Alex

Automotive Batteries What is your preferred brand of automotive batteries and why? Who is the supplier of that brand to you? What are the battery series that are available in that brand, and what are the warranties? Who manufactures your choice of battery?

The landscape definitely has changed to incorporate more ads and reviews on search pages so google can make for ad revenue. The reality is that the more ads and suggestions that are running for a particular keyword or phrase, the lower your organic results will be on the search page. Google being by far the #1, it's important to make sure you are listed and listed in a way that makes your business and website pages more relevant than your competitor's web pages. A website alone these days doesn't always cut it, really depends on the area you are in and how many competitors there are. Google business listings are extremely important and not only having a business listing, but having positive reviews which will push your listing up. Nowadays you have to have more than just a great website, you need up-to-date business listings (hours, phone, text, holidays, reviews, pictures, products,. services, specials,, etc.), positive reviews from all sources, continues social network activity with back-links to your site, a website well designed for mobile with up-to-date coding with on page SEO/Content and also run Google ads if you can squeeze it into your budget. Positive online reviews are a big driver of traffic these days for small businesses.

There are many different website services, packages, and programs available when choosing the right company/webmaster for your auto repair business. You can sign up to a service that provides a robust website, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), analytics, marketing services, social network management, integrations, etc. You can also sign up for much simpler solutions which usually only include a website and some SEO. You can also try to use an online website builder to get yourself online with something very basic, which is better than nothing. So many different option and they all have their associated costs. In some cases there are initial startup costs as well. In most cases however, there are monthly costs associated with operating a business website. Please take a moment and share, if you would like, about your website costs and associated services. Please also take a moment to answer a few quick question in the attached poll. Thank you.

We've created this section here for you to post your shop website. This is a great way to get some feedback and suggestions from your peers. Please post relevant automotive shop websites only. Any posts including non automotive shop websites will be moderated and removed. Thank you.

Great to hear, thanks!

The actual news story on that is below. It worth a check to make sure your account is getting your payments, and in general its not usually an issue until you get an individual like this that tries to steal from his customers.

Hopefully the topic email will be a little better categorized moving forward. It does get quieter in the summer every year and it really depends on member participation, which includes starting new topics and replying to existing ones to keep content fresh and going. We keep it very open here and at any time if anyone has any suggestions for forum category layout or additional features, please start a topic in our member feedback forum which I will move this topic to. 😁

I've been watching this topic and appreciate the feedback. We definitely have an opportunity to send out the weekly newsletter/digest more refined I suppose. What happens is that the the topics that are listed in the email are the latest NEW topics and most of the ones that are started/created are by sponsor members who pay to be able to post in our forums and support the community. Here are our membership packages: https://www.autoshopowner.com/store/category/1-membership-packages/ That being said, we are going to change around the weekly email a bit starting this Sunday and break out the topics from the two forums where most of the marketing/coaching emails tend to reside and put them into their own block within the email. In addition to that, the new forum topics will now include new and updated topics, which should provide for a better read of activity when you open the email.

Wonder how it holds up, looks like they sell a lot of these on ebay for @ $50. Good luck with it and please share your feedback when you get it 😁

Topic moved to Automotive Shop Tools & Equipment forum. 😁 I would go with the Cheetah but watch out for knockoffs. Search around online. Amazon has it for under $200.

Indeed has become more popular in some cases than monster and careerbuilder, it’s worth a try 😁

@OTPAuto Have you tried putting an ad on indeed? Its free. Also try searching on indeed resume https://www.indeed.com/resumes

Auto Care Association Supports Supreme Court Decision Allowing States to Collect Online Sales Tax POSTED BY AUTO CARE NEWS ON JUNE 21, 2018 The Auto Care Association applauds today’s decision by the Supreme Court to permit states to collect sales tax on purchases of products made over the Internet. The 5-4 decision means that online sellers will now be on a level playing field with brick and mortar retailers regarding charging sales tax. The Auto Care Association had filed an amicus brief with other retail groups urging the Supreme Court to hear the case based on the price advantage that the current system provided on-line sellers. The decision overturns a previous Supreme Court decision that required companies to have a physical presence in the state where the purchaser resided in order to charge sales tax. “This is an important decision for many of Auto Care’s retail members and we are pleased that the Supreme Court saw the unfairness in the current system and determined to make everyone play by the same rules,” said Aaron Lowe, senior vice president, regulatory and government affairs, Auto Care Association. “We hope that implementation of the sales tax will be done uniformly across state lines to ensure a fair and efficient system of tax collection.

