What About Helping Your Help? By Bob Spitz Management Success!

Bob Spitz
Snr VP Business Dev
Management Success

You might not like this article at all!  Then again, you might love it. 

Go ahead and read it anyway because I am going to lay it on the line right here, right now.

When repair shop owner say, “I can’t find good employees.”

Here is what they are REALLY saying. “I don’t know how to help employees.”

How’s that for a 180 degree shot right in the nose?

Ugly isn’t it?

But it’s fact.

When a business person is in the process of recruiting and hiring what they are really looking for is Potentially Great Employees.  Trying to hire Great Employees who are already top notch technicians who are trained in all the procedures of the business and never needs to be told what to do because they just magically know exactly what the owner wants all the time is very difficult, there is just not that many of them in the pool!

This is not just a fact a shop owner has to “deal with”.  This is about survival.  It is something a shop owner needs to know all about.  Otherwise that shop is going nowhere, and the owner finds him or herself stuck in the paint booth, or pounding on a fender from dusk till dawn.

If the shop owner knows how to take willing new employees and turn them into real help, well then the shop owner knows how to help a new employee.

It is as simple as that.

You have to know how to deliver the goods (real help) to the employee.

That is not backwards management.  You are there FOR THEM.  That is a head on, direct, “the-way-it-is” kind of truth.

Too many owners and managers get this in reverse then step on the accelerator and wonder why they are not moving forward.  They think the employee is there to serve the owner, which is backwards.  You want them there (A) serving the customer and (B) serving the business and then (C) the gold will flow to you.

There is a 500 pound gorilla in front of the treasure.  This is it: The employee needs help actually getting squarely ONTO THEIR JOB.

And just when it is looking nice and smooth and profitable a 1,000 pound gorilla shows up. Here it is: Often the employee needs help getting BACK ONTO THEIR JOB when they have slipped.

This is not a pitch about “oh you poor, helpless, victimized technician let me help you get to work on time at least once this week”, or “I am so sorry I looked at you crosswise last Thursday when you completely botched those four procedures in a row and blew all the monthly profits but will you please be my best friend forever.”  No, that is not the point here at all.

If you can bring a person UP TO THE LEVEL of doing consistent quality work then you have really helped that person.  And all the while THEY are helping you.  And they know it.  And they are proud of it.  And that helps them more than anyone may ever know.  That is world-class help.  There is not much better actually.

You think teaching is a saintly job?  You’re right it is. It requires a high ability to tolerate stupidity!  But what about taking all that teaching and focusing it on the real world so the person does something useful, valuable and beneficial with it?  I think you would agree that would be real teaching.  It is an even tougher job to do right - the job of bringing out the very best in a person so they routinely get exceptional results with whatever they set their mind to.  And that would be a greater gift to the person than just textbook teaching.

Far too few shop owners know how to offer it.

Most shop owners sincerely want to help their team.  But they do not know how.

It is tough to fess up that the real problem is not having the ability and know-how to help an employee – real help – getting them actually ON THE JOB and KEEPING THEM FOCUSED AND PRODUCTIVE ON THE JOB.

Some owners (not the most responsible ones) might spit out some tough sounding drivel like “Well the technician works for me”.  Or “That estimator ought to know who butters their bread.”  Maybe they will say something like “Don’t they know who cuts the checks around here?  If they cross me I’ll send them packing.”  It can be any such foolishness, and those comments are all pretty much the same shade of black and blue.

Here’s the straight scoop:

First you hire potential help and then you have to help them help you.

It really is not any more complicated than that.

But wow, does it get flipped-flopped upside down and around.

Technicians work with cars.  Managers work with people.

Cars are cars and people are people.  Not the same thing.  But some of the concepts are a bit similar.

For example, take care of a car and it takes care of you.  Do not properly maintain a car and it will eat you alive.

You get an employee to take care of you by showing them how to do their job and by getting them to do it!

That’s helping them.

Show them, teach them, push them, make demands, don’t accept “no”, teach them more, but all the time you are actually HELPING them. 

