phynny

Lots of great points and that's exactly what I struggle with. I'm only 35 so the working part doesnt bother me but the price end is very tricky. I'd like to work on nice cars for many reasons some of which include the "no hassle" in getting permission to repair what is wrong, cars are clean and well kept and are normally only weekend cars so I can take my time. That being said, I am sort of out of the city so people normally have a good drive to drop their vehicles off. I want to charge a fair price but it's not like I have a 12k/month mortgage and I also believe that when you charge too much people have unreal expectations. I current have a Dodge Viper on my rack, getting all the fluids changed, spark plugs, fuel filter etc. During the drop-off the owner saw mine which is lowered, so then we added that to the bill for his car. The next day I found the sway bar links were toast, output shaft seal leaking, doors needed realigned and hood needed ajusted and it was no big deal to him even though I was going to have it for longer and the cost had trippled.

So about a year ago I retired and moved 400 miles away to Indianapolis Indiana with the plans on never touching a car again. That being said, I needed a compressor and lift but that was really it considering I had all my other tools including trans/coolant flush machines, snap on versus ultra and every other tool made for auto repairs. It started out harmless enough repairing family's vehicles and then something else happened but I'm still a little fuzzy on that part. Ether way, I kept getting calls for people with high end vehicles that only wanted me to repair their vehicles so I did one here and there. Problem was their vehicles weren't insured and I didn't have a business license here and when you have multiple Vipers in your garage (40 x 60) the fear of a tornade or even sharknado is a bit overwhelming.

 

So now I've started a business at my home and I'm not exactly sure how to go foward with things. I don't plan on working on 10 year old rusty jeeps anymore and want to choose which car I work on. Now my problem is that I can't justify charging $95/hr since I have no addid cost besides insurance, mitchell and some other small things <$500/month. I have went as far as visiting the other Indy shops in the area and the very few good ones are so backed up with vehicles they say we need more competent shops to ease the load so I am not stealing customers (from those that deserve them at least). So my delema is what should I charge, how should I advertise and how in the world do I selectivly advertise and not offend people? It isn't a large town and I'm not trying to make any enemies.

 

Here's a link to the website which is still under construction. Don't mind the "Prices" tab, just messing around with it but I doubt I'll actually leave it.

 

http://www.ancautollc.com/home.html

Man, this just keeps getting better. No disrespect, but you need to stop working on this truck and take it to a shop that is computant in auto repair. What parts are you going to throw at it next, maybe a wiring harness?

 

I'm in no way trying to disrespect you but I've been following this thread and you should have never touched this truck, even with your so called expert. 20 hours to find a bad plug and you threw an ECM at it?

 

This is one of the reasons that our industry has an imagine problem. There is nothing wrong with not being able to do all repairs. There are shops in my area that ONLY DO brakes and alignment. Brakes making noise or steering pull, they are the guys. Check engine light on or car isn't starting not their bag. The days of being a general repair shop are GONE.

 

It's bad for the customer financially and your doing them a disservice. You really should reevaluate your business modle. Stick to what you know and do it well. Look at how much this job has cost you in terms of money, time, and credibility. These are all things that once gone, you can't get back.

 

Why are you paying for the cats? The car had came I with a misfire and the truck had been driven for a long time with one. If you knew about Fords, you would know that they take forever to code for misfires and thus if are driven, they will cause cat damage. Now the flip side to this is, if you were tooled up for ford, you would have been able to run a balance test on IDS and pinpoint the misfiring cyld in about 2 minutes. Hell, you could have even looked at mode 6 pid 53 with a code reader to see what was misfiring.

 

This comes to my point of your expert. If he couldn't figure out what cyld was misfiring, and it took 20 hours to find a bad plug, he isn't an expert. I sure hope you didn't pay him 20 hours. Your tech that said he changed the plug wouldn't be doing anymore diag or repairs if he worked for me.

 

Again, I'm not trying to bash you, I just don't like seeing people take on more than they are capable of. It hurts our whole industry. Next shop that gets this customer, customers is going to be on gaurd and not want to pay for testing, because he already had and has spent $xxxx and the problem is still there.

 

I would encourage you to get your guys into training. It's fine if you want to start doing diag, but you have to have a capable tech and proper tooling.

