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shoaljumper

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Hello All,

 

Very glad to have found this forum. I am considering purchasing an auto shop after working 15 years in the IT field. I started out building my own brand, selling to a medium sized brand and then being gobbled up by the corporate juggernaut which was a hellish experience. I never want to work for someone else ever again. During this I always worked in senior management helping to manage staff and run these businesses. The service experience received by the clients was the key to success in that industry.

 

I have never worked as an auto tech but have some mechanical experience. I used to restore vintage ATV's and motorcycles in my spare time and have always done my own maintenance work at my father in law's shop. The places I am looking at have 700k+ in revenue and a shop manager in place with good techs and excellent reputation. My task will be to take over and grow via online marketing, and taking care of clients. Something I am very good at.

 

I am going to continue reading through the forums here and have already found some great articles. Any advice anyone would like to offer up would be greatly appreciated.

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I've always liked fixing things and I have strong management and business skills. Everyone needs car repair and the industry is stated to grow in the future. I live in a booming area as well, so a local shop with a great reputation in a good part of town should continue to grow organically. I have a couple mechanics in the family I can ask for help too.

 

with the numbers I'm seeing it seems like a simple formula for success, it's just trying to value the shops I'm looking at now. The one I like the most is asking near 3x SDE.

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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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