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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!

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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?

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  • 3 weeks later...

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 by APM
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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

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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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