Handson

I use Royal merchant services. They are local to me here in colorado. Think I am 1.35 +.

I left Kukui. My experience was I was paying 300 a month for access to thier google experts in India and 300 a month for access to their CRM software. Any more I paid went directly to goggle adwords. Things may have improved since I left, but when I was with them this is what I experienced.

When you call into your rep, they take all of your info down then relay it to the website designers and google interface people. Things were getting lost in translation for me and I got to a point where I just wanted to talk directly to the designer. Also they tried to tell me at one point that google did not offer a click to call campaign through adwords.

As long as you realize what you are paying for I think they are great. Just realize that they are interfacing several other companies for you and using a littlw bit of proprietary software.

They do focus most of your new customer acquisition through google adwords. You can call google and they will work you through doing this on your own. Google will also help you set up google analytics and a tracking phone number.

Comparing Kukui you a repair shop is a good analogy. If you can not fix your own car you take ot to a repair shop. If you do not know how to do internets you go to kukui. You probably know the dage a lazy mechanic can do to a car, imagine if you get a lazy programmer that handles your kukui acount.

Those of you with Kukui watch the numbers closely. Kukui claimed responisbility for new customer acquisition when it was people who were already my regulars. They do not remove thenpeople who are already in ypur database from the numbers they show you as revenue generated. Also they are pretty poor with google adwords. They play games with the numbers to make themselves look good and focus on more expensive google adwords campaigns to make their website look better.

My bottom line point is, you could des8gn a website with wordpress, and use 600 a month directly on adwords and generate twice the number of calls the kukui will generate, but you would have to learn how to do all that, or you can throw money at the problem and make it seem to go away. Either way works as long as you relaize what your getting.

Trealubit nailed it. You need to advertise in October and November for December. Marketing should be proactive not reactive.

We use alldata. I looked at mitchel at a friends shop and found the 8nterface cumbersome and confusing. Alldata is simple to use, i train my guys for 15 minutes and they can write simple RO's. Alldata repair is complete and can request information through e mail fast. I have not tried the onljne version of their management program. I do not like the idea of having my sales and customer info in the cloud and reliant on an internet connection. I suggest alldata manage dvd version with the online repair info. They now have a tablet version too but i have not bothered yet.

Lead tech gets $500. This year a dealer I worked with offered him $25 a week for the ten weeks leading up to christmas if he busted but and I offered to match it so he is getting 1k. 300 to my c tech who started in october and 200 to my c tech that just started. Dont forvet yourselves. 1k to me 300 to the wife. Just enough as a bundle to wipe out the remaining corporate profit this year.

That does help. I have changed the title, it may take time to update. Can you give me some insight on Schema?

I was using wordpress, my current developer steared me to wix. What do you suggest as a platform?

For a second I thought what market is he in that labor fees cover all expenses, now I realize he is not in any.

Thank you Matthew, that is a lot of great information for free. I am gokng tobget to work implementing most of this as soon as I can.

How does one go about makeing multiple home pages, like once the pages are made how do you link them to your domain, do you need multiple domaims?

I did a contract term with kukui. I Left them because their google adwords "experts" did not know you could do a click to call campaign with adwords. They are just a front for programmers in India. Find someone local to you who does this for a living. Most of us are not huge corporation's so why not shop small for your seo too. I now have a page designed by a local girl and I can log in and modify it myself on the fly and I own it and do not have to pay her each month. There are also more affordable options for e mail contacts. I now use the monthly fee I was giving to Kukui to directly buy more adwords hits.

Im tempted to try this time to time but my vendors give me great prices and I can mark up to dealer list and make my percentages so thee is no incentive for me.

This has been a good thread, and regardless of what status or income level a person holds (shop owner or not), I feel that you can learn something from just about anyone. I am a one man shop that has been in business for a little over 2 years. I still work from my home and have pretty small expenses. I am working hard to build my brand as an honest and ethical shop owner, putting customers first. I started my business because of a bad experience as a customer at a local shop, and do not regret it a minute. This business is hard as hell, but worth it! I am a college graduate, and spent the last 9 years working as an Operations Manager in the building material industry. I began my career in the auto business working in a parts department for Mercedes-Benz of San Diego, have worked as a parts man at several auto parts stores, worked as a technician for dealerships and repair shops. I find that you absolutely must do your research before committing to owning a business, and develop a clear plan for success. Finding a way to separate you from the competition will prove to be a profitable decision. And make sure you take time to sharpen your skills, as well as feed your dream. Most importantly, your dream (reason why you are building the business) has to be stronger than your fear of failure!

Please tell me you carry liability and workmans comp, nothing pisses me off more then someone undercutting legit shops by not being licensed and insured.

I think you should have to submit an EIN and proof of garage keepers insurance to be a member on this site, unless it is becoming how to become an auto shop owner instead of autoshop owner.

