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xrac

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Everything posted by xrac

  1. Some people my say that I have no life! Actually I worked today and we had a great day, really busy. Because I couldn't get a reservations at the restaurant I wanted on New Year's Eve I took my wife out an evening early and we enjoyed a nice, relaxing romantic dinner on Wednesday night instead.
  2. Joe, thank for creating this forum and for the encouragement and advice you offer. I hope 2010 is a record year for you and that this forum experiences significant growth. Hopefully some day we will meet in person.
  3. Sometimes we do and sometimes we don't. Sometimes we sell the parts at our cost, some times we sell the part only with no extra labor, etc. I think my service writer and I need to discuss this because sometimes we are too generous. If we want our business to be profitable we need to at least try to sell these things. On Thursday we had a nice repair approved through my service manager of about $630.00 but when I looked at it I saw that we had omitted any pricing of a serpentine belt that the customer had been told was need and would be replaced. The service writer was going to just eat the belt since it was a profitable ticket but I called the owner and easily sold the belt which effectively added over $100 of profit to the ticket verus giving the belt away. What we must realize is that unsold parts installed cost us in two ways. First the cost of the part (in this case about $22) and the lost amount on the total ticket ( in this case about $80.00). If we want our business to be profitable we need to at least try to sell these things. If we meet too much resistance we may then choose to make off. It doesn't have to be a hard sell.
  4. As I said elsewhere we finished flat on the year and felt proud of ourselves for accomplishing it. We had a severe ice storm in late January that caused power outage in the area for up to two weeks. That hurt sales. Then we encountered a really tough period from May to September culminating in a very bad September. Our AC sales were soft due to an unusually cool summer for this area.
  5. By turning in a strong November and December we managed to barely eck ahead of last years sales. All in all it was a decent year despite the economy. We had to work very hard to accomplish this. The month that hurt us the most was September. We have high hopes for the coming year and are going to work to make this the year we cross the $1,000,000 in sales plateau. As you all can see I am the life of the party. Here I am posting this on New Year'sEve. Happy New Year to all. May we all work to help, support, and encourgae each other. May 2010 be a record year sales and profits wise for all of us. God bless!
  6. That is the big question I have to answer in four years. If I don't renew they will probably come into town with a new franchise. I attend any and all training that I have access. I have had a lot of management training and a lot of sales training but most of it non-automotive. Not at the current time although we are moving in that direction. It looks like I will have to do that. Mostly I have managed by cash flow.
  7. A lot of different people email me stuff and I participate in several forums where I pick up stuff. One main source is my Car-X area manager. He visits us about 3-4 times per year to look over our operation, help where he can, offer suggestions, new ideas, answer questions, etc. He was a basketball player for Kent State and a career Army/Army Reserves Master Sergeant Infantry. He is a great guy who has been the most help of anyone from Car-x. He was my trainer when we set this up ten years ago. He also has a hilarious sense of humor and is all of the time sending me stuff. I have to thank him for this one.
  8. Some people like Tequila maybe this is why: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt...sa%3DX%26um%3D1
  9. Our franchise are expected to offer and track certain services. For any new franchisee there are six weeks of training plus and on site manager will help set up the shop, computer software, equipemnt, inventory, etc. They also help organize a grand opening. We have an annual meeting that will offer a day of training plus a day of trade show with potential vendors. I definitely think have modules of business training could be valuable.
  10. With only two bays bay management will be critical. Some bigger jobs you may need to avoid if it prevents you from taking on other work. You want to become known as a place that people can get things done, not have to wait weeks to get scheduled.
  11. It has it's advantages. I can pick up a phone and call corporate or I can call another owner and seek advice or help. It can be about management, sales, marketing, advertising, yellow pages, computer software, shop equipment, parts purchasing, etc. There are new programs and services offered. The business model is discussed and expanded, etc. Sometimes it is real helpful other times maybe not so much. The question now is is it worth 5% of gross sales. Our franchise agreement expires in 4 1/2 years.
