dfrisby

I was thinking about having my wife do mine also. Thanks for reminding me why I haven't. Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

It wasn't with torque sticks. Just an impact gun. I think torque sticks are fine. I just used them once and didn't find the time savings to be worth the investment. I use my torque wrench all the time. If I was a tire shop it would maybe make sense. Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

I don't have torque sticks. Used them once, but I didn't see the time savings to be enough to justify. Almost every tech that's come to work here has argued that they have some magical ability to torque just right with an impact alone. I've taken my snap on digital torque wrench to every lug nut on a wheel after they torqued them with an impact and showed them the variations on their torque. If it was supposed to be 100 ft/lbs, they usually ranged between 60 and 130. I insist that if the wheels are off they get torqued to spec with a torque wrench. The safety of my customers and my reputation isn't worth saving 56 seconds over.

I have the mastercool. Worth every penny. We hated brake line repairs till we got it. Now we just dislike them.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a regular customer stop in. He's a sheetrocker. He told me his wife's car had the check engine light on. He wanted a "ballpark" price to fix it. I told him I'd need the car there to run diagnostics before I could give him a price. He said he understood I couldn't give an exact price, he was just looking for a rough estimate. I started changing the subject to sheetrock, as I have some in my home that needs finishing. Asked him for an estimate. He asked how many square feet. I said "blue". He figured it out and is bringing the car in for the estimate and coming to the house to bid on my sheet rock work. Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

I to have been struggling with customer supplied parts. I always inform them that there is absolutely no warranty on customer supplied parts. Had a pickup in here last week that needed a transfer case. Quoted him a price to rebuild as well as a price to buy a reman. Money was an issue, so he called a friend that has a friend with the perfect transfer case for his pickup. He let me know he was bringing it in Friday morning, but had plans he needed his truck for Saturday. We pulled the t-case before he got here, and I had a bad feeling about the whole deal. Sure enough, he shows up with the wrong transfer case. I explained that there would be additional time billed because the truck couldn't stay in my shop all weekend and it takes time to shove it out and pull it in and everything. Customers that supply their own parts are usually to cheap to buy quality parts. I've decided to put an end to it and yesterday put signs up in the shop stating we do NOT install customer supplied parts for any reason. If they are buying the parts themselves, they can install them as well.

Great advice there. Overhead eats a one person shop. I started out just me. I now have 2 mechanics working as well as myself as I can. A lot of my overhead doesn't increase by hiring another tech. All data doesn't cost more per month, rent stays the same. Now there's three of us contributing to the overhead. We work on everything land based from lawn mowers to class 8 trucks. I use a pay structure similar to what Andre posted above, and it works. If an employee can't consistently average 20 billable hours a week, they cost me to much and need to be replaced. I'd hire 2 more techs tomorrow if I could find them. I've also been advertising for a service writer/manager. With the two techs I have, I'm spread to thin to stay on top of everything. I'm sure there's parts getting installed that aren't getting billed. Will that service writer cost me money? Not if they increase my revenue on the work we're already doing. Efficiency should come with time. Once a week take a look around and find the wasted motions. What shop equipment is used regularly, but all the way across the shop from where the techs usually are. We turn the compressor and welder off at the breaker box every night. The compressor get's turned on with the lights in the morning, but the welder only get's turned on when we need it. Once or twice a week. The breaker panel is at the opposite corner from the welder in my shop. I realized once every other day or so, somebody would go to the welder and turn it on, then all the way across the shop to hit the switch on the breaker panel. Now I make it a habit to flip it on in the morning as well. Might only save 2 minutes a day, but it's two minutes we'll never get back. What kind of big jobs do you have plugging up your shop waiting for parts that can't be moved? I know a lot of times we get into that situation, but we've also gotten a bit creative on ways to get vehicles back out of the shop when their in the way and can't be finished at this time. We had a car a few months ago that we pulled the engine and trans on. This required the whole front end to be pulled apart. Ended up the engine had more damage than expected and customer decided to find a used engine. Well, we weren't going to reassemble just to pull it out, and it sure wasn't staying in. We welded a simple frame together out of some scrap we had out back. Basically a wide jack stand. Tacked some pneumatic casters to it and set the car on the frame. Pushed out to parking lot till junk yard engine came, then pushed back in. Took about an hour to fab up, but that bay made money the rest of the week.

