bantar

Interesting trivia.... Canada has laws that mandate cloud data ownership back to you. USA does not, so you are left to what your contract says - this applies to both ownership and privacy. Many companies will adopt user-friendly data policies and some prey on those that don't read the fine print. In general, the minute someone else owns my data, it's a no-go for me. Further, (wearing my software development hat), I'm especially opposed to two different software systems both having data and "working together", such as overlay programs that change work-flow. Since I know not to trust computers, in addition to the backups being done by my software provider, I archive all of my data monthly in clear text (not DB backups). They are responsible for the daily backups. I also have a safety net. One challenge with the cloud is that you can't run over, kick the server out of spite, then reboot it and bring it back online. You are dependent on the cloud provider to do the needful. It can be trying when you are down. You will want to ask about their support and response times. (IMO, this is why you want to pay for your software. You need tech support to be available all of the time. I'm not saying anything about CAR as I don't know them. At some point, it would be reasonable for them to charge for technical support and you would be wise to want to pay for it).

Well, I finally have a day off, so I now have time to respond to your inquiry. I've been working 7 days a week since we opened 1.5 years ago. Now, truth be told, I don't need to be there everyday, but I'm building the business and more importantly, relationships... which is an in-person exercise. In general, I feel good about our progress. I'm on a first name basis with quite a few repeat customers. Note, my business is a combo quick lube and repair, so I see customers way more often than repair alone. I've shunned the typical QL mentality of shoddy repair work by having unqualified laborers attempt repair. We have very talented technicians on the repair side. QL is a convenience / local business, while repair is a trust / destination business. In other words, one would not drive miles out of the way for convenience, but would for quality / trustworthy repair. The QL part came up quick and it is a feeder for repair, but the repair is a sloooowww grind, climbing monthly. My techs are on Flat Rate or Wall Time, whichever is higher (in other words, they are paid whether or not we are making money. I'm in an investment period. It is my job to get clients in the door. Their pay should not be less on account of my lack of cars). On marketing.... While I'm very visible on a street with 21,000 cars driving by daily (and 45,000 on the cross street), my biggest problem is getting people to KNOW that I'm there. They come in daily and ask if I just opened? I purchased a lot in a shopping center to be anchored by a small Walmart Neighborhood Market store, and as of today, they've not even started and may never build. This was a big hit to my visibility plans. My driveway is the driveway to the grocery store. I send out ads to 45,000 households every 3 weeks, among other things, and still it takes time to build. On personal morale... I'll tell you that the most depressing moments of starting is when things are slow. You have such little direct control of "making it happen". You can only focus on doing your best while waiting for the seeds to sprout and eventually a crop to ripen. I can deal with the stress of struggling to keep up when things are busy, but the stress of being idle is rough. On admin work... For the 1st 3-5 months after opening, I would pick up a piece of paper and not know what to do with it, then the next 3 months, I would at least know where to start, but doing was still a struggle. I started with the mentality that I would deal with the complex issues when they appeared much later. Much to my chagrin, the all appeared almost immediately. Some were so bad, that it took me many weeks to formulate a solution. About 1 year in, there are only a few gotchas that still cause me struggles. You definitely need a CPA that knows the business to get you setup and organized. Accounting mistakes just get worse and harder when ignored. On Employees... don't hire them. They will just cause you trouble. Well, partially kidding. You need them, but choose wisely. I have some great guys, but have had my share of challenges. On Cash Flow... This is a business killer. A startup is a cash-sump. It goes fast. You have to make investments and spend cash to make money, yet you can't buy everything you need right away. I'm still managing cash closely and starting to spend on nice-to-haves slowly. My business still needs to grow another 40% to crawl out of the risk danger zone. On calamity... I've had cars set on fire in my lot (employee cars). I've had employees drive a customer car into the building. I've had an employee break her nose and need a $40,000 surgery (thank goodness for worker's comp insurance). I've had equipment break down while under warranty and also, the day after the warranty expired. On most holiday's, my burglar alarm goes off and thus I go in (it went off just a few hours ago). I've had employees get thrown in jail. Employees end up in the hospital. Employees cause me bad reviews and ex-employees give me 1 star reviews (and thankfully employees earning us good reviews too). I've missed payroll deadlines twice. Since most employees like being paid, the stress of doing this manually and figuring out how to do the accounting has made me very sensitive to these deadlines. One month ago, we were hit by a huge hail storm that wiped out every car in the area not under cover. The next day all of the cars disappeared, either totaled, or in the body shop. Our car count dropped immediately. We are just now starting to recover from this. So, in summary, I'm both doing well (operations and sales) and poorly (sales vs expectations). I'm starting to see a good growth on repair and measured growth on the QL. In spite of it all, I'm enjoying the business and continuing to fight for success. A startup is very hard... anchored by a need to build up enough clientele to pay the bills and then eventually a profit. Because I'm clinically insane, I'm enjoying this. 🙂

Another picture...

