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They were calling me non stop for a while but after not being able to find any real info on them I took it as a red flag and asked to be taken off their call list. Surprisingly they haven't called back.

Hi Dave, welcome to the forums. You will find some great people and advice here.

Both of you make very good points. I also have another general question. On the Bay-master program there is an option of printing or not printing the labor rate on the invoices below the amount of hours charged. I currently have it set up to print the labor rate, should I turn this option off so that people don't get hung up on the actual number? I was thinking about this the other day but ended up undecided and left it alone. However I have had the opportunity to see invoices from a couple other shops locally and none of them print the labor rate.

It is a losing proposition all around. I can't beat the prices that Summit, Jegs, etc sell parts at. Add the fact that Summit has a store 30 minutes away. If I do get the performance parts and mark them up properly then either the customer doesn't say anything at the time but feels ripped off and doesn't come back (I have found this out doing my follow-up phone calls and letters) or they don't do the work at all when I tell them that if they bring their own parts and tie up my bay (when they didn't order something I need) they will get charged for stopping my production and I will be providing whatever parts are needed at my mark-up. It is not a winning combination at all.

Glad you brought that up. I haven't changed the name in here yet but I am now using Davis Performance LLC only as the legal name. All of my signage and my dba is Davis Auto Repair and performance (with the performance in smaller letters.) I really only kept the performance name in the dba since I had a lot of time and materials invested when the shop name was Davis Performance. This way it still shows up in an internet search for davis performance. However with the new name I am targeting the general repair population and letting them know that performance is not all that we do. I really play down the performance part, not even using it when talking to most customers or answering the phone. My original target customer was the muscle car crowd, and while a shop full of muscle is cool, it is also a pain to get parts for readily and usually they have multiple layers of hidden problems that are uncovered which makes the customer frustrated when I have to call them back multiple times for what started as a simple repair.

I agree. That is one thing I am looking into. I feel like almost every car there is some small part that we replace and don't charge for during the process of a repair or something takes considerably longer than expected due to a botched repair or some other damage beyond our control. I usually take the hit on these things but I am starting to see how everything piles up and leads to a disaster.

We don't charge for shop supplies Frank. I agree with hiring another guy and raising the rate for sure. Now that you mentioned it I am probably leaving a lot on the table by not charging for shop supplies. It all adds up for sure.

Our daily car count is very low and fluctuates wildly. We have some days when we get no new work and just work on our long term projects and other days when it is non-stop from open til close. Of course with only one helper and me that is still usually only 3-4 cars if they are straightforward repairs. We usually end up with bigger tickets such as 6-8 hours. We are not top of mind for people looking for maintenance but I am trying to change that image. The 55-65 hours is not billable hours it is just how long I am here weekly. As far as billable for example my tech turned out 26.7 hours last week. I know the number is low but he got everything done that there was to do. Our labor rate is $75 and he makes a flat rate of $25. Our average RO is a pretty consistent 5-600 on what does come in. Our rent is pretty high at 4000 but that is pretty much at the low end of the spectrum for this area in a visible location. My old location was 2500 and it was absolutely impossible to find without GPS (sometimes hard to find even then). I also have 2 more bays here. I did have to take on a significant amount of debt to get moved here, which really doesn't help matters.

I really appreciate everyone's advice and thoughts on this. I use Bay-Master for shop management software and have my parts matrix set up the same as a local Franchise shop that I happen to be good friends with the shop manager. It basically doubles everything except very low or high items which get marked up more and less respectively. I use Alldata as a labor guide. In the past I have compared it to Mitchell and found that though they were different usually they evened out, with one being higher on some jobs and lower on others. I currently have one tech and I run as a back up tech in case he is swamped. He is also off on Saturdays and comes in 1 hour later and leaves one hour earlier than I do (unless he has a job to finish up). I am also the only service writer and handle all estimates and customer service issues. I have debated hiring another tech (I have 6 bays with 2 lifts currently) and a service writer but I am worried about getting in over my head with payroll. Does anyone have any advice as to where this money would come from? Of course with this much help I would be out hitting the streets getting fleet accounts and handing out doughnuts, coffee and flyers to local businesses. Right now it seems like every time I step out to do this the shop gets overwhelmed with walk in customers, and lets just say my tech is not the most personable person in the world. He's not an a$% or anything he is just a bit awkward socially. Not a good first impression for a new walk in customer at all.

I have thought about raising the prices as well. I have started getting my wife and her friends to call around and get prices. So far I have found that I am about $25-$35 too low on my labor rate compared to other independents around me. I am at $75 an hour and they are finding $100-115 to be the norm which is really surprising to me. I thought those kind of prices were pretty much dealer only. But I can see how it would take that to cover all the overhead costs for sure.

Was just looking at SCORE. Wow, there is a world of help right there! Amazing.

I was looking into Elite and now knowing that Joe is affiliated adds a little more to the push towards them. I have never heard of a score chapter but will definitely check them out. Thanks. I feel like traffic is key right now. Thanks to both of you for your advice. It has helped me get a direction which is a great start.