Don't tie up both bays with large jobs. Keep one bay for in and out repairs. While Waiting on parts for a the engine overhaul you can use the other bay for jobs parts are readily available for. Brakes, wheel bearings, oil changes. By tying up both bays with big jobs waiting on parts, you make it difficult to pick up the gravy work that comes along. Brakes grinding? If I can't get it in my shop by tomorrow, that customer is going elsewhere. Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

I've used both. Ni-cop is better. We use steel on the junkers that aren't likely to survive another year anyways. Seems I've had a run of customers just hoping to squeeze one or two more years out before replacing their vehicle. Cost of ni-cop is significantly more. Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

The wisdom and advice coming from this thread is great. I needed this. In my shop, our last three weeks have been the best so far for gross revenue, but there have been a few glitches each week eating most of the profits up. Last night I came home feeling burnt out and exhausted. The advice in this thread has me excited to make changes and push forward. Thank you to my fellow shop owners for taking the time to share your knowledge with us. Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

Had a truck in my shop a month or two ago the customer just wanted line spliced in where it was leaking. We replaced the whole line. There had to have been at least 16 compression fittings on that one brake line from previous repairs. Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

Cell phones are one of the worst inventions ever. I hate mine. Employees think I'm infringing on their constitutional rights if I even mention it. One employee broke his. Thought it was gonna be a productive day. He spent two hours fiddling with it trying to get a connection. I'm implementing a leave it in your car or find another job policy. I don't like paying people to Facebook and text. Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

If you ever get up north, I'll show you how I use baymaster for my inventory. I'm happy with it and the support. My situation is different also because I stock a lot of ATV parts. About $30k in inventory last I checked. All accounted for in baymaster. I also integrate with QuickBooks and it keeps my inventory up to date on the balance sheet. Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

Amazing how much preventative maintenance occurs after they have problems. Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

But he saved money by doing it himself. Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

I encourage my kids to learn a trade even if they do decide to go the college route. I almost went to college for computer programming. I was told about all the money I could make and all the jobs that would be available. Then the dot com bubble busted, there were more computer related employees than there were jobs and educated computer programmers were living in their mothers basements and working fast food. No thanks. I'll stick with doing real work to earn a decent living. Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

Gun control laws only affect law abiding citizens. Murder is already illegal. Does anybody really believe that a murderer is going to change his mind cause he might break a gun control law? Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

That sounds terrible to me. You should fire both techs immediately and give them my phone number. Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

I use Baymaster for my inventory management, and sell retail. Give them a try and tell them I sent you. I had similar concerns and they gave me a free 30 day trial with all the features turned on. My biggest concern was inventory management and once I tried it, I was sold. Took a couple weeks to get all my inventory entered in, because the previous owner didn't have anything in place for managing inventory. Once entered, it works great. Tech support is some of the best I've ever dealt with as well. A lady came in on her day off in order to do a major update to my system just so I could try a new feature without interrupting my normal business operations.

I totally agree with stowintegrity. Only one thing to add as I've been struggling with this issue as well. Employees do have a right to know how their pay is calculated and the numbers involved in calculating that pay. Don't calculate bonus on profit. That opens your books to them or causes trust issues. Hourly is simple. employee comes to work for x amount of hours and get's paid for x amount of hours. Same with flat rate, but then they have a right to know the hours charged on the invoice. I started out paying flat rate paid as jobs were paid for. Some weeks not many customers were in a hurry to pick up their vehicles or we did commercial jobs that were net 30 or whatever, and I'd over pay my employees because I couldn't expect them to be here all week for $100. The other problem I had was the constant need of them to take off early or show up late. I changed to an "hourly" base pay, that covers the first 15 hours of booked time. Then a percentage on the book time over 15 hours. They have incentive to be here and produce hours. I take the risk if it's a slow week and they are here but don't book many hours. Also, I now pay them for all work completed, whether it's paid for or not. It's not their problem if I have commercial customers that take a couple weeks to collect on or a customer that decides he can't afford the work we have performed. I thought about doing some sort of profit sharing plan based on profits, but I don't want to open my books to them. If they want to see the profit and loss statements, they can earn that right by opening their own shop or buying me out.

I've noticed that people seem more willing to spend money on atv repairs than car repairs. Have a 98 polaris that I just did an estimate for thinking no way he'd have me do all the work. Estimate was over $1,500 and he gave the go ahead and said if we find anything else, fix it. Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

I love my vantage. I work on everything from lawn mowers and ATVs to automotive and heavy trucks. Have a solus ultra that does most of what I need. I also have a blue point HD truck scan tool. Unless you are a dealer, its pretty much impossible to get OEM diagnostic tools for ATVs, so I manually test components with the vantage. Its used more than the solus in my shop. I end up doing all the diagnostic work in my shop because I haven't yet found a tech to hire that has the abilities. I will probably end up picking up a tech 2 in the future. Only OEM needs I've had so far have all been gm products. Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

Glad to hear it. I'm the same way. In a year and a half, I've only had two customers that complained about my service or prices and both times I got pretty heated over it. Looked back after calming down and wished I'd handled it differently. Maybe in the future, your success story will come to mind and I'll take the time to try and achieve similar results. Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

I have a chevy sierra diesel in my shop that has had a history of map sensor and turbo codes. Have pulled this Progressive Insurance Snapshot thing out of the OBD2 port both times, gone through the diagnostics and found nothing wrong. Everything within specs. The one thing I noticed is the freeze frame data of all the codes is mostly stripped. Almost everything shows N/A for the data. Anyone have similar experiences and is it possible that the Snapshot device is causing the codes or stripping the freeze frame data? Customer is going to operate the vehicle without the Snapshot device for awhile and return if the check engine light comes on again.

Negative reviews suck, but don't respond while angry. If you do respond, keep it professional. Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk