bstewart

I've heard nothing but good things about TABS everywhere I look. I've heard good things about Maxxtraxx as well. Unfortunately I asked Mike Risich from Bolt On Technology if they had planned to ever integrate with TABS, and he said no. To me that's pretty much a deal breaker, as Bolt On Tech is 100% part of my future plans.

Hmm something doesn't add up here...? Please do explain, Alfred!

You'll find this in a lot of places around the world. The whole idea of always being in a rush for everything is mainly a North American idea. What we would call being 1-3 hours late is actually "on time" for many cultures around the world. In a lot of places, showing up for dinner at 5 can mean showing up any time between 6 and 9, and it's totally OK with the hosts because of a far more relaxed attitude. In North America, we place so much structure around time that in many cases, being "on time" is actually viewed as being late in some people's eyes, because they always show up EARLY for everything.

I read somewhere that one of the best ways to "have your cake and eat it too" is: Don't turn away any "non-preferred" brands (unless you're too busy doing "preferred" work or you aren't up to the task, like diagnosing without proper scan tools etc) BUT have only the "preferred" brand vehicles out front of your shop. Park all the off brand vehicles around the back or on the side, and have only the preferred makes of vehicles where the passing vehicles can see them. The reality is, turning away profitable work is just bad business. You can however, start training your prospective customers about the types of vehicles you would prefer to work on. Always take care of your current good customers, even if they have non-preferred brands. It costs way more to gain a new customer then to keep a current one.

I'm rather impressed that you can make a living doing only megasquirt stuff. Most performance guys are hardcore DIY types (aka really cheap when it comes to paying for labour). Is there a large racing market in your area?

Every time I hear you folks from the US talk about wages, they make me shudder. I know the cost of living is about 10% higher here in Canada, but the numbers stated here are terrible. How can any shop owner dream of attracting any kind of top talent with wages in the $17-21/hr range? Look at any other professional trade in your area: electrician, plumber, bricklayer, pipefitter, power lineman etc. I GUARANTEE they are paying their guys MUCH more then $17-21/hr, probably $28-32+/hr. How can you compete with that? Plus, you said it yourself that tools cost so much in this trade. So how can a shop owner expect to attract and retain top techs by paying them far less, when they have MORE expenses and ongoing training? Where I'm from, you're hard pressed to find a shop rate lower then $100, which translates to tech wages around $30-35+/hr. This is comparable to most other trades which pay around the mid $30's.

It looks amazing. When I get my shop, that's one of the first things I have planned to do. The surgical clean look goes a long way to rid yourself of the "grease monkey" mindset of some customers. Plus, a bright work environment is great for your morale, employee happiness and productivity. We don't employ grease monkeys or mechanics anymore, they are highly trained Auto Service Techs! Don't ever forget that!

Mspec, take a look at that 3rd link I posted (the pdf document). Towards the end, it shows you a few pay plans for service advisors, including one similar to the one you're referring to. It also says that your SAs should have team incentives along with individual incentives (just like your techs should) to foster a team mentality. It also shows a good method to calculate your "nut" aka your breakeven point to pay for profit rather then gross. **One small mistake in the document, the SA bonus values should be doubled or the math doesn't add up - $200/400/600 instead of $100/200/300. You'll see what I mean**

One rule of thumb I found was to pay 8% of gross on a good service advisor. (once all salary/hourly + bonuses are factored in) There are practically unlimited ways to incentivize their work, and simply based off gross generally isn't the best (they can get into a needless upsell mentality) Remember, a good service advisor should MAKE you money, not COST you money, same goes for good techs. You should have a plan in place to track how much is being sold now (presumably by you doing the SA duties) and track how much is sold by your new SA. A good well trained SA should be able to sell more then you as the owner since you also have to do other owner stuff on top of advising amongst other reasons. http://www.motor.com/article.asp?article_ID=438 http://www.shopownermag.com/service-adviser-pay-program-tips-work/ http://www.nmeda.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/pbt-11-2013-Effective-Pay-Plans.pdf

He's asking the following: If your highest tech is paid $30/hr, and your posted rate is $100/hr, you're making 70% GP on labour. Now when you estimate jobs, you multiply the labour guide hours by 1.33, essentially charging $133/hr on the labour guide's hours. This is now 77.5% GP on labour vs the industry standard 70%. If your customers are willing to pay this, great! However, compared to other shops your estimates will end up being very high, especially on long/labour intensive jobs. Have you reduced your original 70% GP to compensate for this (maybe posting $80 or $90/hr on a $30 labour rate) so your estimates aren't really high? Like mspec, I also like the idea of using a multiplier on the labour guide, but I feel that 10-15% might be a lot more reasonable to keep your estimates within range of other shops instead of 33%?

http://www.autoshopowner.com/topic/9322-meeting-with-owner-about-to-buy-his-shop/#entry19077 Look at post #14 by myself, I've posted several formulae for calculating a reasonable value of a small business.

