What Would You Do If You Won the Lottery? by Robert Spitz, Management Success!

Robert Spitz
Snr VP Business Dev
Management Success!

What would you do if you won the lottery?

This is a fun question to contemplate and one that I like to ask as a consultant when working with small business owners. The answers open the door to how an owner is currently thinking about the business.

So, what would you do? If your immediate response is, "I would close this place down and be on the next plane to Hawaii!" well, that probably means you are not too thrilled with the business anymore and would be willing to do almost anything other than working in your business.

There can be many reasons for this, and believe me, you would not be the first small business owner to feel this way. But what are you telling yourself? What is going on?

Goals and purposes are the first place I dive into when I get this kind of response from an owner. What was your reason for starting the business in the first place, and where are you on your path to achieving that purpose or goal?

I received a call the other day that made me want to write this article. This particular fellow had been running a fairly successful business in the Chicago area for over 20 years, had enjoyed the freedom and challenges of owning his own business, but suddenly his pilot light was out. He wanted out.

He started the conversation by telling me he had enough and was thinking about closing up. When I asked him about this sudden change of heart, I found out he had recently been burned by a fleet account that went belly-up, leaving him holding a lot of worthless paper.

He was looking to me to give him my blessing about his decision, but that was not going to happen. I do not take it lightly when someone I have known a long time makes a decision that will alter and affect his life, as well as the lives of everyone who looked to him for leadership for so long.

Instead of taking the bait, I started to casually poke around with a series of questions:

• What was his original reason or purpose for starting the business?
• What has he enjoyed about having his business?
• Except for this major hit, how was the business doing?
• What would he do if he sold the business?
• Did he feel like he had achieved his original goal of the business?

He had not given most of these questions much thought. He was stuck in the loss of all the money and what it had done to his year. After going through these questions, he started to change his views about the business. Giving up something that he spent so much of his life building was a little harder to confront than he first thought.

We looked at the consequences of his decision. What would happen to his employees? What about his loyal customer base? Would he really be happy working for someone else? These were important factors to consider.

When we were done, I told him to take a look at where he started and where he is now and to give me a call in a couple of days. I heard from him the next day, and he told me he was not ready to throw it all away over this one circumstance. He took a fresh look at his objectives and the reasons for having his own business. He likes being his own boss, calling the shots, and taking the risks. He has a good crew, which took him years to develop, and he did not want to break them up. Now that he was fired up again, I knew he would be okay because a business always reflects the owner's attitude and drive.

If you are having trouble mustering up the energy to drive to your business in the morning; if you are not sure about your business, bored with it and where you are going with it; or if you are anything less than enthusiastic, give Management Success! a call. We have the experience and the know-how to help.

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Marketing Your Business, by Robert Spitz, Management Success!

Bob Spitz
VP Production
Management Success!

The nine year old son of a shop owner looked up from his video game when his father walked into the room. The boy said, "Dad, I had to do a math project for school last week. We were supposed to compare different amounts of the same thing. We had to go out and compare a lot of something to a little bit of the same thing. So I got this incredible idea! I decided to count cars! When mom dropped me off at the shop after school I counted 642 cars driving by! And I counted 3 cars in the shop. I got really good at counting cars and at comparing numbers all at the same time!" Dad was a little shaken up by this fact. It was the truth. As young boys see everything, including parents' reactions, the boy said, "Isn't that great, Dad?" Luckily, the Dad snapped right out of it and said "Yes, son, that's super! Nice job!" Dad didn't sleep well that night. But he woke up the next morning with a powerful purpose. He decided to tackle his car count problem. But how was he going to do it? It's not like he hadn't tried to solve this 100 times before...

The above story is an all-too-common story in our industry. Marketing is a big subject that is not well understood by a lot of people; as a result, owners are suffering financially from a lack of traffic into their shops. So, we are going to start at the base and work up from there.

First off, what is this thing called marketing? Marketing is the action of making a target audience or a specific type of public (in our case, people who operate vehicles) aware of the goods and services an activity has to offer. It comes from the idea of bringing your goods to a central meeting place, the "market," where the goods can be displayed and interest can be generated.

Now, let's look at how this applies to a vehicle repair facility. Gone are the days when a shop did not need to do a whole lot of marketing, advertising, or promoting to stay busy. Although word-of-mouth is still a primary force for getting new customers, word-of-mouth alone is not enough anymore.

