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BONUS EPISODE! Charlie Zlatkos is Living The American Dream
290 Plays22 days ago
In this bonus episode on Confessions of a Shop Owner, Charlie tells me his story of migrating from Greece to owning a multi-location repair shop. His story is what I think of what "American Dream" is mentioned, because this dude was a hard worker, would not take no for an answer, and found a way to find a way. We can all learn something from guys like Charlie. What is one ingredient he would say made him successful? Listen and find out!
01:25 – Charlie’s Early Years: From Greece to Boston at 17
03:20 – The First Jobs: Gas Stations, Chasing Work, and Learning English
05:43 – Launching Pleasant Car Care: Starting with Almost Nothing
08:11 – Naming the Shop & Choosing a New Standard for the Industry
11:11 – How Coaching Helped Charlie Think Bigger
12:15 – Meeting Todd & Bill: The Crucial Lessons of Early Coaching
13:31 – “Customer Pays for Everything” – A Lesson That Changed It All
15:09 – Moving from Technician to True Business Owner
17:23 – Why Most Shop Owners Think Too Small
19:24 – The Trap of Doing Owner Work Instead of CEO Work
21:04 – Why Your Time as an Owner Is Your Most Valuable Asset
23:14 – How One Decision Could Make Your Shop $6 Million More
24:07 – Four-Day Work Weeks, Six-Day Service: Staffing & Customer Service Debate
25:52 – Letting Your Staff Choose: Four, Five, or Six Days?
26:25 – The Challenge & Opportunity of Sunday Operations
27:17 – Saturdays, Sundays, and Putting Customer Convenience First
28:22 – Why Small Shops Can Be Super Profitable
29:36 – The Power of Efficiency in Small Shops
30:13 – Outro & Final Thoughts from Charlie and Mike
Recommended
Transcript
Customer-Centric Mindset Shift
00:00:00
Speaker
He said customer pays for everything. And he explained what that meant. I mean, it's everything you do around you right now, these microphones, the water, everything is paid from a customer. So it really changes your mindset and how you treat that customer and what would you do for that customer.
00:00:17
Speaker
The following program features a bunch of doofuses talking about the automotive aftermarket. The stuff we, or our guests may say, do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of our peers, our sponsors, or any other associations we may have.
00:00:31
Speaker
There may be some spicy language in this show, so if you get your feelings hurt easily, you should probably just move along. So without further ado, it's time for Confessions of a Shop Owner with your host, Mike Gallen.
Charlie's American Dream Journey
00:00:49
Speaker
Here we are again, Vision 2025 in Kansas City. I just got done talking with Bill Broussard, had a really good conversation with him, learning more about him and his history and and the evolution from technician to shop owner to successful shop owner to where he is now, which is like another level of yeah What's happening.
00:01:09
Speaker
um And I'm excited to get a chance to talk to you, Charlie, because you are like the American dream story in my mind. um So, but I will mess it up if I try to tell it. So could you give me just kind of the five minute rundown yeah of from getting here to where you are now?
00:01:26
Speaker
Yeah, I think it would be great for people to know like where I started because obviously where I am today, where I'm standing today, it just may sound like bragging, but it's not where it always was, right? It's not where I started. So make a long story short, I was born and raised in Greece.
00:01:41
Speaker
um Always had a thing for cars and motorcycles. actually started in motorcycles. ah So I was into motorcycles. Then my father pulled me away from I was riding very wild then.
00:01:52
Speaker
And he got me to work for ah his mechanic, the guy that he used to take his car to. Very amazing mechanic, amazing guy. We also used to build the rally cars.
00:02:02
Speaker
So it was pretty cool. That's kind of when I started. And then I used to go to technical school in Greece too. I switched from regular ah high school per se to just a technical high school.
Adapting to a New Country
00:02:14
Speaker
ah And then in 1993, we moved here, and I barely spoke any English, english very little. How old were you at the time I was almost 17. Okay. I do remember the four words I knew.
00:02:26
Speaker
Cat, hot, man, and dog. Those were my English at the time. it's so I remember them so vividly, like today. Wow. Those are the only four words I knew. ah So I came here, I started working in a gas station.
00:02:38
Speaker
We landed here on a Thursday. I went around with my uncle. He took me around to some places looking for work, some Greek owners, obviously, so I could speak the language.
