Transcript
Aniz Lavji: Welcome everyone to another episode of the Shop and Tread Talk podcast. My name is Anis and as usual we've got our staple with us. Frank, how you doing buddy?
Frank Wiebe: Today I am doing good half asleep, but I'm doing well.
Aniz Lavji: Frank, you had your shower, your hair looking ah like a 9.6.
Frank Wiebe: All right. The beard's coming along. Hair's doing great.
Aniz Lavji: What more could you ask for? you got your 3D auto shirt on.
Frank Wiebe: Represent.
Aniz Lavji: i think i think you're in good shape. um Today, actually, Frank and I both came up with a pretty good topic as something that a lot of people...
Aniz Lavji: don't really get into or talk too much talk about much is uh cost of doing business because apparently all of us auto shop owners are multi-millionaires driving ferraris lamborghinis and jacked up trucks and uh it's not always the case and yes there are some shops that are doing fantastic and really killing it but is it's not every shop owner and uh you know i think it's important to talk about kind of the struggles that shop owners are are going through now and you know the future struggles that are kind of incoming because there's a lot of different things going on right now in the industry that people are not talking about what do you think frank
Frank Wiebe: Well, it's it really is a misunderstanding in a lot of a lot of areas because people think that, okay, well, we're charging, like our shop rate currently is $110. Oh, man, you're making $110 an hour.
Frank Wiebe: Sure, but the cost that we have to put out, like all of our our service information and all of our accounting services and and insurances and all that, holy, it it adds up so fast.
Frank Wiebe: Like I sat down the other day and I started thinking about like the cost of this, cost of that, cost of that. And I'm like, wow. Like that's a lot. It's a lot that accumulates in a month.
Aniz Lavji: It's not just your shop.
Frank Wiebe: And a lot of people don't understand.
Aniz Lavji: That's every shop that's having so many different subscriptions.
Frank Wiebe: Was every shop.
Aniz Lavji: and And these are all fixed costs.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah.
Aniz Lavji: It's not stuff that you know you might have to pay next month or you may have to deal with.
Frank Wiebe: No.
Aniz Lavji: It's all fixed stuff. You have no choice.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah. And it's, ah it's monthly every month, every month. And then, and then you have like subscriptions for our, our diagnostic equipment has to be updated annually. Uh, man, like it's, it's over a thousand bucks a year to do that.
Aniz Lavji: Not cheap.
Aniz Lavji: million The Autel one is, yeah, that's a thousand bucks right there.
Frank Wiebe: and and it
Frank Wiebe: Yeah. And, uh, if you, if you have more than, more than one, right. Then you have to do every single one. It just, it's, constantly adding more and more.
Frank Wiebe: And so it it just, yeah, it really it really adds up when you start thinking of it that way. And when you have a lot of people talking, oh, you know, mobile mobile mechanics, right?
Frank Wiebe: They still have that too. they They don't have the physical location that they have to pay for, but they still have all of the ah subscriptions and all of that stuff that you come to mind
Aniz Lavji: They still have to I'd say they should have insurance and you know they're all going have subscriptions. They're gonna have a cost of repairing that vehicle that they're traveling all over the place to service you know said vehicle tools that they can use mobile.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah.
Aniz Lavji: I mean, they may have a portable air compressor. I mean, there's there's all kinds of things, but... You know, it's it's unfair for someone to kind of walk into a shop without knowing the whole situation saying, hey, well, you know, these guys are charging 110 bucks an hour.
Aniz Lavji: Man, they're banking. I mean, without really knowing the backstory and stuff, it's it's not like, you you know, no one's no one's ah digging gold every morning.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah.
Aniz Lavji: I mean, it's all a hustle every single day.
Frank Wiebe: And then then when we have our lovely government that takes their share of it, yeah, too.
Aniz Lavji: God.
Frank Wiebe: Oh, man, payroll is stupid. Like, first of all, payroll is expensive as it is. And then you got all the source deductions that come on top of that.
Aniz Lavji: taxes on the 15th every single month.
Frank Wiebe: yeah Oh, my gosh. And it's like, goodness, like how much how much more do they want to take from us? And then, of course, the more you earn, the more you got to give.
Frank Wiebe: It's a vicious cycle.
Aniz Lavji: And, you know, HST, are end of the month, I just got my accountant just sent me what my HST is I got to pay for last month.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah.
Aniz Lavji: And I'm like, geez, she's like, well, you know, you had a good month.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah.
Aniz Lavji: I'm like, yeah, I did. But damn.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah. And then you wonder, and then you wonder where where did the heck did the money go? And it's like, oh, it's sitting there in that new machine that you bought. That's where that money went.
Aniz Lavji: Yeah. Yeah. So I was talking to, we were talking last week and i got a customer in with a Subaru and it has the new, I wouldn't i shouldn't say new, it's not very new, but it's got the YF1234 air conditioning.
Frank Wiebe: Dang it.
Aniz Lavji: Well, that's what, anyways, it's Y1234. Yeah. So, you know, it's a really good customer.
Frank Wiebe: yep
Aniz Lavji: And I got tired of saying no to a lot of people that are coming in. you know They've got that system, then I have to send them off or have to sublet it. And it was getting to the point where i was starting to turn away a lot of customers every week.
Aniz Lavji: So I said, you know what, screw it. I need to make a decision. So... I ended up getting a ah good customer in where there was some pretty decent profit in the job that I can at least justify, okay, you know, this machine that we're looking at, there was one that was, you know, six grand, there's one for seven.
Aniz Lavji: and you know, doing a lot of research myself and seeing kind of which one and makes sense and consulting, i talked to you, Frank, and got your input and I talked to a couple other people ended up getting on the, getting the ecotechnic, which is basically a snap machine.
Aniz Lavji: And by the time I was all said done with adapters and buying $750 tank, which is the, yeah, the YF refrigerant, you by time I was all said and done, it's 10,000 bucks.
Frank Wiebe: Yep. Yep.
Aniz Lavji: Bam. One shot.
Frank Wiebe: Last year, last year, we ended up buying, i think two or three tanks of the YF refrigerant. And I think six tanks of the one 34, eight,
Frank Wiebe: We didn't go through all of it, but damn, that was a hefty bill just just buying the Freon. Goodness.
Aniz Lavji: Yeah, luckily the job that I did You know, I think we ended doing breaks and stuff like that. So like the gross profit in that job was about a thousand, 1500 bucks with, the you know, replacing the compressor and recharge.
Aniz Lavji: And we did breaks and, you know, a couple other little things on there. So, In my mind, I was like, i the reason I was doing getting this job is because I've got the machine now.
Aniz Lavji: So not that I can take $1,500 off the machine, but at least there's something that I can say, okay, fine, I got the machine, so I've got an immediate you know job from Yeah.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah.
Frank Wiebe: Just helps justify it. No, I get that.
Aniz Lavji: Yeah, it it didn't burn as much. And, you know, I got a sign going up tomorrow morning, actually big react sign, uh, you know, for AC service. So hopefully I can try and pull in a few more jobs and I've got another car 20, 21 Kia Forte coming in that has a AC issue.
Frank Wiebe: Okay. Okay.
Aniz Lavji: So again, that's going to be a YF I'm sure.
Frank Wiebe: Okay.
Aniz Lavji: So again, as you know, Frank, when, uh, Times change, we have to keep going with the times and it it comes down to us having to purchase different equipment, scan tools, and again, going back to cost of doing business. Like, did I have to buy it? No, not not really, but...