I would like to know this other forum that was mentioned if you can PM me please.

 

What was the hardest thing you had to face in your business? Building a loyal customer base and good reputation? To overcome your competition?

Learning to charge enough, realizing there is no way in hell a small shop can compete with the franchises on price.

Wow I really thank you for such an honest reply. There is no doubt that business ownership is not for everyone. There are times that I question my own sanity, but I love owning my shop more then working on cars and more then my hobbies so I know it is right for me. I hope that you have found happiness after the fact.

If you got yourself an account with factory motor parts to get your own personal parts you may get better support then you do from Rock Auto. Also keep in mind that a factory puts out varying levels of quality of the same part. Some venders get the parts that pass Q/A 100% and others get the "scratch and dent" units.

Wow I really thank you for such an honest reply. There is no doubt that business ownership is not for everyone. There are times that I question my own sanity, but I love owning my shop more then working on cars and more then my hobbies so I know it is right for me. I hope that you have found happiness after the fact.

If you got yourself an account with factory motor parts to get your own personal parts you may get better support then you do from Rock Auto. Also keep in mind that a factory puts out varying levels of quality of the same part. Some venders get the parts that pass Q/A 100% and others get the "scratch and dent" units.

Requireing licensing will only add another fee that we have to pay. I have some of my ASE's so I am not against them and have no problem taking the tests.

When I was first starting out we had a guy start at the shop I was working at. He was clean and well spoken. He had a huge snap on box loaded with all the snap on tools all shiney new. He had a diploma from an automotive tech school. He had several ASE's at the time. He could not fix a damn thing. Anyone can study and pass a test.. ANYONE. If you think mandatory licensing is going to eliminate shitty techs you are wrong. It would make the good ones who do not like testing pick a different career field.

If I was offered a shop twice as big for same price we would have been moving as soon as I could sign the paperwork.

I run my own internet marketing. This helps because if I zee the pile of cars running low I can jump on and throw out two or three short run ads for the weekend.

Make sure your not falling into the trap of turning people away when it picks up a bit. When you get busy or swamped that is the most important time to keep bringing in new cars and doing full inspections so the techs keep that constant flow.

I have to say no to this because our place is small amd hidden and we cater to exclusive clientele. It is my advertising and marketing as well as my focus on quality that dictates who comes in. I also vet all my customers and convert price shoppers. I will tell someone if price is their first concern we may not be the place for the. That being said we do keep the place neat and updated and the building while small, and hidden, is less then ten years old.

As far as location, people have to drive past 80 repair shops conveniently located in town, through a ton of awful construction out to the middle of no where to get to us. Even with the construction slowing down every business around us we are holding steady. Even the GM dealer next to us is struggling.

The most important thing for us has been to make sure every car is perfect before it leaves and if there is ever a problem to write a check and fix it. I had a customer toast an engine we rebuilt once. I asked no questions, bought him an LKQ reman on the spot. He has continued to come back and refer people and I got that investment back 3 fold.

hands-onautotech.com

I agree with phynny. If you put on a throttle body she did not need to try to fix what is clearly a wiring issue what makes you think she should have to pay for it.

someone was out bidding your google adwords for a little while. then they got too busy and turned it down snd you started winning bids.

im subscribing looking forward to the response from carfax rep. im interested to know others thoughts on car fax. some of my customers have mentioned they saw value in it.

Be prepared. We ate at the food bank when we started. We moved into the shop with our 3 month old in the beggining. Make sure your wife is ok with losing the house and moving into the garage. Or better yet. Go to your local score office and write a business plan. Then you can do it better then i did. Then it goes from your ready when you have 5k saved and quit before your fired to your ready when the bank hands you your start up money.

Not saying you cant do it like we did. Or maybe you can do it better and faster then we did. Just sying there is a better way then many of us may have done.

We use world pacs 3/36 package. I tell al my vendora if they cant guarantee the part for three years i can not use them. They all agree to do it. I make sure to hit 60 percent or more gross profit. We stay busy and profitable.

I think that consistency is one of my biggest issues. On some days someone will come in, get a full inspection, a hand written thank you card on their seat, and a follow up call in a few days. On other days they won't get an inspection, no thank you card and no call. If I were a customer and my friend and I went to the same shop and I saw that he got all of those things an I didn't, it would be upsetting.

 

I need to get myself together and make sure I'm consistent in every little thing that we do, I'm a firm believer that it's all of these little things that separates us from the competition.

You have listed all of your problems now you just have to work on them. I was in your exact shoes. The i fired my older tech and hired a faster one and started doing inspections on every car and attempting to sell everything. I have two techs also and these days i get upset when we do less then 45k in a month.

You will get there if you stay consistent.