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BONUS EPISODE! Bill Brusard | "Straight Pipe No Muffler"
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In this episode, Mike Allen sits down with Bill Brusard of JB Auto Care and Now Auto Care. Bill tells the story of meeting industry lightning rod Todd Hayes and how that meeting changed his life. Now, Bill has goals to build generational wealth, rather than just running a shop. They also talk about the strategy of private equity deals with the Houston-Boston Partnership, and why Bill believes giving back is important.
00:00 From Technician to Shop Owner for Bill
05:18 Meeting Big Daddy Todd Hayes
06:43 Choosing Quality over Quantity
10:00 Defining Success with Hayes
13:30 "Maximize Your True Potential"
17:53 "Second Bite: Bigger Equity Return"
22:26 "Failed Business Dreams"
23:25 "No Question Off Limits"
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Transcript
Company Valuation Ambitions
00:00:00
Speaker
You we've been offered $80 million for our company. We turn it down. Then we've been offered $175 million for the company. We turn it down. You know, we're shooting for, ah you know, half a billion to $800 million, which could turn into a billion. it's it just keep It actually keeps on growing.
Automotive Aftermarket Discussion
00:00:16
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.
00:00:30
Speaker
There may be some spicy language in this show, so if you get your feelings hurt easily, you should probably just move along.
Interview with Bill Broussard
00:00:37
Speaker
So without further ado, it's time for Confessions of a Shop Owner, with your host, Mike Gallen.
00:00:47
Speaker
right, so here I am. We're still here at Vision KC 2025, stealing slash borrowing Lucas's podcast space. Thank you, Lucas. i appreciate that.
00:00:58
Speaker
um But I'm here with Bill Broussard from Autoshop Answers. And Bill, what's the name of your shop in Boston? So the name in shop is JB Auto Care. JB Auto Care. You have one location or two? So I have one location Boston, and I have four locations in Houston.
00:01:12
Speaker
And those are the Now Auto Care? Now Auto Care and Adams Automotive. and adams Not the big ones. the olds Yeah, the big one is the the original is is all flagship store yeah yeah is all the Adams family. The million dollar store. Yeah, the one that everybody talks about, right?
Bill's Journey and Challenges
00:01:26
Speaker
So um if you could, I'd love to hear a little bit about your ah kind of your rise through your career and how it started.
00:01:36
Speaker
And then ah we'll we'll dive into a little bit more about your partnership, and the Houston-Boston partnership and what that's turning to in the future. Yeah, great. So back in the early 90s, I started as a technician, a Toyota technician, like most um people in this industry started as technicians and then they opened up a shop. but So um I was a Toyota master technician and then I graduated and went to Lexus and became a master technician also.
00:02:03
Speaker
So back in about 95, one of my previous co-workers was i I wanted to open up my own shop, so I actually visited him beforehand. So he called me up. He's like, listen, my partner just left.
00:02:15
Speaker
I need a partner. Are you interested? I'm like, absolutely. So I gave up my job at Lexus. I was probably making, know, back in the mid-90s, $75,000 a year, which was good money pretty substantial.
00:02:28
Speaker
You know, I was that 100-hour-a-week technician. so um So I joined forces with him. First day on the job, realized I made a major mistake. I'm like, what say? i know nothing about business and neither do you.
00:02:42
Speaker
I'm like, I'm screwed. But i just I was so determined and i worked my ass off. um I just thought if I'd just work hard and and implemented my you know work ethic at...
00:02:55
Speaker
my own business with my partner you know we will be successful. Well, that never happened. So probably about 96, 97, I stumbled across this company called Management Success the time of Elton, California.
00:03:09
Speaker
So we took some courses and that, you know, To their um credit, it stabilized. We were able to advertise, you know watch my KPIs. I'm like, right, maybe make a couple of bucks out of this. did they Did they invite you into the church?
00:03:24
Speaker
they did they Yeah, they tried to. So they what they would do is entice you. They're hey, we're offering we're buying some pizzas afterwards if you want to put this e-meter on your head. And i'm like, not interested. I don't know anything about Scientology. I just know that any time I hear management success that I have to make a Scientology joke. Yeah. So, okay. I digress. And they ask I ain't talking. They do try to con convert you.