Today, the independent has competitors with very deep pockets; as a group, they can spend millions of dollars on slick marketing campaigns and promotions. How does the independent business owner compete with this? Following are some tips to help you in your marketing efforts.

1. Identify your target audience or specific public. Who do you want to service? Who are you in business for? What kind of work do you do, and who would benefit from your goods and services? Who do you want as a customer? If you are a general repair facility, it is fairly straightforward. Anyone who operates a vehicle that you are willing to service is your public. If you are a specialty shop, the picture changes. What do you specialize in? Who owns or operates these kinds of vehicles? What do the owners of these vehicles need and want from your kind of shop? Are you working with insurance companies or doing fleet work? Insurance and fleet have a very specialized public with different needs and wants.

2. Survey (get input and organized feedback from) your public. Trying to guess what consumers need and want is a waste of time and potentially very expensive. Most people in our industry are not consumers of vehicle repair and, therefore, do not necessarily think like the consumer. So, in order to know what consumers are looking for, you have to ask them. A simple survey can tell you a lot about your customers and potential customers.

A common example is a shop that promotes and advertises low prices, thinking this is what the customers need and want. This might get people in the door; you may even get very busy, but I have seen too many shops almost go broke with this strategy! Most good customers want service, service, service! They want the vehicle serviced and repaired on time and done right the first time. Consumers almost always complain about the high price of auto repair, but they tend to complain no matter what you charge! So, base your advertising on service first, price second.

3. Do not forget to market to your regular customers. This is the area that I see as the weakest point for most shops when it comes to marketing. A shop's current customer base is a gold mine. Yet, I see too many shops ignore their regular customers, assuming that they will come back. This is really bad thinking! Remember earlier in this article, I mentioned the Big Dogs with the multi-gazillion dollar advertising budgets? Well, they are out there, and they have no problem servicing your customers.

It is easy to lose customers and not even know it. It starts with simple services. You lose your customers' minor service work. Then, it gets into the lucrative maintenance work, and you lose that too. Then, the only time you see your customers is when they have a big problem, a drivability problem, an intermittent short, or some other mind-numbing situation with their vehicle. This happens when a business fails to keep the line of communication alive with customers. If you do not keep your name in front of your customer, someone else will!

A shop owner who yells, "They're stealing all my customers!" is actually saying, "I don't know how to market my business!" Following are some basic and simple marketing and advertising actions that need to be done by all shops to ensure regular customers keep coming back.

• Service Reminders: These are cards or letters that you send to your customers to remind them that it is time to bring their vehicle back for service, such as an oil change, transmission service, cooling system service, or air conditioning service.
• Recommended Repair Reminders: This is when the owner of the vehicle has declined to get a repair or service that should have been done. To assume your customers will automatically bring the vehicle back to get the additional repair done is a mistake, as well as bad customer service. Within 10 days of their visit, you should send out a reminder to customers to call for another appointment since their vehicle still needs additional work.
  
• "Thank You" Cards: This needs to be done by all shops, but it takes some judgement. "Thank you" cards should be sent out primarily to new customers. Include a business card or two, along with a discount coupon for their next service.
  
• Follow-Up Calls: The owner or the service writer should not make follow-up calls. Most people are well-intentioned and hate telling someone they have bad news. Have someone the customer is not in contact with make the call. This could be an outside salesman, a relative, or someone else. You are more likely to get the truth this way.
  
• Seasonal Mailer: In most parts of the country, there are seasons. This gives a shop the opportunity to offer season specials. This can be done in conjunction with a newsletter. Newsletters can be very powerful when done right, but do not waste them on people who do not know you. Newsletters are best used as a tool to keep in touch with regular customers.

Putting your first newsletter or an effective mailer together can be tricky. There is a lot to know about what should be in the ad or the newsletter and how to design an ad that captures the consumer's interest and attention. This is where you might seek some professional help.

4. Continually seek new customers. A shop has to have a program in place for attracting new customers. Most shops get new customers via word-of-mouth. If this is true for your shop, capitalize on it. Even if you do nothing more than give each good customer a couple of business cards and ask for business, you will get new business.