00:02:49
Speaker
The first couple said no. The third guy, the manager, is like, oh, I like this kid. Let's try him out. So Monday I started working. And I worked for like a year. And then... kind of started learning the language and then I went to a technical school at night, um graduated from that. And then I worked in, you know, gas stations last repair shop. I worked there for like over seven years, but the owner had three sons and the manager and I'm like, well, there's no future here for me. I want you to do something more.
00:03:19
Speaker
ah So I left there. I bought a van of an electrician. You probably don't even know that. So bought a van of an electrician. I put some oils in there, a couple of drums of oil. I put a set of wiper blades, floor jacks, some tools. And a friend of mine had a detailing business in parking garages in Boston.
00:03:39
Speaker
So I used to go in his locations and service his customers. did that for about a year uh wasn't successful i didn't make any money and then back then there was no technology that we have today so now you can pay it remotely or whatever back then i would chase people for money yeah um and then after that my first boss actually called me we're still talking all the time he's like i have a friend that he has a gas station they did the tanks and the pumps and all that so it's been closed for a while now he wants to get it going again
00:04:11
Speaker
doesn't have anybody.
Solo Gas Station Experience
00:04:12
Speaker
So I went there, I met with him, obviously I wasn't making any money, like I said, so whatever he offered me at the time was good. yeah So I started the gas station, and I was pumping gas and doing repairs, it's a brand new location, nobody there.
00:04:26
Speaker
They will study hiding Gazetana people. I was the only guy I end up staying there for 10 and a half years. was the only guy, no help. No, nobody. yeah The only guy diagnosing cars, fixing them, running the shop, which is running myself.
00:04:40
Speaker
ah ordering the gas for the gas station so i did a ten and a half years and then You know when I told George was his name that I was gonna leave actually left I gave him a two-year notice.
00:04:52
Speaker
Oh gosh Yeah, because the story goes, you know, i told Jose, you know my my son Dimitri started growing a little and i'm like, I don't want my kids to be too far apart so So I want my kids to be too far apart. I told him I'm going to start looking to do my own business. Obviously, I just love
Founding Pleasant Car Care
00:05:10
Speaker
cars. It's my passion.
00:05:11
Speaker
And he comes back and like, well, you're not going to go anywhere. Everybody knows you're here. You need to stay here. And I'm going to sell you the place. And that's fine. And I was young and naive. And I kind of believed that at the time, obviously. But that never happened. So every six months, we'll have a conversation. Hey, Josh, you ready to sell me the place? No, not yet.
00:05:30
Speaker
up until they go to the point, you know, my wife is pregnant now with my daughter. And I told him, I say, when my daughter is born, I'm not coming back. And the day she was born, June 5th, 2010, she was born. I called George and I say, hey, we just had the baby. He says, congratulations. I say, just so you know, I'm never coming back.
00:05:49
Speaker
And I got my small little shop in Watertown, which maybe we'll talk about that today because what it does is amazing. a Small little tiny shop in Watertown. And the reason I got that shop, to be honest with you, is because it's the only shop I could afford at the time.
00:06:05
Speaker
It was small, dirty, like disgusting. Hole in wall. yeah Yeah, there was a hole in the wall. It was cheap rent at the time. And it really was the only one I could afford at the time.
00:06:17
Speaker
So again, she was born June 5th. I quit my job, and i cleaned up the place. And I think June 21st or something, I was up and running in business. We bought some used equipment ah from ah there was a company in Boston, Lappins.
00:06:32
Speaker
And I bought some used equipment, and I put all my money there, and I started working. That's kind of how the story goes. Was it Pleasant Car Care from day one? Yeah, so it's on Pleasant Street in Watertown. So I kind of used that name as a double meaning. yeah um You know, I came from an industry. It's good name.
00:06:47
Speaker
Yeah, it's a great name actually, come to think about it. But, you know, at the time I figured, well, it's unpleasant street. And then I'm a pleasant person because I really worked for some other people in what I saw in the industry. It was very unpleasant, yeah let's say, to be nice.
00:07:00
Speaker
yeah I've heard you talk about before that you had some dishonest bosses in the past who very take advantage of customers. Yeah, very, very. and Unfortunately, yes. And that's those are the people that kind of give a bad reputation.
00:07:13
Speaker
To our industry. To our industry. I mean, I was, again, very young at the time. um Just you told what to do and you do it. And, you know, when you know you're so dishonest, but, you know, your heart, you know, one of the things I learned over the years, everybody knows what's right and wrong.