00:03:45
Speaker
Anyway, I'm a Christian, so I wasn't having it. so um But it did stabilize my business.
Dissolving Partnerships and New Beginnings
00:03:52
Speaker
And, you know, I was able to give me the confidence to kind of move forward. But I was still, you know, fixing cars and running around with hair on fire.
00:04:01
Speaker
So that partnership lasts a couple years. you know, my partner was just, we weren't aligned. He was, you know, like smoke dope and yeah do his thing and come in late, leave early and yeah three hour road tests. It was a hobby.
00:04:15
Speaker
It was a hobby to him. So we dissolved the partnership and, um, I ended up, so when I was 21, I bought a three family house.
00:04:25
Speaker
Just something unusual that a 21 year old typically he doesn't do. So um it gave me some equity money to, I bought this gas station, it was a three bag gas station that actually, of all people, my mother found it for me. She kind she was kind of my cheerleader my whole life.
00:04:44
Speaker
So I bought this three bag gas station, had a used car license, Um, you know, hired some people. First I was, I was actually the service writer, the technician, the bookkeeper, I was pumping gas. The everything. I was flipping cars and, you know, I added a couple of people to work for I'm like, all right, you know, I'm making a couple
Impact of Mentorship
00:05:03
Speaker
of bucks. I'm, you know, I think I'm pretty cool.
00:05:06
Speaker
So, um, I got this magazine. It was like, think was called like auto ink or something. And. There was a 20 group and they had a little like fish symbol or faith symbol, Christian.
00:05:19
Speaker
So I'm like, let me go check these guys out and see what they're about. So um that's where I met Todd Hayes. But it's funny, before that, I called the guy that was running it.
00:05:29
Speaker
And, um you know, I'm like and like, give me some references. So he goes, yeah, I'll have this guy call you. So this guy calls me, man, thiss this guy, um Todd Hayes comes to this event. And um he had like 35 stores. He sold it to a venture capital company. we call him Big Daddy, bubble blah, blah, blah.
00:05:46
Speaker
So I'm like, oh. go well that guy was aaron stokes so he was in the same 20 group yeah so um it was real fun so we became good friends um i became good friends with todd and so after the event where i called him at the time i was doing 50k a month and i'm like hey do you um i think i'll ever do like an 80 And he laughed, he's like, how about 180? I'm like, 180? You know, I almost crashed my truck, i was on a road test, I'm like, oh.
00:06:15
Speaker
So um we just became like really dear friends from there. Every time he had a class, like I went, um I just kinda, he took a liking to me and I took a real liking him, it was was a great friendship.
00:06:29
Speaker
So that was probably in 2005, 2006. two thousand five two thousand six Um, so right after that, so I took my three bay, I made it a four bay. Um, I started growing and I'm like, you know what?
00:06:42
Speaker
I set it up. I'm like, if you can do 35 really well, I can do one really good. So I set it up with a manager, couple service writers, a couple technicians, and I took my office home for about eight years.
00:06:56
Speaker
And I kind of just watched my KPIs, traveled with my family, chaperoned trips with my kids and took my kids to school. you know, I lived a really good life. Didn't make a ton of money, but I was making enough to live content.
Evolving Definitions of Success
00:07:12
Speaker
Yeah. So then back in about 2016, my manager decided to quit. I was in the Bahamas, and I'm like, ugh. So at that time, Todd kind of retired for a couple of years, so he thought.
00:07:27
Speaker
so So, you know, we always kept in touch, um and I was trying to get him to come back to work. I'm like, hey, because we were doing auto shop answers,
00:07:38
Speaker
you know, probably back in the 2000, you know, when I met him, it was kind of auto shop. It was called client one, then in advanced to auto shop answers. It would travel in the country doing different clients, doing doing these events.
00:07:51
Speaker
And then it just kind of stopped. But his brother came down with leukemia, he wanted to take care of him. I respected his time and his brother and I passed and he kind of was, yeah, Bill, know, I think I'm done with the industry.
00:08:02
Speaker
I made my money. kind of burnt out. yeah So he took a couple of years off. So like said, back in 2016, that's when my manager quit. I'm like, he taught it. I really need you.
