mccannable

After further reading into the docs all that bid were selected and their rates still are high. We missed that one.

My county has a website where approved vendors can bid. I just missed the opportunity to bid for my currenty county. It actually seems easy to do. I will register and keep an eye out for future bids

Thanks joe

You called the local office?

Search wouldnt let me search for three letters, sorry if an old topic. I have spent time online researching and have found little. What's the process for getting approved and does it add any business?

I will try the logo banners. We are an hour from the closet dealer for the flags I'm ordering. As long as theu start with a cease and desist first I am fine.

Is there legal issues as advertising ourselves as "BMW Specialist" using the BMW logo on the banner? This is just an example, looking to purchase some feather banners but the local sign guy said we cannot use them, not he cannot print them...

We have visited about every small private company in our town for fleet service and have had some success. The local government(law enforcement, mail service, city trucks) has a lot of vehicles that I cannot image are all serviced in house. I don't expect it to be easy to win some accounts but does anyone have any experience dealing in these accounts?

Agreed on making a mistake dealing with these guys. We are working on severing our ties and then banning them from our property so they don't try to bill us for other services.

We own our parts washer and the Safety Kleen guys kept coming by trying to sell us fluid so we had them fill it for us. 3 months later they come in and change the fluid without authorization and bill us. The fluid was barely used and we in no way needed it changed. We call and tell them and after finally convincing them we own the machine (not lease from them) they agree to remove the bill as it was unauthorized and we had no contract. Fast forward a few months and they are still billing us for that service. We call again and finally convince them for a second time we own the machine and they agree to drop the bill... today the driver comes by and says we are "leasing the fluid" and have to continue with regular services and the bill stands.

Has anyone else had this issue? I don't mind paying for services when needed but I am not for getting strong armed into paying these guys. If we don't pay the bill the will send us to collection and hurt our credit unless we fight it and spend more money. Any advice?

I think these types of funding work if you have a large built in audience like family that donates. The successful campaigns come from kick starter with revolutionary (of sorts) projects.

My intro to busiess professor always said the customer is rarely right. You can't win them all

Just to runs spaced 60 days apart with 5000 each drop. Got a very small return. Only about 8-10 unique calls and a few small sales. In a town of 20k with two drops of 5k I would expect a bit larger of a return.

3% max $30. Just started but wish we did earlier.

In florida most big name companies don't write policies for most things. We use AutoOwners an A++. We were fortunate to get approved as having no previous experience. They used our techs resume as our experience.

No one beats our prices on radiator gaskets so we always quote them over the phone.

I have 2 million because it was only $10/year more than 1 million. My lease requires 1 million.

I agree strongly. Same with customers.

It re affirmed my beliefs that many people had look down upon. Many have said "you cannot be successful owning a repair shop unless you are a mechanic"

Now in their defense I'm not successful yet, but working hard towards it.

E-myth is great

Anyone take deposits on "special orders". We have started on some customers on items that aren't available same day as a way to secure customer. If you read my other thread we have a lot of no shows and we end up returning lots of parts we have ordered. Now there is no cost to is to return but we the loss in sale is the issue. So far it's been working well.

Well to further report this month has been a complete 180. If things persist it may be our best month. It's crazy how it just dropped dead for 45 days. I just sent my accountant our sales tax info for last month and it was truly sad to remind myself. But I believe we have ready doubled our gross profit mtd in July vs entire month of June.

We only have our lead tech that handles real repairs but maintenance,brakes,oil changes, ect are done by my partner. We have yet had to schedule many jobs due to our schedule. Most of our jobs are smaller(not many major jobs yet) so that hasn't been an issue.

Plus I'm there a few days a week helping with everything in between.

Thanks for all the feedback. We had a bad time for abit there. Thing seem to be on the upswing for now.

Techs are normally paid flat rate or salary/hourly. Flat rate is a per book hour rate similar to commission.

Pay yourself? Talk to your accountant. Depends on the type of entity you establish.

Shop software, I use garage partner pro. It's cheap and decent, but I haven't used others.

Insurance... May be a fun one it was difficulty for me to get with no ownership previously. We have general liability, personal property, and garage keepers.

Good luck.