00:07:30
Speaker
You don't need to go to school for that. You don't need anybody teaching you, right? You know if this is the right thing to do or not. And when you see somebody, let's say Dunkin Donuts, that you know yesterday you were dishonest with that person and inside it hurts you, you know you're not doing something right.
00:07:47
Speaker
You're like, I got to get out of here. I have to do my own thing. I kind of control my destiny. And, you know, that's that's really one of the reasons I left, um you know, those places and the name kind of, hence the name.
00:08:01
Speaker
So you got here when you were 17 and within a week you had your first job in the automotive space. You had already been training. yeah Next day. um How old were you when you opened Pleasant Car Carrier? So up in Pleasant Cac, I was like 35. Okay. Yeah. Actually, this June will be 15 years in business. Awesome. so and So you're going to turn 50 soon.
00:08:20
Speaker
Yeah, this year, end of the year, I'll be 50. Are you going to do anything fun for that? i don't know. i'm not I'm not a big birthday guy. I guess i guess a 50 is a big one. You should the and kids they've got something special for you. Yeah. so I'm sure my wife will have something up her sleeve.
00:08:34
Speaker
Nice. She's cool like that. So... Yeah, it's a big birthday, but I'm not a big birthday guy. Like I don't pay much attention. Let's get back to the birth of Pleasant. So Pleasant, two bay doors in the front and at the time the back of the building was being rented out by someone else. Yeah, the back of the building, it's a small building, so it's split into the... I have the front, which is two bays. It was three lifts at the time.
00:08:56
Speaker
um My office was actually, i I borrowed the desk from my yeah mother-in-law. She passed away now, bless her soul. But she had a counter in her alteration business.
00:09:08
Speaker
And she had an extra counter, and that was my first desk. That's why I said, you know, used the equipment, just people giving me stuff. So I bought a counter from an alteration. Didn't buy it. I borrowed it from her. And that was my desk for years. Like, that was my desk in the shop. Mm-hmm.
00:09:22
Speaker
You really have a bay and then you have a desk. That was my front counter. Yeah. And then I built a little, there was a bay there that was very low ceiling. It's probably like a seven, eight foot ceiling. like And then I made that an office because I'm like, well, I can't put a lift in here. So what am I going to do? So I turned that, I converted that to an office. That's our office and waiting area now.
00:09:43
Speaker
Okay, and so now you've got the four lifts in the front two bays, and eventually you got the back of the building also. Yeah, that was like within the last couple of years yeah that we got that. It was, like I said, a body shop, and eventually they left, and we took it, and we use it mostly for parking. That's the big thing.
00:09:59
Speaker
We use it mostly for parking. I mean, the big change, I mean, Mike, you know me for a while now, so you know Todd Hayes, and I started working with him for a while. And I have to say, in the beginning, was some light training and Todd used to fly throughout the country and coach people.
00:10:17
Speaker
And I would do some of that. And I couldn't do that much because, first all, I couldn't afford to pay him that much anyway. Yeah. um So I did some changes, but, you know, all these things started moving the needle. And um I remember...
00:10:30
Speaker
Like the videos we do today and the videos back then is different. I mean, when I started, just so everybody knows, again, when I started press a cac, I didn't even know how to turn a computer on. No idea. ah People, like my friend was a bookkeeper or something at the time. he's like, oh, yeah, you press this, you powers it up. Like, I really had no idea how to use a computer.
00:10:49
Speaker
We didn't have any at the places I worked. It was all handwritten slips and stuff like that. I just had a, you know, back then I was very driven and I relied on my passion and my high level of work ethic versus right now we've built systems in place. The the place like today it's open and running full stuff without me being there. Right. yeah So it was a ah big involvement, but the biggest, biggest thing,
00:11:15
Speaker
ah It was the hardest thing I had to overcome, have to say, throughout the years was changing the mindset from a mechanics technician mindset to a business owner CEO mindset. Because you look at things different, you act different, you do different, different moves in your business.
00:11:34
Speaker
So tell me about that evolution for you going from that a technician who owns a shop to a business owner who works in the automotive space. I feel like that was mostly through your relationship with Todd and Bill, right? So walk me through that.