00:08:14
Speaker
He's just like, nah, I'm just not feeling it. So, um, So we're both mama's boys, so I T.O.ed it to his mother. I called his mother. So ah his mother talked to him, and he goes, all right, oh i'll come I'll come and help you. We'll restaff the store. That's dirty trick, man. Yeah. I kind of backdoored it. so um But, hey, he taught me well.
00:08:37
Speaker
so um So anyway, so he came up, helped me restaff the store. We did a training class, and Charlie got involved. And I was like, wow, I feel really good.
00:08:51
Speaker
I'm like, dude, this is this is your gift. This is what you should be doing. And we kind of never stopped since then. So back, so before, he was always encouraged, hey, don't you open up multi-units? I'm like, I'm kind of comfortable.
00:09:06
Speaker
like, I got a lot of real estate. I got the shop that's making money. I'm like, what do I need? um So I wasn't super interested in but...
00:09:18
Speaker
2020 we um just something click. We were sitting around my coffee table in the morning and he's just like, you only got me for a couple more years. I'm getting older. Now's the time. So you you know what?
00:09:30
Speaker
Let's do it. So that's when we decided to go multi unit night in that day. He was already working with Adams automotive. um So that's what we created the now concept.
00:09:41
Speaker
We brought Charlie as a partner. asked Charlie, hey, Charlie, you want to do this with me? Yeah. yeah And it's funny, he'll tell you, it's like, he did have to think about it, but he's like, what if I said no You know, it's like his life would be a whole lot different today. but He's successful, but it's like, yeah you know, now we're, you know, we're going for, you know, mega success and wealth. That's something that I want to talk about is is how do you define success and how one person defines success ah might not be the same way that someone else does or what you define as success 10 years ago versus what you define success as now.
Balancing Personality with Valuable Lessons
00:10:16
Speaker
Yeah. um You know, Hayes is a lightning rod. I think he probably always has been, always will be. yeah I believe in the value of the concept that he is teaching, but his personality is very off-putting for some people. yeah yeah and so And they never take the time to learn the concept because they're too busy focusing on the fact that they don't like the way he talks to them or at them or whatever might be.
00:10:43
Speaker
um And so so many times when I'm trying to talk about the concept and in other shop owner groups whatever else, they'll be like, well, all they care about is is money.
00:10:55
Speaker
I'll say, well, I care about money. I mean, it it it is important, but yeah you can also give incredible customer service and you can also give incredible benefits and compensation to your team. And you can also set up generational wealth and legacy for future generations of your family at the same time.
00:11:15
Speaker
So there are those out there who are very comfortable with ah with a four or five day a week operation who are comfortable taking home a quarter million dollars a year. That's great. That's very good income. yeah And they can live, like you said, ah a very comfortable life and take vacations and be there with the kids and everything else. And that's awesome.
00:11:38
Speaker
There's still things that you can learn from this concept to make your business better on four days a week. I don't you're open one day a week. It could maximize that day. So I think you have the ability in front of you. If you have the ability to do it, you have the responsibility So we're teaching you a concept.
00:11:58
Speaker
It's changing lives. So it's not just, you know, we're not in this just to make money. We're in it to make a difference. So don't just make money, make a difference. um you know What does making a difference look like? like So we we feel that we're elevating an industry.
00:12:13
Speaker
um You know, there's a lot of people in this industry. like I'm a technician. Had I not met Todd Hayes, I'd probably be... you know, still a mediocre business owner, not really maximizing my talents.
00:12:28
Speaker
You know, he he, you know, created a perfected a business model in auto repair. Just kind of if you can open up you know a coffee shop and you know you got the business model for Starbucks or you just go like, you know, Billy's coffee shop, yeah open four days a week, you know, and um I can't really pay my technicians much, my baristas much money because I'm not charging enough money and yeah you know just kind of struggling through the years. Then at the end, kind of just shutting the lights off of your business. you know it's It's not a sellable business.
00:13:02
Speaker
There's no legacy there. um you know We want to create... ah legacy legacy businesses so it could bless our children's children. You know,
Redefining Success and Responsibility
00:13:13
Speaker
that's our, and all our co-work you know our employees and workers and um colleagues.
00:13:19
Speaker
A decade ago, yeah if you can think about where your mindset was and and how did you define success? What would have a successful career look like a decade ago for you?