Aniz Lavji: if I wanted to keep subletting it and somebody else making the money and I'm just taking skimming a little bit off the top there, then it is what it is. But if I want to actually be able to service these vehicles properly and have my customers coming to me and not having to be sent off to another place or thinking in the back of the mind, like, you know, this guy does all my repairs. Now I have to go somewhere else for AC because he doesn't have the machine and he's going send it to some other place. I might as well just go somewhere that can just do everything. So, yeah.
Aniz Lavji: That's what a lot of places are, or a lot of people are saying that they just want to go to one place, get their car fixed, and that's it, done. Tires, brakes, suspension, AC, whatever I need. I don't want to go to multiple places because they want to create that relationship with one place.
Frank Wiebe: Exactly.
Aniz Lavji: Right?
Frank Wiebe: that That was the reason why, like with the with the AC, i bought I bought equipment to do that, I think two, three years ago already.
Aniz Lavji: Yeah.
Frank Wiebe: and And I was the second shop in our town to be able to do the YF refrigerant. And it's already paid for itself.
Aniz Lavji: Oh, yeah.
Frank Wiebe: And ah the people come up and say, oh you do that? Yeah, I do that Freon. I do that refrigerant.
Aniz Lavji: Damn cold, eh, compared to the R134.
Frank Wiebe: And
Frank Wiebe: what's that?
Aniz Lavji: I find it to be ridiculously colder, like the refrigerant. Again, I don't know if that's the right way to say it, but I noticed, like, it's it is freezing in comparison.
Frank Wiebe: Oh, I see what you mean. it it could
Frank Wiebe: I mean, yeah, like like it's fresh freon and all that stuff, so it will make a big difference. Generally, it all kind of goes to the same temperature or whatever, but yeah, it it runs different pressures for sure.
Aniz Lavji: Cause I did an R134 a few days prior to this.
Frank Wiebe: It'll run different. Yeah.
Aniz Lavji: And again, it was a, it was I think it was a Honda Civic. We put a new compressor with our 134 and all the, yep, this nice and cold. But then we did the Subaru and I'm like, holy, like I got warn her maybe.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah. well Well, some, some vehicles in general, they just, they just are much colder than than that. Like I had years ago, I remember this, um, Crown Vic or something like that.
Frank Wiebe: And, and when I got the AC fixed on that, man, it pulled it down. i always, I got this little thermometer. I stick in the, in the vent and read it. And it was, uh, 33 degrees Fahrenheit.
Frank Wiebe: I'm like, it ain't going to get much colder or not. It ain't going to work. So it was cold.
Aniz Lavji: I had a had a customer come in today, was actually sent to us by another garage that doesn't really do AC. So they were sent to us because it was 2017 Tucson.
Aniz Lavji: And he he had just bought the car from there and he said the AC is not cold. So I got the car in, I sat in, I started up, turned the AC on, freaking thing was ice cold. And I'm like, can't get much colder than this.
Aniz Lavji: So I talked to the what did you drive before? And he's like, I drove a 2008 Honda Civic. And I'm like, okay. So it's a complete different vehicle for one. And i' was like, was your AC working in your other vehicle? He was like, no, it never worked. I'm like, okay.
Frank Wiebe: Yep.
Aniz Lavji: So now you've got a complete different vehicle. and this may not be as cold as you think it should be, but this is freezing. So he's like, it's not very cold.
Frank Wiebe: Yep.
Aniz Lavji: So at that point i was getting a bit irritated because I'm like, it's cold, dude. So David has one of those, um, those thermometers where I guess you, you can point it right at the vent and it'll show you the temperature infrared.
Frank Wiebe: Yep. and infrared yep
Aniz Lavji: Sorry. Thank you, Frank. Infrared. And David, David cranked it all the way to cold, put on the highest setting. He's like, well, let's, let's, let's let this run for a minute.
Aniz Lavji: Let it run for a minute. And he's like, uh, ask the customer, would you like Fahrenheit or Celsius? So he said Celsius. It was like minus seven Celsius.
Frank Wiebe: Holy cow.
Aniz Lavji: So he's like anything colder than this, you're going to need to go to the doctor.
Frank Wiebe: Well, even even if it's actually blowing out that cold, it's it's possibility of freezing up the ah the evaporator core.
Aniz Lavji: So.
Aniz Lavji: Yeah, again, he was right up in there. i mean, it was cold.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah. So cold. Regardless.
Aniz Lavji: Like, it was not like it's, you know, sitting there at 10 degrees or 11 degrees. Like, it was cold.
Frank Wiebe: As long as it wasn't getting so cold, like If a system is charged improperly, it can, or or there's a blockage there, it can freeze up. It can get real cold for a bit, and then it'll just slowly die off and quit working.
Aniz Lavji: Hmm.
Aniz Lavji: Yep, but we change we we changed the temperature on it it, warmed it up, and then it did change.
Frank Wiebe: And then it's just going to quit. Yeah.
Aniz Lavji: like The temperature went up.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah. Yeah. yeah
Aniz Lavji: So was all working fine, but again, we had to educate the customer because they're not used to having a vehicle with working very good working AC, working cruise control.
Aniz Lavji: So when customers that are accustomed to having these older vehicles, that 95% of the high tech, and I use air quotes if anyone's watching, not watching high tech features like cruise control,
Frank Wiebe: and
Aniz Lavji: don't work on their vehicles. And then they get this, you know, 2017 or 2020 vehicle. It's got all these features. They don't have the hell to use them. And automatically it's like, well, the dealer sold me a a crap box.
Aniz Lavji: The AC doesn't work because, you know, I've never had AC, but man, when I sit in there, oh I want, I need a jacket. I want to be that cold. So a lot of times, like today, what i we had to do is educate the customer you know,
Aniz Lavji: these different features because he's like, yeah, I've never had this stuff. I'm like, that's fine, but you can't blame the dealer that they sold you a car the AC doesn't work. And then he's saying his tire pressure is low.
Aniz Lavji: And so, you know, ah we checked the tire pressure and it was down by one pound. So he's like, I know, but check it every single morning. Like, Oh geez.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah, well, tire pressure is your is irrelevant because it'll change just from driving it or from one side pointing at the sun and one side not.
Aniz Lavji: Oh, yeah.
Frank Wiebe: So...
Aniz Lavji: You can drive it out of the, you know, in the wintertime, drive it out of a heated garage and go down the road and, you know, your tire pressure going fluctuate up and down.
Frank Wiebe: it
Frank Wiebe: Well, and it's for reasons like that why we have to have service information. Cause if a customer comes up and says, Hey, you know what? My AC isn't cold enough. You can pull up the service information and it, and a lot of them will actually tell you, like it'll go through the whole description of how the system works. And, you know, if it doesn't reach a certain temperature, then such and such.
Frank Wiebe: Um, and without that, if we don't have that, we're kind of, you know, playing it by, ah our experience over the years. Right.
Aniz Lavji: Yep.
Frank Wiebe: But if you haven't worked on that particular vehicle very much, then, then you really rely on that. Like I worked on a, a Dodge, like a Ram eco diesel three liter eco diesel today.
Frank Wiebe: And I, I normally don't work on diesel vehicles, but it was just like, you know, turbo not working, had some engine lights on and a, and a traction light on so something like, you know, scan well it.
