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Has anyone ever thought about or checked into accepting the Wright Express credit card?

How much does that cost?

Joe, I agree with you. However, I have had a couple of times that I had to reign in excessive use. It was usually something like a divorce or domestic situation leading to the abuse.

That is right! The mechanics lein process is a hassel and it adds about $100-$125 to my total cost not counting the time involved. The newspaper charges are outrageous for the legal ads.

What's your cell phone policy? Cell Phone Policies by Elite - AutoPro Workshop Blog post - Where Professionals Gather for Better Business

I let the guys do repairs on their stuff if we are not busy as long as it doesn't interfere with business.

They told me to make the repairs and we made them but they never came and picked up the cars or paid for them. They couldn't pay the bills. Both are young people in their late 20's-30's. I will have a 2000 Hyunda Elantra for sale if anyone is interested.

I have two cars like that right now that I have had for several months and I am finally going to go the mechanics lien route on.

Gonzo, I would say your article was a hit since there are already six responses. Or is that all of your friends? Diagnostics...

New Iowa Law Prevents Repair Shops from Holding Customers' Vehicles Until Bills Are Paid Iowa Law...

Cute kid, must take after his mother!

The best thing that ever happened to me was when I wound up in the environmental contracting/consulting business. Before that time $100 look like a lot of money to me. In that business some job of less than $2,500 wasn't hardly worth messing with. The environmental business I started with grew from sales of $80,000 to $8,000,000 in about 5 years. The dollars we turned and the business was phenomenal. Myself and one man with a trackhoe went on a job for 5 days and after all the bills were paid we had $21,000 profit. Those were the good ole days that are now gone but that experience helps me not to be afraid to charge a fair price. These days we often present repair estimates in excess of $1,000. There is no hard sell. We tell them what we found and what is needed. If there are repairs that can be postponed a few days we let them know that. We will even put the items in order priority wise. If a car isn't worth fixing we will also advise them of that. It is amazing how many $1,000+ tickets we sell. We had one for $1,300 today.

Joe the nice thing is that those "friends" who were looking for something for nothing or nearly nothing have been replaced by paying customers and now a lot of them have became friends. I think it was Carnegie who said that "A friendship based upon business is better than business based upon friendship." I still think 25% markup is way too low.

I read the book over the weekend. My favorite story was the one with the two Lincolns who wanted you to make the great swap. After reading your book I think I could write one very similar but maybe with not as much flair. Do you think any of those people migrated to Indiana? I swear that I have dealt with some of them. You may find it of interest that I am passing the book on to my Army Ranger service manager to read. His wife is also an avid quilter. She had taken their master bedroom and made it into a sewing room. She has a $14,000 quilting machine and a bunch of other fancy machines and it is only a hobby.

What is oovoo?

American capitalism gone with a whimper American capitalism gone with a whimper - Pravda.Ru

Got it today in good shape. I will probably read some of it this weekend. Thanks!

Why is the general public so resistant to paying diagnostic time? If one goes to the doctor you wind up paying for xrays, cat scans, MRI's, lab work, etc. All of that is diagnostic and is not cheap.

Are the beads just for truck tires or can they be used on passenger tires (especially low profile)?

He didn't really react one way or another which may have been that he was totally suprised at what I did. He never said another word. I have a feeling that he is a bully who is use to bullying people around. If I know anything internal he was probably kicking himself because now he had spent all of this time and trouble, had a fair price, from people he trusted, and now he has to start over. He probably wishes he had keep his mouth shut and he probably has a new respect for our shop. He sees that we are not hard up for business. If he goes to the wrong shop he will find this an expensive lesson.

Tire dealers denounce health care bill http://www.moderntiredealer.com/News/Story/2010/03/Dealers-sound-off-on-health-care-bill.aspx

I had an interesting experience yesterday, a customer who wanted to short cut a repair (pad slap a vehicle instead of replacing the rotors) which we agreed to do. In our brake package pricing we include machining rotors. We never charge more to machine rotors as a part of pad replacement but we never charge less if we do not machine the rotors. The brake service I had quoted to this man also included a substantial discount under a promotion we have going. He then began to argue that we should charge him less because we were not machining the rotors and I explained to him why it was the same. Finally he relented and said go ahead and do it but he added "I will not be back." I just told him we didn't have to do anything and turned around and told the shop to just back it out which we did. He would have been the type of customer coming back in seeking a refund or with a complaint and would have wanted to use the baseball bat technique on him. Fortunately, we have a lot of great customers who do not mind paying a fair price for a repair and I do not have to put up with that type of customer.

You have two separate issues to face the first is bookkeeping/accounting. At various times I have done my accounting/bookeeping as follows: 1)Paid everything by check and keep a ledger of money received. Turned it over to an accountant/tax preparer at the end of the year. 2)Did it myself using Quick Books. Turned it over to an accountant/tax preparer at the end of the year. 3)Hired an outside accountant to do month profit lose statements and they did taxes at end of the year. This is about it as far as options are concerned other than being a do it yourselfer and doing your own taxes. Ofcourse, you could resort to the shoe box method (throw it all in a shoe box and take it to someone to sort out at the end of the year). I have not done my own taxes since I set up a corporation in 1993. I did do my own taxes for years before that. What you do depends upon what you can afford, what you know, what you want to do, and how much time you have to do it. Do keep in mind that it is much easier to secure bank loans with information prepared by an accountant. The second issue is payroll and tax filings. The tax filings will include Federal 941 (withholdings) and 940 (unemployment) and state filings: sales tax, withholding taxes, unemployment taxes, local taxes, and perhaps tire fees. Payroll and the tax filings I have handled various ways: 1)Did them all myself calculating them with excel spread sheets and writing all checks. 2)Hired outside bookkeeper to prepare all the above. 3)Entering all payroll information and using on-line service to process payroll and pay taxes. If you will go to bi-weekly payroll you can do the internet one through netpaysolutions.com for about $75 per month. I am currently using our bank (Regions Bank) which offers an on-line payroll/tax service with a little more work involved but it only costs me $40 per month. The thing to keep in mind is the more stuff like this you take onto youself the less time you have to devote to either the things you enjoy or things you are really good out. Working 12 hours in the shop and then coming home and doing bookkeeping is a forumla for burnout. If you shop around you can probably get someone who will do everything you need for somewhere between $250-$300 per month if you won't monthly account and payroll. At least I can in this market. Like I said you can get payroll for about $75 per month.