Customer Service Philosophy
00:11:48
Speaker
Yeah, so I'll tell you how met I met them and the first couple of years in business, one of the vendors, actually his name was Mike too,
00:11:55
Speaker
ah one of the kind guy I risk a like guy Great guy. Well, he did great for me, really. um So one of the vendors I had at the time would come in the shop, supply filters and fuses and whatever, small stuff.
00:12:08
Speaker
he's like, oh, you need more cars? Yeah. I'm like, yeah. He says, call Bill, because Bill had an advertising company at the time. And he's like, call Bill. I'm like, I don't even know who Bill is. So I give Bill a call. I'm like, hey, my name is Charlie. I have this shop. I'm trying to grow the business. And Mike told me to call you.
00:12:24
Speaker
So Bill says, OK, so I can help you advertise. Do you know what to say on the phone? I have no idea. I really have no idea about that. I'm like, no. He's like, then don't waste your money advertising if you don't know what to say on the phone. It's just a waste of money and time.
00:12:38
Speaker
So he says, you have to meet Todd. And a couple of weeks later, Todd was coming to town. you actually had a ah small speaking engagement in somebody else's shop in the south shore of Boston.
00:12:50
Speaker
And I drove over there after work. And it was a small group of people, maybe like a dozen. shop owners at the time and I was like the the youngest freshest in the business probably from everybody else there and he started speaking and It's pretty cool. Sorry took us recently. Somebody asked me. Oh, what's the?
00:13:11
Speaker
Most important lesson you learned from Todd over the years and said can answer that obviously the guy has taught me so much um But I do remember the first lesson so that day when he stood up he said customer pays for everything And he explained what that meant. I mean, it's everything you do around you right now, these microphones, the water, everything is paid from a customer.
00:13:31
Speaker
So it really changes your mindset and how you treat that customer and what would you do for that customer. And that was the first, first ever lesson I got from Todd. So then, like I said, then we started doing some light coaching.
00:13:43
Speaker
um It was very sporadic per se at the time because, again, one of the things was I couldn't afford to pay him all the time. And then after a few years later, Todd's brother died from leukemia.
00:13:56
Speaker
And Todd really took it very at heart. And he disappeared. I think it was about a couple of years that you couldn't find him. He says it's a year. It's way more than a year. Or at least he felt for me that was more than a year because we were all struggling.
00:14:09
Speaker
And then Bill kept, thankfully, Bill kept harassing his mother. He's like, can I talk to Todd? Can talk to Todd? I need him to come back. So at some point Todd's mother is like, can you please call me? He needs your help.
00:14:22
Speaker
So he called Bill and Bill's like, Todd, please come and help me. He's like, no, I'm done. I'm not doing this again. and then he says, please, please, please. Like over, this happened over a few conversations.
00:14:34
Speaker
So Todd packed his stuff. He calls me after he said yes to Bill. And I remember, you know, there's certain things in life you just remember so clearly. I'm driving home. ah I pull in my driveway and now as I'm pulling in the driveway, my phone rings and it's done. And it's like, hey, you I just got off the phone with Bill.
00:14:54
Speaker
I'm coming back on. ah Do you want to work with me again? And I'm like, you couldn't have called me in a better day. I had like employee problems at the time. and So i sat in the driveway. We spoke for like 40 minutes or whatever it was.
00:15:09
Speaker
And then Todd flies to Boston. We rent a room in a hotel, a small room. And we have all of my guys at the time. We were not as many people as it is today, obviously. And then we brought his guys. We did a weekend program.
00:15:21
Speaker
And then from there on, it's just been full on. So obviously right now we've grown, as you know, a much more significant company. ah you know I have the two locations of Pleasant Kaya and partners in the Houston operations.
00:15:35
Speaker
um We have Autoshop Answers, which I'm very involved with, and helping and coaching people. and that's For me, for me the way that's very important personally, because I do see the need that people have out there. because i Like I just told you my story, I didn't know anything about the business.
00:15:53
Speaker
and Obviously, somebody helped me, and I owe all that to Todd. And I wasn't an easy student because I came from ah world that was so far off from what Toad's world was that I didn't even think it's true. ah really it's so far It's like in 180 degree, right?
00:16:10
Speaker
So you're like, man, this guy, what he's teaching, it's just not possible. That's just not how he works. Well, I mean, there're there's different levels of thinking about success and defining success.
00:16:24
Speaker
And Todd's starting to throw around like billion-dollar numbers. Yes. Like independent automotive repair doesn't talk in billions. Exactly. There's a lot of independent automotive repair that don't talk in millions.