They will be stronger for it.  And so will you.

So the next time you hear a shop owner say “There isn’t any good help out there anymore…”

What can you say to s person who says that?

“Get some help.  Get trained in employee management and learn how to recruit and hire the right potential employees and how to turn them into a winning team that can really get the work done!”

Then your team will get you your pot of gold, and they will get theirs.  Wishing you nothing but success! 

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A Bad Week, by Robert Spitz, Management Success!

Robert Spitz
Snr VP of Business Dev
Management Success!

Recently, a shop owner was venting to me about the “bad week” he was having. He was not really interested in running his shop anymore. He just wanted to coast along until he could sell it, so he could do what he really wanted with the rest of his life.

When I say he was “venting,” it was worse - he was furious! Earlier that week, his lead tech had been into a Ford block and had managed to sheer off the head of a bolt. So, the tech got a bolt remover and sheered the bolt remover as well! That is when the tech ran out of ideas and gave up. The owner, who is an excellent tech, stepped in. He removed it, re-threaded it, and finished the job - bang, bang! Boy, was he ticked off about all this. This incident was not the only thing that had gone wrong during the week, but it was the one that drove him over the edge.

Here is the truth. The entire incident was a direct assault on what he was trying to accomplish. He hired a tech that he thought - in other words, hoped and wished - could do good work. He wanted to slide along as an owner. He definitely did not want to be there, but he had to be there; otherwise, everything would fall apart. Like a ball and chain, he felt he not only had to be at the shop, but he had to have his head under the hood. In his eyes, several things crashed in at once - a very bad week.

This shop owner is a super individual, definitely worthy of the best possible life. So, after I heard this I cut straight to the heart of it all and asked him what he really wanted to do with the years to come. He first apologized for venting and then eloquently outlined some excellent dreams.

He said his time spent thinking about visions of a better future was the only thing helping him get by with a work situation he sometimes hated. But there was an unworkable fantasy in the middle of all this, and I knew it would block his dreams if he did not tackle it. He was sick of sheered bolt removers, but he was even more tired of employees who sheered off bolt removers! He still had a shop and he still had employees, but in his mind, he was done with all of it - and there he sat.

Quite frankly, this adds up to more than a bad week. 

I could not help him with his week, but I could certainly help him with his future.

He needed to learn how to get others to do a good job. An owner’s primary duty is to get others to get the work done. This is easy to say, but it takes tremendous skill. That, alone, would change his life in a big way. Yes, he could do an excellent job himself. That is an exceptional starting point in any activity. If you cannot deliver the goods, then what matters? 

Here’s the bottom line – many shop owners are great techs. They will say (and they are often dead-right about this) that they are the best tech they know. However, they need to be able to say “I make the best techs I know." When they can truthfully say that, from that point forward, their life will change fast. Many things will not change for a repair shop owner until they can make that one thing happen.


It is not the end of all bad weeks, but it is the beginning of a bright new future. Now, here is my question to you: Can you make the best techs you know?

At Management Success! we can show you how. Then, the new game can begin.

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In Search of a Good Technician By Bob Spitz Management Success!



Bob Spitz
Snr VP Business Dev
Management Success 

Let me tell you a story about a shop in Anytown, USA.  Anytown is an expanding upcoming prosperous suburb of a major city.  The town has four dealerships and twenty independent service facilities.  Pat’s Family Service Center is one of them.  Nice shop, good customer base, plenty of work.  In fact too much work as far as Pat (the owner) was concerned.  Pat was frustrated and worn out from the long hours that come with not having qualified help.  He fired one of his three techs that day and ended up back turning wrenches to get the cars done.  He knew tomorrow was already stacked up and he would be turning away new work, which he knew was a really bad idea. So that night sitting in his office with his hand on his head he was thinking,

“Where do you find good help?
There are no good techs in my town.
I ran an ad for a month, but the only guy who showed up was the one I fired two years ago!”

Pat was disgusted and thinking maybe he should close the doors and do something else. He tried everything he knew how to do and it was not working.  His kids were growing up without him and he and his wife had not had a vacation in years.

