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Just what I was looking for.


John Pearson

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I was excited when I found ratchet and wrench, now that I have found this place I am over joyed. I am always looking for new friends that have been there and done it that can help me along my way.

 

I have been working on cars for 6 years for others, 4 years in the army working on helicopters and cars on the side I accidently got in over my head. So I figured the way to fix being up to my eyeballs in work was to move in to a real shop and out of my garage and hire help.

 

We learned a lot on our own, made a lot of mistakes but owned up to them and now we are working 16 hours a day to get all the cars through the 1 lift that we have.

 

We offer everything from oil changes, Tires, A/C, alignments, to aftermarket lifts, Winterizations (its an alaska thing) and standard Diag and repair. The amount of special tools we have bought has been astronomical and now we even have Ford IDS and plan on adding the a few more dealer level tools by the end of the year.

 

I hope to be an asset and learn from the pros about how to run a business fixing cars is easy.

 

 

 

My problem right now is the 1 bay, there is no where to move to, and my money people don't want me to build the building that I want to build that we would grow in to. They recommend half the size and dont want to see us grow to quickly, and I agree. So now I am stuck in between a rock and a hard place.

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What kind of business do you guys do in the cold months?

A lot of power steering lines, we have a place here that cuts them apart and braises in new fittings and arctic grade rubber, but 2 weeks out all the time is normal. right now I have 16 cars on my desk to be worked on and 1 week of a full schedule.

 

being between 2 military bases one 3 miles away and the other 10 miles away but they have to drive past us to get to town and being prior military myself I think helps ALOT.

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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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