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So what does an "A" tech or master tech expect for pay? I mean many of us have the stories of how much we used to make here or there and the dealership but I want to be resonable and fair but not over the top at first.

So this year I have taken my shop towards the next level and am at a point where I need good advice and wisdom before proceeding.

I went from a one bay facility to a two bay facility and added a second lift. I am the only person working. I am looking for an employee so I can get out of the shop and start doing sales and management. I have spent a lot of money over the last years in business on tools and equipment. I need to grow because I am just way too busy and slammed with work quite frequently and staying very late at the shop to complete tasks. I have very little personal time and need to delegate. Several large ticket repairs often cause my schedule to back up. I plan to save up money to hire a good technician and to be able to start them out and have money for the hard times until I can get them up to the "speed of trust". I have worked at shops in the past and have seen employee turnover and have seen where we found a great technician but the boss couldn't pay on time for whatever reason and the tech would end up leaving. I don't want to be in that situation. 

Question 1: I need to know should I be looking for a master tech or maybe a mid level tech who knows their way around??? I dont really want to take on an apprentice because I don't have time to train them and babysit them. I want someone who can hit the ground running. It would be nice to turn them loose and not have to worry about the repairs they are doing. I want to make an employee handbook and agreement for shop procedures, cleaning, showing up on time, policies, etc. so they will know up front what is expected. 

Question 2: What should I expect to pay them? Salary, flat rate, bonus, a combonation of any of these? Starting pay vs normal pay? 

Question 3: How did you go from a one man army to having employees and bigger successes?

I really don't need help to find one at the moment although I am open to suggestions but I want to focus on the questions at hand. I am a good tech but I am also not the fastest because I am picky and want things done right. Call it OCD or whatever but I don't like come backs. I am also a great service adviser and would rather have a tech doing the work so I can run the business.  Thank you

I find that I really don't have trouble selling jobs full of the small things like air filters and cabin filters, bulbs and the major work like axles, brakes, valve cover gaskets. If a customer declines a service it usually because of a money issue and not because of doubt or distrust. I am still friendly in the event of a decline and give them the estimates on paper and many times they call back and schedule the remaining work. 

I have a pretty unique approach to selling and make the customer comfortable and part of it is being assertive in the approach and confident in the repair while praising the condition of the vehicle or the value of the vehicle and this gives them confidence that they aren't spending money just because I told them but they believe it is a wise investment. 

Although this would be difficult to explain in words it may be better if one day I made a short video showing how I approach this. 

Just yeasterday a guy came in and his electric seat wouldnt move, automatic lift tailgate doesnt work, and engine mount broken. He initially came in saying that if the seat track is a $700 part plus labor then he didn't want ro spend the money. I gave an estimate of over $1700 for all the items and he called me back after talking to his wife and said to do it all. 

I have had decent luck with advance. They give me an across the board pricing of $34.99 for platinum pads. I have had some fitment issues and had to grind some imperfections off the ears that slide into the caliper bracket. 

Radiators, condensers, compressors i get from Cold Air Distributors. They carry name brands and blow the prices out of the water.  Worldpac is good but deliveries take a bit. 

I do wiper stocking through advance and carry a rack of cheapo basic wipers (Kleenview) and they are actually decent. I also stock a rack of beam blades (Xtraclear) and they are fine for the price. Many times customers go for the better but some buy the cheapos and i normally dont lose the sale. 

Their oil filters are supposedly made by Mann Hummel and are fairly cheap. 

Get the commercial sales manager out to your garage and have a chat and tell him what you want and ask what he can do for you. 

Again I would prefer to have something that has accounting functions so that I can eliminate QB, but if there is a better setup that still integrates QB then maybe I will keep QB.

So, I started my automotive repair business about 6 years ago and have just been using quickbooks but it is not really setup for what I do here and I would like to get a dedicated SMS program and I have noticed that one like Maxtraxx has full accounting built in so that it doesnt need quickbooks anymore which could potentially eliminate a $300 per year QB subscription.

I have spent hours upon hours watching youtube vids and demo software for different management systems and am at the point of frustration. I do not want Alldata manage because it feels like I have to do too much clicking to navigate around. I have used Mitchell manager in the past but really never set it up to make it efficient and now after reading reviews of tech support not being able to help out with certain functions, I am begining to get turned off of them.

HERE IS WHAT I HAVE ALREADY: one bay, but in the near future going to open a second bay next to me with finding a great technician to fill it. This will allow me to focus on office management and service advising. QB pro to create invoices and accounting. I currently subscribe to Motologic for my repair info and labor guide and also Real Time Labor Guide as a backup.

HERE IS WHAT I WOULD LIKE: an SMS program that allows me to see my daily, weekly, monthly, annual reports and possibly even a profit monitor button for each ticket to make sure I don't go below my margins. Something to streamline the shop functions. Inventory is a plus. I DON'T MIND DOING AN OUTRIGHT PURCHASE OF A PROGRAM BUT NOT MORE THAN $3K +/- because I plan to grow into it and it grow with my shop. I also don't mind a monthly service. One of the issues is many programs require you to have subscriptions to Mitchell or Alldata so you can integrate labor times into your software. Something that is cost effective

Please give me guidance and direction in this area and what you have experienced. Thank you so much.

If you have ever done an evaporator on a Mercedes S class from the early to late 90s w140 chassis (ie: 95 s500) you will be astonished at the engineering and the ammount of things you have to do to get it out. I believe it used to pay 24hrs or something like that. I have done one and can almost guarantee I will never do one again.

I remember a mid to late 90s Taurus with what seemed to be a clear round plastic lid for a pastry dish or a to-go container being used as a headlight lense.

Jeff what part town in your shop located?

Meechant services can be very cut throat and competitive. Shop around and compare.

http://www.consumerreports.org/car-maintenance/5-auto-repair-shop-scams-your-mechanic-might-try/

The DS708 is a great tool with many capabilities but It has certain functions that don't seem to work. Well worth the money for the coverage it offers.

Can someone please email me a part matrix that works for them .I would like to get above a 50%. I plan on expanding here in the next year and need to start preparing for changes. Thank you.

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not to resurect an old post but concerning the infinity idle issues (and maybe nissan maxima too??), you can send the ecm to be repaired and they require you to replace the idle air control valve to honor warranty.

I have a DS708 and will admit that there are functions built into the scanner that sometimes wont work or communicate but for $1300 i paid for it, it still does a ton of other stuff that you would have to spend thousands more for a snap on.

ATTN Autel Owners. My advance auto parts offers the annual updates for less than directly off the autel website. Check your local vendors to see how much updates are through them.

I saw a friend of mines shop and he has a riding lawn mower and it has a place he can put a strap. I would imagine if you run it with the blades disengaged and the transmission in low gear it should do fine. cheap used riding mowers are about $100-200 and you dont really care about the deck or blades. I have thought of the winch idea.

I am a one man army who occasionally brings in help. THE TRICK is knowing when to say no. Some people are afraid to say no to certain jobs because they think they will lose the customer. I regularly turn down jobs because of complexity and when you wear many hats every day, it becomes stressful. The most profitable way is to do more small jobs like brake and suspension work, and less big jobs like engine replacements. The big jobs pay big but often take a week or more to complete because you are juggling jobs. The smaller jobs have larger profit margins like brakes, maintenance and such. I would rather do 5 brake jobs a wee than two tranny swaps.

Many times i tell a customer no due to the complexity and keep it simple but usually have a recommendation on where they can go. Then they usually come back for the other stuff. When a customer is low on money, you have to stop feeling bad for them and stop trying to be the hero. then you get involved in junk work that they want used parts and such. Tell then ahead of time what it costs or MAY end up costing and if they go away, then good cause that is less headache.

I am a relatively new auto shop and I am very busy. The lord had blessed me well. I currently call the autopart store and ask what the customer walk in price is. I add 25% to that and it works well enough for a small overhead low cost shop. So I make the 25% and the discount on the part. I would like to start using a parts pricing matrix.

Could someone email me what theirs looks like so I can get an idea of something better. I am not afraid of raising prices because I have done it a few times already and nobody had really cried yet.

Thank you and God bless.

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