Although this is just a story this is one of the most common problems in any industry that requires skilled labor.  It is not just the automotive repair industry.  If you are suffering from this problem let us take a look at some things before you throw in the towel, hop in your truck and head off into the sunset.

Do You Really Need Another Technician?

In some shops, the solution will turn out to be getting more production out of the technicians you already have. In other shops the problem can actually be too many people on board. There is a guideline you can use to sort this out. Take your gross sales (minus sales tax) and divide by the number of production people you have. The resulting figure should be at least $17,500 per production person per month. Most shops should be in the $17,500-$20,000 range. If you are a specialist, your numbers should be in the $20,000-plus range. If your number is a lot lower, you’re not getting enough production out of the guys you already have.

All too often, an owner’s solution to low production is to hire more people. However, if the shop is not properly organized for production, more employees will only add to the confusion and adversely affect your income.

You Really Do Need Some Techs!

But sometimes you really do need additional help or a replacement. While you may have had some frustrating “adventures” trying to find a new technician, rest assured that there are good employees out there. You just have to maintain a good attitude and persist in your search. If you believe that “there are no good techs”, or “nobody wants to work,” you probably will prove yourself right and you won’t find anyone! So that is the first step; decide that it is possible to find someone. Once you’ve done that, you’re ready for the next step.

Working the Grapevine

In every community there is an informal communication system called the grapevine. Good technicians don't usually have to look in the paper for a job; they just use the grapevine to find out which shops in town are good to work for. Here are some people who can help you get your message out on the grapevine.

Tool-man
Tell him what you need and want in a tech; give him your business card. Keep mentioning it to him WEEKLY.

Parts Vendors
Talk to the salesmen you deal with, and even the parts delivery people that go into most of the shops in your area. Again, give them a business card or two that they can pass on to prospects. Some parts houses have a bulletin board on which you can post a small ad.

Customers
This is probably the most ignored communication line available to you, your loyal customer base. Put up signs in your sales and waiting areas. If your zoning codes allow it, put a similar message on your marquee or on a signboard in front of the shop. Your customers might have a friend, a relative or a neighbor who is a technician looking for a job.

Local Trade Association
Many local trade association chapters actively help members find technicians. They run ads in the paper (paid for with membership fees), they contact tech schools, interview applicants and sometimes will even build a pool of prospects and resumes that their members can utilize. Usually the pool includes guys with all levels of skill and experience. 

Churches and Synagogues
Talk to your minister, your priest or your rabbi. Let him know you want someone to join your family of employees. Give him a business card, a 3x5 ad for a bulletin board, or run an ad in the Church Bulletin. Or do all three.

Local Business People
Spread the word via everyone you do business with in town, from the person you see every week at the grocery store, to the guy at the printing shop. Give them all business cards and let them know what you need and want.

Vo-tech Schools
Contact anyone you know at the local Vo-Tech, or call one of the teachers and ask for the names of the best graduating students. You might even end up hiring one of the teachers! One note of caution: some Vo-Tech schools are magnets for addicts and criminals who choose tech training to stay out of jail or the army. Make sure the school has high standards for its applicants.

Military Placement Agencies
A local military base will sometimes have a placement service for guys leaving the service. Call and see if they have one of these offices.

 If so, mail or fax them a description of what you need and want in an employee. Guys with motor-pool experience and military discipline usually make good employees.
By now you’ve gotten the idea that you cannot ignore any possible avenue of communication for your search. The more you tell people what you need and want, the better your chances are that you will find what you need and want.

Place an Advertisement

If, in spite of your efforts, the grapevine does not provide enough prospects, do some advertising. There are some very good web-sites for placing help wanted ads. Not only are they less expensive, but you are likely to get higher quality prospects responding to your ads in them.

Your ads should be worded so that they will attract people with good attitudes and some experience. It is better to hire someone with less experience who wants to be part of the team and is willing to work, than to hire some “Super-Tech” with a giant chip on his shoulder. An employee with a bad attitude will affect everyone’s production and drive you crazy.  I have personally heard from many clients how well the  ads they got from Management Success work.

