applemillautorepair

Do you find being a member of BNI a positive for your business? How long have you been a member? Thanks Steve

Hi Steve, We joined BNI a little over a year ago, and I just renewed for our second year if that tells you anything. I do think that it is worth the investment, we have had a great return from it, I think that I service all but two of the groups members and most of them have multiple cars and have also referred friends or family to us. So IMHO I think it is well worth it, I didn't track exactly how much of our business came from BNI members or referrals from them but I would bet that it is a fairly significant amount. Hope that helps. Eric

So, you find that offering specials increase car counts?

Since I have started to track it, depending on what the special is yes it does. Some of the specials don't seem to make any difference others do.

We do offer discounts, but they are mainly for a monthly special or something similar. I do also belong to a group called BNI (business network international - a networking group) and we do offer a 10% discount on parts to the members of the group or to a new customer that the refer to us. I have found that it doesn't eat into our profits to much and it brings customers in the door, so we have continued to do it.

Thanks for the input Joe, I really do appreciate you taking the time especially when you are in the middle of the project that you are undertaking. I admire you for doing what you are right not, and hopefully some day soon I will be working on the same type of project. Best regards, Eric

Joe, I think that you are absolutely correct, my feeling is that either I need to expand or I may as well close the shop. We just finished our second year of business and our net profit was more than double from last year, so I am excited, however I would like to continue to keep that going and I am afraid that without adding on there will be no hope of that happening. I am kind of overwhelmed right now trying to do mostly everything by myself, so I am hoping to get some advice and guidance from some other professionals in the business. Joe, I really appreciate the reply and I think that it is great advice, I just need to do some acting on that advice. Thanks for the help and good luck with the new building. Eric

Hi everyone, I joined this site a few months ago looking for some ideas to help my business and have gotten many good ideas from here. However I am in a situation that I am hoping some of you have been in before, and am hoping that I may receive some help. We are going into our second year of being in open and have seen a pretty good increase in sales this last year. I am a young and have read that some of you were also young when you started your shops (I will be 27 in March).

Let me lay a little ground work so you know what the circumstances are, we are located in the same building as a used car lot that has been there for 18 years and has a very good reputation around town, and have gotten a lot of customers from that. Unfortunately I don't think that we can grow the business any more without expanding the building, you see our current facility is 2 bays one of which has a hoist, the other is a flat stall that the car lot uses for detailing cars and occasionally I use for repairs. The other problem is that I am the only one running the repair business and working on cars.

I do have a business partner that also owns the car lot, so anything that I do usually gets run past him before I do it. I guess what I am looking for is some ideas as to what direction we should go with the business, you all seem like you have been through some things in the business that you may be able to offer some suggestions. I believe that to grow the business we at least need to expand the building and add at least one employee. What are any of your thoughts?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, Eric

We use mitchell, IATN, and Identfix. I think that it is a really good site, it has a lot of really good info on it. Hope this helps. Eric

Hey everyone, just wanted to say hi. Just found this site last night, and so far it is something that is long overdue. I have been a business owner for about a year and a half, so far not to bad. I think that this sight will give some good insite on what other shop owners are doing, especially in the current state of our economy. Anyways thanks for the great site. Eric Zager - Apple-Mill Auto Repair LLC

Last October we hosted a free vehicle inspection event for fall car care month, we didn't have the turn out we had hoped for. I don't think that we promoted it well enough however. We are hosting another event on the 19th of this month.