HarrytheCarGeek

You know, transportation companies have been making a distinction between passengers for a long time. Make sure you are billing premium services to those customers that can afford it. Also, don't price your loyal customers out of your shop. Also, keep in my the old cliche, "No good deed goes unpunished." That's is to say, that lady you did some free work for, will come back to complain you didn't do a good job and wants a refund.

If you have a chance to step away from your shop, go visit some of your competitors site. It will give you an idea what's going on out there. Talk to people, get a feel for the general mood of your area. Make some site visits.

All right, fourth week of 2017, second third of Winter. Valentine's day is coming up, and Spring marketing design should be done and heading to the printers. Visualize the production ahead and plan accordingly. Make your calls, send your postcards, mail your offers.

You know, for some reason it has been much easier to run 1 or 3 or more locations than 2. I have no idea why yet, but i am thinking about it. I will share the answer once I figure it out.

This is the mix I have used in over 20 years. 1. Base salary, plus production bonus. 2. When retail customer flow is slow, and fleet accounts are up to date and there is shop slack. I make sure all items that need attention around the shop are fixed. 3. I keep a set of vehicles that need to be serviced before they are placed for sale. For example, if I have bought a 2006 Camry that is going to be sold, I have it inspected, prepared, repair/service, certified, set for sale. This cycle has not failed me yet.

All right, so the third week of 2017 is over, the first 1/3 of Winter is over. We are having an excellent month. You should have over 150 calls, postcards or offers made, and you should be starting to see results from those in the next week.

Do not indulge lazy thoughts! Keep a scratch notebook and learn to write down all the important information you need at one time, that way you don't have to keep making multiple calls to find out the relevant details you need. Teach your SA to do the same, have them write down the complete customer's contact information including email, the type of car year make and model, engine, etc., and if the customer has the VIN and license number handy that too. At the beginning of the day, make sure you write down the date on your notebook, that way you can reference back when looking for a particular date. Make this a habit, and do not entertain a lazy thought not to do it. Once you have mastered it, it becomes second nature. With simple disciplines success is actualized. The first month of winter is over tomorrow, next week we go into the second 2/3 of Winter, You should start thinking about your Spring marketing materials, also Valentine's day is coming up, you should have something buzz creating special, even a small contest for movie tickets, or a dinner and a movie with a restaurant you are comfortable working with. Make your calls, send you post cards, mail your offers.

What does a businessman with employees know that others don't? The responsibility of meeting payroll. No bureaucrat knows what sacrifices a businessman makes in order to meet his payroll. I think our new president is familiar with having to meet payroll, and I hope there are new incentives to help us create new opportunities to those that want to create wealth and value.

Knowing your costs is CRITICAL. You must know your costs and where your money is being spent. That is why working with numbers is very important. Don't tell yourself you are not good at math. Mathematics is a learned skilled, and like any skill you become good at it with practice, practice, practice. One thing that helped me work with numbers in my head, was understanding sequences, like a serial sequence 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ..., or geometric 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 (exponential growth) or 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/64, 1/128...(decay) or logarithmic 1, 10, 100, 1000, 10000, 10000.. you get the picture. If you can visualize this (google) sequences in you head, you can visualize growth and the growth of your business. The same thing with markup and margin, learn percentages and how by moving the decimal point you can make quick calculations in your head. Like I said, math is a skill and as with any skill you only become good at it with practice, practice, practice. Stay the course with your marketing, make your call, send your postcards, mail your offers. Edit: just wanted to add, look for books that teach you how to work with numbers and do quick calculations in your head. Different people have ways of explaining the simple concepts that will make sense to you.

Profit is not a four letter word, it is not a dirty word. Know your costs, as you are getting ready for tax season, this is an excellent time for you to review all your expenses and see where your money is going. Pay yourself first, if you are a smaller shop that has set a goal of a net $20K profit after taxes, open an account and begin depositing $500 a week. Don't touch this money unless you really have to. Once you have got used to it, you will see that if you stay the course you will be netting your profit, even after paying yourself a full salary. Make it a habit. Remember, don't buy yourself a job, own a business.