00:13:30
Speaker
So, you know, like I said, I had some some real estate. So that's real estate's mailbox, man. I'm a big investor in real estate. So I love real estate. um So I was comfortable.
00:13:42
Speaker
but I wasn't maximizing who I was as a person. yeah I believe you know God gives everyone a gift and you know what's the secret life is find your gift and walk joyfully in it, but excelling in your talents, maximizing your talents. So i was underutilizing my talents and and in a selfish way, I'm like, I don't wanna, I kinda did it, I was comfortable, but I was under selling what I had to, I think it's important to give back.
00:14:11
Speaker
I wasn't giving back. I was just kind of selfishly, I'm good. you know, my kids would probably be okay. My grandchildren, who knows? So um I think it's where we have that responsibility to, to give back. So that was my definition of success back then. And it's, all it's a lot different now.
00:14:32
Speaker
So, um, you know, So what was ah the original question? thats sorry I asked you what success looked like 10 years ago and what does it look like for you now? so Yeah. So when you're comfortable, it's like there's a saying, it's like a comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there.
00:14:48
Speaker
So I like growth. That answer your question. um When you all get together and you all have a board meeting for the Houston-Boston partnership, um and if this is not something that you can share, that's fine. I totally get it. But it's like, we're going to get to this goal, and then we pull the trigger, and then we go buy an island in the Bahamas or whatever whatever it is, right?
00:15:11
Speaker
Or go do you know whatever mission trip you would yeah want to do or whatever, right? So um what is that goal? and What's the trigger point?
Private Equity Platform Creation
00:15:20
Speaker
So we're putting together like a private equity um platform. And we are inviting people by invitation only, um other shops, and giving them the ability to maximize their return. So ass we're putting together, know, we've been offered at one time $80 million for our company. We turn it down.
00:15:41
Speaker
Then we've been offered $175 million for the company. We turn it down. You we're shooting for, you know, half a billion $100 million.
00:15:49
Speaker
800 million, which could turn into a billion. it's it just keep It actually keeps on growing because we're given, if I'm a standalone shop, my multiples are two to three.
00:16:00
Speaker
Well, if you amalgamate with us, we can get you a 10 plus. So would it be accurate to say that you are building a portfolio of shops that have embraced the concept yep that are doing a half million a month on average?
00:16:16
Speaker
I mean, they can do two or three hundred. I mean, we're going to put a different couple of different groups together because not everyone, you know, with seven days a week, retailers, doing average 500,000 a month.
00:16:28
Speaker
um Now the shops that are five days a week, six days a week, four days a week. um But it's really the private equity is buying the net. So if you you can be profitable on those platforms, we can put different yeah portfolios together, you A, B, C, D. So then you're looking to build package deals to sell to equity groups.
00:16:49
Speaker
Yes. And you all keep a slice of the pie, but the owner of the one or two or three stores gets a bigger slice of the pie, and they get ah it's a bigger pie because it's a higher multiple than they can get in their own. On their own, yes. Because typically a private equity, they're not going to – Talk to you unless you know get $2 million in EBITDA, which is net profit.
00:17:07
Speaker
But when we put one, you know if you amalgamate with us into one P&L, there's millions of dollars. yeah know we We could do $100 million dollars net. so if you put together yeah if you put together a portfolio that's $100 million net, what type of multiple do you think you get on that? That could be $1 billion, $2 billion.
00:17:24
Speaker
Yeah.
Strategies for Sustainable Growth
00:17:26
Speaker
Well, you know that's certainly generational equity. And I guess it depends on ah what size of the of that really big pie you get, right? So I've wondered about that. let's say that My entity creates a million dollars of net a year and it goes in to be part of a package that is ah hundred million dollar package.
00:17:50
Speaker
Does I just i just get 1% of that ah sale or? So let's say if you're doing a million dollars a year net, um you would get 10 years, up to 10 years earnings on that. So there'd be check for $10 million. No, typically they'll give 70% of that, the private equity, and it's called the second bite of the apple. So they hold back 30%. They put EBITDA targets in front you.