 

 

I don't work on all car lines. I only work on what I'm tooled for and know how to fix efficiently. I'm in this business to make money, not be a superhero who can fix anything. I don't do motors, I don't rebuild transmission, and I do maybe 5-6 clutches a year and I charge very well for them.

 

Now imagine if you stick to doing brakes, Maintience, and simple services. Think of all the hours you lost with this darn truck. I'll take gravy work all day. We've all had our rear ends handed to us, I just know now when to say NO sooner.

 

There is nothing wrong with sticking with what your good at.

 

Again, please don't take any offence to what I'm saying. I'm not judging you or your shop, I just would suggest you rethink your business model. We are all here to make money, not lose it.

 

Like you are a computant speller , just having some fun.

 

On a serious note, you had another shop put the engine in??? I can promise that it's not worth being involved in a transaction that you are not in control of, just take this as a lesson learned and move on.

unless the "promise" is in writing it's garbage IMHO. I'd prefer to to buy from whoever has the best part for the best price and will actually back their part when one does fail.

I also liked Mitchell, they have a good balance of what I need.

I too have very little debt. It took me a long time to be free of monthly payments. My secret is simple - I live off of $500 a week, after taxes, the same I made before I opened my shop. I live in the same old house, drive the same old truck. Regardless if I make $3000 or $30,000 in a month I don't spend more than my fixed income level. Keep working, save your money, and the rest is easy. I secured a loan to buy the shop I was leasing, it wasn't easy. The only way I got the loan was with 40% down payment. If I had bought a new car or a boat when I started making good money I'd be crying the blues paying $5000 a month rent vs the $1000 I pay on my mortgage.

 

I understand life is short and you can't take it with you, but living debt free is a lot easier that sitting up at night worrying who's not going to get paid.

 

Another tip is get a good business credit card or 2 that gives points or cash back. I sometimes spend $50,000 a month on tires and parts, it all goes on my cards. That's $500.00 a month free money just for paying my bills, more if I put the right expenses on the right cards. I pay the balance immediately. If I need a new piece of equipment I buy it, no interest. If I don't have the money I fix the old one.

 

At some point I should upgrade my lifestyle, but I haven't reached that place in my life yet.

 

Off topic a bit:

I'm friends with a couple who are muilti millionaires. I fix his wife's car - 1997 suburban. He drives a 2001 pickup. Both have over 200k miles. I ask him why not get a new car? His response is his cars are paid for and still work. That's how he became wealthy. These people live like blue collar workers and are happy every time I see them. I have friends that make over $200k a year and keep buying stuff until there monthly payments exceed their income. One guy has a $700,000 home and buys a new lexus every year. He appears rich but struggles to make ends meet. He's not very fun to be around.

 

I hear where you are coming from but it's depent on the circumstance right? Why horde your money when you have young children when you can use some of it to have experiences you may have never had? I agree 100% to live within your means but at the end of the day its paper money that loses value every year.

Had a fella call me years ago for an est on a compressor for a Kia van, I believe it was. Started off telling me how he ran a shuttle service, had 10-15 vehicles and if I treated him right he would be my best customer (yea yea heard that before). So I write it up to include the expansion valve, which required evap removal, and drier, which was part of the condenser. When I call him back and gave him the quote he went ballistic. I was a con and a crook, he could get all the parts for a tenth of that, on and on. I finally got to ask him if he was sure it really needed a compressor and maybe he should bring it in for an inspection. He then informed me his prior mechanic checked it. When I pressed him as to why he didn't do the repair his replay was...get ready for it...

HE WENT BROKE AND CLOSED HIS SHOP. I could hardly keep from laughing out loud.

Jeff, that's hilarious!

 

 

I have personally fired many customers. Not every dollar is a good one and some people you will never please so why try?

Selling a part at cost is insane IMHO. I have 2 reasons for parts markup; 1. To make a profit and stay in business 2. Because I warranty that part and depending on what parts fail (as it happens to us all) we may just break even with all the previous parts we've sold that week.

Parts markup will never change and my payroll for lube techs stays the same and my A and B techs are flat rate so the numbers stay dead even. This is most definitely real world numbers

Overhead should be less than 25%. Typo :/

Here are the standards I and most large chain shops shoot for

25% parts

27% labor

>25% overhead

The rest would obviously be profit.