It is also better to hire two or three guys at the same time because one might not show up for work, one might not be able to produce and only one might be a “keeper.”  Rarely will you run into the problem of having too many good technicians on board.

Your positive attitude can create a good, secure atmosphere that will attract and keep good employees. On the other hand, a negative disposition can repel the best guys. Good people don't want to work for a grouch, and sane people don't want to work in a chaotic, insane environment.  Similarly, employees that have a lot of baggage, such as drug or alcohol abuse problems they bring into the workplace, will contribute to an “unsafe atmosphere” that will drive the good prospects away.

Sloppily run, unprofessional shops that have no basic systems or policies in place will attract non-productive, unmotivated technicians who cost you more money than they make you. On the bright side, a tightly run, efficient shop in which everyone is making decent money and which has policies that limit personal baggage will be most likely to attract good technician prospects.

The bottom line is that, in spite of any difficulties you might encounter in the adventure of finding technicians, over 80% of the people out there are decent and willing to help you achieve your goals. Positively decide you are going to find the right one of them for your team. And good luck in the hunt!

“Hi Honey, I leaving the shop early, things are under control.  Why don’t I pick up the kids from school?”

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Basics of Employee Management By Bob Spitz Management Success!

Bob Spitz
Snr VP Business Development
Management Success!

Dealing with employees can be one of the toughest challenges for a shop owner. By learning some basic strategies of employee management, an owner can reduce his stress level, minimize his personnel problems, and better ensure the success of the business. 

Define Your Goals

Employees are people you employ (hire) to work with you and assist you in achieving your business goals. An owner needs to have well-defined goals and he must be able to communicate them to his employees to get their support. Good employees want to know what you are trying to accomplish, how they fit into the picture, and how they can benefit by helping you succeed.

What do They Want?

To find and hire good people, you need to know what good people are looking for— what motivates them to get up in the morning and go to work. Of course people want money, but good people are also looking for a group to be part of, and they want to know that their work is contributing to something of importance. People always want to get compensated well for the work they do, don’t you?  But it’s not the only thing they want. Many people also want stability, a well-organized, high-morale working environment and growth potential. Some look for an employer who can communicate clearly and who stays relatively calm even during times of high stress.

Talk to Your People

Take the time to sit down with each member, or potential member, of your crew and find out what he wants in life, what his goals and ambitions are. Make sure he understands what you expect from him, the level of production you expect, and what his compensation will be if he achieves this level, and how this will help him get the things he wants out of life.

Compensation

Your employee pay plan should reward high levels of production. It can even be tailored for each individual. One technician might work extra hard for a cash bonus while another might prefer paid vacation days for a reward. Just make sure you don’t pay high wages or bonuses without also demanding high production. Many pay systems are based on hours on the job. These systems pay people who don’t produce a lot the same wages as those who do produce a lot. In companies with these systems, employees learn that if they just show up and look like they are working, they’ll get paid. It is up to the owner to demand high production and to reward it. Don’t reward the underachiever.

Monitor Production

Make sure you have a system for tracking and monitoring production and let each employee know where they stand. Your best employees will feel acknowledged and, hopefully, the worst will feel the need to improve. Each employee should be responsible for at least one statistic that measures the main thing he is producing on his job. Employees need to know that their employment and pay is based on their level of production and its value to the company, and not on who they know or their personality or other arbitrary factors. An employer who does not enforce this kind of accountability from his employees is likely to make personnel decisions based on guesswork rather than facts.

Where Does Their Pay Come From?

An interesting question to ask any employee is, “where does your pay check come from?” Many will respond, “my boss.”  Some are closer to the mark when they say “the customer.”  But the truth of the matter is that an employee’s pay comes from his own hard work, and his ability to produce quality products and services that the business can then sell to customers for income and support.

