Tax Court Ruling Benefits Small Business Owners
Owners of closely held businesses, including family owned and other small businesses, can now pass assets to heirs with minimal taxation thanks to a recent tax court ruling (Wandry v. Commissioner, U.S. Tax Court, March 26, 2012).
Bring More Cars Into Your Shop
Although most shops have sales goals, very few have car count goals. In all of our service advisor training courses, one of the things we teach the advisors is to establish daily car count goals that are based on sales goals.
How Much Is Your Shop Worth?
Not long ago, I had the opportunity to interview Hal Janke. He is recognized by the top business brokers in America as an auto industry expert, he has owned and operated auto repair businesses, he has spoken at many conventions, and in selling over two hundred shops; he has sold more auto repair facilities than any other broker in the country.
The Key To Effective Service Advisor Pay Programs
As with any compensation program, the first thing you’ll need to do is conclude what you want to accomplish with any change in employee behavior. Where most shop owners get into trouble is they’ll immediately say they want to see higher sales when it comes to their service advisors. So they’ll put their advisors on a commission program that’s based on sales, and as you can imagine, their sales typically go up. Unfortunately, so do their expenses and customer complaints.
Why Should A Customer Buy What You Are Selling?
Ever wonder why a customer does not see the value in what you are recommending and declines the service or repair? Our sales approach, at times, assumes that the customer fully understands the reason for or benefits of a particular service or repair, when in reality, they may have no idea what we are speaking about.
The Customer Can Buy The Part For Less
A customer calls to tell you they discovered that they could have bought a part you sold them for less somewhere else. You can reduce those calls by doing a great car delivery that includes going over the repair order in detail, but when that call inevitably comes in, consider saying something like this …
Spring Cleaning: Tax Records You Can (And Cannot) Throw Away
Spring is a great time to clean out that growing mountain of financial papers and tax documents that clutters your home and office. Here’s what you need to keep and what you can throw out without fearing the wrath of the IRS.
Marketing During Tough Economic Times
During these tough economic times, you need to watch every dollar. One way of controlling your advertising costs is by implementing what we here at Elite refer to as “Grass Roots” marketing campaigns. These are any campaigns where you reach potential customers while they are outside of their homes and workplaces. Little league games, charity drives, local fairs, etc., are all good examples.
What Every Customer Needs To Hear
When you are giving any service recommendation, it’s important to repeat any concerns that your customers have shared back to them. This will not only let your customers know that you were paying attention when they were speaking to you, but will communicate that you truly understand the positions that they are in.
Getting The Customer To Return
As business people, we often get too caught up in sales numbers, gross profit margins, car counts and average work order dollars. Those are the numbers of your business, but what is the heart of your business? What will drive your business for generations to come?
Protecting Your Shop’s Reputation: Be Wary Of Threats To Your Brand Name
I’m sure you’ve heard the expression, “At the end of the day, all you have is your name.” It may sound cliche, but it’s absolutely true, especially for small business owners whose livelihood depends on having a good reputation.
Guerrilla Marketing For Your Auto Repair Business
The term “guerrilla marketing” is used to describe marketing methods that allow small businesses to compete with larger businesses, and they typically include grass roots marketing campaigns. Participating in Chamber of Commerce meetings and local events are a couple of examples. Although there are hundreds of methods, there’s one auto repair marketing goldmine that is overlooked by most auto repair shops and dealerships. It’s targeting what we here at Elite refer to as “communities within communities.”