The way to avoid the roller-coaster of feast or famine is to stay the course and not to neglect your marketing as you get busy with work. Prioritize, schedule the work as efficiently as you can, visualize the jobs and try to anticipate any snags that may lock a car onto a lift. For example if a car is getting a water pump done, does it require a gasket? Small things that can snag your process can be prevented with a little thinking ahead. Keep making you calls, sending your post cards, mailing your offers.

Third week of 2017, this is the last week of the first month of Winter. Plan your week, make your calls, send your post cards, mail your offers. Stop by some of the local businesses and get a feel for the mood, but don't let negative and toxic people affect your perspective, take it with a grain of salt, stick to your plan and meet your goals!

Brilliant! Thank you, you made me laugh and cry at the same time! " When somebody says, “Sinchya got it in shop…” you break out in hives and your upper lip curls into an Elvis snarl." This is me down to a T!

So, it's the end of the second week. You should have 80 to 100 calls made, be it phone, post cards, what have you. As you can see, simple steps add up quick if you stay consistent.

As works is coming in make sure you don't drop the ball with your sales and maketing. If you want to avoid the seesaw of feast or famine you must stay consistent making your calls, sending your post cards, mailing your offers. That way you avoid the lag in sales if you get busy and neglect your marketing while you are busy delivering your work.

https://www.lojistic.com/pdf/UPS-Fedex-General-Price-Increase-History.pdf

In the shipping industry, UPS and FedEx consistently raise their prices every year, as you can see here: http://imgur.com/FPaQB3x http://imgur.com/FPaQB3x You should consistently review your costs and increase your prices to stay profitable every year, this should have been done last quarter, but there is no better time like the present if you haven't done so now.

Middle of the second week, we are in the first 1/3 of winter. Keep reaching out to people, make friendly calls, send post cards, mail offers. Keeping consistent is the name of the game. Sometime soon you will notice your mind and body want to divert, your mind tells you to keep the course and your body will want to put it off. It's then that discipline comes in handy, little disciplines and positive habits helps you keep the course.

Doing complementary work is not a problem, but it has to be understood that it is complementary and it does cost money as it draws from revenue generating time. I am 100% with you there.

They say that every 1,000 mile journey begins with the first step. Keep making your calls, sending your post cards, mailing your offers. Lead by example. Many junior managers suffer from Impostor Syndrome, that is to say, they may feel like a fraud or not qualified to lead in the position that they are in. You can search more on that on google for your own edification. Here is a link for reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome Anyways, the point is that Impostor Syndrome may prevent some of your junior people from pricing your jobs correctly, because it may lead them to under price your services. Address this, and teach them that value has to be delivered to the customer with certainty and confidence, otherwise the customer may fear he is overpaying for the service.

Stop subsidising other industries and charge your administrative fees! For example if you do towing and you have to write out a check to pay towing fees to other providers, charge an administrative fee. Data entry, getting all details correctly and chasing down paper costs money. We charge a $25 to $35 fee depending how much time the clerk has to spend working on the case. You should have a line on your billing system so your clerk automatically ads the admin fee when they process the payout to the other service provider.

Second week out of 52. Remeber tax season is just around the corner, the early filers should be getting their checks by February, if your shops are in a area that benefits from tax returns, you should be getting ready for the increase cash flow. Make your calls, send your post cards, mail your letters... Plan, plan, plan, execute, execute, execute!

Ok, end of the 1st week of 2017! You should have 40 plus sales calls made. One very important thing that we fail to notice is that there is a lag time between any campaign's execution and its results. For example, you run a billboard, it may take up to two weeks before you see your first lead from the date the billboard went up. The same with your sales calls, it may take a few weeks for you to begin to see results. Then there is the other side of the coin, a campaign that has been run for a while may grow stale and fail to produce satisfactory results. This is why it is important for you to keep track of your campaigns. You have to measure your results.

Set aside time to read and catch up on the latest industry news, always keep in mind the most valuable resource you have is your time. Having said that, Andy Fiffick has a nice article on the December 2016 edition of Motor Age concerning multi-shop ownership. Excellent points made regarding why there is more multi-shop ownership on the collision side of the industry than general repair. http://images2.advanstar.com/PixelMags/motor-age/digitaledition/12-2016.html#26

John, welcome to the forum! Great write up, hope to hear more from you going forward. -Harry