mccannable

All good info. Thanks for the advise. Guess if we can squeeze a few extra bucks out of nothing it's worth it.

Now we have opened our doors we are starting to collect old parts off cars that do not go back as cores. As most customers don't want their parts back what's the best method of disposal? If we trash them the scrapers/dumpster divers take them. Is it worth the trouble to try to take them in for scrap?

People who cannot afford or will not afford expensive repairs should not buy BMWs or Mercedes.

Problem is used "luxury" cars are inexpensive to purchase.

Our first organic customer had an e46 330i and stopped because I had mine parked out front. He had terrible headlights because the projector bowl was bad. I found a repair kit online and quoted him a quarter of the cost to repair than replace like the other shops wanted to do. He was still shocked and asked of we could just wrap then bowl in aluminum foil instead. Good news is all the other customers have been great so far.

I love that response.

Hit the marketing hard, focus on customer service! Good luck!!!

My two favorite things to do. Thanks.

I went from a dream 2 years ago to opening our doors today. This site has been a tremendous resource and Joe's articles have opened my eyes to many issues I would not have foreseen.

Today was just our soft opening but it went better than expected. I have a huge amount of respect for owner/operators with out any employees. We have our tech, shop manager(my partner), and myself(mainly absentee owner). It was a huge learning day with new software(garage partner pro and all data). We had 5 cars 2 being organic and 3 friends and family. We have a timing belt job we are quoting tomorrow as well.

The last 3 weeks we spent cleaning, painting, and remodeling the shop from the previous owner who did not do any of those for 10 years.

We have had a lot of success from handing out flyers to our neighbors in the many industrial parks around us.

here are some before pictures of the shop

after

Sounds like you have a lot of potential there. I'm sure the changes will be questioned by the emploees so make sure to keep them in mind and let them know your goals.

X charger here too. Just started but they work with our software and have great pre negotiated rates. We get 5 calls a day for merchant services sales people.

There is a sub reddit that has a lot of these stories.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Justrolledintotheshop/

After searching it appears you can get custom printed carbon forms. That's what I will end up doing. Just search "carbon copy printing".

I am interested as well, although I have yet to search.

Do you do tires? I'm debating on the necessity of this tool for our shop.

I met with the rep for the Autel and a few other items. I am pretty much sold on the scanner but I cant get it out of my head that its about $200 cheaper online. I am going to call autel's us number tomorrow to see if the support is the same. They also are giving away their TPMS tool with the DS708.

I am in mid start up(soft open later this month and grand opening early feb) and have spend two years living very tightly to save for this. I have also taken out a small(18k) personal loan as emergency back up. I have no plans on touching that money unless things go bad quickly. There are government backed micro loans, under 25k, but are difficult to get to my understanding. I would get in touch with your local SBA office and talk to them.

Did a phone interview today with the only out of state guy that peaked my interest and we can't afford him so it seems like a non issue(I can't imagine many places in florida paying near what he says he currently makes, but I have been wrong)

1. We saw a lot of opportunity for better quality customer relations with many of the shop in our town. Our internal motto has always been "we are the chic-fil-a of auto repair"(without any political/religious undertones) i.e. we will provide a consistent and positive experiences to every customer.

2. We open or doors officially later this month. We plan on heavy advertising(local papers, facebook (paid adverts), and mailers(cheap to do on rural routes) and branding. We have a high traffic location with plenty of road frontage.

3. I have wanted to step out of the corporate world for most of my short life but could not take a pay break from what I make now to starting a business. I finally found a partner I can say I trust. 2 years ago we starting the vision. We have been planning, working with our mentors, studying and trying to plan and learn for every possible scenario. This month it goes into action and we feel very well prepared.

From a business start up prospective: I went back to school to learn accounting and take small business classes. I read plenty of books including the famous "E-Myth". We worked with monthly action plans to keep us on target. We have a great mentor that runs a very successful(1.3mil) shop and if we succeed he will get most of the credit. And I saved like mad.

I may not be the best story because we haven't proven ourselves yet but failure is not an option for us.

People Always want to move to Florida

We are opening later this month and our mechanic backed out. Many of the interested applicants have been from out of state. I am hesitant to even consider hiring out of state but am not finding anyone qualified near by. Any advice is always appreciated.

Thank you good sir. He will be getting a call.

Central fl (34748)

How do you recommend we go about contacting the regional account manager? I assume you already had a relationship. I see autozone is a distributor for them as well. I am very interested and would love to try before we buy and buy locally if possible and affordable.

So advanced is a dealer for them? I'm very interested in these.

and I explained to him that while no one can predict the future, the only way to insure that you will decrease the odds of a major failure is through preventive maintenance.

 

Very powerful words.

Thanks for all the info. I had to have a FL agent as most major companies do not write for FL(seems to be a trend). Turns out getting coverage for a new venture is much more difficult than expected but I have learned alot in the process and have finally started finding companies to work with us. Turns out I way over budged for insurance and have been happy with the info so far. I have yet to purchase(waiting on a few more) so hopefully its smooth from here.