00:18:12
Speaker
You hit those and you get like five times on the 30%. So that's a second bite is a bigger bite typically. So you can't sell and then move to the island. You got to stay and keep being awesome. No, I knew a guy who got 22X, and it was a one bite.
00:18:28
Speaker
ah Yeah. Yeah. 22X in the automotive industry? On the automotive. You had eight stores in Vegas. Wow. Yeah. so so more the So that's the benefit. if when you Todd's perfected a business model.
00:18:42
Speaker
So what we're offering is come under our wing and iron out all the kinks with the perfected business model through training, and you can get this – the more risk you take away from the private equity, the more multiple you get.
00:18:58
Speaker
But if you're, you know, kind of, you don't know your numbers, um you really don't have a business plan, business model, you're multiple. You probably won't even be bought, but... did There are private equity groups out there buying really bad businesses.
00:19:14
Speaker
And they're, we call scale to fill. So they're just like, we got 100 stores. They're buying market share, but they don't any system. Yeah, so they grow EBITDA by just buying crappy stores. which you know but And they have no pathway to to to elevate these stores.
00:19:30
Speaker
So they're really not elevating the industry. They're just buying these and treating them like a commodity. Hmm. So that feels like ah a bit like a Ponzi scheme, like eventually that's going to collapse. It's going to collapse. Yeah. So that typically I've seen a lot of um portfolios, they buy them and then a couple years later they're out business.
00:19:48
Speaker
So Todd, he sold his original concept back in the... Back in the mid-90s, I think it was. um Five years later, after Todd exited, they were bankrupt. Maybe it was even two or three, but it was pretty soon the whole the whole um chain was bankrupt. well there's there's there's a bit They took away pieces of his concept.
00:20:09
Speaker
There's a big group in Texas and Houston market specifically that I i know, mean, probably should remain unnamed, but... They've bought lots of businesses and run them into the ditch. Yeah.
00:20:21
Speaker
But they still have money to keep buying businesses. How does that work? I don't understand. this i can't get my arms around it. I mean, there's a lot of money out there. Private equity has a lot of money. Yeah. And I feel like they throw a some of it in the trash. It's like, you know don't your investors want to return on their investments? Acceptable loss, I guess. I don't know. Yeah.
Mentorship Importance and Business Transformation
00:20:39
Speaker
um Well, cool. um So for you, when you come to an event like this, your vision, I know that you're just meeting people and talking to people, but...
00:20:48
Speaker
It's also like you don't have to wonder where the auto shop answers booth is because you can just hear Todd yep from three rows away, right? So what does your time here look like? Are are you just ah meeting with clients and and helping the Todds? ah Yeah, so we're meeting like potential clients. You know, I love talking shop with people. yeah You know, like this conversation. I love, you know, having these conversations.
00:21:15
Speaker
um You know, meeting that shop, like when Todd met me, I was like I was ah i was a technician-minded person. And I look back, i was like, wow, he really invested a lot of time into me.
00:21:27
Speaker
And I'm like, why? you know And it was he wanted to give back. And the same thing with like Charlie and like other clients. It's like he wants to change lives.
00:21:39
Speaker
And so I want to do the same thing. So I'm talking to a shop owner out there and, He's a technician, he's a one-man show, two-man show, and he's, what do you do? like what do you do you know So we're showing the possibilities.
00:21:54
Speaker
How about we're doing a half a billion dollar transaction? It's like, whoa. You know, to get your rounds around there. There's a lot of tragedies in this. I bought the shop next door to me about a year and a half ago, three-bay shop.
00:22:06
Speaker
The guys were in the mid-70s, and they sold it to me for a discount. just ah Basically, the real estate, the business was worth nothing. They were open a couple hours a day, you know, four or five days a week.
00:22:22
Speaker
um Didn't have employees. Hey, tried that before. It sucked. yeah um And they basically just tossed me the keys. And they handed me their customer list, and it's like McDonald's wrappers with yeah names. No, it's no joke. and I took a picture. To me, it's tragic. it's like Because you know, 40 years before that, they went into business, and they were going to kick ass, and they were going to sell it millions of dollars. and But they kind of, along the way, they gave up because they didn't know what to do.
00:22:53
Speaker
It grinds them down to a k nub and they become jaded and angry and they become the bad boss that they left. So if we can just save one person, now we're saving many people, but if we can just save one, we're successful.