Creating a Team

The executive of a business must be able to organize the activities of the business and train his employees so that they will be able to produce valuable products. Most people want to achieve results they can be proud of and, to a great extent, it is up to the owner to make sure they can be proud of their products. It is an owner’s responsibility to make sure that each person who comes on board is given a clearly delineated job and is adequately trained so that he understands how to do this job. He also needs to be shown what his job means to the rest of the crew and he needs to know about the overall product the company produces. Unless every employee is aware of how his job relates to the final product of the company, you will never really have an efficient team working together to achieve your goals.

Meetings are Important!

Mandatory weekly meetings with your crew will strengthen the concept of a team—that you are not just a bunch of individuals running around frantically trying to get something done—and will give you a chance, as a team, to review how the shop did during the previous week. It is vital to stay positive in these meetings, to accentuate and focus on the production and improvements that were made in the previous week and to set targets for the upcoming week. Stay upbeat and don’t let the meeting drag on. If a particular employee did something above and beyond the norm, acknowledge him or her in front of the group.  If there are any corrections or improvements you want to see, go over those, too.  However, NEVER single someone out for correction in front of the group. If you’re unhappy with someone, ALWAYS address this with him privately.

Make it a Three Win System

Help each of your employees to see the priorities of the business correctly: first, to make sure the customer wins because without customers there is no purpose for the shop, and second, to make sure the shop is winning (viable) because without the shop, there is no purpose (or paycheck) for the employees. Finally, the employees have to win, because if they can’t win, they won’t stay. Review these priorities at your team meetings and make sure they are understood by everyone.

Managing employees is a primary responsibility of an owner. Your success at it will be a function of your attitude toward the business. You set the tempo and the pace for your crew. If your standards are high, and you demonstrate your commitment to meeting these standards, they will follow. If you show genuine care for your people, they will respond. Wishing you Success!

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Building a Winning Team: Getting Everyone on the Same Page, by Robert Spitz, Management Success!

Robert Spitz
Snr VP Business Dev
Management Success!

I was talking with a shop owner the other day, and he said to me, "I am having a hard time getting my crew, especially my service writer, to understand what I want. I go blue in the face explaining over and over how I want things done, yet he always seems to be on a different page. He's a good guy and sells well, but honestly, he's driving me crazy. How do I get employees to be on the same page as me?"

Wow! That is what I call a quick question that does not have a quick answer. I told him I do not like to do off-the-cuff consultations, especially on the subject of employees, but I would see if I could help him here. Before you pop a cork, sit back, take a deep breath, and relax for a moment. Employee management is the trickiest part of a business. The reason most employees go off on a different direction from the owner is a lack of understanding of what the owner is trying to accomplish. There is no agreement. Telling people what you want done and how to do things only works when the understanding is already established - in other words, when the employee twigs on how their job is related to the overall plan.

What is the goal of the shop? What are you trying to get done? Have you put this in writing for yourself and your employees? This should be the first step you do. If you are clear on where you want to go, what you want to accomplish, and how you want to get there, then it is easy to communicate those concepts to others.

You do this in the form of policy and staff meetings. You should have a meeting at least once a week to reiterate the purpose of the shop and what it is you want to get done. The next step is to get employees to understand their job, the purpose of their job, and how their job fits in with the overall big picture of the business. With a service writer, you have to break it all down - how many jobs or hats is he or she really wearing? In most independent shops, the service writer wears a multitude of hats: reception, sales, parts, dispatching, quality control (checking the vehicle before the customer picks it up), etc. Each one of these has to be broken down into their actual components or functions and then taught how the job is to be done according to company policy. Just telling people does not fully work in most cases. You need to hold training sessions where the employees practice the new procedure or technique. However, be careful here; you do not want a group of clones. You have to leave room for initiative and creation on the position; otherwise, you will end up with robots who cannot think.

One of your biggest barriers in training people is when the person you are attempting to train feels there is nothing to learn, that they already know it all. You have to know how to handle this kind of person, and better yet, know how to spot this kind of person before you even hire them. You also need to know how to motivate people to attend training. There are many ways of doing this, but beware of the person whom you cannot motivate - there are other problems in this case.