• Welcome Wagons and Marriage Mailers: These can also help with gaining new customers. Find out who is new to your community by joining the Welcome Wagon program that most town councils or chambers of commerce have. Contact one of the marriage mailer companies, and get your coupon in with other businesses in your area. This cuts way down on the cost and the work. This is another area that takes an in-depth knowledge of design. An owner needs to know the components of a good ad; otherwise, a lot of money can be wasted on bad ads and coupons that do not work. But you need to know how to track what works in your market. Some actions work well in one part of the country and fall flat in other areas.

Marketing is a vast subject, and there are a lot of things you can do. The problem most shops have is they lack the time to strengthen their marketing. This is where professional help can make a big difference. The cost of professional help is a drop in the bucket when compared to the amount of money wasted on ineffective advertising, or worse - an empty parking lot.

If you are currently not doing any marketing get something, anything, going! It is that important. Look out for the next article where I will tie sales into the picture. I hope the above helps. Good luck!


Robert Spitz

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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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Every Employee Has a Goal, by Robert Spitz, Management Success!

Robert Spitz
Snr VP Business Dev
Management Success!

One day, I was having a bite to eat with my friend who owns a shop in Philly. I took one look at him and could tell he was stressed. He was bursting to tell me about his business. I listened carefully to every word he was saying. As the story unfolded, the underlying situation for his shop became crystal clear: he had routine employee issues and did not know how to solve them. His "solutions" were not the right solutions, so when he would implement them, the issues would not resolve.

He knew I was paying close attention while he voiced his sorrows. As he finished off the last bit of his sandwich, he looked me square in the eye and said, "Honestly, I wish I could just find a couple of really good employees. That's all I need. Can you steer me in the right direction?"

When he said he wanted to "find some really good employees," I knew he was completely off track. Here he was, working his guts out and blocking his own success.

Professional managers do not find really good employees - they make them.

Over the years, my Philly friend has spoken to hundreds of possible new hires, and I am sure 50 of them were "really good potential employees." He had personally interviewed a lot of people. He hired some and didn't hire others. But here's the point: He could have turned 50 of those several hundred people he interviewed into really good employees. That is far more than he needed. The raw ingredients for a recipe of business success were right under his nose.

My friend's theory about finding good employees is very common - and it leads exactly nowhere.

Here is the truth: You can hire a "really good potential employee," but if you do not have things properly in place to bring them up to the level of "really good employee for your shop," you won't actually get a really good employee. You might even get one that does not like you or respect you. In that case, they certainly won't do their best. It's not good for them; and it's not good for you, the shop, the customers, the cash, or your peace of mind. You will start to wonder what's wrong with your hiring practices, even though that is not the real problem.

This can be one of the toughest challenges for a shop owner to face.

My friend had the usual business problems that go along with a broken crew; he worked extra hours. He felt he had to because he could not hand over important responsibilities to his team. He knew they would mess things up one way or the other (and of course they did). Every time he thought he had basic employee problems licked, one of them wouldn't show up for work, a productive one would find another job (for just a tiny increase in pay), or one of them would do something enormously irresponsible. Each situation was a setback to the business.

He told me he would get more and more anxious and tired when he had to find more techs or another service writer. He hated the whole process. Well, of course he did – deep down, he knew he was going to handle the employees poorly – and they would never have a chance to become "really good employees."

Here is the bottom line: Helping employees to become (and remain) really good employees is one of the primary jobs of a manager or executive. Most of them either do not know it is one of their primary jobs, or they do not know how to do that job. Maybe the "manager" can do other jobs, but not that one - the real-world job of making good employees. So, they blame other people for being no good in the first place, or they blame their team for not doing a good job. In reality, they are the ones who are not doing the job they should be doing, which is actively creating a team that brings lots of work through the door and sends shiny results back out the door (with nice barrels of cash for everyone involved).

Now, I am just not the type to leave a friend in the ditch. I decided to help him (because that is what I love to do the most).

I soon discovered that he did not know why someone would want to work at his shop, and he especially did not know why someone would want to keep working at his shop year after year.

He was missing some basics about people: why they work and what is on their mind when they are at work. (Some owners tend to forget that employees are people, not engines.) I have found that a lot of owners and managers do not know the basics of what makes someone tick (what turns them on, what turns them off, what revs them up, and what causes them to break down right there on the job).