00:23:07
Speaker
you That's giving back. that That makes feel good. So um do you come every month to the Key2Key? We do, yeah, I do. um And you do a deep-dive financial breakout session. Yeah, so I'm hosting like a spearhead in a boardroom.
00:23:25
Speaker
um Because a lot of the owners are like, they love the class. I'm like, hey, what's next? yeah So we come up to the boardroom. We deep dive into the P&Ls. You know, I just say, know, there's no question off the limits. There's a lot of consulting courses, companies that will, hey, if you take this class, you got to buy into this class. just like What do you need to know? I'll give you the answer because we need to get you going.
00:23:47
Speaker
You know, so it's like there's no question off limits. Yeah. How frequently, i assume that if you're going to come and attend that class, you need to come to Key2Key first and know what the concept is, I would own think. Yeah, to your benefit, you should go to Key2Key.
00:24:05
Speaker
um But more important, you should go through the financial class taught for un prevention. Yeah. You need to know how to read your P&Ls. Your P&Ls should be clean. um So that was my question is how frequently do you find that they come in the class and actually have clean financials? So that's we do request it. There's been a couple of times where they didn't have the P&Ls and like, well.
00:24:25
Speaker
Yeah. What's the point? Well, this is a roadmap for success. So how do we, if you would travel into California, need a roadmap. Yeah. Yeah.
00:24:35
Speaker
Are there any specific targets financially that you think kind of the broader automotive coaching world has wrong, like um on the P&L
Financial Targets and Pricing Strategies
00:24:46
Speaker
specifically? I know that you guys aren't heavy on having 100 different KPIs that you track at the shop. It's just you know revenue. We track car count, average ticket, profitability.
00:24:56
Speaker
So the industry seems to have a right 60% GP. That's pretty standard. We upped it to like 62. I don't like living right on the edge of 60. It's like we put budgets together about 62 GP, which is just 2%. It's $2 on every hundred. It's not a lot of money.
00:25:12
Speaker
So our target is our average store, the goal was $500K, 60 62 20% net. five hundred k sixty to sixty two gp twenty percent And then you're off to the races. Well, I mean, it's easy to outrun your fixed expenses when you've got a half million dollars a month in revenue, right?
00:25:31
Speaker
But we are hiring superstars and they don't come cheap. um You know, our rent's a 25K. You know, our advertising budget's, you know, 25,000. So it's like it's... But youre you're right. So there is a point where you overrun your expenses and and you know it's that money jumps right to the net. Yeah. yeah what um gosh I think it was think wasn' an Aaron Stokes video I was watching one time a couple of years ago, and he was visualizing like a calendar, and it's like,
00:25:59
Speaker
For the first 15 days of the month, you're just covering expenses. And the goal is to... It's eye-opening. What date do you start making that profit? What date do you break even? Yeah. And then it's like for a lot of people, it's the 27th, the 28th, the 29th. Yeah, twenty nine that's scary. um so So to Todd's credit and point, it's like when you open four days a week,
00:26:23
Speaker
hey, or five days a week and there's another eight days in the month, you could have broke even and maybe on the 20th. Well, I mean... don't have to work seven days, but you have work five days. but when i When I recorded with Joe in Houston yeah back in, I don't it was December January, whenever it was done there um yeah I no, it had to have been mid-January because we had just started opening on Saturdays. So my shops were one of my shops is open six days. The other ones are still five days.
00:26:53
Speaker
And at the time, it was our third Saturday. We had done like $22,000 on the first Saturday and $17,000 on the second Saturday. And we're still plugging along at about $17,000 a Saturday. Awesome.
00:27:05
Speaker
And he pointed out that's three quarters of a million dollars of extra revenue this year. Times 52. and Well, yeah. so And yes, there's cost to that. And what's that on a ten x Yeah. Makes a big difference. Millions of dollars. And the rent hasn't changed. Yeah.
00:27:22
Speaker
So... And now you can pay your employees more money.
Pricing Strategies Across Locations
00:27:27
Speaker
It's not just about how much money the owner can make. It's like, I want to change the lives of my employees. And it's like, you you have to make six figures as a human. in the I live in Massachusetts. It's expensive.
