Transmission Repair

I'm currently 66. I retired at 60 after 40 years in the transmission repair business. I feel sorry for many older owners (70s-80s) who are WAY PAST retirement, but still working because they have to. 😞 The guy I sold the business to was 80. That's no way to live, in my opinion. I feel humbled and blessed for my situation. I some owners who don't have a business, they have a job. Ever try to sell a job? Those types usually just sell the tools and equipment because that's all they can find a buyer for. Nobody is willing to buy a job. During my last 7 years, I maintained accurate records to prove I had $1.2M/yr. in sales with a 21% net profit (before taxes) because I knew I was going to retire. I just didn't know when. My wife and I paid ourselves $100K/yr. collectively, before the 21% profit. The guy I sold the business to folded after 5 years due to sales falling to $400K/yr. The $11000 monthly rent became 33% of sales. I purchased the building in 2013 for $860K. After he folded, I sold the building for $2,3M+. We had a small shop (3K sq.ft) but a HUGE parking lot. This is the only shop I've seen that didn't have a parking problem. Here's a short 1:07 video of the shop:

Rent was 11% of sales. https://www.bbb.org/us/ut/salt-lake-city/profile/transmission/tanner-transmissions-inc-1166-85050006/complaints https://www.yelp.com/biz/tanner-transmissions-salt-lake-city-17 The reason he closed was business got down to $400K/yr. due to many complaints. He also closed a second shop.

"Rent was 9% of sales. The shop was doing $100K/mo. consistently. The new owner let it fall to $30K/mo. Rent became 36% of sales due to low business. He closed this shop and another one he had for the same reason. Lack of sales, management, and marketing. Big parking lot, high traffic count, near a 12-dealership auto mall. https://youtu.be/V89FJzM7KCg

Expensive rent is the cheapest advertising you can do. We were located right on the I-15 freeway in Draper, UT, which is a suburb of SLC. 260K/day ADTT. We were doing $1.2M almost immediately. Bought the building in 2013 for $860K. Retired in 2020. Sold the business and real estate in 2015 for $2.6M, mostly cash. Buyer folded after 5 years and now it's now a plumbing repair shop. MyBuddyThePlumber.com paid all cash.

First, we are a transmission repair facility and nothing else. No GR. What's your definition of your customers saying your prices are too high? Is it when they say "No" when trying to sell a job or, when they vocal with you and tell you straight up? I'll assume it's the latter. I choose to ignore price complaints because they are simply irrelevant for the most part. Transmission prices are all over the map. -HOWEVER- I worked hard to keep tabs on my costs. Everything is changing, and at a faster rate. Every single time I calculate our costs, it has gone up. Never fails. Early in my career I was scared and performed a cost analysis every month. As the years rolled by, the frequency slowly got shorter, then quarterly, and now I only do a cost analysis once or twice a year. As long as the front counter staff knows and believes in the shop's pricing structure, you can easily defend your prices. Most of the time, it's simply either a miscommunication, or comparing apples to oranges. I remember one time a customer blew a gasket over a transmission fluid change price of $500. It was a Euro vehicle with combination oil pan/trans filter rolled into one. To get the pan off, you have to fully drop the exhaust system. It takes special fluid. I just ignored the guy. Something like a month later, I received an Email off of our website. It was the same customer calling me on our prices. "The dealer wanted almost a thousand dollars for a fluid and filter change." the customer said. He learned a lot from doing his own research. J. Larry Bloodworth, Draper, Utah [email protected]

I don't think I can speak intelligently about which scanner to use because I have only known a couple scanners in my 45-year career. Virtually all my scanners over the years at the shop has been Snap-On. More recently I have been using the BlueDriver sold on Amazon. It's a little more than $100 bucks and does everything I need in retirement at home and on the side. The best feature I love with the BlueDriver scanner is that you can lookup fault code history on Identifix. It works with both iOS and Android phones/tablets.-->>BlueDriver Scanner At Amazon BTW, it's rated at 4.7-stars with 30K reviews on Amazon.

It would be Snap-On if I could only have one. I also like BlueDriver because it not only can do it all, but it has links built-in to the IdentiFix database for free. This would be for either a shop add-on or one to keep at home.

I always say there's nothing like reviving an old topic. 🙂 Yes, phone technology has grown by leaps and bounds over the last 5 or 6 years. I use RingCentral for my phone and Convirza for call tracking. RingCentral costs me about $75/mo. for 3 numbeers. Convirza call tracking depends on how large you want your pool of phone numbers. I was in a 6-shop chain and our phone pool was $500/mo. for 100 phone numbers. It's too long of a story to try to fully explain how call tracking works. Let it suffice to say it tells you the source (ad, radio, website, Google, Yelp, etc.) of the call as well as all the callerID info, it records the call and there's an algorithm that "scores" the phone call as in "junk call" or "legitimate sales lead", Here's a sample of the info. available with call tracking. Look at the links provided and decide for yourself.

We did our shop floor ourselves before we ever moved into the building. We did 6 bays, approximately 3,000 sq.ft. with 6 gallons (three 2-gallon kits) of Rustoleum floor epoxy. Each kit comes with a bag of 2-color flakes to sprinkle on the epoxy and gives an anti-slip surface. Back when we did the floor, the kits were only $99 each, but now they are $163.02 per kit. It would take about $500 to do it today. It lasts for 5 years, then the area under vehicles when on the lift begins to chip. We didn't have to redo the whole floor, only the lift areas. We are a transmission shop and the techs have been known to drop crossmembers, and sometimes transmissions. (OUCH!) Here's the link to look for yourself. I've also a closeup of our floor. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rust-Oleum-EpoxyShield-2-Gal-Gray-Garage-Floor-Epoxy-261845/202963950

Autosave of Pensacola, I had a very similar situation arise when I was 58. Long story made short, I invested the $850K and went for it. I retired in 2020 at 65 and sold the building/property for $2.8M. You could do something similar. Shop & 1 Acre Sells For $2.8M

Matthew, There's actually 2 places you can get the information. One is from the U.S. Economic Census, and they are absolutely free. However, they have a convoluted website (of course, it's the federal government) that give you the same data in spreadsheet form. However, they don't have an interactive map; just spreadsheet form only. They are at https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/economic-census/data/tables.html The interactive map comes from Cubit Planning in Austin, Texas. Talk you Kristen at https://www.cubitplanning.com/ and tell her I sent you. Now you can mail me $100 bucks.

We've had great success with Google Pay-Per-Click advertising. We geo-target a 5 mile radius around our shop. In addition, we also hit higher income zip codes outside of the 5-mile radius. How do we know which zip codes have higher income? We buy an interactive demographic map for $125. Here's how that works.___>> https://youtu.be/rLSe0_Yh4I0 2:26

Expensive rent is the cheapest advertising money can buy. Follow the Sound of &nbsp;Bulldozers and the Smell of Fresh Paint <--Print article http://goodies.wizardacademypress.com/MMM080804-SoundOfBulldozers.mp3 <--Audio version.