First, every employee has a goal and a reason for being there. There are techniques that can be used to clarify a goal (and they can be quite precise).

Every shop and every shop owner has a goal. The more the goals of the employee line up with the goals of the shop, the easier things flow between shop and employee, employee and shop. If you want to see something messy, work in a place where the basic goals of one or more employees are slamming up against the goals of the business or the owner. Now that's stress.

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.

If you have customers and employees, you are in the people-handling business. Learning how to manage employees is a true art and makes the difference between an owner having a great team and having a high turn-over and a lot of stress. Learn to manage people, and you will be on the road to a stress-free life.

Wishing you success!
Robert Spitz

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Don't Pull the Trigger! by Robert Spitz, Management Success!

Robert Spitz
Snr VP Business Dev
Management Success!

One late afternoon, I was working in my office in Glendale, California, when I got a call from a client back in Baltimore. It was about 8:00 pm his time, and he sounded aggravated and a little inebriated. He said, “I’m going to read you something that I’m going to give to my lead tech tomorrow morning! I’m not putting up with this B.S. any more!” I let him read me this scathing letter that was guaranteed to lose a tech that had been with him for years.

He vented for a while, and when he finally wound down, I calmly asked him, “What’s going on?” He went on about this once-upon-a-time great tech that had now become a belligerent, uncooperative, pain-in-the-butt!

I asked him if he would put down his saber for a minute and allow me to ask him some questions. He agreed reluctantly, but told me it did not matter what I said, “This guy is history! And if the service writer doesn’t snap out of it, he’s next!”

I told him, “Fair enough,” and then started to pull the string which was dangling in front of my face. Something big must have changed with this tech, and I needed to find out what it was.

So, I proceeded to pull on this string by continuing with my questions:

“When did his attitude change? What was going on in the shop at that time?
Did you hire anyone new prior to the attitude change?” This last question got his attention. “You know, I hired a new tech about two weeks prior to the start of the problem.” “Oh really?” I said. “Tell me about him.” 

Turns out, he had hired a new tech about two months ago. The guy had good references and seemed to know his business, but in hindsight, the owner admitted there were some weird things about him - nothing he could put his finger on, but just an odd feeling about the guy.

His first couple of weeks, everything seemed fine, but then he realized some little changes beginning to appear. Even in his inebriated state, the light was coming on!

“You know, I just realized my top tech has stopped joining us at lunch. He and the new tech got buddy-buddy and are always going out to lunch together. This is also around the same time that [the top tech] started having trouble with the service writer. These guys used to get along, but now they’re at each other's throats.”

At this point, I told him that maybe he was pointing his gun at the wrong target. I wanted him to cool off and do some more inspecting. I sent him a special survey to use with all of his employees. This survey was developed over years of working with people and employees, and it always gets to the heart of the matter.

When we got the surveys done, the owner was shocked at the results and the comments by the other employees, and he realized that he was about to make a huge mistake in his employee management.

I heard from him a couple of weeks later, and he was a changed man! He could now laugh about it, and he admitted something to me that made me smile. He said,”You know, I thought you were way off base, but it turned out you were right on the money. I was about to fire two of my best people over this guy. I found out from another shop owner that this guy has a nickname. You want to know what it is? 'Instigator'!”

Making decisions, especially important ones about employees is not something you want to do half-cocked. Employee management is tough, and you need to be armed with the correct information before you make any moves. If you do no other training this year, get trained in how to handle employees. Your life will greatly improve. 

Wishing you success!
Robert Spitz
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Keeping Customers Happy, by Robert Spitz, Management Success!

Robert Spitz
Snr VP of Business Dev
Management Success!

What does it take to keep customers happy or at least satisfied enough with your service to return and maybe even refer their friends? The basic rules are simple:

1. Fix the car right the first time
2. Treat the customers fairly and with respect.

Here are some other important steps to take to make sure your customers are satisfied.

Think Like a Consumer

First, to figure out how to keep your customers happy, you have to think like a customer. Although most repair shop owners and employees are not consumers of vehicle repair services, they are consumers of other goods and services. Ask yourself what you consider good quality service. When you purchase something, what do you expect from the product and from the company that sold it to you?