Aniz Lavji: Yeah, I know.
Frank Wiebe: Well, I had turbo boost temperature sensor codes.
Aniz Lavji: Yeah.
Frank Wiebe: I have no clue what where to even look on this stupid thing. So I'm trying to figure it out. I kind of had an idea. So messaged my buddy who works at Chrysler and I'm like, hey, I'm coming up with this code.
Frank Wiebe: what Where is this sensor? So he sent me a picture. He said, this is where that sensor should be. I said, okay, I'm at the right sensor.
Aniz Lavji: Yep.
Frank Wiebe: I thought I had it. And then I'm looking at the wiring diagram and like, okay, that wiring diagram matches. So now I was able to put two and two together, say, okay, that wiring diagram that I already had matches the color of this sensor.
Aniz Lavji: Yep.
Frank Wiebe: Now I can go and I can do my testing. So i unplug the computer and, but I had,
Aniz Lavji: But see, you got the service information.
Frank Wiebe: I had the service information so I could get all that because if I wouldn't have had that, would completely flying in the dark, right?
Aniz Lavji: Yep. Yep.
Frank Wiebe: I had i had ah a scanner that was capable of reading a code, okay? I had service information, very vague service information that gave me ah the wiring diagram, the colors of the wiring diagram.
Frank Wiebe: And I had knowledge to say, hey, a sensor should give me such and such similar whatever reading, right? So i was able to do that. And with all of that information, i was able to come to a conclusion, say, hey, we've got a bad sensor, order a new new sensor, put it in, fix the problem.
Frank Wiebe: But had I not had service information, had I not had a capable scan tool, completely lost.
Aniz Lavji: And, you know, have access to your buddy that help.
Frank Wiebe: Access to my buddy who now I owe wings to and I will make good on that next week.
Aniz Lavji: But, you know, this is what I mean.
Frank Wiebe: so
Aniz Lavji: All this is baked into your hourly rate, which a lot of people don't understand.
Frank Wiebe: It has to be, yeah.
Aniz Lavji: And...
Frank Wiebe: it the The wings is also going to be baked into my hourly rate because
Aniz Lavji: Yes.
Frank Wiebe: yeah that will be a shop expense when I go out for wings.
Aniz Lavji: You're...
Aniz Lavji: I was going to say, you know, chicken wings are costing you a lot of money this year.
Frank Wiebe: it's It's unreal.
Aniz Lavji: bigger
Frank Wiebe: It's... Yeah.
Aniz Lavji: We'll get into that in a bit. but but But, you know, if if you think about it, like your your labor rate's 110%. you start taking out the expenses for, you know, you got Identifix. And then you've got a portion every month, I guess you could say, of your scan tool update, which is x amount of dollars for the year.
Aniz Lavji: You take that little bit out. And then you start taking all these other little subscriptions, you know, tech net and this and this and that. And then God forbid, you got to pay your employees still.
Aniz Lavji: So that's going to come out of the hour and this has got to come out of the hour. And Frank, you don't need to get paid. Right. So that's not going to come out, but people don't understand what you're sitting on millions.
Frank Wiebe: haven't had i'vet had a paycheck in six years.
Aniz Lavji: It's different, right? Frank, but exactly.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah, right here
Aniz Lavji: So,
Frank Wiebe: Leather couches.
Aniz Lavji: Exactly. But what I'm saying is everything is coming out of that hourly rate. And when we have to increase that rate from 110 to 125 or 149, there is a reason associated with that because the cost of doing business goes up every freaking year. If not, it's every year, it's every six months, something else comes up or we need to upgrade a certain scan tool to be able to work on this next car.
Frank Wiebe: Yep.
Aniz Lavji: Or like, remember I was telling you a few months ago, which I've never had to do. is we were working on that Volkswagen Jetta and we were doing brakes on it because the car, the other thing was sitting and he seized up all his brakes and rotors.
Aniz Lavji: So I had to get all the parts from Volkswagen because I don't screw with the pads from anywhere else for Volkswagen.
Frank Wiebe: Oh,
Aniz Lavji: So I got the pads there.
Frank Wiebe: really?
Aniz Lavji: Yep. Don't even get into that with me. But I got the rotors from good old CarQuest, which were bang on as usual. Got the pads from Volkswagen. We started doing the job. You know, I got, i don't know how many scan tools to push back the electronic parking brake.
Frank Wiebe: Yep.
Aniz Lavji: Plug that sucker in and got my tablet. And I'm like, all right, here we go. Let's get this job done. And boom, gateway access required. I'm like, the freak is this?
Aniz Lavji: I've never had to do this before.
Frank Wiebe: Yep.
Aniz Lavji: For me, that's new, but we've never had to. So I'm learning. And again, I'm not a mechanic. my My tech is saying this is all a lot of the newer things that he's heard about it. We've never had to do it.
Aniz Lavji: So now gateway access through Autel, it's saying you're going to buy this token and this token. So I'm like, okay, let's just do it.
Aniz Lavji: So, you know, I think it was like 15 bucks or or seven bucks or 10 bucks or something. So I bought like four tokens. was like, whatever, I'll use the other ones next time. But I followed the procedure, did everything, paid my dues.
Aniz Lavji: And again, i didn't pass it on to the customer because I didn't know. But it's fine. It was a good learning experience for me. But still, now I know if I get something like that, I'm going to pass it on to the customer.
Aniz Lavji: Or they're going to be a little extra charge to do that vehicle because that is an extra cost. And somebody has to pay. And the customer pays for everything.
Frank Wiebe: Well, I think in general, like I heard um on a podcast last week, they're talking about that particular, that kind of a thing. And like any vehicle that has electronic parking brake, it should be a different labor rate for the job.
Aniz Lavji: The rear. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Frank Wiebe: Because like yeah like after like after the electronic part is retracted, the rest of the job is the same.
Aniz Lavji: I do have a different library for it.
Frank Wiebe: But it's that extra time that it takes to do that.
Aniz Lavji: For sure.
Frank Wiebe: electronic portion of it and like if you have something that screws up like we had a ford the other day i forget what kind of ford it was and it it it retracted just fine everything went good but when we went to go put it back together one of the connectors didn't seat all the way and then we went to apply it it applied one side but not the other side
Aniz Lavji: Mm-hmm.
Aniz Lavji: Mm-hmm.
Aniz Lavji: Yep.
Frank Wiebe: Holy crap. Once, once we were in that mode, we, we were like, it took me almost an hour, ah several different things. And what I ended up having to do is I had to, um, yeah, manually pull it back again.
Aniz Lavji: Manually do it. Yep. Mm-hmm.
Frank Wiebe: And then it you know It saw both them at the same and applied them. And oh my gosh, that was that was really, really frustrating. But it was a great lesson to learn. I'd say, hey, as soon as you turn the key on read for codes.
Aniz Lavji: Yep.
Frank Wiebe: And if there was a code in there, and because there was right away a code for a circuit fault, then stop there.
Aniz Lavji: Yep.
Frank Wiebe: Fix your circuit fault first.
Aniz Lavji: Stop and inspect.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah, exactly. Stop and inspect. But had we not, had I not had, again, same thing. Had I not had service information to tell me, A, which wires and what, and be able to go through that, I probably would have been at the point where, well, I wouldn't have been, but I've seen before other shops where you get to the point where they're like, oh, you need a new caliper, you need a new actuator.
