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Hello, new guy here in New Mexico. Volvos and Megasquirt efi


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Our shop name is Clockwork Calibrations . We are a 3000 sqft shop with three helpers and administration people. I try to specialize in megasquirt and standalone programing but i find myself doing alot of daily driver service work... i enjoy it but it pulls me away from my passion, hard to say no to walk in money.

i have been open for six years and love every minute of my job.

I just want to talk with some kinfolk like myself about the day to days, and see if there is some helpful hints to keeping my shop alive and healthy. plus if anyone needs help with megasquirt efi, i would love to assist.

 

 

p.s. my real car of choice is Volvos, they surprise me evryday with what they can put up with...

 

thanks for reading

 

 

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I'm rather impressed that you can make a living doing only megasquirt stuff.

Most performance guys are hardcore DIY types (aka really cheap when it comes to paying for labour).

Is there a large racing market in your area?

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thanks for having me,

 

we do our fair share of service work that pays the bills from time to time

 

does anyone do credits with thier customers? im having trouble getting customers who owe to payup,

 

maybe its my haircut , haha

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Jim,

 

cool speciality!

 

In regards to "credit" and to make customers pay I think this is something we all have to deal with. When we were doing a lot more enthusiast based work for forum guys and such we would see a lot of rampant drop cars off and not pick back up for long periods of time. 2 things you can do... 1 is offer financing options such as an private label credit card. I have one through Bosch as I am a Bosch car service shop however there are a few out there you can look into. Another thing you can try to do is get very strict with your paperwork and make sure everything is signed. If there is documentation that customers must pick up their vehicles under threat of storage fees and a lien, you will reduce the amount of people who leave their cars with you for untold amounts of time. I wouldn't recommend the latter option but its pretty much the only recourse when it comes to lazy customers.... or get new customers.

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  • 2 weeks later...

firing old and hiring new customers...keep the good and focus on their needs

 

ive been not accepting any new clients for the summer and dealing with just my good clients for about four weeks and its going great, pressure to keep up is fading and the waiting customers are excited to hear from me.... win win,

 

hope everybody is having a great summer

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  • Have you checked out Joe's Latest Blog?

         5 comments
      I recently spoke with a friend of mine who owns a large general repair shop in the Midwest. His father founded the business in 1975. He was telling me that although he’s busy, he’s also very frustrated. When I probed him more about his frustrations, he said that it’s hard to find qualified technicians. My friend employs four technicians and is looking to hire two more. I then asked him, “How long does a technician last working for you.” He looked puzzled and replied, “I never really thought about that, but I can tell that except for one tech, most technicians don’t last working for me longer than a few years.”
      Judging from personal experience as a shop owner and from what I know about the auto repair industry, I can tell you that other than a few exceptions, the turnover rate for technicians in our industry is too high. This makes me think, do we have a technician shortage or a retention problem? Have we done the best we can over the decades to provide great pay plans, benefits packages, great work environments, and the right culture to ensure that the techs we have stay with us?
      Finding and hiring qualified automotive technicians is not a new phenomenon. This problem has been around for as long as I can remember. While we do need to attract people to our industry and provide the necessary training and mentorship, we also need to focus on retention. Having a revolving door and needing to hire techs every few years or so costs your company money. Big money! And that revolving door may be a sign of an even bigger issue: poor leadership, and poor employee management skills.
      Here’s one more thing to consider, for the most part, technicians don’t leave one job to start a new career, they leave one shop as a technician to become a technician at another shop. The reasons why they leave can be debated, but there is one fact that we cannot deny, people don’t quit the company they work for, they usually leave because of the boss or manager they work for.
      Put yourselves in the shoes of your employees. Do you have a workplace that communicates, “We appreciate you and want you to stay!”
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