I had a customer claim that we damaged his car in multiple spots on the driver side rocker panel during an oil change. We don't lift vehicles for oil changes, so at best, the closest we come to touching the rocker panels is entering the vehicle. One of our shoes might get caught when entering. This is an elderly gentleman and I do think he's being honest, but also think he is confused. He saw some of our guys milling about near his car (actually working on computer in the bay) and thought they were looking at some damage on his car. So, when he got home, he inspected it thoroughly. This guy waxes / polishes his car daily, but has problems bending over anyway, so I don't think he's paid strict attention to the rocker panel. In fact, he blamed us for some road tar that we were able to scrape off. Not sure that his vision is great either. But he loves his car. In our observation, it looks like a scuff mark maybe from hitting rubber debris on the road, but at the same time, it appears to be under the clear coat as it won't rub off. See the attached pictures. I'm hoping someone that knows paint might be able shed some light on what I'm seeing. We've only taken pictures and tried to rub it off with fingers and fingernails. We have not tried any solvents or cleaners. I'm sure he would bring the car back for another inspection.

I use Protractor and do NOT have integrated CC processing. As a result, I pay an additional fee of $0 for this level of integration! You'll likely be better off without bundling as you can pick your CC vendor independent of the software. In turn, you lose software integration. If paperless is your goal, integration is better. When I post an invoice, I must manually enter the amount into the CC machine. Because they are separate, Protractor cannot store any return data from the machine. We use a signature capture pad on our computer to capture, in Protractor, signatures on our repair invoices, when required. It also captures Work Order Authorization signatures when required. If the CC slip needs to be signed, this is a separate step for the customer. Debits don't require any signature. I'm content with this lack of integration. Personally, I would like to have CC integration, but I value this at $1/month. Anything more than $15/year and I'm not interested. We make a very small number of mistakes manually entering the numbers. For CC provider costing comparisons, you can use a site such as: https://www.cardfellow.com/ If this helps you, for 2018, my transaction breakdown was: Debit: 40%, CC: 53%, Cash 7% by counts. By % of sales they were: Debit: 35%, CC: 59%, Cash: 6%. Fees for 2018 ended up at 1.7% of combined CC & Debit transactions. NOTE: My CC machine prompts for debit pin numbers by default, so it encourages more debit transactions. One more thing about integration. If your software is connected to the CC machine, then you will have a bit more difficult set of requirements for PCI Compliance. I have my CC machine on a VLAN (different IP subnet) all by itself. So, I do not need to certify my PC's as PCI compliant. PCI compliance is all about placing blame when something goes wrong. Lowest guy that's not PCI compliant gets blamed! Ask them about how the integration impacts your PCI compliance audit. They might still be able to be on separate networks, but it depends on implementation. (We're off topic re: Mitchell X-Charge)... May need to start a new thread to continue.

Ever have one of those days??? That really odd problem that you don't know how to solve. There is a site that you can turn to for help.... https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAShittyMechanic/ Check it out and profit!

Indeed, the corporate Goodyear stores are changing brand to JustTires. I've attached a recent picture of a local store. I think it should be opening pretty soon. @tyrguythought JustTires might be a retail sales front only, but it's a full-fledged tire store. The stores are being completely remodeled and are getting new tire equipment and will keep their alignment racks. Google maps shows the Goodyear locations as permanently closed. It appears that they've not rolled out their online presence just yet and no advertising yet either. https://www.justtires.com/ shows to be a Goodyear business, but there is only one store and it's in Waco. This store is selling more than just tires, so it's a bit confusing given their branding. I hear (rumors as I have no real info) that the Dallas stores will only be selling tires and performing alignments. They will not install adjustment parts on an alignment nor will they replace wear items such as control arms, struts, etc. The alignment will only adjust what is adjustable or they will refer them away. And a bit of a rant, a "customer" added one location to Google Maps and gave it a 1 star review! Likely this was for not being open when she tried to visit the old Goodyear location.

