xrac

Welcome to the forum. Thanks for sharing your websites. I like the overall look of http://www.chazoffroad.com/ best. The other site http://www.chazauto.net/ is also good though. If I might offer a suggestion I would have someone proof read the text on the http://www.chazoffroad.com/ site. I noticed some misspelled words and I think the punctuation and spacing could be improved.

Here is another good article on the subject: http://tirereview.com/Article/68575/packag..._max_value.aspx

Randy welcome to the forum. The first thing that comes to mind is how are you advertising for your glass business and how can you include the auto repair in with it. Are you able to put any signage on the street such as an A-frame with changeable offers? How about a banners? Come up with an attractive offer to get people to try you. Print up some type of offer and go around to the surrounding businesses and pass them out. You do not say how fast the traffic moves on the highway that you are on. Just keep in mind that people have to have a reason to notice you and to know that you are there.

How to make electric power windows:

Free Nobel Peace Prize with oil change offered by Rockwall auto repair: http://therockwallnews.com/2009/1210/featured/nobel

I really like your website. It loads very fast and it looks really nice!

I do not have a hard time selling alignments. I take the customer out into the shop and show them what is going on on tire wear. The biggest drawback is customers with older cars and worn front end parts who need hundreds of dollars of work befire we can do an alignment.

Joe, have you done anything yet. It is absolutely critical that you do some planning now. Do you have a potential buyer in an family members or current employees? You may also wind up with a very valuable asset in this website. Have you done any personal planning? Personally I have a will, an advanced medical directive, a living will, a durable power of attorney, and enough permanent life insurance to protect my wife. This I put in place about four years ago. If I got nothing out of the business she would still be o.k.

Good to know. From my perspective Hybrid owners have to really be tree huggers trying to save the environment, politically correct, or unrealistic financially. I have done the math and the extra cost and maintenance on the Hybrids does not add up at this time.

This is very, very important if any of us want to get anything close to true worth out of our businesses. I want to work out a buy sell with my service mananger funded by life insurance. He is 7 years younger than I am. It is absoluetely critical that we have an exit plan and have it funded. The current problem I have is that I have a partner who does not work in the business that I have to deal with first. At 57 I am not as young as I once was.

You do not say how many names you have in your data base or how many pieces you will mail. That may have quite a bit to do with it. Initially I would probably only go back about 5 years. You can probably find a service that can scrub your data base for duplicate names and invalid addresses.

That is quite a bit of traffic. I need to build a Facebook page for our business also.

Joe, why do you say that? Is it because of the technology pf the vehicle, the dependability of the vehicle, the personality of the typical Hybrid owner, all of the above, or something unrelated?

Does anyone see many hybrids and is anyone working on them? We have only had less then 1/2 dozen in our shop and all only for oil changes. Ofcourse, I live out here in the hinderlands and new technology always reaches us last. For example we do not have an Infinity, Acura, or Land Rover dealer within 100 miles. I am curious as to what other parts of the country are doing as far as service work on hybrids. We know we will eventually have to deal with them.

I thought of you when I read this:

I had learned of Ask Patty (http://www.askpatty.com/) decided to check them out. They do not provide pricing information on-line but they want to present things in about a 30 minute phone call with you in front of your computer. I sat through that today. It could be a good program but it is too early to tell how successful they will be. Here is some pricing information about the cost of becoming a Certified Woman Friendly Shop. You will need to do on-line one time training of personnel that interact with customers ($100 per person). There is then a $250 one time set up fee to provide you with a mini-website, to link your current web site to Patty's, and for marketing and publicity support. Then the cost is $149.00 per month maintenance. Ask Patty is something I would really like to do but I do not think it would be cost effective for us at this point in time based upon our location and market. It is a little too rich for our blood.

We sell mostly new tires but I do save the very best used tires and sell them but I only hang onto popular sizes. The marginal used tires I hang on to and sell to a used tire shop locally for $2-$3 each. Everything else gets disposed of by a licensed recycler for $1.25 per tire. We do have quite a few tires awaiting disposal grabbed by used tire scavengers. The State of Indiana makes us collect a whopping $0.25 per tire as a state fee. We charge our customers $2.00 disposal plus the $0.25.

If you need more help maybe you could add a part-timer. I don't know how unemployment is in your area but I twice worked guys who were laid off. They were allowed to make a certain amount of money without endangering their unemployment benefits and I worked each about 2 days per weeks. I have also had guys with experience who were going to school who have wanted to work part time. However, none of this is the best solution. You may want to considered hiring another tech so you can grab the business you are losing now and also plan some type of advertising plan to drive more traffic. You may also be able to grow your business by expanding your hours. Our hours are 7a.m. to 5:30p.m. Monday-Friday with a one hour lunch (47.5 hours) and 7a.m. to 3p.m. on Saturdays with no lunch break (8 hours). They eat on the run with me buying lunch and having it brought in. This means that even on a Monday-Friday schedule only I have 7.5 more hours than you do which is like adding another day. By starting earlier we get more done.

If you have a good alignment/suspension tech you can find and sell a ton of front end and suspension work. That is one reason why we keep our alignments a little lower than we would like. We get a lot of suspension work and sell a lot of camber kits. We have a very good suspension tech and there is a lot of bad front end parts that are missed by shops.

Joe it is a totally different market in the deep south. I have only been to northern LA but I once did contracting work in Jackson, MS. It was totally different. A lot of vehicles there would probably not be allowed on the road in NY. Because the weather is warm snow and ice is not an issue and people tend to get by with tires that would get you in toruble in the north.

With the recession and chinese embargo are you having a hard time coming up with enough used tires? The guys around here just about kill to get a hold of 14" and 15".

No problem! I moved it! I am vbery glad you found us. Joe is a great resource.

AAA in Ohio bought a chain of thirty shops. http://tirereview.com/Article/66569/aaa_bu...l_business.aspx

Not nearly as avid as I once was. I don't seem to have the time or energy especially after 10 hours at the shop.

I think some of this stuff is the future but we are not quite there yet. Give it five more years and the landscape will be completely different.