00:16:36
Speaker
yeah And so, you know, for me, it was like I i want to get to $5 million. And now it's I want to get to $10 million. And then it's, you know, but My wife, if she were in this conversation, she would say, well, what is enough?
00:16:52
Speaker
What is the number? Well, it just becomes a game after a while, right? Yeah, you might have enough as a number, but also by you being more successful, I'm also a big student of John Maxwell, if anybody listens to him. I'm sure there's a lot of people out there.
00:17:05
Speaker
And he says, you can't give what you don't have. That's another number one lesson, right? So if you want to be helpful to your community, if you want, let's say, your your technicians to make more money, if you want your service advisors to make more money, well, you can't.
Leadership and Personal Growth
00:17:22
Speaker
All that has to come through you.
00:17:24
Speaker
So you have to be a better leader, stronger leader, make better decisions. and I'm not going to say we always make the perfect decision, right? But obviously... but This whole podcast is predicated on all the poor decisions that I make a business owner. I mean, who hasn't made mistakes? Let's not fool ourselves. We've made so many mistakes in our in our lives. And one of the things, again, let's go back to what we were just talking a minute ago, was Todd's game plan or vision was so far or off, I didn't even think it's real.
00:17:54
Speaker
But now, one of the big mistakes that most of us make, and you probably made it at some point, thinking too small. Right. yeah It really holds you back because your decision will be different if you're thinking smaller, if you're thinking big, um because everything you do affects big or everything you do affects small.
00:18:12
Speaker
ah You know, I hear sometimes people talking about employees or hiring, how many you're going to hire. And, well, where do you want to go? Like, what's what's your goal? What's the end goal here?
00:18:24
Speaker
It makes a big difference. I think that's a big weak spot for me is is is recruiting and hiring. is I know that I need to hire, you know i need a GS, I need an advisor, I need a technician across the company right now between the locations.
00:18:40
Speaker
So one of each. And I should be able to go do that Monday, right? If I'm really going to take it seriously. Yeah, if you sit down and focus, you could do that in a day. Yeah, but I find reasons not to.
00:18:52
Speaker
I find excuses and and that kind of thing. so So there's a couple of things, right? So a lot of us do what we call owner their stuff. So you have somebody running your books? I do. yeah Okay, so you don't need to do that. yeah ah You have people checking people in.
00:19:07
Speaker
You don't have to fix cars, right? So there's really nothing else for you to do other than than recruit and build a culture of your company. So again, I was all of it. I was the only guy when I started.
00:19:19
Speaker
And and know one day, it's a very vivid, actually, I'll tell you two stories. two Twice this happened. ah When I was still early on, very few people in the company, whatever, I did actually three clutch jobs in one day myself.
00:19:33
Speaker
And at the end of the afternoon, whatever, I posted that on Facebook. but And Todd calls me, and I thought he's going to be proud of me. And he's like, wow, but bravo, congratulations.
00:19:44
Speaker
You basically value yourself just as much as a technician. He's like, could you have hired somebody to do those jobs for you? I say, yeah, but I got to do them. And then that was a very eye opening. He actually got in my face that day.
00:19:58
Speaker
And I thought I was proud. And, oh, look at me. i did three classes. Who else can do that? And he's like, no, you just devalued yourself. And I'm saying that with all and or respect, per se.
00:20:08
Speaker
Because, again, the minute you change your your thinking and what's my time worth, right? What... you going and hiring those three people on Monday will be way more impactful than anything else you'll do that day, will it not?
00:20:23
Speaker
Yeah. You see? It's like, wow, so recruiting, training, setting up the culture, setting up goals, working on technology going forward. We're working right now, um myself, Bill, Todd, and Joe Adams, we're working on having our own and our own AI guy in-house to develop technology that we want exactly the way we want it not of As AI is evolving, there's a lot of like cookie cutter stuff. And a lot of it is really good, obviously. yeah
00:20:55
Speaker
But it's cookie cutter. We want to customize it, right? ah So what's going to move the needle more, that or me doing a class job? Yeah. And then there was another deal.
00:21:07
Speaker
i was in the shop. The shop is a little backed up and they just had to get this oil change done really quickly at the time. And this is before we really fine tuned the process that we have today, which we should talk about.