As best I can tell, this is indeed happening. Sources are all unofficial, so reliability / quality of the information is suspect. With such a big change, I was sure that I would find news articles noting this. It looks like they are doing a good job of keeping it quiet for the big reveal. Once the employees were told that their jobs are being terminated or altered, the news started to leak out. Since hearing the news, I've popped in and spoken with some of the managers that I know in corporate stores. And, at least one has a sign posted on his front door for their remodel. They have already laid out severance plans to technicians and have dealers calling asking for technician referrals. They have a plan to refer out warranty work to nearby franchise stores. I don't see this being akin to the Just Tires concept as these are large 10-12 bay stores. Some stores have already received new equipment and some are expecting it soon. I don't see this as gloom and doom. It appears to be a business strategy change. I wish them well. My goal is simply staying abreast of what they are doing as it may impact our operation. I waited for a while after hearing of the changes before posting this because I'm not a reliable / in-the-know source. Now that it's an open secret.... and no information here, I'm sharing what I've heard.

It seems that Goodyear corporate stores are changing their business model from Tire and Repair Service centers to strictly tires. The franchise stores are free to continue their old business model. Around here, the corporate stores are going to close down on January 27 for 2-3 weeks for a major remodel and possibly? rebranding. They will sell tires and do alignments, but will not be able to align if they need repair parts. I've not seen any official statements on this, so I don't really know more than the scuttlebutt. It looks like Hunter will have a great year this year as a result. I saw a brand new Hunter Revolution tire machine in one of the local stores already. I stand to benefit from this change as we may see some of their repair business. Since I don't sell tires, I'm not a Goodyear competitor, which allows them to safely refer repair business to us. Almost everyone else around here sells tires. We refer quite a few folks to tire-only stores, so Goodyear will now be on my referral list.

I'm selling Interstate right now, on consignment, and I've had no issues with warranty returns. I wonder if the warranty issues noted above are from Distributors instead of Interstate directly. Clearly, some of you have had warranty rejections whereas, I've had none. Our warranty process: We test the batteries and if they fail, the test results are attached, but many times they get destroyed by the acid and are unreadable. The route drivers do not read the test results, nor do they retest the batteries when they pick them up. They are placed on the truck in a compartment with all other battery cores from other retailers, so there's no distinguishing who's core is who's at the factory for later testing. The warranty claim is processed on site by the driver. Maybe they have different warranty solutions in different regions. Can anyone comment on how their Interstate warranties are being processed? My challenge with Interstate has been with stocking levels and their inability to hot-shot batteries in <24 hours. If I don't have it in stock, then we source an AC Delco from a different supplier. I've recently upped my inventory to solve my own shortages problem. Currently, AC Delco is significantly higher, about $20 each, than it's Interstate peer (similar or (mostly) less warranty levels) and NAPA is about $25 each higher. Yesterday, I invited both AC Delco (distributor) and NAPA to pitch their battery programs again.

I have a mobile tech that comes to the shop for some programming. We pay $104 for simple jobs and $130 for more complex ones and no monthly fees. I mark these up handsomely and charge for diagnosis too. Granted I have to have the car in the shop ready for him when he comes and have to schedule an appointment, but it seems not much different from RAP except maybe they can schedule it sooner. Also, my techs don't need to assist with the programming. They just need to be on standby to retest and confirm that the customer complaint is indeed solved afterwards.

Aside from many of the Indians and random others not wanting to pay for diagnostics, I've seen quite a different and interesting reaction from the young very-pretty girls. "What do you mean I have to pay?" They have such a confused look on their face before they leave.

I've been checking every once in a while to see when these batteries might show up in the local store. Checking today, I found this announcement saying that the deal fell apart: http://www.counterman.com/advance-auto-parts-interstate-batteries-deal-is-off/

I'm using Protractor. They do frequent updates and have been quick to fix things that break which are serious in nature. You can't call tech support, but they do call me back if the issue is too complex to reply/resolve via email. I especially like their reporting system. It's pretty thorough and you can customize them as well. Most of the challenges that I have with it are in the accounting section and the inability to correct all the errors that I routinely make! (there are work arounds, but I'd prefer actual corrections) I got started by watching all of their training videos and practicing in their demo system. Anyway, let me know if I can help you answer any questions.

Wow. You see potential in people often that goes wasted and in this case destroyed. Can you elaborate on how he did it? I'm especially curious on how it went undetected and how you will be monitoring it going forward. It had to be big for the CPA to be the first to pick up on it.

Wow. I can see that this would be very confusing to your customers. When I looked at it, I only see the XOXO brand. Your mark is much smaller by comparison and is a less prominent position. Who's the KING and who's the PAWN on this page? They are not helping you to brand your shop and service, but more focused on their own brand it would seem.

