i was a tech, and also now as a shop owner. Having someone doing nothing but easy work when you are doing all of the tough stuff is not fun. This happened to me very often when i was a tech. But dont fall into the trap of comparing yourself to the work others are getting. Those "gravy techs" should be paid much less than you are, and if you are the lead tech, your owner should be taking pretty good care of you. You should be making a good income if your skills are where you say they are. The diagnostic work you do, and the repairs that go with it, are necessary to shop operations and add to your value as a tech. Anyone can bolt on parts and some of them can even do it right. But few can do high level diagnostics. You are obviously unhappy with the situation in your current shop, as evidenced by the fact that you made this post. I would suggest that you sit down with your owner or manager, and talk about the issues you have, and give them a chance to fix them. I am not talking about making demands, but talking together about finding solutions that benefit you and the company you work for. And if you cant find good solutions together, look for somewhere that will. There are plenty of shops that would love to have a strong "A" tech who cares about the quality of work put out by the whole shop.

The test drive should be long enough to check all major items on the car, but short enough to not waste time. We normally limit our test drives to 5-10 miles. Any more than that and we contact the customer so that they are aware of the extra miles. If a car is out of gas, we will add some and charge the customer if it is a customer that we know. First time customer, we always call for approval. Test drives during bad weather are limited and we will document the RO. Having a customer car get wrecked is not fun. I agree with Gonzo.

That is a tough situation to have to deal with. It is so hard to trust others, only to have them take advantage of you. You have prompted me to look at our check writing procedures more closely. Hope it all works out quickly.

Customer perception is huge in a situation like this. If you did prepare him that there could be more leaks, that will help. You will still need to discount the job to make things right, but the focus now need to be "Lets get the car fixed and back to the customer, and make the customer happy" We have absorbed the cost of additional repairs to keep a customer happy, but that is on a case by case basis. Make the customer happy so that he keeps coming back. Any lost $$ will be made up in the future.

It is very difficult to be profitable and do performance work. Let alone find a vendor that will back you for anything more than that part if something does go wrong. We choose to stay away from this type of work because of so many jobs that have gone bad. There needs to be clear communication with the customer that "anything can happen" and that additional parts and labor may be required to make this upgrade work. I would also say that there should be no warranty on performance work.

When i started 5 years ago, I was the only income for my family, and it was really tough for the first 6 months. But 5 years later, I own 2 shops doing around 2 million in sales, and still growing. It was not easy, but we were determined. I would recommend that you give some serious thought to whether you want to be a business owner, and dont dabble in it. Either get determined that you will do what is needed to make it work and dive in with both feet, or decide to stay with the safety of a job. You can not continue with the schedule you have right now. It is not good for you or for your family, and will not last long term. You will get burnt out. If your overhead is only $1700/month, it will not take long to offset that and generate income for yourself. Assuming that you are working 40 hours at your other job, and 34 at this business, if you take and put 74 hours a week into your business, you should have no problem growing your clientele rapidly enough to support your family. You can always go back to a J-O-B if this doesnt work out, but just decide what direction you want to go, and then figure out a plan to get you there. Most everyone here has been in your shoes and had to face the same fear you are dealing with. It is scary, but once you get to the other side, you will be glad that you did. And like others have said, learn to be a business owner, because fixing the cars will be the easiest part of your job. Message me if you would like to talk about it more in detail. I would be happy to help.

Towing companies can be a great source of referrals. You should absolutely take care of them! Offer coffee and pop every time they are in. Most of all, train your staff to be nice to them!! They will take cars to the people they like. As far as towing fees go, we mark them up between $10 and $20, and add the charge to the invoice. When we call the customer to discuss the repairs, we will go over the towing cost at that time, but have never asked for money up front. In my opinion, AAA road service is the best value for a road service plan. We recommend that to our customers.

you and your husband need to specifically define who does what job, in relation to the two of you running the shop. It can be very difficult to have a husband/wife team, because any disagreement between the 2 of you changes the "feel" of the entire business. I would suggest that the two of you get away from the shop, and determine who will do what job. Communication is key, and my wife has learned to present things to me in a particular way to keep me from getting defensive. Though she is not involved in the day to day operations any more, she still is my #1 counselor and idea filter. Staying married is tough, but staying married while running a business is even tougher. But it is worth it! Hope this helps.

We charge both shop supplies and enviro fees. We have always charged shop supplies, and never had anyone question it. We started charging enviro fees this year, and no one has complained about those either. The key is to just make sure the price you quote the customer includes all of these fees, so that they are not viewed as an add on. We also use a shop management software that only adds them in at the bottom of the invoice, and not as a line item, where it is more likely to draw attention.

My advice would be to try to seek out a body shop owner in a different area that you could buy lunch and pick his brain. My brother runs a body shop, and i will tell you that it is a total different animal than a repair shop. Do your homework, and you will be successful.

Make sure you take into consideration what repairs and maintenance you will do on the building, and which ones are the responsibility of the owner. For example, in my lease, i will pay repairs on the heating/A/C system, but if the unit need replacing, that is the owner's responsibility. Also, It doesnt hurt to try to put an option to purchase in the lease, so that if you do want to buy the building, you can.

In keeping withe the general tone of this post, I have used a Hunter RF balancer and think it does a great job, especially for vibration issues. When i worked at the dealer, it was great for condemning brand new tires that were causing a vibration. I do own one in one of my shops now, and most of the time it is used as a regular balancer. The only time the road force is used is if diagnosing a vibration issue, or when mounting tires on one of my vehicles . They are a good tool to have, but you wont generate huge $$ from one.