alfredauto

We had a guy in a while back who wanted me to test drive his jeep wrangler at high speeds in the rain because he said "it wobbled so bad I thought I was going to roll it" Sorry man I like my head attached to my body we'll check it on the lift. Lol.

My basic oil change is $35 out the door, nobody complains. 80% of the time I ask if they want synthetic oil and they say yes. That's $55. Same work, more money. Air filter add $20. Cabin air add $35, new drain plug and gasket $11. Wipers add $24. I'm not a believer in offering cheap lof to get them in for an upsell. Monroe runs coupons for $19.99 lof and they close stores because of the bad reputation they get. When someone comes in for an oil change we do that service plus the basics listed above, and while we inspect every car I never push to get the additional work done the same day unless its an emergency.

We're closed the 24th and 25th, and again the 31st and Jan 1. I'm not open Saturdays so its a nice break for my tech. This week we are working overtime to get everything done.

Mine had battery issues since the first week. Put three in under warranty, then just gave up. Mine got left in a car and never returned, I replaced it with the Autel.

Some other ones are Guerilla marketing (there's a few, all are good), zig ziglar's "see you at the top", Carl Sewell's book is a quick read although I disagree with his slave labor tactics.

Non sales related books can definitely help you as well. I just finished "Zlata's Diary" about growing up in warzone Sarajevo in the 90's. It keeps things in perspective. No matter how stressful work is we still have electricity and running water and can walk down the street in relative safety.

I was a one man band, and followed all the traditional business advice and had 5 people on the payroll. Gross sales went way up, my stress level went through the roof, profits remained flat. I reverted back to one tech, and I'm much happier. With a full time tech that can also run the front we always have someone working on cars. If I'm at auction or on vacation someone is still working on cars, because fixing cars is what pays the bills. By myself I couldn't book 40 hours of labor without spending 80 hours at the shop. Half my time was answering the phone and selling the work, plus the other stuff that goes along with keeping the shop open. Made for a long week.

One good tech works perfect for me, we bill 60 hours a week and I'm physically there 50-60 hours. I can focus on fixing broken people, my guy fixes broken machines. And most importantly someone is always there to greet a customer. By myself if I had to go on a long test drive customers would be left with nobody there. Bad for business.

Www.alfredauto.com

Its the free site provided by iatn so I don't stress too much about how much income it generates. Honestly, after running an internet company for 10 years and spending $10,000+ and 100 hours a month on my old site I didn't want to have a website at all for my brick and mortar business but I don't like telling people "I don't have a website". Besides, google ad words have to point to something.

Repairpal was used for a little bit, and I have a ton of reviews on there, but I disagree with their business model so I stopped linking to it.

A don't mind people waiting, but I insist they stay in the waiting area/front desk area. Nobody waits in the shop. Its not negotiable. I have a keureg, magazines, books, WiFi, and a host of interesting and unusual things to keep them busy.

When new customers are waiting they are a little nervous, as soon as a regular drops a check and keys on the counter they loosen up. We're in a college town so many times a new student or intern will be waiting and their professor or boss will come in for service. Instant trust!

That all being said, my waiting room is for tires/oil/quick stuff and waiting for a ride. I discourage waiting for any job over 1 hour book time. Nobody complains when their tires are done in 20 minutes, but if they've only been sitting there 20 minutes and we put in 2 half shafts its tough to charge book time.

Ha! This is my world. 8 am I make a fresh coffee, grab my cordless, and start in on a job. 8:05 I'm looking for my coffee. 8:07 I'm looking for my phone. 8:10 looking for my coffee again. 8:30 my tech finished my job I started (meaning I pulled the car inside) 8:45 I can't find my flashlight, phone or coffee. 9 am customer throws away a cup he found in the parking lot and hands me a cordless handset. 5pm i see a dim light on under a car outside. Lol.

The main problem with free cel scans is it never takes "real quick" like the customer wants. The customer pops in "hey can you check my code real quick" meaning he wants his car fixed real cheap and real quick. I try to dispel that myth at the counter. When the customer has to commit 2 hours for an appointment and $100 money it eliminates the time stealers. If I'm swamped or grumpy I just send them to Autozone if they want a free scan with my business card - here ya go call me if you want an accurate diagnosis. Usually 4 o2 sensors and three backyard shops later they call.

I do make exceptions, sometimes I'll plug in my mini scanner and see if its an evap code or something more serious, but once again I'm not diagnosing a camshaft correlation code in the parking lot so its back to square one. The point of the free scan is to show the customer I'm not charging them $100 to scan the code, I'm charging them to diagnose the problem.

When a car comes in at 55,000 miles for an oil change suggest that next service is the 60k mile service and will take a few hours and consists of yada yada. This prepares the customer to schedule the appt. and doesn't tie you up doing a major uncheduled service. You could take their owners manual and show them what it says, and you have it open to sign off on the service they are in for. Customers usually really appreciate it. Dont skimp on the services, if the book time is 3 hours charge 3 hours.

Six Tires No Plan is pretty good. The founder of Discount Tire is now a billionaire by treating people right. I also recommend Les Schwab's book. Both are tire business related but the concepts carry over.

Waterhouse publishes some basic business skill books for Napa Autocare centers, see if you can hook up with some of the material. Its like business 101 for auto shops.

Those stats are frightening and exciting at the same time. Think of how many people will be upside down with their car loans in a few years. That's good news for us repair shops, but bad for the car dealers who no doubtedly will start pushing service to pay the bills. 84 month loan on a used car? Thats bonkers. Cars aren't that much better than they used to be.

