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Ep 27 - Brian Stolpa | We Get Heated Over Flat Rate vs Salary
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Today, Mike Allen and Bryan Pollock are joined by Brian Stolpa, owner of Brian’s Motor Works Euro shop. They talk challenges of hiring—especially the decision between training an apprentice versus bringing in an experienced tech—and the realities of scaling a shop in today’s market. And yes, things get heated at the end when Mike brings up flat rate vs salary. Who's right? We may never know. But Bryan thinks Mike is wrong. We'll leave it there.
00:00 How Often Do You Buy Socks?
08:32 Hiring Strategies for Small Businesses
15:51 From NASCAR Aspirations to Mechanic
19:18 "Training Challenges in Skilled Labor"
24:42 "Finding the Right Team Fit"
27:58 Kids Dream of YouTube Fame
36:38 "Leasing vs. Owning Cars"
41:32 "Successful Implementation at Raleigh Shops"
43:34 Effective Communication with Customers
50:18 Flat Rate vs. Salary Risks
56:54 Unpaid Work Dilemmas
01:02:32 Post-COVID Job Shift Dynamics
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Transcript
Job Manipulation in Automotive Industry
00:00:00
Speaker
and I would think that it's self-evident that I make more money if people pick their cars up. I mean, the technician... No, because they can sandbag 30K worth of jobs for next week and freaking boom! And crush it. So, I don't think I have anyone who thinks that way, but there's 100%. Do you know? That's 100% a way to manipulate that.
00:00:18
Speaker
Yeah.
Introduction to 'Confessions of a Shop Owner'
00:00:21
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.
00:00:35
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.
Light-hearted Snap-on Apparel Discussion
00:00:53
Speaker
How often do you get new socks? Whenever Snap-on does the deal where it's by five, get a pair free. Oh, really? So you only wear the Snap-on socks? I'm sure they're made by another company from Snap-on because they won't make socks. They're very comfortable and they're very durable.
00:01:10
Speaker
they have a lifetime warranty? No. Snap-on, though? The socks don't have apparel. Snap-on apparel and power tools do not have lifetime warranty. Their power tools don't? No. Yeah, usually like a power tool is usually two years on tool. Hmm.
00:01:23
Speaker
How much, what' what's the like, the warranty on power tools from Harbor Freight?
00:01:29
Speaker
That's I think it's 90 days or something. It's short. They don't have a huge warranty on
Tool Purchases at Harbor Freight
00:01:35
Speaker
their power tools. where do Where do you guys stand on the Icon versus Snap-on hand tools? So, when that when that was going crazy, I was at a lockport shop. I had to program something. There's a Harbor Freight down the road. I said, I'm going over to the Harbor Freight and I'm buying some, right? Yeah.
00:01:51
Speaker
And they were on sale. They were stupid cheap. They're like, so like, I think normally they're like 120 bucks. They're like 119. They're marked down to 169 if you join the Inside Track Club, blah, blah, blah. So I spent a hundred bucks. I he got the membership and the wrenches, right?
00:02:04
Speaker
didn't give them my tool cart. Those freaking fancy wrenches work just fine. i've got I got a lot of money and a lot of snap-on tools. that'm a little fancy Them little harbor freight wrenches work fine.
00:02:17
Speaker
Pro tip, and I shared this with you, and you've utilized it now to success.
Recruiting Technicians at Harbor Freight
00:02:22
Speaker
I was at a recruiting class in Houston. It was Autoshop Answers recruiting class.
00:02:30
Speaker
One of their guys was talking about shit that he does to recruit, and they go way outside the box. He says, i just go hang out in the tool aisle at Harbor Freight at 6 p.m., and all the GS and C-level technicians are there in uniform looking at tools. And I just strike up a conversation and hand out business cards. Mike told me that.
00:02:49
Speaker
Within the week, I was texting him while I was wandering around Harbor Freight, and I handed out like three business cards that night. He was like, spotted one. I got one on the hook. I got one. How long have you been doing this? Where do you work? How long have you been doing this? Will they pay over there?
00:03:03
Speaker
Not that great, huh?