People learn in gradients and by step-by-step processes. It is so easy to overwhelm a new employee by piling on too much too quickly. Owners tend to forget how much they know, especially about their own business. Too many owners have trouble communicating what they want and how they want it done. To them, it is too simple and too obvious. How could this new employee not get it? Well, to a new employee, it is not necessarily simple or obvious. You have to break it all down. Remember, the only thing you ever have in an employee is willingness.

In the case of service writers, break down all the hats they are wearing; take one hat, and work out step-by-step what you want them to know and do regarding the functions of that position.

There are many tools you must have and know how to use when you train employees, but attitude is critical. If you do not have a high tolerance for stupidity, you should not attempt to train anyone! You must have patience and be willing to go over the same points many times. Most people learn through repetition.

By the end of our talk, this particular shop owner agreed that he had not spent enough time training his service writer. He agreed to take some of the tools I gave him and take half an hour each day to work with his service writer, one thing at a time. I heard from him about a month later, and he told me that things were starting to improve, and his service writer was not stupid after all!

Management Success! is the leader in quality management training. As an owner, you must have strong organization and communication skills, and a big part of organizing is training yourself and your team.

Get trained and learn how to train others. Your life and the life of your employees will greatly improve. It is the only long-term solution. 

Wishing you success!
Robert Spitz

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Job Security (The Perfect Shop Series) By Mike Lee Management Success!

Mike Lee
President
Management Success!

“I Got The Ultimate In Job Security”

Many times when I talk to Shop Owners, one of the things that I find is that many of them have total job security. In fact, some Owners are never going to be able to leave their business for long periods of time. They might as well build their homes at the shop, because they are never going to be able to leave it, unless they sell it.

One of the key elements of the Perfect Shop is the shop runs well without the Owner having to be there.

There are several levels of Owners being able to leave their shops.

• Some Owners are not able to leave at all. If they leave, the shop goes into immediate chaos.
• Some Owners are able to take some time off and be gone for a period of time, but then the shop starts to get into trouble.
• Some Owners are able to leave for quite a while.
• Some Owners are never there and don’t have to be.

Let’s break this down and really look at these points:

Not Able To Leave At All

When this happens, it’s because there is no one left that has either the responsibility or willingness to take charge and handle the normal day-to-day problems. There are several reasons for this problem:

• The Owner doesn't have anyone that is capable of handling the responsibility of directing the shop. Most of the time, this is because the Owner has been unable to hire the right person who has the capability of handling the job or wants the responsibility of running the shop.
• The Owner has never allowed anyone to be the Manager and thus when he leaves there is no one designated to be the Manager.

These are usually due to the Owner who is very good at being the Service Writer or is a top Technician and has difficulties getting people to do the job the way he wants it done. His solution is to just keep doing the job himself, because that is the only way he knows to make sure the job is done right. Of course, this is the trap. As long as he is the only one that can do the job, he will have the ultimate in job security.

The real solution to this trap is: the owner must change the way he thinks. He must stop thinking like a Manager or a Service Writer or a Technician and start thinking like an Owner. The Owner is always working toward achieving his goal of a Perfect Shop and is constantly striving to get his people trained and taking over areas of responsibility in terms of the day-to-day operation of the business.

This means that he must start training and developing programs to get people to do the key jobs of the business. Someone has to be the Manager of the business, but it is not suppose to be the Owner. Likewise, it is not the responsibility of the Owner to be the Super Tech or handle the Technician problems of the business or to be the Service Writer.

As long as the Owner is unwilling to train and give the responsibility of doing the key jobs of the business to other people, he will be stuck in the day-to-day operations of the business.

Able To Leave For A While

Oftentimes, you will find Owners who have people in the key positions of the business. He has a Service Writer and someone handling some of the Technician problems of the business. Because of this, he is able to come and go as he pleases to a degree. He is still responsible for some of the major actions of the business, but overall he is not required to be there on a day-to-day basis.

