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  • General Discussion

    • Gross Profit
      Everywhere I look I see that I'm supposed to target 60% gross profit.  Am I supposed to include tires in this?  I have no problem getting 60% on repairs, but when I include my tire sales then it just tanks it.  About 15% of our sales is tires.  Is anyone getting 60% GP including tires?  If so, I need to make some adjustments.
    • I got my own branded flashlight
      Got my own branded flashlight, ordered 500 of them from Alibaba.com - talked to a bunch of suppliers and bought 500 for a good deal. I got my own branded long double box end wrenches as well being manufactured right now. Also ordered magnetic phone holders (1000 of them) and 200 OBDII wifi code readers. Spent about $10k, trying to get my name out there and earn some extra money on the side. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Carmedix-Super-Bright-Rechargeable-LED-Water-Resistant-Flashlight-for-Mechanics-/272713331814?epid=16002924438&hash=item3f7efb3466:g:JzIAAOSwrfVZPg0r https://www.amazon.com/Carmedix-Rechargeable-Resistant-Flashlight-Mechanics/dp/B072MPMQ5P/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1501210798&sr=8-1&keywords=carmedix I am new to listing products and advertising, what do you guys think? I took all the pictures myself.  Thinking about giving away the magnetic phone holders with oil changes. Has a nice big logo on it and customers will see it when phone is removed. I like the idea of arming my loyal customers with code readers. I know it's controversial but for my loyal customers, it'll be good. When making a appointment, they can tell me the code in which I can tell them it's a emergency or schedule them my next available. I will also know if I need to schedule for a smoke test or diagnosing a misfire.  
    • Reflashing
      Hey all, I am looking into the RAP service (remote assist program) for reflashing and programming pcms and modules and weighing my options.  We currently don't have the equipment to reflash and typically sub those jobs out to the dealer. I was wondering how do you all charge for reflash services?  I have generally seen the out the door price around $200 which would be about 2hrs bill time for us but wanted to see how that stacks up. Also in the event there are repairs done that require the reflash are you charging the full reflash fee in addition to the parts and labor time or do you discount the reflash fee? Thanks!

  • Regional Automotive Shop Management Discussions

    • Anyone going to aste in Cary,NC?
      http://asteshow.com/event-schedule/   Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk    
    • Some People Are Cut Out For This
      Wow, some people are really cut out for this. I've been doing it in my 2 bay shop since 09, and I think it's time to close the doors.
    • Looking for shop Toledo, Ohio
      I have a customer that is working in terryburg Ohio that is having issues with his Toyota pickup. Hard to diagnose over phone and looking for a shop in the area. Has codes for mass airflow sensor and tranny is acting up. We replaced transmission a few months ago and it's still under warranty. He replaces mass sensor and problem got worse.   Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk    