00:03:07
Speaker
Here's my card. Here you go. come see me when you want to make me You got an interview doing that, right? Yeah. yeah so Was he a hireable guy or no? I think he works at our lockport shop. Oh. Well, there you When you have so many employees, you can't keep track of them anymore. That's ESO problems. Well, you know, sometimes I'm not always that informed of what's going on over there. And we've...
00:03:26
Speaker
We've gotten a little bit, in the past, we'd keep people for way too long when the performance was not there. We've gotten a lot better. So I always have to say, I think, because I wasn't there Thursday and Friday and Jim was. So he might not be there now.
Marketing with Turnkey Auto Marketing
00:03:40
Speaker
So I want to talk to you for a second about the marketing service that I use, Turnkey Auto Marketing or Turnkey Marketing. They are like a in-house marketing director, but they have a whole team that back you up.
00:03:54
Speaker
here's the deal. I'm really good, i think, at building relationships with customers and educating them and informing them on their needs. And I think I'm okay at running a shop. What I'm not good at is managing my marketing. And that's why i choose to be more effective, more efficient, more successful with marketing by having a true professional handle it. And that's what turnkey marketing does for me.
00:04:15
Speaker
Everything from website management, Google AdWord management, SEO reporting management. They know what is good and what is not when I don't and that type of thing. And so they can help represent me in a way that I'm not able to.
00:04:28
Speaker
All the way down to managing my marketing budget for the year and whether or not I can sponsor the high school marching band or whether or not I can have a booth at the festival or what size booth I can have at the festival, right? So they take everything into consideration and they work with me to execute on a marketing plan that's successful for my business.
00:04:45
Speaker
I was with Carrie Lynn from the very early days, and I'm happy to report that as her company has grown and her team has grown, I'm really happy with the service that I'm getting from them. I think you will be too. You should book a free consultation now at turnkeyautomarketing.com.
Benefits of TechMetric for Shop Management
00:05:01
Speaker
I don't think you'll be sad.
00:05:03
Speaker
Look, when I first opened my shop, I thought my old systems would keep up. The software that I had would continue to evolve. But as we grew the slow estimates, scattered workflow, increasing downtime, really just, it was becoming a real problem.
00:05:19
Speaker
That's why I switched to TechMetric. It's not just software. It's a complete shop management system that makes my life easier. Smart jobs, instant estimates, integrated payments, integrated financing options. I mean,
00:05:30
Speaker
It allows me to focus on the work that actually makes me money and not get bogged down in the other details. My shop's repair orders have jumped over 300% since switching to TechMetric. And when I need help, their support team responds in real time.
00:05:42
Speaker
actually was online with them asking questions just this week, and I got answers in minutes rather than having to wait for callbacks and emails days later. If your system is holding you back, it's time for a change.
00:05:53
Speaker
Tap the link in the show notes and see how TechMetric can help you move your shop forward. And it's not me. I have no problem with somebody going who can't do the job. Jim tended to be very lenient.
00:06:06
Speaker
I mean, and it was it was excessive. It was beyond just being a nice guy. And now... the The pendulum has swung in the other direction. Now, he's like, we were always very informal. Now there's job descriptions. And I'm like, what about this? He goes, yeah. goes, I'll throw that in there. He goes, and...
00:06:26
Speaker
my gosh, the funniest text message I got from him in a while. He goes, I'll throw that in there. And in my notes, I'm sure there's something this asshole will teach me for the next asshole. so And that has totally not been his view or how he does things throughout his career. But I think we're to the point we've been burned enough where it's like, okay.
00:06:50
Speaker
You know, and this this lot the last guy we had at our Sanborn shop just got let go... Monday. How long was he there? Two weeks.
00:07:01
Speaker
mean, you know in two weeks if somebody's, you don't always know if they're a long term, but you can tell if they're and not a fit.
Challenges in Employee Retention
00:07:08
Speaker
And yeah Brian, I think you're edging up on the point where it's time to start thinking about adding employees for the first time, right? We were talking about that of the other night.
00:07:16
Speaker
And you have some reasons why you're not comfortable doing that yet, and I get it. But one of the things that will kill your business faster than anything else is just barely good enough employees.