00:27:40
Speaker
If you make under six fit figures, you're broke. So you in order to pay that, you have to charge that. I was talking to an owner... He man, I wish I could pay my techs more money. I'm like, well, how much you charging now? He's like, I'm at like 140. I'm like, well, there you go. We're over 200. It's like, you know, you're either going to charge your customers more money or you're to rip off your employees by not paying them enough.
00:28:04
Speaker
Do you all have significantly different ah pricing structures between Adams and now and Pleasant and you? No, we're pretty much the same. We're pretty uniform. Okay. The markets are very similar demographically though, right? Between Boston and Houston, they're both pretty affluent areas.
00:28:19
Speaker
Yeah, so ah like Charlie's in a very affluent area. I'm in OK, but you know I picked it before I knew any different. ah the The Houston stores are in really good demographics. yeah you know and that That's when you're picking a store, you have to pick good demographics. yeah What do you look for when you're looking for the next store?
00:28:39
Speaker
um yeah One is demographics, you know ah a high population. um We're not too concerned about competitors, but you know you don't want to go right next door it to another shop. yeah um But we would.
00:28:53
Speaker
you know Because we run we've run a different business model. It's like with you know seven days a week we're retailers. ah Like in my in my neighborhood, there's Discount Tire and Firestone yeah literally across the same parking lot from each other.
00:29:05
Speaker
I have like 10 shops within a half a mile from my shop. um yeah in In Boston, yeah. And it's you might say that's a highly competitive market, but I don't think many of them are doing what you're doing. No, they're not. They're $100 an hour, open four or five days a week, building marketing parts, so they're not attracting good talent because they can't pay it.
00:29:28
Speaker
And they're looking at me like, why is your a pocket all full? Well, I was laughing with um Brian Pollack as my co-host when we record together, yeah and he messaged me this morning about, we call it,
00:29:43
Speaker
Part of our joke is that I'm an evil shop owner. We call it ESO. Yeah. ah Just kind of the stereotype of what technicians in the world complain about because, you know, I'm just this evil guy. um And he said, what type of evil shop ESO laugh should we be having?
00:29:58
Speaker
All these guys bragging about their $300 oil change, but they also have no car count.
00:30:05
Speaker
ah Yeah. it's like, you know, if the if the phones are ringing, but the bays are empty... It's probably the shop owner's fault. Well, if the phones are ringing and the shop's empty, they're not saying yes. Yeah. it's so Well, it's the service advisors are not saying yes, but because the shop owner hasn't taught them to say yes and enforced and held accountable that we need to say yes. Oil changes. It's a loss leader. Stop trying to make money on oil changes.
00:30:33
Speaker
or or it's just going to slow your car count down. Yeah. um But wait a minute, that makes you an evil shop owner if you have to sell something. Come on. Well, we don't sell, we tell.
00:30:43
Speaker
Yeah. Right? Yeah. So I love the concept. I love what you guys are doing. I've really enjoyed the evolution in my business. It's been painful, you know, the evolution because I've got ah team full of individuals who are used to a five-day work schedule and charging $200 before you even open your eyes to look at a car and um booking people out for, you know, it's 3 o'clock in the afternoon. i don't want to look at your brake noise. Bring it in tomorrow maybe or bring it in the day after. yeah You're going somewhere else, right? Yeah.
00:31:13
Speaker
saying yes, getting the car in right now, speed of service, ah it makes a huge difference. And I think what you guys are doing will help the industry if people will actually take the time to listen to it rather than just hate.
00:31:26
Speaker
so yeah just um you know if Yeah. If you open a bar and you had John Taffer available to help you as a consultant, would you hire him?
00:31:38
Speaker
Yes. yeah you know And he's in your face. So that's Todd Hayes. It's like... you know love him i hate him, it's like he's going to tell you the truth. It's straight pipe, no muffler. um Yeah, I got it. Straight pipe, no muffler.
00:31:50
Speaker
I think that's a good way to wrap it up, man. It was lot of fun, Bill. Thanks for coming on. oh Thank you. Thanks for listening to Confessions of a Shop Owner, where we lay it all out. 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.
00:32:08
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
00:32:23
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.
00:33:02
Speaker
It just...