I am in serious need of some help on the business side of running my shop. I have been a master technician for 18 years and can rebuild and diagnose most anything on most cars with my eyes closed. However that has NOT prepared me for the business side of running a shop. I am sure most of you have been where I am, I am not really able to pay myself at all, the shop related bills are piling up, the personal bills are piling up and I am overwhelmed. I have 1 technician currently and I am doing all the diagnostics and keeping up with any work that he cannot get done. I am here 55-65 hours a week (just figured that up the other day) and really don't have much to show for it other than a nice shop at a killer location. I spent a couple years at a terrible location which started the downward spiral and when the lease ran out there I was thrilled to get into my current location. I went from about 20 cars driving by a day to 65,000 driving by a day. I got great signage, cleaned up the shop (the previous tenant left it a MESS) and built a nice waiting area. I just started my lease in July and got up and running about mid-August. Considering I have only been here and working about 2 1/2 months, business isn't necessarily bad, but I would expect better with the large drive by number. So far I have sent out flyers through the post office every door direct mail which got a decent response, I got 3 customers so far from that and sent out 1400 flyers. I also sent out coupons in the Valpak which I have seen 2 of those customers so far. Both of these responses have been in the last couple of weeks. Every customer that comes in loves our family atmosphere and complete honesty. We provide a 33 point inspection with pricing and ask for the sale without being too pushy. I have 2 older children, a 5 month old and a wife to support. At this point I am questioning the intelligence of continuing down this road but I still believe that after the hard times and trials there will be a light at the end of the tunnel. I know I underestimated the difficulty of being a shop owner and have grown very much throughout this process. I am very interested in getting help from some programs that will help me push past this and become profitable. If anyone has any advice or preferences I am interested in hearing them. Thank you in advance for your knowledge.

Www.davis-performance.com

Xrac I got that font enlarged for you and everyone else. I asked godaddy if there was anything I could do about the color as well because that light gray definitely does not show up as well as I would like

Alex it turns out that I do have the SEO plan I just haven't been utilizing it as much as I should. I made some major changes today and submitted the site for a recrawl. I am hoping to get in th first page soon. Another thing someone here may know that I don't-When using the SEO tool it says I don't have any social media links in the site but I clearly do for both twitter and facebook. Why is this and is there something I should do about this? I don't want to miss out on some hits because of this.

Acworth is very close, depending on which part she is in it is about 5-10 miles from the shop. If she ever needs anything tell her to come by and we will take good care of her for you. I will get on and address the font size tomorrow, I also think that will help fill the pages out a bit more. Thank you

Great Advice from everyone!!!! Thank you guys a lot, I have made some changes on the site and tried to get into the backend but it is mainly locked. I am trying to get on the first page of the generic results and with everyone's advice I am getting closer, plus the site won't be a huge let-down once people decide to visit it. One last thing I have to do is change the pictures out, it is a gloomy day today so hopefully tomorrow will be sunny. I was able to stretch them to fill which is better but it cut the top and bottoms short.

Yes Alex it was the go daddy builder. Thanks for the advice about the tabs, that helps SEO right? I have been reading up on SEO and learning a decent amount. Some of it makes sense but most is over my head. I appreciate all the input so far, I will be making changes either tomorrow or Monday.

Thanks for the advice, I was wondering how to change that. The waiting area was a nightmare when we moved in, no wall separating it from the shop and greasy fingerprints all over the walls. Thank you very much for the compliment

I just launched a redesigned website for our shop. It was self made from a template. However I did add some of our own pics as well as some of our pricing to the menu items. I would love to get feedback from everyone to see what is good and what needs to change. I'm on a limited budget so a professional website is out of the question but I can make a lot of changes on my own. Thanks in advance!! www.davis-performance.com

Basically you take your own flyers, postcards, etc. to the post office and buy a route and every address on that route gets one of your pieces. They have all the info as far as how many houses and businesses are on each route. It is very reasonably priced (I am just north of Atlanta and can buy most routes for under $50) and the main hassle is getting the flyers printed. I do all of my own but you can also farm it out to companies like Vistaprint.

My location currently is not optimal at all. The only traffic is rushing to use this road as a shortcut and definitely not wanting to slow down and get repairs done. My customers that come in from marketing are VERY pleased with our service. Currently I have one tech and I have a tech and management background myself. I am the current service writer/ tech when needed. This building also doesn't have a very good waiting room, which when I leased the building I thought would be great because I didn't want a lot of waiting customers since I opened as a one man shop. However I have had a change of heart and want to provide a comfortable environment for my customers. So I am changing locations to be on a high traffic road with better accommodations. With that being said, my current thoughts are to sign a 3-5 year lease with option to buy so I can make sure I am happy with the building and location before committing to buy (as well as saving up for a down payment). I was wondering others opinions on this, would you rather lease or buy?

Also there is no contract with them. Their philosophy is they don't need them due their excellent service

I use flagship processing after doing research of my own and am EXTREMELY happy. I also fell for a few sales pitches and also signed a "quote" that turned out to be a contract. That was cost plus processing and if you do any research on them they use deceptive methods for everything they do. Thus president Phil would never even return my phone calls after numerous attempts. However I don't even consider other offers now and brag on flagship every chance I get.