Survey Your Customers

Good customer relations start with knowing what your customers need and want from your business. Have you ever surveyed your customers to find out what they really think about your business and about auto repair in general? It is deadly to operate a business without knowing for sure what your customers think and what they need and want. Simply assuming you already know can cost you a lot of money. So, go ahead and conduct some simple surveys of your customers. You might have an eye-opening experience.

Surprisingly, customer surveys conducted by Management Success! clients show that price is not the number one concern of most auto repair consumers. Their number one concern is getting the problem with their vehicle fixed completely; their number two concern is paying for unneeded parts or services.

Communication and Talking in "Customereze"

Since most of your customers know very little about their vehicles, they need to know that the auto repair business they deal with can be trusted. The key to earning their trust is consistent good service supported by good communication. This means you have to pay attention to your customer and not have your mind on forty different things when he or she is talking to you. Never assume anything! When you really listen to what your customers have to say, you are showing a high degree of care, which is high on the list of reasons people bring their vehicles to the independent shop in the first place.

Next, you have to answer questions with words that customers will be able to understand. Do not try to impress people with how much you know by using technical and industry-related jargon.

Your customer will not understand what you are talking about and will actually start to dislike you! For an example of how this works, watch a foreign language movie without subtitles and see how long it takes you to begin feeling uncomfortable.

Keep Customers Informed

There are some key points in keeping customers informed while servicing their vehicles:

1. Explain to each customer what repairs his or her vehicle needs and what your procedures are to accomplish these repairs step-by-step.
2. Make sure the customer understands what you say. Be clear about what you can do and what you cannot do.
3. Have the customer sign a written estimate and give them a copy.
4. Assure the customer that you will let them know if there will be any changes or additional work that needs to be done before you perform that additional work. Customers hate “the five o’clock surprise,” (i.e., charges for service they did not agree to). This point is extremely important, and it is law in many states.

A wise service writer makes it a regular practice to check the status of each repair job throughout the day. So when customers call for an update, the service writer can reassure them that things are under control and let them know if their vehicle is going to be finished that day or not. Remember to give the customer plenty of notice.

Do Complete Vehicle Inspections

One of the last things a shop owner wants to hear from a customer is the infamous "ever-since-ya:" "Ever since you worked on my car I have this rattle in the back!" "Ever since you worked on my car every dog in the neighborhood chases my car!" You try to explain how changing the fan belt has nothing to do with these problems, but your pleading falls on deaf ears. There is just no winning some of these arguments. Avoid the "ever-since-ya" by doing a complete vehicle inspection and then going over your findings with the customer, regardless of the problem the vehicle was initially brought in for.

Prioritize for your customer the various repairs or services the vehicle needs. This is your opportunity to be the professional you are, guiding your customer into good vehicle maintenance. It is time well spent. Your customers will notice and appreciate your care and professionalism.

Quality Assurance

Have you ever had a customer come in at the end of the day to pick up a car only to find the problem they brought it in for is still not handled? That is a “special” experience for a shop owner, especially when it is late and you are the only one there. To avoid such special moments, you must have a system in place that checks each completed vehicle against the repair order to ensure the repair has been fully completed before the customer gets there. If your shop fails to do this kind of quality assurance on the vehicles it repairs, your customers become your quality assurance department, rather than becoming loyal customers! Sometimes, quality assurance is just the simple task of walking around the vehicle to make sure there are no flat or low tires, no grease smudges, the fluid levels are correct, nothing is leaking, and, most important, that the problem the vehicle was brought in for is handled!

Going the Extra Mile

The secret to success in business is to exceed your customers' expectations. Most shops do a lot of little things for their customers that the customer is not made aware of. These are lost Public Relations opportunities for the shop. There are several effective ways to make sure your customers know about the extra things you do.

1. Tell them when you have done something extra for them.
2. Write it on the Repair Order with a 'No Charge' in the price column.
3. Create a good-looking brochure that outlines the extra special services that you provide and give one to every customer.

It really doesn't take that much to make a customer feel special and well-cared-for. Simple things like a shuttle service or fresh coffee can make a big, lasting impression. You might also be surprised at the effect friendly service with a smile has on your customers and, ultimately, on your sales figures.

Summary

Keeping customers happy is not difficult if you pay attention to the details and take the time to make sure your customers' questions and concerns are handled professionally. Above all, always strive to fix the car right the first time and to treat the customer fairly.

Good luck on your road to 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

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