Jay Huh

Saw a Tesla the other day at the mall with it completely stripped down. Has tires with tie rods connected to the steering column and a self contained motor at the rear. No oil, no spark plugs, no moving components.... everything electronic.... NOTHING to replace but tires and possibly brakes every 100,000 miles. Is this the future? How long, in 20 years? 15 years? I'm 30 and I think I will be good by the time I retire but a completely different story for the next generation. Gotta think too, as we start transitioning over, there will be less and less work for the numerous number of automotive shops out there. Just in my shopping center alone, there are 5 major shops and 1 more across the street. In our 5 mile radius, there has got to be more than 20

Those fees really add up. I do everything with Wells Fargo. They make a lot of money off of me.... but it's still cheaper than Square, Paypal etc. 2.75% is too high. Get people to use their debit cards- fees are REALLY CHEAP for debit. Avoid over the phone payment if possible.... huge fee for that

Hey Tyrguy, I feel you. There are customers that just want to take advantage of every single situation and suck every last penny out of you. My example was from last week.... had a comeback for a bad wheel bearing over 3 months after it was done.... but instead of coming back to me, they take it to another shop. We have a good relationship with that shop and they said it was no big deal (2 of the 3 bolts for the hub were loose) and they tightened everything up. Once I found out that they fixed our comeback (for free byw, customer was not charged at all), I offered the customer $40 for goodwill for the inconvenience. They said no and wanted money back for the entire job. Offered them $70 (labor for the wheel bearing) because I did not want a pissed off customer even though it was evident they wouldn't be my customer anymore but they turned that down because they wanted their money back for the whole ticket (we also did inner tie rods on that ticket). They wanted money back for their entire ticket and money for time missed time off of work and threatened to sue me. Well, I am probably going to end up in small-claims court. I obviously have the signed invoice with our warranty agreement. 24mo 24k mile warranty to be done at our shop only. So not really worried and I thought I did the best I could in this situation. Yea, I hate the public too

My complete story is here: http://carmedixnc.com/history/ Don't let anyone tell you that you can't do something. The only mechanical experience I had was working on my own car from time to time. I have a B.S. in Supply chain management but worked at Carmax as a service advisor. Decided to just quit one day and work out of my garage and advertise on Craigslist to do mechanic work (really simple stuff like brakes). HOA notified me that I couldn't work in my garage so 3 months later, I am on the road and doing mobile mechanic stuff. 3 months after that, I rented a bay from another business for $1250/month. 8 months later, I sign a contract for my very own 6 bay facility. Now I have 4 employees and run a full shop and share the same wall with major franchises. I didn't need any capital, didn't have any special training, no one helped me. Just gave it my all and watched a ton of YouTube vids and made people believe I was the best damn mechanic to have ever touched their car.

This is a great post, I'm going to bookmark this one, reading through this gave me motivation myself. Feeling the same as the OP from time to time. I'm a people-pleaser by nature and stressed and anxious a lot of the time. Taxes and accounting is a PAIN. Somehow my business is doing ok lol. I started my business as a one man business. What really helped with the stress is hiring a front counter guy that you can trust. Now I have 3 techs and a service advisor who acts as the store manager. My shop program is cloud-based and I installed security cameras all over. Now I manage the shop from my home at least 1 day a week and i can even take a whole week off if I wanted to.

You guys are awesome and thank you so much for your input. Gives me confidence in charging what I charge now. Thanks!

Read through the whole post- I like the idea of quick struts as well for obvious reasons. Problem seems to be that most part places do not have the modular assemblies in stock and it is hard to get. Who do you guys use as suppliers? Being able to get parts fast seems like the best way to sell as the job itself would not take long at all

I have access to all the book times but we always go with Chilton severe time- they are the highest and never let me down. Once I quote a customer, unless there is a really good reason, I stick to it. Last time we did a heater core, customer had aftermarket radio he installed himself and there were wires EVERYWHERE. Lost our butt on it but kept the price the same. SHould've charged more but didn't- we ended up cleaning up the wires for him as well. Our shop is rated 4.9 out of 5 with over 130 reviews and that's how we keep it.

Hi everyone, first time post and it's been good reading everyone's input on this forum. Just so happened to stumble upon this forum and it's awesome having other people in my shoes. I quit my job as a service advisor and started doing side work out of my garage @$35/labor rate. Became a mobile mechanic with $45/hr 3 months after. Got a shared building with 2 bays and bumped up to $60 an hour. 8 months later, I am now at my current very own 6 bay facility with 4 employees and I just bumped up my rate to $75/hour. I have 2 national chains that share the same wall (Meieneke and Precision tune) and they charge $95/hour. Problem is, I still have customers that come to me from my $35/hr days and feel extremely bad and guilty for charging new rate. Should I be? Best way to implement change without losing customers? From the customers perspective, do you think they understand the operating costs and justification in price increase?