Aniz Lavji: Yeah.
Frank Wiebe: And they sell the customer $500 actuator.
Aniz Lavji: easy with just to throw it in.
Frank Wiebe: Right. five hundred dollars actuator
Aniz Lavji: Yeah, like you need you need that caliper motor replaced. Those things aren't cheap.
Frank Wiebe: they're not i I have yet to have to replace one, but I've heard that they are not cheap.
Aniz Lavji: I'll get into that story in a second because I have one at the store right now.
Frank Wiebe: Okay.
Aniz Lavji: But yeah, so you know for breaks now, if it's got electronic parking brake, I have a labor matrix that is applied right away. So my my labor rate right now is 149.
Frank Wiebe: Okay.
Aniz Lavji: And if it's got if it's got a elect electronic and parking brake, it's it gets the labor matrix gets applied and it's around 156 or So it's an extra 10, 20 bucks or so I'm tacking on there.
Frank Wiebe: So does it know or do you have to manually tell it that's electronic parking brake?
Aniz Lavji: I have to click on the labor matrix. So I'll know, I'll know that the vehicle has it before.
Frank Wiebe: Right.
Frank Wiebe: Only when you're looking at parts, right?
Aniz Lavji: No, I'll know because my guy is going to tell me when the vehicle, when the vehicle comes in, Yacoub or one of the guys, and he's, this has got a electronic parking brake.
Frank Wiebe: Okay. That's
Frank Wiebe: Okay. So, so, so it's not like you have not like tech metric automatically knows that it's like electronic.
Aniz Lavji: So I'll need,
Aniz Lavji: No, no, I'm never flying blind because my guys tell me right away and especially more because of that Volkswagen, because that took all that extra time.
Frank Wiebe: park Okay. That's what I was getting at. Yeah.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah.
Aniz Lavji: So now they are in the mode of, if it has the EPB, they quickly call me and say, Hey, by the way, or the, or again, we have the WhatsApp chat. ah You know, there'll like a Honda Civic EPB and just, I'll know exactly what they're talking about.
Frank Wiebe: Okay. Yep.
Aniz Lavji: So right now I currently have 2023 under warranty Nissan Kicks at my shop.
Frank Wiebe: That makes sense.
Aniz Lavji: That vehicle has a rear right caliper motor, this actuator that does not work.
Frank Wiebe: Okay.
Aniz Lavji: She went to use the parking brake, which that was her fault, shouldn't have used it. It's not there to use.
Frank Wiebe: Yep.
Aniz Lavji: It was able to ah work. What's the right word? It was able to engage on the left side, but the right side wouldn't engage.
Aniz Lavji: So when she went to take it off, the left side disengaged, but all you hear on the right side was that was it.
Frank Wiebe: yeah
Aniz Lavji: So then she had a red light on the dash with the exclamation point. And then she called me and well, you know, side note is she had no brakes in the back, which I mean, you don't need them. Right.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah.
Aniz Lavji: So we got the vehicle in and she only had 20, she has 27,000 kilometers on it.
Frank Wiebe: Oh, wow.
Aniz Lavji: Right. So it's under warranty. And I called Nissan because the first thing I said was like, okay, well, let me call Nissan and find out, you know, what's the story because, you know, if it's still under a warranty, you know, I'll just send you over there and let them do it. It won't cost you anything.
Aniz Lavji: So I called Nissan and they're like, oh yeah, it's under warranty. All right. There'd be no cost to get it replaced. I'm like, sweet. So, and she's like, but I'm like, what do you mean, but that actuator is not available.
Frank Wiebe: back order
Aniz Lavji: I'm like, okay. So I mean like, like a week he's like, oh no, it's just not available. I'm like, so I'm like, like what, well, like, what do you mean?
Frank Wiebe: indefinitely
Aniz Lavji: Is like, you need, you need to get it made in China. Like, or is it like coming out the States? We can't give you a date. I'm like, okay, I'll talk to the customer. So I told her, I was like, you shouldn't be paying for anything because it's under warranty, but you can call Nissan and they don't have that actuator in stock anywhere.
Frank Wiebe: So, hmm.
Aniz Lavji: So she called and she talked to the same parts guy and he said, yep, the da you know, Dalai just talked to me and we can't get you that part. Not anytime soon. So I ended up having just got delivered today. i had to get an actuator from the wreckers to put on.
Aniz Lavji: We opened up her actuator and it was all green and look, it was all fungus inside. It was gross. It was screwed completely.
Frank Wiebe: Interesting. And there's ready ones at the records. That's cool.
Aniz Lavji: So i ended up getting one today. so we're going to, we're going to put that on in the morning with the rear brakes.
Frank Wiebe: Yep.
Aniz Lavji: And unfortunately, like the used part wasn't cheap either with the brakes, rotors and a new use actuator, she'd be out like a thousand bucks.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah.
Aniz Lavji: And it's out of that. She should only be paying for the brakes and rotors.
Frank Wiebe: is Is Nissan going to cough up anything to help her out with putting the U's on them?
Aniz Lavji: Yeah.
Aniz Lavji: No, nothing. I told her she was better off having the CVT go.
Frank Wiebe: You know, we had a we had a Ford Fusion or something like that. And it had been to, I think, two other shops with a brake light on. It always had like that parking brake light on.
Aniz Lavji: oh yeah.
Frank Wiebe: and Brakes always, brake worked fine. Everything worked fine. Even the parking brake worked, but it always, always had this brake light on and they were getting frustrated because they couldn't get it fixed.
Frank Wiebe: Well, come to find out what it was is the caliper, not the electronic part, but the the physical caliper itself, the spline inside was stripped.
Aniz Lavji: Yep. yep
Frank Wiebe: So it would apply the parking brake. And it would recognize the parking brake was applied, but it actually wouldn't apply it fully on the right side, the left side. So the parking brake worked. Anyways, when we finally figured that out, we ended up replacing the caliper, put the old motor on it.
Frank Wiebe: Everything was good. Oh, man, was that customer happy. And they're like how did no one else figure this out?
Aniz Lavji: But like, again, I'm not a mechanic, but what I would have done is put the vehicle up, applied the parking brake, and then you spin one side.
Frank Wiebe: it
Aniz Lavji: and if if that doesn't move and the other side moves, then that not like pretty much the right way start?
Frank Wiebe: Yeah.
Frank Wiebe: it it The thing is, it was just enough that it it was just enough that it applied it that you wouldn't be able to tell that way.
Aniz Lavji: But if you applied more pressure to that wheel and really tried to move it, then I bet you would move.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Aniz Lavji: Because it's not grabbing it fully, right?
Frank Wiebe: Exactly. yeah it was Yeah, it was a weird situation, but i was i was i was excited to find it and more ecstatic to fix it. And then the customer is just...
Aniz Lavji: Customer for life.
Frank Wiebe: Surprisingly, I've never seen him again. I've seen him once after that.
Aniz Lavji: they were They were so happy that you fixed it that you know they just don't know how to express it.
Frank Wiebe: No, I just fixed it so good. I never had to come back.
Aniz Lavji: There you go. But, you know, this is all experience and reading service manuals and actually focusing and wanting to fix the vehicle the right way and not just guessing. Right. And this, again, goes back to having the right information.
Aniz Lavji: If the right information is not provided to you and if you're not paying to access it
Frank Wiebe: and
Aniz Lavji: then a lot of the times it's not easy to fix these vehicles because these new vehicles, they're getting more high tech by by the day, every year. There's something new coming out where it blows my mind.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah.