Thank you for the feedback. We're largely on the same page. What got me worried about this initially is that we had someone that we expected to negotiate and he failed to play his part correctly. That left him paying too much. I didn't have a pre-made plan for this scenario. Next time, we might find better parts pricing at a different supplier and pass the savings on to him at checkout. Sometimes, for fun and with the right person, we negotiate to a number that they agree on, let's say $800 and end with "OK, $795 for you", but this is dicey as it could restart the negotiation. But if it works, they feel even better and we're all very happy! Unfortunately, the only way I see to handle negotiation is thru cultural screening practices. Most other folks don't negotiate and we don't need the dance to be complicated for the majority. But if non-negotiating folks are considering a big job, then we'll look for ways to help them commit to the work, such as if you do all of this today, we'll round it down to X. While we are doing this, I don't think it is WRONG as our goal is to charge them equally. But negotiations are messy, so there's a good chance that they end up paying more. We need our bottom offer to be our standard price or more. The hard part in this whole thing is discerning the "consumers" from the customers. I have no interest in being the lowest price merchant and let these folks leave. Conversely, you will be treated fairly, charged fairly and hopefully leave happy. There are crooks only a few miles away from me that will gladly start off for less. If negotiating captures a customer, good. If it captures a problem consumer.... Mr. Mackey says "That's baaaddd".

I don't ask any questions at all. My CC terminal is my best friend. I'm using the FD130 terminal with a remote keypad. If the card does both Debit and Credit, then it will automatically prompt the customer for a PIN number. They have to ask me how to run it as credit (so that I can tell them to push the X button to skip Debit and run as credit). If they don't respond to the machine automatically, I simply say: It's waiting for your pin (secretly hoping that they will punch it in). Both January and February were 41% debit transactions by counts and about 40% by amount. Frankly, I'm surprised by the number of folks that use debit. It is very likely that the terminal can be programmed with different behaviors or if not, it might be time for an upgrade. The folks that I got my terminal from were super-helpful with the terminal and programming (they aren't the CC provider). Maybe you can ask if yours can be programmed with different behavior.

After looking at the ICCU shop in Mumbai India, it made me wonder how the Indians deal with Indian negotiation tactics? I need a good strategy. My shop is among a large Indian population and it seems that they all want to negotiate pricing. So much so that if one doesn't try to negotiate, it throws us off our game! There are few ways to deal with this: 1) Stand firm, 2) Have a pre-made coupon that we can use to move the price a fixed amount, 3) Negotiate, 4) Prepare for the negotiation with inflated pricing, then negotiate and settle on a job price (that is often more than the non-negotiated price). We do #2 and #4 regularly, with a little #1 and no unprepared negotiations (#3). When we are negotiating, it's always out on the shop floor so that it can be a private conversation. They always seem to feel better when they "get a deal"! Any better methods or practices?

I was most intrigued by their steel toed flip flops. My shoes aren't nearly as comfortable. Their website is very clean and professional looking. I was sold. One of their USPs was intriguing: " Car returned with all possession intact." I missed the how-to-choose-a-shop section though. (This shop brings up another question, but I'll make a new thread for that).

While this is not insurance, I recently learned of this healthcare insurance option. There is a company here called diamondphysicians.com that offers concierge medicine. I think it's under $100/month and then most medical issues are covered. Doctor visits are free, Lab work is about $7, xrays $30, etc. They have both GP's and some specialists on staff. I think an insurance agent can make a mint if they find a way to package major medical insurance with this type of medical care. One is not covered of they have a major medical issue or if you are in a car wreck. However, if there's a choice between no insurance and this only, it still has value. The person that told me about this has no insurance and a family with small children. He's a member of this network and at least he, his wife and kids are getting medical care. I had always associated concierge medicine with wealthy folks only. As you can see, this one doesn't break the bank. It looks like they might expand to other areas as it is a franchise as well.

I think it's $350/month for 3 terminals and I know it's $399 for unlimited terminals. This one is quite mature - meaning many features and few bugs. For the (mostly behavioral) issues that I've found, they've added features to make it better, which both surprised and pleased me). They update every 1-3 weeks.

Cloud software is typically safe, but I don't know anything about these guys. I'm using Protractor, which is cloud based. I'm sitting at home and accessing my system from my laptop. My software provider can see my data if they wanted to as they have a master password (but I trust them to play nice). Make sure that you use good passwords since it can be accessed from anywhere. And change them when anyone leaves. You will need a backup plan for when your internet dies. (This could be a Cradlepoint router or using your mobile phone to create a mobile hotspot). No internet and you are down.