00:07:26
Speaker
Because they're just barely good enough that you keep them around. Like if the guy's a total moron, it's easy to fire him, right? And if they're a total rock star, obviously you keep them. But if they're just average enough that you don't want to go through the ass pain of finding someone else, then they just drag your whole organization down.
00:07:43
Speaker
Bet in there. Yeah. and And also the rock stars see what's accepted and then it drags them down too. Bet there. Yeah. Well, I feel like where I'm at in my...
00:07:55
Speaker
progress of growing my business is also that I don't know that I want to hire, like I'm not at a point where I could hire somebody at a high dollar amount.
00:08:08
Speaker
Pay no attention to the flashing lights. And you know, it's kind of like I'm at the point where I'm thinking I'd be better off to hire somebody young that it hasn't been in the profession that I can grow the way I want them to grow.
00:08:22
Speaker
Um, now, are you afraid being by yourself that there's going be challenges as far as the amount of time you're going to have to put into that person? Yes. Cause that's where I see.
00:08:34
Speaker
And I, and I love the enthusiasm of smaller shops with a smaller employee account wanting, you know what, I'm going to freaking change this deal. I'm going to grab me a young guy that doesn't know nothing. I'm going to get him a cart full of tools and we're going to freaking go to work.
00:08:49
Speaker
Is that what's best for your business at this point? are are you better off, you know, hiring an established B or C plus technician that can knock out the gravy while you're Right. you know yeah and And I get it. Like, you look at what's out, and it's easy to say, that's assuming that there's a ton of qualified people that can do what I just talked about, that you can go hire.
00:09:13
Speaker
Right. And there's not, which is which drives you to do something that's not necessarily the best business decision, but is... at this point, better than the alternative, right?
Apprentice Success and Failures
00:09:23
Speaker
Well, I've had... i mean, like Benji and his team over at Frog Pond, and they've had multiple success stories with apprentices. Sure, yeah.
00:09:34
Speaker
And you've had a ton of success stories with apprentices. I've had a ton of disaster with apprentices, but... i think that's more of a reflection upon the, I set them up for failure. have a shop full of people that came on in their teens working for us.
00:09:47
Speaker
Yeah. don't shop full of guys that started in their teens that are in their mid-20s now still working for us. So... What do you think? Would you think you would rather get an 18 year old kid out of high school and teach him with no bad habits or?
00:10:01
Speaker
i mean, that's where I kind of feel like I'm at because I've trained some people before and thought they were good and then get vehicles in my shop that they've worked on. And it's like, I don't want this coming out my shop.
00:10:15
Speaker
So I'm kind of at a crossroads. And the thing is, we've talked before. I've talked with
Growth Strategy for Startup Shops
00:10:20
Speaker
with Benji and some others about the potential of a service writer coming in that's well known.
00:10:27
Speaker
and You know, I like the front office part, me talking to the customers. I'm good at it. I enjoy building relationships with people. So it's hard for me to step away from there because I'm doing pretty good at that.
00:10:41
Speaker
But yet... then you're going to have to hire somebody like an a tech to be in the shop because like you said, I mean, I can't do everything, but you know, and I sit there think, well, could I bring in the writer and then I could be in the shop and also helping teach. sure So, but then that's an even bigger leap for me than just hiring one person.
00:11:04
Speaker
So, you know, it's it's kind of a struggle don't know which way I should really go. feel like there's got to be like a point in the growth and maturity of a startup when you're ready to add an employee. And there's probably a point when you're ready to add a production employee and a point where you're ready to add a support employee. Yeah.
00:11:25
Speaker
I think the the formula that I've seen successful is ah technician turned startup shop owner, a single person shop. First, they add a second technician so that they have more time for the administrative staff.
00:11:38
Speaker
Then they add a service advisor and then kind of but it goes from there and then they can afford coaching or technology upgrades or whatever else it might be.
00:11:49
Speaker
sure But I feel like, you know, The numbers are probably different for a Euro specialty shop like yourself. I feel like if you can get to a regular consistent $40,000, $50,000 a month, it's time to add a tech.
00:12:00
Speaker
And then when you're getting to a regular $70,000, $80,000 a month, it's time to add an advisor. Because if you're half of the technical staff and you're writing $80,000 a month in estimates, that's a lot of work at that point.
