[Raymond Wittneben IV]

Don’t do it.

Instead, market your shop correctly to fill those bays.

Educate the DIY’s why they should have a professional do the work for them, not all but some will have it done by a professional.

The ones that want to stay DIY’s, let them go, they are not worth the time, effort & lost revenue they cause.

[Raymond Wittneben IV]

My accountants advise was pretty simple, just don’t let anyone work overtime. If I am that busy, hire another person. Then it’s a non factor

[Raymond Wittneben IV]

Boy, I could host a long class on this topic. Has been talked about since cars have been made. Some call it fluid fleecing of the customer, others an ounce of prevention is a pound of cure. 

I use one simple principle in my shop.

HONESTY. Most shop owners & experienced techs have enough knowledge to know whether or not something needs attention on a car or not: from out right broken parts to simple fluid services. You know in your conscious if the service really needs to be performed or not. If you think your ripping the customer off, you just may be. If you think it really needs to be done, it probably does. 

Continue to do research on what cars need for fluid services, train on the types of fluids out there.

I know it’s not as simple as this, but I do have work to get done in my shop. 

Farewell 

[Raymond Wittneben IV]

You don’t hire them

[Raymond Wittneben IV]

Had it happen to me. We had an employee that accidentally grabbed the wrong filter, only different by one number & it looked exactly the same, have to say, when you looked at it quick it looked like the same number as needed.

Needless to say the filter blew and destroyed the motor.

We have business insurance for that, we had to pay a small deductable and my insurance company company paid for a new motor for the customers car & we got paid the labor which more than offset the deductable

Chalk it up to the learning curve. I know the employee didn’t do it on purpose, of course he wouldn’t want that

Now we have a part check system in place that will hopefully prevent this

We also have a quality control training system for all employees

Will this prevent accidents from happening again, more so than not, but when your in business long enough and work on enough cars, things happen

FYI, we use a torque wrench to tighten all drain plugs and when the next tech is checking the work he or she just has to click the wrench to check the torque, if you torque all of em, no questions asked

BTW, the employee that it happened too, ended up being my best employee

 

 

[Raymond Wittneben IV]

Check with your states statutes. In some states you can only sell so many cars, then you have to get a dealers license. Pros: it keep the techs busy and brings in extra revenue. 

Cons: you have money tied up until you sell the car

If you do it right, you won’t have a problem with being married to the car

[Raymond Wittneben IV]

Would you hire someone right now if you found the right person?

 Absolutely

If you are currently looking for one or more employees, how long have you been looking?

 I am always looking.

What are the top three (or so) reasons why you have not hired people who have applied for a job at your shop?

 Did not have a clean valid drivers license

 Did not pass a background check

 Was unable to pass a drug screening 

[Raymond Wittneben IV]

Yes…..confidently & friendly.  

[Raymond Wittneben IV]

For the least expensive way, use Quick-books. Just a one time fee of about $300 and it’s yours for life. Takes more time to set up for the way you want it to work, but once you figure it out, it goes fine. It also makes your accounting and doing your taxes a lot easier. 

[Raymond Wittneben IV]

SA wants to make 50K a year (Gross pay), they better sell me 50K in sales a month, they want 100k a year in pay, they better sell me 100k a month in sales, & vice versa, they only make 20K a year if they only sell 20K in sales a month, but they won’t be here long then.

There are minimum levels of acceptable performance that must be met each month, cost of parts, cost of labor, sublet, etc.. need to be in line so the shop doesn’t get ripped off.

But it’s pretty basic, comes out to about 7.5% of gross sales (this 7.5% is there gross, all benies included)