00:21:19
Speaker
um So the shop is backed up and I get under the car and start doing the oil change and Todd was in the little... office and he comes out and he starts clapping i'm like what's going on he's like look at you he's like what are you doing like well the shop is backed up i had to help him he's like i just closed this multi-million dollar deal so that was very eye-opening again my 10 minutes of doing an oil change and his 10 minutes are valued way different See, valued way different.
00:21:47
Speaker
And that's why sometimes there's a lot of hate in the industry from people. I hear it about Todd. Because they just really don't understand it. That's all there is to it. They don't understand you know what he can see. They can't see what he can see.
00:22:00
Speaker
ah And there's a big you know a big gap in between. And that's why there's that hate, right? um If you don't understand what I'm talking about, you might think I'm wrong. But once you implement it and you do it, and then I can show you. So yesterday, we met a guy actually in the front, he has six ups.
00:22:15
Speaker
And I saw him one single move he can make and I made him $6.3 million. dollars We use the calculator with very comfortable numbers. We didn't push the numbers. I say very easily, if you do this move, you're going be able to do this number.
00:22:29
Speaker
This is what it's worth to you. So I say, that's your decision. Do you want to leave $6.5 million dollars on the table or not? It's like, okay, you got my attention. It really just see when Todd was like, I can make a million dollars. What was the one thing? the one thing is yeah You can't tease me. So he's closed on Saturdays.
00:22:47
Speaker
ah there you go So we did. okay let's do a math. Because if you open six stores on a Saturday and you average $10,000, which like I said, it's a very comfortable number, yeah right? It's not a crazy number.
00:22:59
Speaker
And then you take your 20% net and you multiply that in the market when you're going to sell the company to some private equity deal, then that's worth $6.5 million. dollars So do you want to be open on Saturdays or not? I don't know. You make that decision.
00:23:13
Speaker
But that's really up to
Debate on Saturday Operations
00:23:14
Speaker
you. Nobody else can make that decision. Yeah. Well, i'm ah I'm a believer. So, yeah, I talked about that with ah but Bill earlier about opening on Saturdays.
00:23:27
Speaker
So I'm not as intense about it as as you guys are. I switched to a four-day work week for my staff, but we're open six days for customers. And so that means I had to increase my staff. So you guys would probably jump in me in my ear about having too much staff, honestly.
00:23:42
Speaker
um why Why? So let me ask you this. Why didn't you keep the staff at five days and you can have people, let's say, Monday through Friday or Tuesday through Saturday. Then you need less people and they'll probably be able to make more money too. Because then on Saturday and Monday, you're at half staff, right?
00:24:01
Speaker
Well, are you running the concept as you've learned it? Yeah. See, because you can run the concept with less people yeah if you run it properly. You really don't need so many people. And there are some growing pains from having the four-day rotating schedule is complex to manage, right?
00:24:19
Speaker
um But ultimately, I think it was my desire to be...
00:24:26
Speaker
seen as a super friendly boss as a super. Well, how about these two? So I have one of my technicians that's been a Monday through Friday guy forever, for years. And he comes up to me recently, like six months ago, eight months ago.
00:24:40
Speaker
mean, been with me for like seven years or something, a long time. And he's like, hey, listen, I want to start making some more money because we want to buy a house. So do you mind if I work six days?
00:24:51
Speaker
say, absolutely not. It's that easy. So are you really helping your staff or not? Why don't you make that day decision? Do you guys want to work four days? you want to work five? you want to work six? Leave it up to them. So, again, I understand the logic behind it where you're trying to be super friendly, but don't you think they do something else on those couple of extra days they have? 100% I've got a couple of guys who would work six days a week. See, you're kind of taking that opportunity away from them.
00:25:18
Speaker
for not for only a line in the four days yeah yeah let's say you have a good good technician that is flat rate and he can crank some work for himself a younger guy who doesn't have kids and he's just hungry and wants you know he wants to make those big bucks and right Or even with the kids, the guy I'm telling you the example about, he has three sons.
00:25:38
Speaker
and So, hey, he's like, I need to make more money. I have a big family. get And I need a bigger house. So I need to make more money. So, again, either way, i I kind of feel like nobody can make that decision for the employee. I just, I have to provide the platform, right?
00:25:53
Speaker
And this is the platform. This is what's available, how much you want to work. Just like I said, like I guess they do your own work side or not. I don't know. It's your decision, but there's a platform. Yeah. um Saturday seems like a no-brainer to me. like It's just low-hanging fruit.
