Rob H.

Joe, another great and helpful article! my question is, I use snap-on shop key (switching to bay-master soon) to do my estimates, labor time etc., it prints out on the estimate the labor time that I give to my customers, should I not be giving them this estimate? should I print my own est. on our shops stationary/letterhead that just includes prices not times? then what about parts prices on the estimate? should I just be giving them an estimate that says something like.... FRONT BRAKE JOB $179.99 includes the following...pads...rotors, labor etc. etc.?? originally I thought if I spelled everything out clearly...costs, time etc. on an estimate it would avoid issues but alot of times we are able to get the job done in under book time and find ourselves "stalling" at the end or leaving the car in the bay and doing another job to avoid the issue you had, but then the stalling tactic wastes our time/money to get on the next job!

Hi, new to this site and glad I found it! reading alot on here has help me out, my problem is..... i'm a new garage owner, 3yrs now, started from zero! no customers, no employees and very little equipment, now i've got 4 full time employees plus myself, lots of business, equipment etc., shop makes good money, yet not alot for me but i'm currently almost debit free, only owe snap-on about 5k other than that nothing! i pay cash for everything and dont like debit, but recently i've been thinking about getting a small loan (10k) to do somethings around the shop to improve services and finish some cars I have to put out for sale, but honestly it scares me to death thinking about a loan, i've had several sleepless nites lately about it! my fear is if we get slow (thank god we are always busy) how will I make my loan payment, payroll etc., I keep $$ in reserve but adding a loan makes me nervous, the loan can help me buy new equipment to better service cars and hopefully get things done quicker so I can work more to make more $$ and I know debit can be ok, I dont think i'll really be able to grow bigger like I want paying for everything out of my pocket, so i'm looking for everyones opinion on taking on a loan and can I really grow without a loan now or in the future. thanks in advance for your input, Rob