Aniz Lavji: I'm like, sorry, how many actuators are in this vehicle? Or there's,
Frank Wiebe: and And to be able to diagnose them properly is getting harder and harder every day.
Aniz Lavji: yeah, yeah. and And shops that say they're master diagnosticians, Okay. Not to knock anyone that says they are, a lot of them may not be as advanced as they say they are. And a lot of the times is there's so much that you need to know. on needs
Frank Wiebe: It's going to take a minute. It's 10 this day.
Aniz Lavji: Oh my God, Frank. Oh my God.
Frank Wiebe: ah
Aniz Lavji: A lot of the times that you may think that you're you're going down the right track and, you know, you miss one page of the service information that for some reason is not in <unk> Identifix or Mitchell or something.
Aniz Lavji: And you start going down a rabbit hole. You keep going, going, going, and you may end up, you know, call Joe that works at Chrysler. hey Joe, you know, I've been on this for like three hours and reading service information. He's like, oh yeah, yeah. you're where are you looking? Here?
Aniz Lavji: Oh yeah, page six has not been on there for a long time. Let me send it to you. It's like, well, holy crap. and I should have just called it in the first place.
Frank Wiebe: Yep.
Aniz Lavji: But you know, this is this is the reason that sometimes You know, I don't, but I'm sure you do have two or three different sources of service information that you can compare the same vehicle two or three spots and be like, okay, well, it's not here.
Aniz Lavji: But you know what? I checked on Mitchell and the damn thing is there. I should have just checked here in the first place.
Frank Wiebe: Oh, I'm always double checking. we have We have two different ones that we're currently using. I'm always checking between the two. And especially when it comes to wiring diagrams, because I get Fuddle and wiring diagrams so often that that I'm like, I know that this diagram this doesn't make sense.
Aniz Lavji: Okay. Yep.
Frank Wiebe: So I'll check it even against OE diagrams. And I'm like, ah, see, that's why said that one color or that one pin location is marked wrong on the aftermarket diagrams, right?
Aniz Lavji: Yep.
Frank Wiebe: um I remembered something on when I was diagnosing that Ram this morning, I'd watched a video by, uh, from scanner Danner and this is a shout out to scanner Danner.
Aniz Lavji: Yep.
Aniz Lavji: Oh, that guy's a beast.
Frank Wiebe: Phenomenal, phenomenal diagnostician and teacher anyways. Um, so he had said like, like when you're doing a diagnostic and you're doing the flow chart, you have to be able to ah look at that and say, do I need all of these steps? Like,
Frank Wiebe: This step here, he was talking about one video I watched this morning about, you know, this PCM is stuck underneath the center console. To get at that computer is going to take you four hours.
Frank Wiebe: Whereas if you're just a little bit smarter and you say, hey, if I test this over here, I'll be able to get the reading, the same reading as what I do over there. So when you start thinking of it that way and you can read the service information, you have the knowledge, you have the learn, you have the the information from somebody who's been down this road and and and is teaching you and training you and ah and giving you that information.
Frank Wiebe: And you come up with a conclusion also.
Aniz Lavji: Yep. Yep.
Frank Wiebe: and you're like, boom, I can do this. I can fix this car. I can repair this. That's what I try to teach the young people in my shop too. I'm like, you can repair this vehicle.
Frank Wiebe: If you think about it, if you, if you understand how this works, like the guy i worked for, for 14 years, when I first started working for him, he gave me a job that I had never done before. And i was supposed to take an intake off of, uh,
Frank Wiebe: afford something or other. And, and I don't think we had service information then. So it was just a basic job. And I'm like, ah, I've never really done one before. I don't think I could do it.
Aniz Lavji: Yep. Yep.
Frank Wiebe: And he wasn't a mechanic at all, right? He's just a car salesman. And he looked at me and he says, well, Frank, it's just nuts and bolts. You can do it. And I did it. Right. I mean, it was, it was, it was a silly way of encouraging me, but it was an encouragement to do it and do, I used that line on my apprentice the other day. I said, so, you know,
Frank Wiebe: You can do this. It's just nuts and bolts. But in reality, when when the job is frustrating and the job is hard and and and if you're – it can be. just It's just wiring.
Frank Wiebe: okay It's just a diagram. It's just a series circuit, a parallel circuit. It's simple. Just break it down. it's It's just – a caliper with bolts or a rotor with bolts, just break it down.
Aniz Lavji: And sometimes you just need to take a second to, yep.
Frank Wiebe: you're You're changing a turbo. It's just bolts and gaskets, right? Just break it down. Break it down into a smaller one. and And we
Aniz Lavji: Sometimes you just need to take a second and stop and think and and just rest your mind for a second because you could have 6,000 things in your mind and you're right there at the solution, but you're so jumbled because depending on where you work, you could have a manager or you could have
Frank Wiebe: stop, think about it.
Frank Wiebe: Yep.
Aniz Lavji: ah you know, your wife or your partner's calling and, you know, what time you're coming home and you need to pick up the kids, you need to this, you need this. But, and you've got all this background noise when you're trying to diagnose the vehicle. And sometimes you just need to just cut out all the noise and just pause.
Aniz Lavji: And that fricking answer is going to come right to you once you clear out all that noise.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah.
Frank Wiebe: And so sometimes when I have a really difficult one, I'll just, I just, you know, set it aside and then I'll go back after supper and then I'll just sit there and then I'll think about it when no one else is around.
Aniz Lavji: Yep. Yep.
Frank Wiebe: then you just like, ah, that's what I missed.
Aniz Lavji: I have actually done that many times.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah.
Aniz Lavji: Again, I'm not in the shop doing this stuff, but, you know, I'll get some of my younger guys in there and they'll get a bit frustrated with the job.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah.
Aniz Lavji: And I'm like, yeah you know what? Let, let that just make sure if you were tightening a bolt, you finished tightening your bolts. And I never, ever interrupt any of my texts when they're in the middle of tightening a bolt.
Aniz Lavji: I usually bug them when I can see that they're doing, you know, they're maybe lubricating a brake pad or something and then I'll bug them. But I try not to kind of talk with them when they're in the middle of doing something that looks really, really important. So I'll say, you know, hey, you could, you know, do you have a second?
Aniz Lavji: No. Okay, I'll be back. And I know right away that he's doing something he needs to concentrate on.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah.
Aniz Lavji: But, you know, sometimes if I can see that they're frustrated, okay, finish up what you're doing right now. And let's go. So why? Don't worry about it. So, you know, we'll finish up what he's doing. He's okay. What's up? I'm like, okay, I got another vehicle here. Let's put it up. So I'm working on that. like, no, let it be.
Frank Wiebe: Or you send them across road to them Hortons.
Aniz Lavji: the
Frank Wiebe: Like when I was,
Aniz Lavji: or Or that. Oh yeah.
Frank Wiebe: when when i was there picking up When I was there picking up those wheels, I was ah parked across the road, Tim Hortons there, and then all sudden I seen Yacoub come out.
Aniz Lavji: Yeah. Yeah.
Aniz Lavji: Yeah.
Frank Wiebe: Like, oh, must be break time.
Aniz Lavji: yeah
Aniz Lavji: Sometimes not even break time, but again, these, man, my people work so hard for me. And, and it's just sometimes, you know, they get to have a frustrating job and I'm like, you know what, here's a 20, here's a 20, go and grab coffee and whatever.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah.
