slowtech

First of all , there is no such thing as customer base in only 6 months. Assume these customers are giving you a test drive. The 90% no shows are probably shoppers also on the test drive. By how you are marketing you are casting a wide net. You can only count on a few good fish at a time. Loyal customers take time to build. A lot of time.

Limit techs to 1 at a time on tool truck. Add a half hour to tool day. Pay flat rate. Fire the techs and get ones that don't buy tools. Or realize that working on cars is a tough job and sometimes a break is deserved.

Consider a home improvement store. There is a limited amount of customer service available. For the most part it's browsing around until you find what you want or realize you don't really want anything after all. Either way the items on the shelf are there for you or the next person who walks in. Now walk out of the store with a cart of building supplies without paying and all hell breaks loose. That's stealing. Auto repair is selling time. If someone takes your time with out paying it's not like you can put it back on the shelf. Any business has to protect the product they sell. You get to decide what level of protection is in your best interest.

A warranty is a positioning statement. It is part of your marketing and risk management. It doesn't matter how long your warranty is, simply factor the cost to cover into cost of operations. Customer perceived coverage is unconditional. If it fails for what ever reason it's on you.

Part of your business plan is market saturation. If available households per shop is very low you better have a better mouse trap.

Many aftermarket companies are oe suppliers. Knowing who makes what would be helpful.

A shop owner pours their heart & soul into the first few years of business. Most don't survive. The ones who do probably have a hard time handing the blue prints over to the competition. Some things you need to learn after you hop off the nest.

An online and in shop apprenticeship combination may be the way to develop our next generation of techs. Trade schools aren't producing any better techs for the price than we could for less cost.

I believe an apprentice program has merit. If developed and implemented in a manner that benefits the employers. An evaluation test to determine best possible candidates and online knowledge training while working in a sponsor shop could be an affordable way to learn the trade.

Teachers here start about the same. Also get 2 months off during summer and retire at 55 with great pension. Good techs can also do well. The issue is attracting new talent with the right potential. A lot of potential gets lost because of cost of education and/or lack of experience. In our industry we need a proper apprenticeship program designed to build a new qualified work force that allows employees to earn & learn on the job.

20k a year is about minimum wage in Oregon & Washington, what fast food workers get. Non skilled factory workers start at 25k around here, no trade school cost and no tool bill. If we want to fill the dropping ranks in available techs we need a new path.

Back in the day a lot of us worked pumping gas, fixing flats, changing oil, belts, hoses etc. at real service stations. These days one would assume quick lubes would fill that gap, not so much it seems.

Entry level for a tech school grad doesn't really justify the 30k school cost & another 6-8k in tools just to be a lube tech for the same pay as a fast food server.

Parts returns are factored in to cost of sales. Doesn't matter if it is returned by a qualified shop or a DIYer. Parts chains know failed parts and didn't fix it returns come back under the same blanket. Retail price & profit margin are king. Repair shops will always foot the bill in lost labor dollars. Goes like this. Complain to your supplier, fix the car at our expense, come in tomorrow and repeat.

Not at todays entry level of pay.

Some of the warranty reps I have delt with even go so far as calling our local dealers and parts stores to locate the parts and get a price quote the same as my cost. Then call me with their quote numbers.

Having read through the comments here I understand shop owners feelings on both sides. That said some operations issues need to be behind closed doors. As independent shop owners we are up against it every day. It is extremely difficult to get the unique perspective only other shop owners have any where else than from said owners. Be it advise, a solution to a problem, needing to vent or just something you would rather not overly share may limit the depth of the discussions when on an open forum for all to see. Just because we are independent doesn't mean we don't need some assistance sometimes. We just don't need it posted for all to read.

As far as where parts are sourced from all the big parts chains sell a lot of the same major brands. Worldpac & CARQUEST are now owned by Advance Auto Parts. Borg Warner is owned by Standard Motor Products ( Standard ignition/Bluestreak/Four Seasons etc.) Standard Motor Products is the supplier to NAPA Echlin. The list goes on.

It gets even better than that. For under a hundred bucks you can purchase your own code reader and diagnose your cars problems your self. You can even provide this valuable service to your family & friends at no charge. Why stop there, go ahead and help out the neighbors, after all you are now the community diagnostic expert.

Being competitive and being profitable isn't what is used to be. One can only structure creative pricing so far. Small shops provide good service, good value and a caring relationship to our customers. At the end of the day dealerships and chain stores continue to chip away at us by crossing into the advantages we have and owning purchasing power we don't have.

Most parts stores sell to repair shops around 10% off walk in. More on some lines less on others. List is for marketing a feel good discount. Some dealers boost list price then discount from there. A lot of shops never purchase enough to get any real price break.