  12. We are a franchise and therefore have costs and access to some programs that independents do not. This includes techinical training, management training, marketing, national account buying programs, etc. We also participate in a program called Certified Auto Repair through O'Reilly Auto Parts. This program gives us a nationwide warranty protection on any repairs that we do. This is nice.
  13. It is my sincere heartfelt desire that everyone who participates on this forum would have a wonderful Christmas and that the New Year will be filled with joy and prosperity. I would like to thank Joe for creating this forum and for allowing me to participate on it. I have learned things from here that have helped my business and I hope to continue to learn. May AutoShopOwner experience growth in 2010. Most of all I am thankful to God for allowing me to have the ability and health to do what I have in 2009. May I never forget the ONE that this holiday is about. MERRY CHRISTMAS!
  14. I do count myself fortunate. I don't mind 2-3 inches but all bad weather, especially snow and ice is very disruptive to business. It is also an expense for removal. It makes it hard to work on cars with all the ice, melting snow, and water. It is also time consuming squeeging water. I would not want to have to deal with the amount of snow that your have. Were you paralyzed last week by the storm that blew through?
  15. Here is some interesting news U.S. manufactured cars are shut out of Japan's clunker plan. Now is that fair or smart or what? http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti...312219960/1117#
  16. Not much. Our franchisor provides some training. I usually spend 1-2 days in Chicago each year. We always have a nationally know speaker. Sometimes it is good and sometimes otherwise. The best thing about that meeting is the exchange with other owners. I have attend a few classes locally put on by vendors. I try to read as much as I can.
  17. We are in Southern Indiana but are actually south of Louisville, KY, geographically. Weather has some impact but not major. We have never closed even one day due to weather during the past ten years. We might of had a skeleton crew but we were open. There has only been two times in that period that we had really severe weather. A few years ago 18 inches of snow fell which pretty much paralyzed everything but we still managed to open and the snow completely melted off in about a week. Last year we had a severe ice storm that knocked out huge areas for electrical power. My home (5 miles away) had no electricity for 7 days but it never closed our business. We had power there. The first five years that we were open the only snow removal expense we experienced was three bags of ice melt.
  18. Sounds like it was fun and sounds like it is a good idea. We are not doing anything so elaborate but we are giving all of our guys an extra day (Saturday) off.
  19. Here is a candidate that I could believe in Congressional Candidate Lieutenant Colonel Allen West!
  20. “If you know you have to swallow a frog, swallow it first thing in the morning. If there are two frogs, swallow the big one first.” Mark Twain http://www.productiveflourishing.com/a-fro...anchors-aweigh/
  21. Most of them get a discount of 10-20% on everything. My franchisor negotiates that out so I have no say in what it is. I just have to live with it. The deepest discount I have seen is 20% and the lowest is 5%. Ofcourse, my situation is different. I turn all invoices into Car-x and they collect the money but my paper work has to be correct. We do GE, MAP, Wheels, LeasePlan, ARI, Donlen, PHH, and some others. If you want this type of work you need to see who has got the most cars locally.
  22. I have the chance to attend a shop owners class taught by ATI/"Chubby" Frederick. Has anyone been in any of his classes and what is your opinion? Are they worth it? http://www.autotraining.net/about_management.htm
  23. One does have to watch the discounts. You can get hurt unless you factor in what you are really getting paid. Most of our GE stuff has a 20% discount. This forces us to mark things up more than we normally would and to go off book labor for some things that we usually would not (i.e. battery swap or air filter). If your shop has small mark ups and a low labor rate you will get killed after the discount is taken.
  24. We do work for about 12 different fleet management companies. Most of these are negotiated through our franchisor. The paperwork can be a pain but if you stay on top of stuff there isn't a problem. We will take all the fleet management work we can get. An added advantage is that we have also cultivated some of the drivers into customers for their personal cars.
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