Aniz Lavji: If you want something to eat, get yourself something.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah.
Aniz Lavji: Don't come back with any change. Just, just buy whatever you want you.
Frank Wiebe: Yep.
Aniz Lavji: And, you know, let's reset a little bit. That job's kind of kicking your butt. And it's frustrating. Like, you know, if you're doing rear drum shoes and hardwares on like a 15 Corolla, they're absolutely annoying getting those springs and then something flies off and all you want to do is scream at it. You know what I mean?
Aniz Lavji: So sometimes you just got to stop, pause, reset, you know, I'll give them a different job and say, Hey, okay, let's work on this for a bit. And you know, that car is not being picked up till tomorrow.
Aniz Lavji: We're not going to look at it for about an hour and a half.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah.
Aniz Lavji: And just that little break, then every single time when they go back to that vehicle, everything's reset. And somehow, magically, that car gets finished quick because they've got the the patience to actually tackle it. And what they thought may be an issue or very difficult to complete seems so simple.
Aniz Lavji: And they'll come back after and be like, man, I went back to that car and i was able to just finish it. It was just so easy. I don't know what the hell I was doing.
Frank Wiebe: Well, they gave their mind a time to process it. A lot of times when I'm looking at service information and I'm reading through, and even my apprentice, right, he's reading through the, I have them read through the the steps of the job.
Aniz Lavji: Yep.
Frank Wiebe: You're doing this job you've never done before. Let's go look this up. Let's read all the steps. Boom, boom, boom. And then he is sometimes he'll get through halfway and he'll get so frustrated. I'm like, okay, well, now let's break this down.
Frank Wiebe: Read these steps. Let's go do this much. then we Then when you get to that part, then do this much. Or read through all of it and then think about it. Like, how can I compress this?
Frank Wiebe: How can I make this job smaller? Or do we need to expand it into, hey, we're taking a heater core out and we got to take the dash out and it says to do this and this and this.
Aniz Lavji: Look at the precautions.
Frank Wiebe: Look at the precautions. Look at the tools that it's going to have to take. Look at that. um If you've never done that job before, having that information is vitally important because then you're not taking stuff apart that doesn't need to be. you're You're like, oh, you know what?
Frank Wiebe: We don't have the equipment to do this job. I think that we need to reconsider whether we're going to be doing this or not.
Aniz Lavji: Yep.
Aniz Lavji: Yes.
Frank Wiebe: right I've done run that before. Somebody calls up says, hey, can you do a job on such and such?
Aniz Lavji: Yep.
Frank Wiebe: And I'm like, let me look. I'm like, you know what? I don't have the equipment for that. Very often it's like a timing job or something like that.
Aniz Lavji: Yep.
Frank Wiebe: I don't have either I can go buy it or I can't do the job, right? So a lot of times then you go buy new tools and you buy new equipment because it's like I bought one time I bought a timing kit for a Fiat 1.4 liter or five or whatever it was.
Aniz Lavji: Oh, geez.
Frank Wiebe: and And I bought the special kit to do that timing job. Now, like you said with your with your AC job, you made enough profit on that to justify buying that.
Aniz Lavji: Yep.
Aniz Lavji: Yeah.
Frank Wiebe: I, I said to this lady, I said, listen, I will do this job for you. She really wanted me to do the job. I'm like, I will do it for you, but I have to buy this tool.
Aniz Lavji: Yep.
Aniz Lavji: Yep.
Frank Wiebe: I'm going to charge you what it's going to cost me to buy this tool. She says, I am totally okay with that. As long as you will do it for me.
Aniz Lavji: and they Most of them are. Yep.
Frank Wiebe: And so I did. So and essentially, that that job paid for that tool, but I might never use it again.
Aniz Lavji: Yep.
Aniz Lavji: Probably not.
Frank Wiebe: But it's sitting on my shelf there marked as Fiat. So if anyone out there has a Fiat and you do need timing chains, happy to do it for you because I have the tools now.
Aniz Lavji: I got a Fiat coming for oil change tomorrow. i'll actually check that.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah, well, ask them if they want timing chains done. And if they do, send them down my way. But like it's just, it's one of those things that's like, do you do the job, buy the tools and invest that money and have it sit there?
Frank Wiebe: Or do you say, hey, I can't do it, lose the profit and lose any future potential jobs that you could get off of that?
Aniz Lavji: Yeah.
Aniz Lavji: Because that customer, you deny that job. Again, only do that job if you're comfortable
Frank Wiebe: Yep.
Aniz Lavji: tackling that job but if you don't do that job then she may think the next time you know what i need to get this fixed but you know what frank wasn't able to do that i'll just i'll take it to this guy because he says he can do it you know what mean so just get little bit ah which is fine if it's not something you wanted to do then it is what it is but
Frank Wiebe: Yep.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah.
Frank Wiebe: And i yeah
Aniz Lavji: you know if it's If it comes down to because of a tool that you know it's not an obscene amount of money, you didn't do it, then you know that's that's your own prerogative. Yeah.
Frank Wiebe: i've and I've done some jobs where I'm like, I did it. i had the service information. Like ah timing. it I did a timing job on ah on a Volkswagen. And, and I had, I had the tools for it.
Frank Wiebe: I had the service information. I did the job and I was able to complete the job, but I made a rule. I said, I will never do that job again because it was, it was one of those jobs that no matter, even if you, unless you're going to do it daily,
Frank Wiebe: every day or or regularly, it it did not pay for itself.
Aniz Lavji: Yes.
Frank Wiebe: It was such ah such an involved job that like that's so specialized that I better just not do it.
Aniz Lavji: yes
Frank Wiebe: It's not fair to me. It's not fair to my tech.
Aniz Lavji: yep
Frank Wiebe: It's not fair to my customers because I had to... What it basically boiled down to is that I went through and I'm like, I know I need these and these and these and these parts.
Frank Wiebe: When I got in there and said, oh crap, I also need such and such.
Aniz Lavji: Yep.
Aniz Lavji: Yes.
Frank Wiebe: Now you have to order it.
Aniz Lavji: That's, yeah.
Frank Wiebe: Wait another day. Now it's tying up my bay.
Aniz Lavji: And you have to tell the customer that, by the way, you need this, this, and it's going be more money.
Frank Wiebe: Right. And I got it. Sorry, it's going to be another day. Sorry, it's going to be another day. And you know what?
Aniz Lavji: And they're like, oh, oh, yeah.
Frank Wiebe: And that's not fair to them. Right. So then I'm like, you know what? I know that if, if I do it, I could probably do it for this kind of a money. And if you go take it to the dealer, it's probably going to be this much.
Frank Wiebe: But if you pay this much, you take it there and get it done. You know it'll be done. You know that they'll have all the parts and all that stuff. Just go and take there and let them do it.
Aniz Lavji: This is
Frank Wiebe: Or somebody who specializes, especially in Volkswagen, right? but certain So so so i've I've learned over the years, there are just certain things.
Aniz Lavji: this is why I...
Frank Wiebe: Regardless, even if I have the tools, even to have the service information, I'm better off saying no for the sake of the customer, right?
Aniz Lavji: Yep.
Aniz Lavji: That's the hardest thing, Frank, is saying no to, and you know, there's a lot of coaching companies out there that will say, will say, nope, say yes to everything.
