I worked at one independent shop. Never again. The shop owner was terrible. All invoices cashed out went directly into his bank account so he would try to force people up front to take money before work was done. He would come in every weekend and yell at everyone about performance and then leave and he would never work with customers or resolve their issues. One time he refused to honor warranty on a blown motor that was put in the year before. Paychecks were late, and if they weren't late you had to make sure to check your hours. He would dock you any hours he possibly could up to even watching cameras and clocking you out when you werent working on cars. When I started getting better I asked for a raise, at the time I was a tire tech title but they didnt have many mechanics so the master tech was teaching me. I was the one putting in the new engines and transmissions and doing more suspension and brake work. I was making 9 dollars an hour. His response was he wasnt getting a raise so why should I. And then he started going on a tangent saying he wanted to see me doing more fluid flushes before he would consider giving me a raise. I stayed for 3 years. After that conversation I left and started going to bigger chain stores. I haven't looked back
They should call your boss “The Flat Rate Turd Master” with turd angels playing shit turd trumpets every time his name is announced as he enters his shit turd shop while entering with his Vince McMahon walk
I was at a one owner shop for 1.5 years. Shady as Fuck. Asked about the cost of living wage my first year anniversary. They said they never heard of that. Snow days were not paid for. They would use our vacation instead. They refused to pay for training. Went out of state for work. They paid me a driving wage. I had to raise hell to get my regular wage for that trip. I was promised Shop foreman and was lied too. The shop was 20 years old. The founders and mechanics who started were taken care of. Later on. Met lots of people who had nothing good to say about them.
I worked at one Independent shop where no one torqued the wheels. Also worked at another shop where the boss pulled in a car at the end of the day and said this car needs new brake lines, you can't go home until it's done. I laughed and said OK. I wrapped up and left. Next day in the morning he calls me in and says I said you had to finish that job b4 u left, and I told him at 5pm I close up my toolbox. Anything after 5pm is for you to do this is your business not mines. I ended up leaving about a month after that conversation.
I had a job at a family owned shop and man was it toxic as fu. Right from the start i left day 2 of me working there. Family business only cares about their own.
You know Chicken Fixing says it best your Chanelle is what brings us all together to learn how to be better and find better shops to work for if there are any left because I thought yours was sold ground goes to show you even your shop is about the money
I had a coworker who opened up his shop and asked me to come work for him , he knew his stuff for the most part so I joined cus I could learn from him and had a good relationship, I helped him in anyway I could in and out of work i wanted him to be successful . Everything was great in the beginning, things started going south when the wife came and worked with him she had no experience in automotive at all, so he had a lot on his shoulder with running the business teaching me and teaching her. She didn’t like me for whatever reason I knew what it was but she made it clear she didn’t want me around and made it a uncomfortable work environment she would not come to work because of a grudge she had and the husband was trying to fight for me but at the end she made him decide so he let me go. You have to be very careful when working with partner it usually doesn’t work and it makes it hard to be the a good boss when you got stress and family working together .
Yeah they do. A very un educated lot they are. The get a lot wrong with accounting, taxes, hiring process, training , etc. I have worked with 23 ex co workers who started a shop and are mostly still in business. The way I see it , if your not the owner you don't have much of a future.
You are correct....I have a unique perspective. The majority of shop owners in the industry are a fail... If you want to be nice, let's say 85% of shop owners run a sh!tty business... But the numbers are probably more above 90%. It is really bad out here and being mobile I get to see first hand hundreds of shops across multiple counties and there are literally only a small handful of decent shops...it is a giant shit hole out here
Customer attrition is the biggest part of increasing profit. If you can lower that your margin will increase because you're doing more work with less advertising cost and employees. Most companies increase profits with advertising but their margin never increases because they have essentially expanded the business instead of maximizing what they already have and, that doesn't mean telling customers to take out a loan for a brake fluid exchange.
We have kitch to our location. Our shop is an old gas station on an island. People come in and buy our tshirts and beer. It’s a thing. Having that covers up a lot. Also during season 90% of our client base is tourists. They come in out of necessity, and most likely they will not come back. Between that and contracts with local police, Enterprise, and all the businesses with trucks. We have plenty of work. I know this is not the norm for the industry, but it works well for us. Our real problem is qualified help. We can’t get good lube and tire guys at any price. Part of the problem is we can’t import help. A basic house starts at $500k here. People are unwilling to jump into that. Well, the type of people that are lube techs.
If I told any of my bosses to watch this video I'd be fired lol. I agree with this video 100%, also I hate it when shop and business keep increasing their prices like mad, too many shops/ business loose money over that but they still keep increasing prices.
We used to call it store blindness when when the people that work in a place start seeing things as normal. Other people come in and they notice things immediately that should be changed. Large companies often temporarily swap managers to help with this. My brother used to train sales people for large companies. Too many of them run off customers. Creating a customer for years is more of a long term way of looking at it. When you do it right they will bring family and friends to you also. When you get it wrong word gets around quick. I've worked for a couple of the largest companies in the country and watched them run stores straight into the ground with bad management.
Thanks for the video. I'm in the process of building an automotive repir business in My back yard to do wheel and tires and driveability work. I have the capital to do that. I plan to take business management classes as well as keep up with technology. I live an hour away from any big town, so I will be helping a community of 90 families with their cars. I talk with community big issue that they have is no one can balance a tire to safe their own life in the area where I live. The community wants a good tire wheel place and someone that's understands car electronics. I have two dealer level scan tools I keep getting training on. I should well I will not get rich doing this, but I worked as a tech at lots of shops that folded in the seattle cause low pay and other things you talk about. Thanks for this video once again
there is bar rescue why cant there be dealership rescue no seriously I wish the people who owned my dealership were mechanics/techs and even my service manager he has never touched a car maybe only changed a tire and did a oil change on his own veh his only car experience is working at a autoparts store befor becoming a service manager how pathetic our owners there are two men both brothers one is never even at the shop the othere is there only when there is a problem that he caused because he is cheap . there is so much bs drama and politics in this place that goes on it is so unhealthy it takes for ever to get something that is broken fix these two guys who own the shop are so loaded but there cheap so they buy the lowest quality of machines and they wonder why they break so often
I agree about taking business courses. I'm currently studying for my Associates in Christian leadership and focusing on a couple business courses right now. So far I'm reevaluating where I work (tire shop) and working not only on myself but how to improve both attitude towards customers and shop morale. Possibly looking into management in the future but we shall see. Thanks for this video. Very encouraging.
I’m gonna ask you a question that has nothing to do with this video. Sorry if that’s not right. Tell me what are the last 5 cigars you smoked just curious lol?