If there's no money left and you don't know why, its time to track all expenditures. At first glance you might expect more than you have. Add up all the expenses, and I mean all of them. 3% for the credit card processor, 8% for the sales tax, 3% for unbilled shop supplies, 3% for shrink, 15% payroll tax, 3% for lunches, 1% for girl scout cookies, 2% for toilet paper and hand soap, it goes on and on.

So when your done you'll see at 50% gross profit (income minus parts billed) you are left with 50% to pay expenses. Take off the 40% of gross for the other expenses and you will fall in line with most businesses - 5-10% net. If you want to earn $50,000 for yourself you better be doing $500k a year gross sales with a tight grasp on the expenses.

Don't feel bad if you're in the dark, most business owners learn the hard way - just work and make money and feel good until you can't pay the bills. Get your spread sheet filled in, maybe 20 or 30 lines of expenses, and start trimming each line by 1% or half percent or whatever just trim the fat off.

Don't worry once you get in the habit of tracking all the money it becomes very easy to see what's left for you. I pay myself a salary and the rest stays in the business, but thats not the only way. I could just take a draw every week based on the weekly profit, but I'm not so good at budgeting with the feast/famine routine.

I just finished my quarterly review, OUCH! Our shop was down between 8-15% per month Sept, Oct, and November. August was a fail. FOUR IN A ROW. Part of the problem is last year we had the best year ever. Unbelievable numbers last fall, as in 50% increase over 2013. Stupid growth. The good news is the shop is up 18% overall over last year and ARO profit is up without including December 2015 so unless something really bad happens this month we beat the yearly goal. I just get worried about trends, downward is the wrong way.

I just finished my quarterly review, OUCH! Our shop was down between 8-15% per month Sept, Oct, and November. August was a fail. FOUR IN A ROW. Part of the problem is last year we had the best year ever. Unbelievable numbers last fall, as in 50% increase over 2013. Stupid growth. The good news is the shop is up 18% overall over last year and ARO profit is up without including December 2015 so unless something really bad happens this month we beat the yearly goal. I just get worried about trends, downward is the wrong way.

I just finished my quarterly review, OUCH! Our shop was down between 8-15% per month Sept, Oct, and November. August was a fail. FOUR IN A ROW. Part of the problem is last year we had the best year ever. Unbelievable numbers last fall, as in 50% increase over 2013. Stupid growth. The good news is the shop is up 18% overall over last year and ARO profit is up without including December 2015 so unless something really bad happens this month we beat the yearly goal. I just get worried about trends, downward is the wrong way.

I've seen that on too many cars, one guy just about wrecked his car. The pads contacted each other at the top after a few months and put zero pressure on the rotor. 285mm vs 315mm rotor, ahhh who cares just give me the cheaper ones. Lol

Great story! I think we've all been there. "Put all new brakes on, they sound terrible" 15 minutes in we realize the car needs absolutely nothing except a new anti rattle clip. $35.00 on that home run. Ugh. Another nice guy eating Ramen noodles.

I can relate with Jeff, as a teenager I would swap intakes and camshafts in my 69 Malibu just for something to do. Engine and tranny came out together with a come along chained to a tree. Blow a motor, no sweat, just buy another junkyard 283/307/327/350/400 bolt on my headers and intake and shove it back in. My Malibu had no a/c, no power steering, no power brakes, no nothing but a pcv valve. I think there was like 10 fuses in the whole car. The most complicated item was the points which I eliminated with a HEI. It wasn't rocket science to fix the thing.

I'm running a Hunter D111 on the Hunter scissor lift now. I changed the heads and cables a few years back, and besides the fact the spec card goes up to 2003 it works very well! If I get a new alignment computer I'm getting a new lift, this unit is almost 30 years old.

Average RO for alignments is high, like CHG posted just about every "alignment" appointment ends up with tires and/or suspension parts. Nobody brings in cars for alignments that go straight and smooth, at least in my area.

I used to send fruit baskets to my best customers. They stopped coming in as frequently so I suspended the practice. I assume they thought if the mechanic is sending gifts they might have overpaid for the service. Just an assumption, but there was a definite correlation between me sending a gift and a drop in YTD revenue. I notice now my best customers send me gifts, that's better - I don't mind thinking they are wealthy.

How's your YTD sales? How are your competitors doing? I have a system that has been proven to work, so I just keep with it. We market to upper scale individuals. If my competitors are thriving while I'm starving I need to change me. If we are all struggling so sad for us, I can't fix the economy.

My point is there isn't much any of us can do to sell services to people with no money. Market to people with income to spend, forget about the Walmart shoppers. You aren't getting their black Friday money.

I use a tiny autel al319 for quick scans and obd readiness. Its fast and costs $50. 4 steps to success: Scan, identifix, diag with scope or multimeter, done.

I also have an autel maxisys ms908 pro when bi directional controls are needed, it works great on euro cars and mostly everything actually.

That's it for me, I agree the factory tools are the best but for $3500 (or less on amazon) the ms908 does 85% of $150,000 worth of factory tools.

Keep in mind I'm not an hourly employee and I'm not new to the drivability game. I don't get paid to study a whole list of pids to fix a clogged egr port or rusted evap solenoid. Like I said get the code and physically check the part. Any scanner can give you fuel trim, maf, CTS, ect it's not that complicated.

I haven't replaced the batteries in mine. I also have an allstart boost mini unit, it starts dead cars too, but the cable gets red hot. I mostly use it to charge my phone and tablet. Its bizarre how the little unit can start a car, it weighs 8oz.

Also, correction the red unit is a jnc950