Frank Wiebe: It's so hard to do.
Frank Wiebe: Never say no, right?
Aniz Lavji: Say yes to everybody. You can't say yes to everything because you're going to end up looking like a jackass.
Frank Wiebe: It's...
Aniz Lavji: How you getting a vehicle that comes in that, you know, you're saying, you're saying yes.
Frank Wiebe: Yep. Mm-hmm.
Aniz Lavji: Oh, is now a good time? Bring it right over. And the person brings the damn thing over and you look at and you're like, oh I don't know what to do with this. Then you're well, why the hell did you tell me to bring it over? You can't say yes to every car.
Frank Wiebe: No, it's...
Aniz Lavji: You can, you can tell them to drop it off and we'll have a look when we get a moment.
Frank Wiebe: And see what we can do with it, yeah.
Aniz Lavji: That's different. We will see if this is something we can tackle. But as soon as you say, yes, we can fix it. They're expecting to bring that vehicle in for you to fix the damn thing.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah.
Aniz Lavji: You know, and And going back to what you were saying, well, your apprentice or your coworker was saying, you know, we look at all the steps and make sure that we have this, we have this, we have this.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah, we had...
Frank Wiebe: Yep.
Aniz Lavji: But if that service information was not available and you weren't paying the pretty penny for that, they're going be depending on Frank to tell them what to do.
Frank Wiebe: Yep.
Aniz Lavji: And if Frank... doesn't know, i don't want to talk about you in third person, but if fred if you didn't know about all these different steps, then what are you gonna You miss one step, you're screwed.
Frank Wiebe: ye
Aniz Lavji: Right. So a lot of people don't understand that these labor rates cannot stay, you know, even i oh i've always, I'm still telling you, Frank, you're going to raise it. I'm sure you are, but even where you are right now, you have an awesome labor rate, but that's got to go up because there's so many costs insurance.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah.
Aniz Lavji: There's,
Frank Wiebe: Which goes up almost like every six months we get a renewal or review and the insurance is like, oh, you know what?
Aniz Lavji: you know
Aniz Lavji: yeah, I've heard it.
Frank Wiebe: We're just going to go up 10%. Like, perfect. Let's go up 10%.
Aniz Lavji: i have two I have two dealer plates.
Frank Wiebe: Yep.
Aniz Lavji: So we've got, and then we've got the apartments in our properties. We have insurance for that. And then, you know, you know, you got insurance for the garage and then you've got this liability insurance and then 2 million here. And then it's it's never ending.
Aniz Lavji: You get pest control and you've got like, the amount of The amount of different subscriptions, you have Identifix, and then, you know, you've got all, like, we've got Techmetric, which, again, I'm not going to complain about that because that's done me well.
Aniz Lavji: That's a whole other story. But, you know, yeah.
Frank Wiebe: control can be can be fairly cheap. Just get a couple of cats. We have...
Aniz Lavji: or Or you do that, you get a couple of cats,
Frank Wiebe: We had a problem with mice and now there's cats around the shop. All we have to do is feed them, which, don't know, what is maybe 30 bucks a month? Feed the cats. So it's pretty cheap way of getting rid of mice.
Aniz Lavji: Hmm.
Aniz Lavji: It's not a bad idea.
Frank Wiebe: It's a great, ah and if you want some, I've got a couple for you. I've got a trap. I can load them up. I'll bring them to you. Well, whatever you want, but probably the cats.
Aniz Lavji: The rats or the cats?
Frank Wiebe: I don't know if I can trap the rats.
Aniz Lavji: Oh, man.
Frank Wiebe: But everything costs money, man. everything everything is Everything is compiled, compounded, and it just it just all... all it It works, but it's hard, right?
Frank Wiebe: Like like you have to consider we have we had now, we're we're talking about our advertising budget, right? but what What should our advertising budget be or should we increase it?
Aniz Lavji: Yep. Yep.
Frank Wiebe: Like where do we go with that? and And if we advertise too much, then we're going to get too busy maybe if we don't advertise enough and all of that costs do we even advertise some people say oh i never advertise right and i i don't advertise much very little but you still gotta count all that in there if
Aniz Lavji: Well, I started on the radio. Remember, I sent you the radio ad.
Frank Wiebe: yeah yeah i heard that yeah i've got
Aniz Lavji: So there's a, I think that's costing me $1,500, $2,000 a month.
Frank Wiebe: Oh wow!
Aniz Lavji: like But i'm on I'm on there a lot. And I get customers telling me, I've got friends that are calling me, oh, i just heard you on the radio. Or dad's friends, or my techs, when he goes to church,
Frank Wiebe: Yep, that's cool. Yep.
Aniz Lavji: People at church, oh, man, Dave, we heard your shop was on the radio. We heard your shop's on the radio.
Frank Wiebe: really
Aniz Lavji: So, again, even if ah two or three of those customers come in, just two or three a month, that pays for it.
Frank Wiebe: yep Yeah, we're just we're just starting with the social media ah advertising. I've hired someone. um They were down today getting everything set up. So in the next week or so, it should be a bunch of social media content, video content floating out, flooding out, blogs, that kind of stuff.
Frank Wiebe: and And just poof. So we'll see how that does. I don't know if that doesn't root anything, then we won't do it. But if all sudden it's like, hey, that's that's generating revenue and that's whatever, then let's continue.
Aniz Lavji: Yeah.
Frank Wiebe: Let's go with it.
Aniz Lavji: If you can track and know that this customer came from that and you see what that work order brought in and then you see the gross profit on that compared to what you paid for
Frank Wiebe: Yep.
Frank Wiebe: Yep.
Aniz Lavji: doing that, then you can justify it. But, you know, like the subscriptions, like, you know, i got MotoVisuals and that's 50 bucks a month on top of my subscription for tech.
Frank Wiebe: Yep. Yep.
Aniz Lavji: And then, you know, there's all these other companies that call you that, you you know, we can do this, we can do this. And it's only 50, it's only 80, it's only 90, but you add all this stuff together, 90 bucks a month, that's 1200 bucks a year, you know, and then when you get hooked onto it.
Aniz Lavji: and then you know maybe you don't use it as proper function, it's $1,200 bucks gone. you know I've got a subscription to Circle K car automatic car wash.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah.
Aniz Lavji: I can wash my car every single day. It's 80 bucks a month.
Frank Wiebe: Oh, really?
Aniz Lavji: Okay. Oh yeah, it's really good actually. So I'll wash my car, Dad will wash his car, but if I don't end up washing it, let's say for two or three weeks, because I don't have time,
Frank Wiebe: Yeah.
Aniz Lavji: That 80 bucks was a waste.
Frank Wiebe: Mm-hmm.
Aniz Lavji: But again, that is all baked into every dollar that we're trying to make every month. Because sometimes if I get a good customer in, I might take their car and we'll get it washed and I won't even tell them.
Aniz Lavji: And they'll come pick up the and like, man, my car looks clean. was like, yeah, went and washed it for you.
Frank Wiebe: Man, you could wash every customer's car then.
Aniz Lavji: I could.
Frank Wiebe: So I know there was there was a shop in...
Aniz Lavji: It's warm today though, you can use it.
Frank Wiebe: What's that?
Aniz Lavji: Once a day you can use it.
Frank Wiebe: Oh, once a day, yeah.
Aniz Lavji: Once a day, yeah.