On June 20, the Automotive Service Association (ASA) hosted a webinar called “The Road to Great Technicians” with Chris Chesney, senior director of customer training for the CARQUEST Technical Institute. Written by Chasidy Rae Sisk * Attendees qualified for one credit from the Automotive Management Institute. After ASA Vice President Tony Molla introduced the webinar’s presenter, Chesney recounted his collaboration with the National Automotive Service Task Force (NASTF) to identify the Road to Great Technicians. They began in March 2016 when NASTF’s Spring General Meeting focused on the topic of building a road to great technicians. Chesney was asked to explain the current state of the aftermarket training industry. He defined the current state of aftermarket training as a lack of industry standards and a structured career path, unorganized training offerings, and disjointed efforts by industry organizations. However, he also identified many good building elements. Current problems in the industry include the inability to find new talent, graduates not performing to industry standards, an inability to afford techs and the amount of time is takes to replace a technician or advisor who leaves a company because companies do not build bench strength. Chesney stressed, “You have to invest in those new technicians, but many shops cannot find someone who can perform out of the gate, so we need to focus on growing our own and building our bench strength to overcome this problem. We have a need now for the next several years. Reports indicate that we need 80,000 technicians each year, but only 25,000 are being produced.” Chesney identified the aging workforce, oncoming tidal wave of technology and lack of a structured career path as reasons for the significant needs for technicians. Focusing on the influx of technology, he explored the unseemly amount of data that is transferred within modern vehicles. “It’s not the problem of education,” he said. “It’s our problem, and we’re going to look into that.” Chesney presented a picture of the Technician Life Cycle, which included the following seven steps: secondary shadowing, post-secondary intern, entry-level apprentice, technician, senior technician, master technician and specialist; however, he noted that this does not include possible “off ramps” on the Road to Great Technicians. Occurring after an industry professional becomes an entry-level technician, these “off ramps” include in-service continuing education and higher education, which can offer technicians a variety of paths to pursue in their careers, ranging from master technician to shop foreman to shop owner or even becoming an engineer for an OEM. In a January 2018 meeting, the education team at NASTF identified a subcommittee of industry experts tasked with creating a framework of education around the life cycle of a technician and other job roles within the industry. This framework is intended for curriculum providers to use in order to offer a career pathway that means something to the industry and is transferrable throughout the industry. The group began with the vision that they would prescribe degrees of competencies at every skill level, focused on the safety and reliability of the ground vehicle fleet. This Road to Great Technicians team consists of NASTF Chair Mark Saxonberg, Toyota’s Jill Saunders, WTI’s Rob Morrell, CTI’s Chris Chesney, NACAT’s Bill Haas, of Diag.net’s Scott Brown, WTI’s Mark Warren, NASTF’s Donny Seyfer, ASE’s Trish Serratore, S/P2’s Kyle Holt, DrewTech’s Bob Augustineand Cengage’s Erin Brennan. Exploring possible solutions to the industry’s problem, this group defined 13 solution elements, starting with new and enhanced communication with parents and influencers of peripheral students, early engagement with tactile students in middle and high school, support of STEM and development of a well-articulated career path with clear opportunities for advancement and growth that students and parents can see. The industry also needs to get involved with vocational education content to ensure these programs provide the right skills to students. Chesney explained, “They’re producing the wrong technicians because we aren’t involved. We have to be involved. We need to design a curriculum for schools and employers to ensure that, regardless of where technicians work, they are uniformly trained for the skill level. We have to provide people with the opportunity to grow throughout their careers.” The team also believes that the industry needs to provide internship experience, develop programs to help in-service technicians become mentors, and ensure that testing and certification programs are uniform and tiered to provide milestones for achievement. Employers also must find ways to provide wages and benefits that are competitive with other industries attracting the same individuals. “As technicians progress through their career, it is imperative to communicate career options to ensure they don’t leave the industry,” Chesney elaborated. “Vehicle technology has accelerated to unprecedented levels, necessitating faster and more thorough technician skill development to ensure public safety. To add further credibility and value to the process, NASTF is encouraging practical examinations similar to other safety-related skills as a means to verify requisite skill level attainment. Currently, this is not regulated and we cannot keep up with the advancing rates of technology, but we need a way to prove our skills and be prepared for what’s coming, not merely what is on the road right now.” The current state of industry education is outcome-based and not sufficient to serve today’s technology. The future of education must be competency-based with a focus on mastery of skill and validation of a technician’s mastery and development of skills that are recognized and transferable. A competency-based education offers a variable class structure and the ability to test out of the subject matter at different levels, enabling students to finish as they are able. The Road to Great Technicians team defined a new NASTF Technician Life Cycle that includes seven steps: apprentice technician, maintenance technician, service technician, repair technician, diagnostic technician, master technician, and specialist technician. According to Chesney, “Each step would require a variety of requirements as far as training and experience. They would also require mastery of competencies using curriculum provided by the industry, to include mentoring, demonstrated skills and self-paced curriculum. Finally, technicians seeking to advance would prove their skills through oral and hands-on exams.” Continuing the work they have started, the team plans to provide the industry with a white paper by the end of the year, but they encourage the industry to comment and opine. While the team will be limited in size in order to maximize effectiveness, they encourage industry professionals to join NASTF and the NASTF Education Team. The group’s vision for the future of automotive education culminates in the idea of the Automotive Institute of Science and Technology, which would include a pathway education in a project-based environment. In ninth and 10th grades, students would sample each pathway through projects designed to highlight the different aspects and career fields before choosing a specific pathway in 11th grade to focus on in their final two years of high school. Their choices would be automotive technology as a trade, business, or engineering. While obtaining their associates degree, students would enter the discipline of their choice, working in shops to gain practical experience while simultaneously acting as mentors to younger students. Chesney concluded the webinar with a question and answer session. Article Source: https://www.autobodynews.com/index.php/component/k2/item/15820-asa-hosts-road-to-great-technicians-webinar-with-carquest-s-chris-chesney.html