00:26:07
Speaker
Is Sunday more challenging? Yeah, I'm not going to lie. Sunday is more challenging because it's mentally getting everybody prepared for it. whatever and But that's all there is. Once once you're open...
00:26:19
Speaker
you do it for a month, then it's just another day. Nobody even thinks about it. um I have full-on stuff tomorrow. oh Like, it really becomes a no-brainer, just like any other day. You ever been down at Adams on a Sunday?
00:26:33
Speaker
have, yeah. There's a lot of people there. yeah There's a lot of cars there. if If you really sit back, I've done this. I sit back and I watch what's happening, and it's no different than a Wednesday.
00:26:44
Speaker
It really is no different than a Wednesday. And I know... That's not for everyone. That's fine. I understand that because I know Todd is out there and preaching. Oh, you got to do the seven-day deal. Well, you don't have to, but you have to do the system. A Saturday, like you said, it's a no-brainer because your customers, again, what what was the first lesson I learned? Customer pays for everything.
00:27:04
Speaker
So if my customer is easy for them to bring the vehicle in and get it serviced on a Saturday, why am I taking that away? yeah It's just like taking it away from my employee. So I have to provide for my customer.
00:27:17
Speaker
So um how do you reconcile the ah we're a faith-based company with being open on Sunday? So, again, there's a lot of churches are open on ah different days, different services. You can rotate stuff.
00:27:34
Speaker
um There's a lot of ways around it. Well, mean, I've seen like Patty comes in on Sunday morning for the take five. They walk in, they go to church, and then they come back. yeah That's exactly what they do. So it's not...
00:27:46
Speaker
It's really very, very doable. yeah um Very, very doable. Again, i it's not for everyone, but you're kind of stealing away opportunity from your employees to make more money and you're not providing great customer service.
00:28:00
Speaker
Awesome. um You're really not. I'm sorry. A lot of people may not want to hear it, but you are not. Charlie, I appreciate you coming on, man. This has been a lot of fun. problem. I think more people need to hear your story.
00:28:12
Speaker
Well, let me tell you. Maybe we should talk before we hang up about the little shop, too, because I think it's very important for people to hear. yeah um You probably have a lot of listeners that have small shops.
Small Shop Efficiency and Profitability
00:28:22
Speaker
It's a pleasant.
00:28:23
Speaker
the original pleasant there isn't a pleasant in water you now have five lifts right yeah so i now have five lifts since we took over the body shop behind we were able to stick one lift in there uh but we still have the original building upstairs which we have four lifts now because like i said i moved the office and that's uh you know at the time when i started i was doing maybe 20 maybe $30,000 in a good month.
00:28:46
Speaker
And right now, by running the concept and the follow-up process, the record month is $369,000. And netted up 24% off of that. So you can do the month. That's a lot of money.
00:28:58
Speaker
And that doesn't include all of our B-backs, I mean the add-ons that we have, because obviously we have the recruiting fee that we pay. We have the BDC sender. yeah All those things could be add-ons.
00:29:11
Speaker
So for anybody out there that has a small sub, you actually have a benefit on a small sub. You can be very efficient. When you have a bill a big sub, you can lose a lot of... inefficiency put a car in the corner, it's okay, I'll get to it later.
00:29:24
Speaker
In the little shop, you don't have the time for that. You have to be super efficient. You have to inspect the vehicles fast. My small shop is definitely my most profitable shop, for sure. It is, 100%, because there's less leaks and it's easier to manage.
00:29:36
Speaker
right, well, we got to bounce. We're out of time. um This has been a lot of fun, man. and Thank you so much for having me. I'll see you out there. Thank you, Mike. Thanks for listening to Confessions of a Shop Owner, where we lay it all out.
00:29:47
Speaker
The good, and the bad, and sometimes the super messed up. I'm your host, Mike Allen, here to remind you that even the pros screw it up sometimes, so why not laugh a little bit, learn a little bit, and maybe have another drink.
00:29:57
Speaker
You got a confession of your own or a topic you'd like me to cover, or do you just want to let me know what an idiot I am? Email mike at confessionsofashopowner.com or call and leave a message. The number is 704-CONFESS. That's
00:30:12
Speaker
three three seven seven If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, or follow. Join us on this crazy journey that is shop ownership. I'll see you on the next episode.
00:30:51
Speaker
and just...