mmotley

you should be able to google traffic count maps for your area, also income level maps. http://www.city-data.com/ is good for income maps

In my experience, take whatever rough ball-park figure you have in the beginning and double it. That's how mine went. Folks tend to overlook how much goes into starting a shop. Just the small, miscellaneous stuff (lug nuts, valve stem caps, drain plug gaskets, additional shelving and storage, etc.) can nickel and dime you to death. A lot also depends on your business model. If your looking to open up shop in a high rent part of town, you're probably gonna need loans unless a family member has a few oil wells. If your opening up a one man shop in a poorer part of town, maybe not. Also going to depend on how well you advertise when you open. If you do a soft open mccannable, you might just be breaking even the first few months (that might mean no personal income). If you do a massive mail out campaign (5000+ mail outs), radio ads, facebook and google ads, newspapers, and phone books a few weeks before you open... you will probably have the phone ringing off the hook and people showing up from day one... But all that advertising is going to cost money... There are so many variables, it's tough to give advice without more detail from you. I started off with funding from my Dad and personal savings. I got completely debt free and saved quite a bit before I jumped ship into self employment. It should be known that my Dad is nowhere near rich/wealthy, and I bought well over half of my shop equipment used on craigslist from other shops going out of business (how depressing that was a times). I've rented a crappy, non-insulated metal building, 40'X100'. It has 1 big bay door on the end, and a smaller bay door on the other end. I'm in the poorer part of town, and it sucks but workable. It has allowed me to open shop and learn by the seat of my pants, and not go broke doing it. Now that I've been open for 6 months, hired a part time employee, bought another lift, and learned how to advertise, I'm now talking with the bank about a loan to build my own shop in a nice part of town. Doing it this way allows me to go into the bank with numbers showing business increasing, along with other figures I've got since I opened. By no means am I saying this way is the best, just giving you my story. Hope this helps some. Edit: I also had no management experience, parts department experience, or service writer experience before, so I felt I would have had a tough time getting a loan with nothing but mechanical experience. Now that I know industry figures and averages, combined with reading some business management books/free online classes, I'm better situated to manage a shop and can bring that experience into the bank when it's time to get the loan.

I use a slideshow on my TV to show the different products/services we offer. In effect, this is one advertisement piece, however it changes every 10 seconds to show another service or product. Has been invaluable in adding on sales to tickets.

Might look into carpet tiles... They offer some great design and you can replace just 1 piece if needed.

I seriously wouldn't sweat the whole thing. Based on the fact that these people left the car for 4 years, I doubt they will really pursue it... IT TOOK THEM 4 YEARS TO FOLLOW UP WITH YOU ON THE CAR!!!!! Now all of the sudden, they are going to get serious about it??? I wouldn't loose any sleep over it.

HAHA, I knew this was gonna be a good one before I even opened it. As far as actually contributing to this thread or offering any good advice, I'm not sure I'll be any help. I'm interested to see what others have to say. Surely someone here knows the legality of the situation, but it may be on of those things where it is different from state to state. If nothing else, you could just play dumb. "What car are you talking about? I don't remember any of that!"... Might sound rude, but like you said, how would he like it if you left your car at his place for 4 years...

A lot of this depends on what size shop you are running. Pick up and delivery still seems cheaper to me vs. a shuttle. Plus, the hardest part is getting customers in the door. Pick up and delivery eliminates that. I give the loaner out to folks who are usually doing something bigger than a regular service, but it's really a case by case type thing. If it's a really slow day and someone wants to drop their car off for an oil change and tire rotation on their lunch break, I'll give em the car so they can go eat somewhere. If I know a car is coming in for a timing belt, water pump, valve over gaskets, brake job, and 90K later, I'll hold the loan car for that customer. Again, more I think about it, the more loan cars and PU and delivery services leave more decisions up to you. You can decide when to loan out the car and when to hold it. You can decide when/if you can PU and Deliver a car or not. Shuttle leaves you at the mercy of whenever a customer shows up (granted, there are ways around this too). Maintenance on loan car is pretty cheap... After all, you do own an auto repair business. Insurance is cheap (going to depend on what your loan car is though (2013corvette vs 1992 cavalier))

I have 1 loan car right now. I can't count how many jobs I've sold when I mention 'free loan car'. I've never really considered a shuttle, but I have been toying with the idea of a 'pick up and delivery' service. Pick up and delivery service would go well with free loan cars, but like Joe said, you are walking the line of Nordstrom and Neimen Marcus at that point. Now that I think about it, pick up and delivery should definitely be offered! It doesn't require any investment up front. You have to buy a loan car, you have to have a shuttle vehicle, but you and a service writer, service writer and tech, 2 techs, or whoever can go pick up the customers car from their work/home and then return it when done. Just my thoughts...