  • Automotive Repair Shop Management

    • Which leads are most likely to turn into sales?
      Hello Everyone, New member here.  I wanted to pose a question to the forum here.  Which types of leads are most likely to turn into sales for you? Put another way, what is your best source for generating new business? I don't want to know how you advertise, I want to know know for example if phone calls are more valuable than web leads, or which types of leads have the highest closing ratio for you? For most people here and in most industries, its unanimous that word-of-mouth and in person interactions are your most likely sales but besides those what is the most reliable? Web leads, phone calls?  And when you do advertise do you push people to the form of contact that your most likely to close? The reason I ask is because I see people just advertise their website with no phone number sometimes or some people really push people to call.  Do you find that people who call your shop are more likely to come in than people who might come from a web lead such as an online form? Thanks in advance for any input.
    • What B.S. Excuse Are You Telling Yourself?
      Let me start off by asking you a very important but very quick question: what BS story are you telling yourself? Let me repeat that: What BS story are you telling yourself? We all have these stories and shop owner excuses that we keep telling ourselves that we think are true, that when you really look at it, they're really utter bullshit, but we've been telling ourselves the same story over and over that we actually believe it's true. Case in point, now if you've ever been on one of my live webinars, you know that because I'm live, I can have a conversation with some of the people that are on the webinar. The other night, a gentleman was complaining about car count. He said because cars are made better (another thing I hear A LOT), there are no cars out there and there's a lack of car count, and that's a big problem. I took that as an opportunity to tell him what I've probably told you before, if you've been watching these videos, that I don't believe that there's a car count problem out there at all because in every city all over the United States, all over Canada, there are cars sitting on lifts right now in your own town, dozens, maybe even hundreds of them, every single day that are being repaired and maintained by other shops, other shops collectively, but on any given day, there are tons of opportunities to repair cars. The problem is they're just in somebody else's shop, they're not in yours. It's not a lack of cars out there to be repaired, there's just a lack of cars in your auto repair shop. It's a marketing problem, it's not a problem caused by cars being made better. Now I've told that story before. In case this is the very first time you've heard that, please believe me it is a marketing problem, not cars are made better. That's the reason why you don't have enough cars. Now we're past that. Because I can go back and forth with them, I told that same story. He'd so believed that it was a problem that he wasn't able to fix, that he told me about the shop owner that was less than a mile away from his shop that said the very same thing, that his shop was down with cars as well. I guess the two of them got together and commiserated about the car count being down, and now both of them believe that there's a car count problem out there. That's an example of the BS story we keep telling ourselves that simply isn't true. I want you to go back and think of all the things you say on a daily basis, maybe, "I can't find good techs," or, "There are no good techs out there anymore." There are good techs out there, they're just not working for you. What you look for, you're going to find. It's just the truth. Let me give you an example, and this is a story I've told my clients over and over. It's a great example of what you look for, you will see in abundance right there in front of you. A few years back, we bought a beach condo down in Florida. We thought it'd be fun to have a Jeep, to be on the beach, and just the perfect car to have down there. I never owned a Jeep before, but guess what? As soon as I decided I was going to buy a Jeep, I saw Jeeps everywhere, all shapes and sizes and colors driving everywhere. I've been seeing them every single day go by, but I didn't see them until I decided I want to buy a Jeep. Did everybody all of a sudden go out and buy a Jeep when I decided? No. It's because I was looking for Jeeps, all of a sudden I saw them. There was an abundance of Jeeps driving by me every single day. I just didn't notice them because I wasn't looking for it. Then I decided I was going to buy a blue Jeep. You guessed it; pretty soon everybody was driving a blue Jeep. There were blue Jeeps everywhere. Everybody didn't go out and decide that they're going to buy a Jeep, and then they didn't decide if they're going to buy a blue Jeep. It's just I started focusing on it and I started finding exactly what I'm focusing on. If you're saying that there are no good techs out there, you're going to focus on all the bad hires that you've had, you're going to focus on all the bad interviews you've been on, and you're going to say, "See? I told you so. There are no good techs out there." The same thing with your car count. If you're going to constantly complain and look at the lack of cars that are out there in your own shop, you're going to keep seeing the same problem over and over and over. It's going to become etched in your mind. It's going to be a BS story, but if you start looking around, start driving around and realize there are dozens, if not hundreds, of cars sitting on lifts every single day in other people's shops and not in your shop, you'll realize you have a marketing problem and you'll start to tackle the big problem that you have right there. I hope this helps. Go and think of all those things that you tell yourself so often that it's now etched in stone and it's true, and see if you could find the opposite. I guarantee you'll find it everywhere. Thanks for watching. Oh, by the way, I really appreciate all the comments. 
    • Courtesy Inspections
      So, I feel like most shops on this forum are performing some sort of multi-point inspection on just about every car that comes in. I know we do. I'm curious though what everyone's inspection consists of. Are you having techs pull every cabin filter and air filter? Test drive every vehicle? Are you pulling wheels to check and measure brakes?  Also, are you paying your techs for these inspections on top of other services? If so, how much? Here is a copy of one of our digital inspections if anyone is curious.  http://2un.me/yssm  Personally, I've struggled with checking cabin and air filters for 2 reasons. 1.) It is a bummer to pull out those filters, take pictures, make the recommendation, and the customer decline, just to turn around and put them back in. 2.) Some filters a real pain in the ass to check. I really struggle justifying pulling out a glove box assembly to find a clean cabin filter, or to find a dirty filter and the customer decline replacing it. I've also struggled with with the following situation: We find a radiator leaking, build a quote, present to the customer, and they decline. I've toyed around with the idea of scrapping all component specific inspection points and simply informing the customer that we found a coolant leak on their vehicle and using that information to sell a '$49 cooling system inspection'... I haven't pulled the trigger on that yet. It would be cool to see what kind of inspections you guys are doing on every vehicle and how you are handling different aspects of it. 

  • Automotive Repair & Technical Discussions

    • BATT TESTING EQUIPMENT
      What is everyone using for battery testing. We have an old SnapOn carbon pile tester and a Midtronix MDX700HD. We are wanting an upgrade, but still want the carbon pile capability.
    • Autologic user input / feedback
      I would like to know if any other shops out there using Autologic have run into programming issues. I was informed last week that they have stopped doing any coding as of January 2017. This was the first I have heard of it. Any other users out there being told the same thing? If so what did you do to solve your problem? (New equipment or buy the pass thru equipment through them?)
    • Dedicated alignment lift or 2 post with stands?
      Anyone using alignment stands on a 2 post lift? How are they for daily use?   I have a smaller shop with 2 techs and 3 bays, We have 2 lifts and 1 small "flat" bay. We are Japanese specialty shop that is growing and we were planning to add a new lift to the flat bay. The bay is not deep enough for a true 4 post alignment lift, so I was planning to purchase a new 2 post lift and add stands with an alignment machine in the near future. In searching for the right lift to be used with stands, I was just offered a used 2 post Hunter alignment rack that would fit in the bay for the same price as the 2 post with stands... and that really got me thinking...   We do an average of 25 cars a week on 2 makes and we are adding 3 more early this year (thus the need for another lift). We just started doing tires this past year and only sublet alignments when they are absolutely necessary. Our situation is pushing us towards needing an alignment machine in house, but we could use another lift for "over flow" just a much.     Knowing that we will be doing alignments out of necessity in the near future, I am leaning towards having a dedicated alignment lift. My questions are:   1. Does anyone regret purchasing their stands over an actual alignment lift? 2. Does anyone do "other" work on their alignment lift? 3. And how many alignments should I really expect?     If space were a major issue, what would you do? (Drive-on alignment lift -OR- 2 post lift with alignment stands?)