 

After your facility is paid off you can see how your profit will skyrocket.

Here's another curveball for all of you. I am in the same boat just on the flip side, I have tons of business experience and knowledge including quite a bit in the automotive industry but I lack an in depth knowledge of automotive technology. How do you deal with this situation?

 

I am currently in the planning stage of opening a shop was planning to simply hire a master mechanic.

you don't. Unless you are going to be a brake shop, tire shop, exhaust shop etc. this really isn't a kind industry to thoughts that aren't of the industry. Why chose a repair shop when there are so many owner friendly businesses out there?

In my experience it's the way it has to be though it kind of sucks. As owners/bosses, we don't get invited out on the weekends and we're not in the "inner circle" but that's the way it has to be in order to maintain order. I've been to more management classes than I care to think about but everyone stresses the fact that we can not be friends with our employees.

 

This would cause our whole system to collapse because the dynamic would change. Being close to employees lets then learn/see things that could complicate things at the workplace. Even them seeing your house if it's a nice expensive home can plant a seed of jealously in their minds that can directly affect performance. Typing on phone hard arrrrr, you get the point. Heck, I'm sure you already know this :/.

I've fallen for it a half dozen times or so and I've been burned a half dozen times or so. If it's under $100 and they forgot their wallet or something, fine, but anything else NO.

I just went through this and I got rid off 9 guys

The mistake that most shops make is they end up not charging these whiney custors yet never give the good customers a break. If a customer gets an attitude or rude, I charge them full price and ask them not to return. I believe that if someone acts like that then everyone they know already knows how they are so if they bad mouth you it will fall on deaf ears.

I personally love customer diagnosed vehicles. After I fail to convince them that it will be cheaper for me to diag the car I get to do the requested service and then I almost always get to sell the diag time and the correct repair.

I have recently done something similar and I can tell you that you will probably lose/fire the techs. Out of the 11 at the place I just took over I'm down to 3 and a couple of those are going soon too...

Some crazy posts here. "Don't do head gaskets"...? Why don't you send them to the machine shop to have them resurfaced and pressure checked?

 

We just had a cars timing belt snap as we started it up to pull it in. This is not our fault and we did not eat the job. I don't understand why you'd have to buy a vehicle that blew up on a test drive.

Not that I am scared enough....... anyone else feel like buying this shop is a bad idea? There's a Big O Tire that sells 1.6MM with 275k cash flow, but I can't even come close to the 650k he wants for that. Isn't this better than starting from nothing?

may not be a bad idea but the old employee part could sink you immediately. I just took over over a $2.4 million dollar shop in the best location in our town after being open for 2 years. It started out as ammco and after a year and a half the shop lost the franchise name so they changed their name and 6 months later I moved in. This business's failure was solely due to the employees.

 

My point is location and equipment absolutely do not make a shop. It's ALL about your people. I'd rather see you prepared before you open and find out the hard way.

I completely agree that the shop is under performing. I respect all of your opinions 100%. But it seems most of you are concerned or cautious, and I'm seeing huge opportunity. Great location. Great lease. Equipment is in good shape. Zero marketing. No brand identity. Competent, but slow techs. All this and still profitable. Am I seeing a huge opportunity that's not really there? I'm ready and willing to put in the time, effort and money. Am I far off base?

IMHO yes. Not sure about your area but here it's easier to find unicorns than good techs.

I get this all the time, even from the employees of adv and atz. Just did an alternator for the manager of an adv and it wasn't the problem and they diagnosed it .

 

I explain to the customer that a scan read is not a diag and ask them if they want me to diag it or if they want me to swap their requested part. Most have me diag but some do not. Maybe this seems wrong but I always secretly hope they have me use their diag and I'm giddy as the jobs being done. I personally try to always be the one that lets the customer know the repair is completed and it did not fix their problem and ask if they want the problem diagnosed.

 

Maybe eventually people will learn this is a complex computer and let us do our jobs.

Only 2 techs and their slow. So if you assume 50-60 hrs/week that's not much money at all. Plus you won't have any techs. Looks like all you're getting is equipment which unfortunately won't make you money. Looks to me like the guy wants out and would like to make some money on way out.

Ouch

Is everyone ready to retire? Is that 40 years a piece?