I actually just download some additional software today from Mitchell 1 that has the ability to print out MP inspection sheets. I think it's a great extra reminder to look the car over. I can't tell you how many cars I've checked over, and when they leave, I realize I forgot to check the wipers... Or some other little small thing that I should have remember to do. I doubt I'll do carbon copies, I'll probably just give the inspection sheet to the customer with their invoice. We already provide tire and brake measurements, battery test results, and state inspection due date on the invoice, and all of that is saved in the computer on the RO. Anything else we find gets a revision or estimate made for the repair and is saved to that vehicle. So keeping a copy of the inspection sheet for me doesn't seem necessary. The form that comes with the software is completely customize-able. It can have all the customer and vehicle info pre-printed on the sheet, along with vehicle brand logo, green, yellow, red, black, wipers, tires, brakes, body, etc I also see that it works with a few other shop management programs too. Here is a link to their site: http://www.boltontechnology.com/report_pro.html As far as liability, no way. Nobody can predict the future, that inspection sheet simply says that at the time the vehicle was in your shop, it was good to go (or not if you mark it accordingly).

Lexus, Toyota, Honda, Infiniti, Nissan, Hyundai, Kia, Subaru, and Mazda are just a few I've found to have these. I wouldn't be surprised if I'm missing a few though.

Length of time for test drive will be dictated by what kind of problem the car is having, and the technician. If the technician is out joy riding, that's a different story. Do not drive if the car is not legal. In some areas, the car will be impounded, no questions asked, if the car is not insured and/or registered.

Let the private insurance company operate how they want. Just like any shop owner has the right to refuse to work on certain cars or refuse to use certain parts. You can also refuse to work on cars that fall into this situation. Just like John Eaves did, the guy heading up the lawsuit. To quote John Eaves from the article "Shops have ongoing business relationships, and this program is designed to destroy them. And that’s against the law.” No, it is not against the law. It is perfectly understandable from the insurance companies perspective to dictate what parts you can and can't use to repair cars under their policy. This sounds a lot like aftermarket extended warranties, which everyone here seems to dislike (for the most part), but nobody is heading up a lawsuit against them. If the program was as terrible as Eaves makes it out to be, I would think there would be more pushback from other shop owners, and State Farm would drop the whole idea.

I agree with Joe about technicians not being able to pick their work. Your foreman would probably be best to dispatch work. Have him communicate with the service advisors and technicians and dispatch accordingly. Also consider sending your technicians on the test drives instead of the foreman. The foreman should pick who should go on the test drive, and whoever does go on the test drive needs to be the one fixing the car... That's kind of the whole point of going on a test drive, so you can hear the noise/feel the vibration/whatever that the customer wants fixed. Doesn't do any good if the foreman goes on the test drive, then gives the job to someone who hasn't heard/felt the complaint.

Dustin, would you mind sharing how much the upfront costs were for a set of uniforms like you described?

Are you technicians paid salary, commission, or what?

It's all in how you sell it. Advise the customers to go with the better parts. Give them the option with a fair warning that they might end up making 2-3 trips back to your shop to finally get it fixed right.

Slave driver here, so we will be open... Granted I only have 1 part time employee..

What brand do you use and why? Who is your supplier? What type of warranty, if any, do you offer? Do you keep them in stock? *How do you handle some of the newer style wiper blades that come on cars? I've seen some that cost $45+ from the dealership (per side!). All because they have some shield built onto them e.g.