Unfortunately, he has not fully turned over the Manager’s duties or responsibility. Because of this, when it comes to taking a long period of time off, the business starts to suffer. Things tend to drift and problems start to creep up and things are not handled as well as they should. So when he gets back, he finds that the successful actions that were being done have been changed or dropped out: cars are not being checked out the way he wants them done, the customers are not being handled with the same care-factor that he gives to the customers. All kinds of little things have changed. The end result is it’s not the same as how he left it. Actually, the sales and quality of work has started to decline.

Fortunately, it usually doesn’t take him long to get it turned around and start to improve things immediately. The reason for this is that he is the force in his business. Because he is there and he is watching it, the key successful actions are being done and held in place.

But because he still has to be there in order to keep the place running the way he wants it done, he is stuck. While he is able to come and go pretty much as he pleases, he is still stuck there and occasionally he will lose either a key Technician or the stable Manager or the Service Writer and he is back into the day-to-day operations and is really stuck.

The solution for this problem is training for the owner on how to be an owner. He needs to improve some basic executive skills and be able to get others to take full responsibility for the day-to-day operation of the business.

It is the Manager’s responsibility to make sure the key successful actions are being done according to the policies or guidelines or operating basis established by the Owner.

One of the most important executive skills is the ability to hire and train the right people to do the work the way the Owner wants and have the same care-factor as the Owner in terms of fixing the car and handling customers.

Not Having To Be There

The perfect shop is one where the Owner doesn’t have to be there and it keeps on running, growing and expanding. If he leaves for 3 or 4 months, it’s no big deal. The business is a self-fixing business and just handles all the problems which come up in everyday business.

The Perfect Shop – How To Get There

1. It starts with the Owner thinking like an Owner - not a Manager. The first step of this process is for the Owner to decide what his goal for the business is. What is he really trying to achieve? Does he want to have a successful business that he can come and go as he pleases and not have to be tied to the business?
   
2. Once he has decided what he wants to achieve in terms of his business, he needs to sit down and figure out what that successful business is going to look like.
   For Example:
   I am going to have a fully trained Manager to run the business for me on a day-to-day basis with a Service Writer in training who is capable of becoming the next Manager. Likewise, the business is going to have 5 Technicians fully trained and able to handle every type of problem or car that we work on.
   It will be doing about $135,000 a month in terms of business and I will be making about 20% in terms of profit. The business will be capable of hiring and training replacement managers, Service Writers, and Technicians without me.
   In other words, you need to fully describe the perfect shop in terms of your business so that you know where you are going.
   
3. Next, he needs to write down what his current situation is.
   For Example:
   I have a Service Writer who can sell the work, but I am not sure that he is capable of running the business. I have one really good Technician and a couple who need to produce more, etc. In other words, you need a good description of your current situation.
   
4. You need to come up with a plan on how you are going to grow the business and how you are going to achieve this goal within 5 years.
   One of the key attributes of a successful person is they have a goal and they have a plan to achieve that goal. One of the major steps of making a dream become a reality is the decision to do what it takes to make it happen. Writing down a fairly simple step-by-step plan to achieve your goal is the key.
   This exercise will point out the areas that you feel confident in being able to accomplish and those that seem to be holding you back.
   For Example:
   I am good at fixing cars and selling the work, but I really seem to have a problem finding and hiring good people who will do the work right and do it my way.
   Note: I could use some training on how to hire and train the right people and be able to get them to do any job in the business with the same care-factor that I have and be able to turn this function over to someone else to do.
   That is half of the battle. The plan keeps you focused on what you are trying to achieve. The plan should contain the key steps necessary to get to your vision of the perfect shop.

Eliminating Total Job Security

To eliminate the need to be there or be called back into the business at the wrong time, the owner needs to get a set of blueprints to build the perfect shop and the training to be able to handle any business from 3,000 miles away.

Wishing you Success!
Mike Lee

MANAGEMENT SUCCESS! Online Auto Shop Analysis

FIND THE BLACK HOLE IN YOUR SHOP! TAKE THE TEST!