PAPShop

You seem to have a niche service. We are somewhat the same, we are a performance shop in addition to an auto repair shop. The best advertising for the performance side of our business is "be where your target customers are". Interact with them, don't sell but have some business cards in pocket and word of mouth will spread.

Looks like we have an opportunity to open a second shop in a town about 30 miles away. Any advice, tips, etc?

Where did you find the video?? I want to watch it!!!!

Unless someone can correct me, Minnesota does not have mechanic's liens for automotive. If they owe you money on the repair, the car is sold at sheriff's auction and the amount owed you is given to you. If the car sells for less than what is owed, you get what was collected at the auction

We were using QB Pro and just recently switched to Mitchell & QB integrator. When we made the switch, we purged some old customers when we set up the new QB company. I can go into our old QB and look up any history, but we eliminated customers we KNOW will not be back for whatever reason.

We don't do tires, but years ago I had to take my truck to the tire shop with a flat. I ran over a seatbelt latch that had a 90 degree bend in it.

We have a mission statement, which every employee has a copy of in the employee handbook and is posted next to the employee entry door. We also have values and goals, which is also included in the employee handbook. This is the why of the mission statement and why we do business the way we do it and explains what our tag line is and why it is our tagline. Both of these are reviewed at the annual meeting/Christmas Party..... But I like the idea of putting it in the breakroom. We created the mission statement and our values and goals in a brainstorming event that included the owners and their spouses (we are family owned) and managers.

We have a dress code, and the shirt are our t-shirts we sell. Each tech is given 4 shirts on hire, and given new ones upon anniversary dates. They are responsible for looking professional and wearing clean clothes each day. In the back of my mind I am thinking of doing something different, so I am following this.

I have watched all the videos, and have yet to find an answer on the forums. When I have a question, and I "click the question mark", it will not go to their online help page because my question is in a small screen. How do you do a search in the online help page? You don't, tech support told me "you can't do that, our program isn't written for that ability" !!??!!

1. Integration with QB problems 2. Constantly being told by Tech Support "you can't do that with this program" or "I don't know how to do that". I 'fondly' refer to any phone call to tech support as "playing the game stump the dummies". 3. Many of the accounting actions are multiple steps to do them, so instead of saving time, it takes more time. The sad thing is, we see how it has greatly helped the front side of the business, dealing with customers and we are making more money on each vehicle. We have contacted our Field rep and our original salesman. They are currently jumping thru hoops to keep us. I have mentally shut down on this program. It is not bookkeeping friendly.

After 2 months of set up, trying it and nothing going smooth, we are scrapping Mitchell. I has been a HUGE waste of our time.

1. Did she sign the CC slip? 2. If it was a phone order, did you enter it into the terminal as such? We lost a chargeback because the person entering into the cc terminal did not put that it was a phone order. New laws with the chip reader machines are very different now. Our rep has told us "Never lie to the cc terminal." 3. Send in every piece of paperwork that will back you up.

You are required to have a second business, the original guy tacked his UHaul onto his wife's business selling purses and women's accessories. When she passed away, her business closed and he lost the UHaul franchise. Thanks for the input everyone. The owner wants to test it and see what happens.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Very good food for thought. Since we operate under a zoning conditional use, we are taking it to the city to see if it is against our CUP.

The "in town" U Haul dealership went out of business - their other business, not the U Haul part - and we have been approached to take it over. Is anyone else an independent U Haul dealership? Pros and cons? We are in doing due diligence and researching everything about it.

20 days out and I am STILL setting up Mitchell. The nightmare continues. In the state of Mn, some labor is taxable and some is not. R&R is not, all other labor is. How did you set this up in Mitchell, or did each user memorize what to tax and what not to and change the tax code for each invoice as needed.

In some states it is illegal to charge a customer a fee for using a credit card.

All of the above, and we check their social media. We had a very wise young man tell his Dad that he wasn't going out and partying New Years Eve. The reason was if someone sees him out partying, or pictures are posted of him, and a customer comes in and recognizes him, what kind of confidence will that customer have in his work? Social media is a very powerful thing.

Thanks for the compliment. We work with Rough Country. They have a great product line, besides lift/level kits, they have the floor mats and light kits. We hooked up some lights that can be turned on..........they push a button and it blinds the customer every time and sells the product on the spot. We warn them, but their reaction is they didn't think they were going to be "that bright".

Check out our facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/Paradigm-Automotive-99678520342/photos One thing it doesn't show is our Rough Country display, which also includes floor mats (a la Weather Tech).

We finally pulled the trigger and are in the process of setting up Mitchell1 SE. Right now my opinion is: what a nightmare! I know I have to be patient to get everything set up, that is a given. I have done this in other industries. However, this, it will not be a smooth setup. Any tips? My other question is: How do you handle retail sales? Once we get our THOUSANDS of retail part numbers transported into the program (at an extra $200 that we were not aware of until the programs were installed) how do you create a sale for a retail customers? I'm looking in the program, and it doesn't jump out at me. If this is not possible, then we have just wasted a lot of time, money and effort. Some of the retail sales are made to "cash customer" in our old system. Do you recommend creating one in Mitchell? Thanks

Once a week, our shop owner takes one employee to lunch. It is on the schedule, and the employee picks the place. It is a great opportunity for the employee to vent and the owner to just get to know the employee.

We also use Facebook advertising by boosting a particular post, choosing the demographics and area we want. It has worked very well for us and it is cheap advertising. The one thing I do hear our Facebook administrator tell other business owners is to be specific on the ad you boost. Instead of focusing on the entire shop, focus on one specific area, like brakes...... and use lots of pictures!! Our A/C ad had a picture of a dog hanging out the car window.

DO NOT DO IT!! DO NOT EVEN THINK OF DOING IT!! For exactly the reasons above. It is currently what we do, we are looking at SMS because it is so time consuming and clunky to use Quickbooks. Nothing is smooth and there is a lot you have to "make do".

No ifs ands or buts, it is in our employee handbook. One guy does some 2 stroke and snowmobile stuff and one guy does paint (which we do not do). They respect us enough to let us know when they are doing something on the side. Outside Employment: Employees may hold outside jobs in non-related businesses or professions as long as the employee meets the performance standards of their position with Paradigm. Unless an alternative work schedule has been approved by Paradigm, employees will be subject to the company’s scheduling demands, regardless of any existing outside work assignments. Paradigm office space, equipment, and materials are not to be used for outside employment.