I'm still a one man show, but you can find just about any uniform online. Shirts for under $20, pants for under $20 (or just use Dickies from Wal-Mart). I wouldn't think it would be to difficult to do the laundry in house. Reminds me of high-school football and how they did laundry with practice uniforms and such. I would think you could do the same, maybe with a cheap, used washer and dryer. Or you could just leave it up to your employees to take care of their own laundry. It's not hard to explain in the hiring process that your pet-peeve is cleanliness and appearance. Explain they get 1 warning and after that, they are sent home for the day. 3rd time is 3 day suspension. ***If you go the route of stressing the importance of looking professional and sending guys home for looking like crap, be ready to actually call some of your technicians up front from time to time and have them speak/work with customers. This will reinforce why they need to look sharp, other than you just being a hard@$$

I could forward you my agents information if that would help any. Shoot me a PM if your interested

Installed a steering rack from Worldpac on a Toyota Avalon last week. It was not an OEM brand, it was aftermarket. New, not a rebuilt. After the rack was installed and aligned, the steering effort was noticeably more than before. I explained to the customer it might be just that the rack is new and needs to break-in, and that the old rack was old, worn out, and leaking. In the back of my mind though, I couldn't help but think I wouldn't have encountered this problem if I had used an OEM part. I know it's not a 'Tough One' brand like you mentioned, but I'm finding out aftermarket parts are starting to be more and more a gamble. Like you said, they can reimburse you for the labor all day long, but that doesn't keep you from looking like a jack@$$ when a customer has to come back for the 2nd or 3rd time.

BAIT AND SWITCH!!!! HAHAHA, I kid, I kid... kinda Give them a 'best case scenario' quote. I feel I run an honest business, but if a customer is calling and price shopping, you know they are looking for the 'best' price. So I give them a 'best case' price. e.g.: 'How much to replace an oxygen sensor?' '$xxx.xx, but I might be able just to repair the wire to it and save you a bunch of money! Or it could be a fuse! Bring it in and I'll see if I can just solder the wires back together.' 'How much to replace my leaking steering rack?' '$XXX.XX, but I might be able just to replace the boot for a lot less, and it would be a lot quicker too. Bring it by later today and we'll see what we can do.' Once it's in your shop and on the rack, then sell your value. Walk them out under the car, show them the leak, the broken wire, the bent exhaust, coolant hose swelling, etc. Then show em your certifications on the wall, butter em up with how you only work on BMWs or whatever, your an expert, a professional, yes ma'am, no sir, please and thank you, and here is some free coffee, etc. After that, mention anything else you find on the car, because your a BMW expert and know what to look for on these cars. But, you can have it fixed in no time, because your a BMW expert and know these cars like the back of your hand. You might even have the parts in stock, because you specialize in BMW, and that's all you do. I think you get the point. If nothing else, you get added traffic into your shop, customer information for future advertising, and it could all turn into a lot bigger job than you think. If nothing else, at least you're not having to tell a potential future customer 'no, we don't do that' right off the bat.

Absolutely great story! Being a new shop myself, I often find myself wanting just to make the sale, only to realize I sometimes end up barely making enough to profit to justify the work. Then you find out late that you just price matched 'John Shade-tree' down the road! Couldn't agree more. I'm in a similar boat, specializing in certain vehicles. I find some of my customer's would rather get everything done in one place, at one time, instead of price shopping and driving all around for the lowest prices. Also, the peace of mind they get from having someone who knows their make/model of vehicle like the back of their hand is an added bonus.

I wen't out and bought a car. It was a car on a used car lot. I was out handing business cards and the salesman said they had a car in the back that would barely run, but the interior and body was in great shape. I took a look at it, and saw the repairs that were necessary were mostly labor intensive. I bought it for under 2 grand, spent a weekend on it, and now I have a loan car. I get a copy of driver's license, insurance, and have them sign a little loan car form I typed up 'will not smoke, responsible for damage, etc'. I loan it out to cars that are having a lot of work done, or spending a lot of money at least. Can't tell ya how many t-belts and water pumps I've done because I have a free loan car.

Since I'm a one man shop right now, and not exactly super busy, I'll reference my dealership days. A roll would last 3 guys roughly a month. It depends a lot on how frugal you and your guys are. If you use a clean one to wipe some mustard from your mouth after eating, then trash it, they obviously will go quick. One towel will usually make a few oil changes for me (wipe off the drain plug, brake clean any oil dripping from the filter and wipe, wipe off hands). If your smart with them, they will last a while. They are pretty strong too for a paper towel! If it helps any, guys at the dealership would replace a roll 'early' so they could take what was left of the old roll home with them. Not many products get my endorsement, but these things are great! I would bet money that whoever gives them a try, will have nothing but good things to say about them. They work great for cleaning glass, seats, engines... no streaks, doesn't leave fuzz behind Ok, I'll stop raving about them now. Try a roll!