Google has a great tool that allows you to check the mobile "friendliness" of your website. Just enter your website url at Google dedicated page: https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly You should get something like: If you don't, time to look into updating your website 😁

Have a happy 4th of July everyone!

https://www.moderntiredealer.com/news/730291/bridgestone-is-dropping-atd-as-a-distributor

@JustTheBest You can post the videos directly within the post by just copying and pasting the youtube url into the editor 😁

That's a good point about some states that do not charge sales tax. There's also suggestions being made about having an online sales tax amount that is the same across state borders, so we'll see where that goes.

Very interesting ruling today and it'll be interesting to see how it affects smaller online sellers. Larger ones like Amazon already comply in some states and will easily implement it, but what about their marketplace sellers that don't charge tax? ebay is another one....

It's been a while since I made a blog entry so I've decided that I am going to start to add entries around using AutoShopOwner and things that may be of interest. For this entry, I'd like to showcase our Activity tab in the main menu and try to describe how you can use it and some of our other views to bring up the content that you want to see vs viewing everything. Today we have a few ways of seeings what's new from your last visit and content in general. UNREAD CONTENT You can click the Unread Content link towards the top right and that'll give you all your "unread" content since your last visit. It's also available under Activity Streams (next section). Some people love this feature on forums and it's handy for frequent visitors, but can be a very long list if you haven't been here in a while. At any given time you can "Mark site read" and it'll show everything as being read. You can even mark topics and full forums as read (stops topic titles from being bold because bold means unread) ACTIVITY STREAMS Click on the Activity section from the main menu and you'll see a link for All Activity, My Activity Streams, and Search. This is where you can really tailor your view of content that you want to see. Start with one of our default streams or give a shot at creating your own stream to show only what YOU want to see! FLUID FORUM VIEW If creating your own Activity Stream isn't for you and you like to just go to the main page of the forum and see what's going on, then Fluid View may be for you. You can toggle between Fluid and Traditional views easily by clicking on the layout button. You can also customize which forums will show topics by clicking on the "Showing topics from all forums" link. Hopefully this explains some of the ways we have available for our members to get to the content they want to see and stay updated. If all else fails, just use the search box at the top of the page!

As a member of AutoShopOwner, you can manage the types of notifications that we provide you for when things happen here, either via email or when you login and view your notifications list (the bell icon). For instance, when you start a new topic in a forum or reply to an existing topic, you are automatically subscribed to receive a notification when new content is posted. That can happen by email or not, depends on how you want to receive it. To get to your notifications management section, first go to Account Settings Then go to Notification Settings There you will see some your current preference settings for overall delivery method, follow preference, browser notifications, etc. Scroll down and you'll see individual notification settings where you can pick and choose how you are notified. For email, an email is sent every time that action takes place based on your delivery method above. For Notification List, every time an action takes place, it will be listed in your notifications panel under the little bell icon. One more setting we have is for our weekly newsletter, which includes a list of topics and activity from the week. You can opt in and out from your account settings as well. If you haven't taken a look at your settings yet, we encourage you to check it out. 😃