Price Sheets

[James S]

My wife and I are taking over a failing auto shop and hope to turn it around. We've owned businesses before, but never auto repair...So I need all the help I can get!!!

 

I think we need to be more competitive with our prices. Does anyone have price sheets they could share with us so we could see how other shops price things? That would be SO HELPFUL! Have any recommendations for prices, what to do OR not do??

 

Also, do you have any recommendations of good conferences to go to, magazines &publications to subscribe to or websites to get help from? Thanks!

[mspecperformance]

Hi James welcome to the forum. This is a great place with a lot of positive people and knowledge.

 

Some quick questions, is it a general repair shop? Do you have any experience in the automotive field? Are you taking over just the business? Is there property involved? Business currently functioning? Any techs? What kind of shop management is currently being used? Do you have access to a listing of your customers contact information? emails and addresses?

[APM]

Pricing is a complicated concept that is hard to advise on because so many factors go into it. Your pricing has to:

• Reflect the quality of your techs work (If your techs aren't providing quality work then setting prices does you no good anyways because your customers won't ever feel like they got their moneys worth regardless of how much they've paid.)
• It has to make sense financially for you (You need to make above and beyond your break even point so that you can grow your shop and pay yourself.)
• It has to be enough to weed out the bottom feeders, yet low enough to be reasonable to compete with your customers other needs (You're competing against their kids getting braces, finishing their basement, landscaping their backyard, or even that cruise they've been dying to go on.)

 

It seems to me that there are a lot questions to be asked about why the shop is failing that will have to be answered before you can even begin to set your pricing. I recommend reading the article in Ratchet + Wrench about creating a successful shop.

http://www.ratchetandwrench.com/RatchetWrench/May-2014/Creating-a-Successful-Shop-Culture/

Edited January 19, 2015 by APM

[bstewart]

I would strongly recommend you read Mitch Schneider's entire series on auto shop management.

It's 8 books, about $30 each, but well worth the investment.

 

I'd be willing to bet that you don't need to be "more competitive" with your pricing.

I'm thinking you need to increase your customer service and have better inspection processes.

 

The main sites I read (besides this one) are:

motor.com

autoinc.org

ratchetandwrench.com

autoshopowner.com