Frank Wiebe: Okay, yeah. There was a shop in town. That's what they did. Every every car that like got a wash, but every car that came in got washed, right?
Aniz Lavji: Yeah. And we could definitely do it, but that would all get baked into that labor rate.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah.
Aniz Lavji: So if I'm i'm at 149, if i charge or bucks an hour, sure i can do it ah hire another guy
Frank Wiebe: jean
Aniz Lavji: i can build an enclosed area off the side of the building, make it a wash bay, and have a guy, every single car goes in washes it. But I have to justify that increase in the labor rate for that.
Aniz Lavji: So is it worth me doing that? And can I justify to the customer, the reason we're 189 an hour now is now we're going to washing your car. Every time it comes in, we'll do a light vacuum.
Aniz Lavji: You know, we're going to give you a loaner car to go home and come like all these things will be baked into it. We're not washing the cars. We're not giving loaner cars.
Aniz Lavji: So we're sticking with our current labor rate, but for some customers that are doing, you know, if they're doing breaks or doing, you know, a couple thousand bucks worth of work or even a thousand bucks or whatever, I'll send them home in an Uber at least.
Aniz Lavji: And they appreciate that because for the 15 or 20 bucks, they get to go home and relax while we take care of their vehicle.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah.
Aniz Lavji: And then sometimes I'll tell them, okay, it'll be ready around two o'clock. So I'm prepared to, you know, so call an Uber and get them back. And sometimes they'll just be like, Oh, don't worry about it. I'm getting dropped off or I'll just call an Uber because they're not expecting you to get them back.
Aniz Lavji: You know? So it's these little things you do for customers that again, a cost of doing business that,
Frank Wiebe: cost of doing business. It, it
Aniz Lavji: I have to constantly explain to some customers, like, why is your labor rate this much? And like, unfortunately, and fortunately, I pay my people well. And I have three kids and I need to pay for this and I got to pay for this and insurance and this and this. So I'll start listing off a whole bunch of things. And that conversation just goes backwards and like, oh yeah, that kind of makes sense. Yeah.
Frank Wiebe: friend A friend of mine, him and I were talking business one time, and he said he said that their business was operating at a 3% net profit.
Aniz Lavji: Three. Okay. Yeah.
Frank Wiebe: 3%. But now, mind you, it was a multi-million dollar company, but it was 3%.
Aniz Lavji: yeah
Frank Wiebe: Like he said, with the cost of whatever, it was a ah trucking company, and with the cost of what they were doing, they were like a million dollars a week in fuel. So what there was, so all of these costs that they had, and at the end of the year, it was 3% was their net profit.
Frank Wiebe: And I'm like, damn, like that only 3%. But there's a lot of work.
Aniz Lavji: It's a lot of work.
Frank Wiebe: Now it was a big money. So, so there was, it was, it was money, right? Like it was worth it.
Aniz Lavji: Yeah.
Frank Wiebe: But When you think of only 3%, so if you think of like, let's say you're in my business, let's say we do for round number, let's say 100,000 a year. And if we only did 3% net profit, that's $3,000, right?
Aniz Lavji: Yeah. Yeah.
Frank Wiebe: So we got it we got to make money somewhere. We're not in this just for the fun. We do love our jobs, but we still got to make money. As everybody does with everyone, every job, it's there to make money, right?
Frank Wiebe: and and
Aniz Lavji: 100%. Profit is not a dirty word. Put that on a damn t-shirt.
Frank Wiebe: Profit's not a dirty word.
Aniz Lavji: Profit is not a dirty word.
Frank Wiebe: making Making money. Now, being being um a crook and being and being ripping someone off,
Aniz Lavji: I'll say ethical profit is not a dirty word.
Frank Wiebe: ethical profit. There you go. that's That's the right term.
Aniz Lavji: Yeah.
Frank Wiebe: if you're if you're If you're doing things in the right manner and and and properly, hey, We should all be making a profit.
Aniz Lavji: You know what? Have a heart.
Frank Wiebe: We should all be making money.
Aniz Lavji: Yep.
Frank Wiebe: Everyone's making money somewhere, whether it's you're working for someone and you're getting paid to do the job or whether you're the one offering the job and someone's paying you to do it. Everyone is out making money is literally how this world works and how this world turns.
Frank Wiebe: So if we can't go and make money and and pay our pay our employees so they're making money, then
Aniz Lavji: You take care of your techs, you take care of your writers, you take care of your customers, and hopefully at the end, you know you you're turning a profit, you pay your mortgage or whatever it is, and know just do it with a be be do with a code of ethics.
Frank Wiebe: Exactly. Yep.
Frank Wiebe: Yep. Yep.
Aniz Lavji: right One thing more I just want to bring up really quick, if if anyone hasn't seen, But Frank is coming to ASTA this year.
Frank Wiebe: Yep, exactly.
Aniz Lavji: He made a bet with Buckaroo Bob.
Frank Wiebe: Hey. Buckaroo Bob. Don't make a bet with him.
Aniz Lavji: And the bet basically consisted, it was there, basically, if you come to Canada, I'll register for ASTA.
Frank Wiebe: Give me a warning.
Aniz Lavji: And, well, John came. He conquered. He ate some wings. And Frank had to pay up.
Frank Wiebe: But, you know, he did say that the best thing wasn't wasn't the wings. It was the burrito the next morning at Menomex. So if you all like breakfast burrito, come down to Elmer, have a breakfast burrito.
Frank Wiebe: It'll be my treat if you come and see me. It's well worth the drive. And, yeah, so I'm going to ASTA. Anise is going.
Aniz Lavji: Yep, I just registered yesterday.
Frank Wiebe: Jeff's going.
Aniz Lavji: So we got Jada Mechanic. Jeff is going to be there for sure.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah. Yeah. So and anyone else interested in, in, in ASTA hit us up.
Aniz Lavji: well
Frank Wiebe: We'd we'd love to talk to you about it, point you in the right direction. And Hey, maybe we can even travel together if, if you're from our area and, uh, we're just going to make us all Canadian convoy going down to training out in North Carolina.
Aniz Lavji: Definitely. If you go to ASTA USA.org, you can register online. The hotels, the Marriott, which both of us are booked there.
Aniz Lavji: It's a beautiful hotel and love to see everyone there and more Canadians better.
Frank Wiebe: Yep.
Aniz Lavji: I think it'd be great. um I think we'll, we'll wrap it up, Frank. I know it's getting late here for you. You got to get your beauty rest.
Frank Wiebe: That's right. Yep.
Aniz Lavji: But I just want to thank, on a side note, all the listeners. you know we We really appreciate everyone that listens to this. Again, Frank and I, we really do this for fun. It's it's free therapy for both of us. So we we really enjoy it. you know In all honesty, it's 10.30 at night right now. We're both tired. But we do this because it it really, to me, I'm sure it does for you, Frank, as well. It really does mean a lot.
Frank Wiebe: Yeah, it does.
Aniz Lavji: And, you know, even if we help one person in a year and change the way they look at the industry or maybe change the way that they think about the way the industry is treating them, or maybe they make a change in their job. I mean, just one person on my end, Frank, that that would be enough for me to keep doing this.
Frank Wiebe: Exactly. ye I agree with you 100%.
Aniz Lavji: But thank you, everyone. And please follow us on Facebook, Shop and Tread Talk Podcast. Until next time, we'll talk to you later.
Frank Wiebe: Take care.