I'd be contacting Mike Risich with Bolt On about this. He might post on here as well, but it could take longer.

I'd like to read that letter if possible. Care to release it on here?

Run the numbers: $500 tires @ 20% GP = $100 profit 4 LOF @ $10 GP = $40 $100 alignment @ 60% GP = $60 1.5 week total = ~$200 profit + potential new customers 52 week total = ~$6933 profit + potential new customers Total payoff time at this rate on 30k = 4.33 years, payoff on 40k = 5.77 years. All in all, not a terrible investment, especially if it's in the lower end of the 30-40k scale. A 5 year payoff on new equipment is a reasonable timeframe.

I run a catch can on my personal truck, 2010 Sierra 5.3L. Those gen 4 GM engines are known oil consumers, the AFM and PCV systems get oil into the intake. Any catch can will catch some oil, but ALL of the cheap ones you find on eBay etc will catch less then 20% of the oil that passes through unfortunately. Most of the cheap catch cans (and some expensive ones) are basically an empty beer can with 2 tubes sticking out, the good ones have way more technology involved. A good (re: expensive) catch can will catch upwards of 95% of the oil that passes through by the use of multiple chambers, screens and valves. If you're not paying $100+ for your catch can, it's probably junk. And yes, I did a lot of research before I bought mine. Something to think about: Every heavy duty semi truck on the road has some form of oil separator in the crankcase ventilation system. Why don't passenger cars?

I've heard really good things about the Mopar top end cleaner. It is a aerosol foam spray that does the same job as carb cleaner, seafoam etc, minus the liquid going into the cylinders. As you spray it in, the foam expands to fill the whole plenum then dissolves all the carbon. Apparently it's the same formula/MSDS as Wynn top end cleaner, except it's in foam form, where Wynn's is a liquid.

Not sure if it will help you, but here is an article about a 3.5 million/year shop in one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Baltimore. Maybe you can glean a couple of ideas from it. http://www.ratchetandwrench.com/RatchetWrench/January-2015/Implementing-In-House-Financing/

How much did you increase your prices, and in what time span? Are you charging fair rates for the level of service you provide (like a dumpy shop charging $90/hr vs a nice shop charging the same)? Also, do you do follow up calls to your recent customers to ask them about their experience? How about follow up calls to your "regular" customers that you don't see anymore? Maybe that will shed some light on the situation? Increasing ARO and decreasing car count will generally lead you to higher profitability, as long as you are still filling the bays. If car count has dropped so much that your techs are not working all day, then you have problems.

This website has a blog feature, but I have no idea how feature rich it is, or whether it will suit your needs. I, for one, am very excited to see what you put in writing. I'm hoping to go through a similar situation soon, and will definitely be watching to see what seemingly-inevitable problems I can hope or plan to avoid.

I think alfredauto has done used sales in the past, maybe he'll chime in.

I've also seen 8% of sales should be a target for service advisor pay. Knowing that a high quality SA can effectively sell and manage $3000 of work per day (about 16 hours labour plus associated parts), that equals a theoretical max of $750k per year per SA. 8% of 750k is $60k for a high quality SA.

What am I not understanding? You replaced the belt, why are they off the hook?

It's a completely different business model. Less time per RO, lower trained/paid techs, lower overhead (way less tools etc), and upsell upsell upsell ("can we change your air filter?" doesn't matter if it's 3 months old). Anything that's quick for a buck in that line of work. Oil changes are a loss leader at many general repair shops, some shops do well with it (good inspections are key), others not so much.

Did you see increases in your ARO, hours/RO, productivity, efficiency etc? How is the ROI on the investment per month/year (with dollar figures preferably lol)?

Sounds a lot like gmpartsdirect.com except they are located outside of North America.