00:12:11
Speaker
I don't know. Maybe I'm talking on my ass. i i I don't have a lot of experience in it because Jim and I started together. We both left our former employer. We both went into a shop that was operating at a very low level. doing
00:12:31
Speaker
The previous owner was probably doing $200,000 a year out of it. And we both went in there together, not just one person, together. And our first 12 months, turned $780,000. Wow. That's rock roll, man. were kicking ass. mean...
00:12:46
Speaker
wow that's rockin roll man we' were kicking ass i mean And he's got he's got he's got enough technical ability where its it's not like you have a writer personal. I mean, the guy can put brakes on a car, like, like efficient like rather efficiently.
00:13:00
Speaker
You know what I mean? he you know Is he the guy that you're going to send in to do a heavy line repair? No. No, it's not going to happen. When a bolt gets stuck or something, he's he's probably not that guy as much as I am.
00:13:15
Speaker
But he was a he was capable of doing that stuff. So we came out of the gate... both of us with following, so we don't, I mean, like these things that people talk about with adding people, we already had one guy working in the bays 30 hours a week and another guy working in the bays 50 hours a week, day one.
00:13:34
Speaker
And we had miraculously, you know, through the grace God or whatever, we had the support, the the the car count to make that work, right? And, you know, some people aren't that fortunate. I've started to realize when I talk to people,
00:13:49
Speaker
We didn't start out as a single. We went into it with two people. Not a typical start-up. split responsibilities. And both having a ton of motivation to work the 60, the 70, the however many hours a week.
00:14:06
Speaker
It needed to be both. but So you have something that's not. So you can afford to build race car and everything right? When something's not working out, we both had the drive to after the normal daily business, that car that doesn't run gets pushed back in. You work on it from 8 to midnight.
00:14:22
Speaker
So I get it. There was two people and not one. And some things, I'm starting to realize, some things were a lot easier for us because there were two people pushing the same direction. So i think I think this is an appropriate point in the conversation where maybe we should introduce our guests. um Brian, I'm gonna let you introduce yourself.
00:14:39
Speaker
Name, business, where you're located, and then I'd love to hear a little bit about your history
Brian Stolpa's Journey in Mechanics
00:14:44
Speaker
and you get into it. all right. So Brian Stolpa, Brian's Motor Works, Euro Shop out of, I'm out of Parkton, North Carolina. Nobody's gonna know where that is. It's right outside of Fayetteville.
00:14:56
Speaker
So um always been into ah my mom takes it back to when I was a little kid disassembling toys and she'd be like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna have to throw this thing out. And next thing she'd come in and it's all put back together working.
00:15:11
Speaker
You know, I've always been that way. My dad had a tool and die shop. So, you know, he's always making stuff and that's what I grew up around. If you're like me, you know there's always hidden revenue and missed maintenance sales or overlooked customer concerns.
00:15:26
Speaker
Detect Auto helps auto shops unlock that revenue by analyzing vehicle service histories, pinpointing maintenance recommendations, and equipping advisors to confidently address customer questions.
00:15:38
Speaker
It's easy, it integrates with your existing software, and your team will love it. ah Check out DetectAuto.com and see how your shop can stop guessing and start selling.
00:15:48
Speaker
better service recommendations today. So I've always had a mechanical background and, um yeah, I went to UTI in, uh, in Chicago. Um, and I was trying to go to the NASCAR technical institute, which I did before it was built here in Charlotte.
00:16:04
Speaker
Um, cause I wanted to kind of tie machining along with cars and be an engine machinist.
Transition from NASCAR to Land Rover
00:16:10
Speaker
So i was kind of getting the automotive program through them and, um But you know I wanted to get on the NASCAR team. That's what I wanted to do. I wanted to build engines.
00:16:19
Speaker
um But my heart kind of fell out of NASCAR and that whole process, I was working for a big name drag racer and um just NASCAR kind of fell away. But ah when I was in Houston, um there was a Leith recruiter um and i used that as opportunity to move out to north carolina because they moved me out from wisconsin uh and got close and i just kind of started working at land rover dealership and i was just kind of naturally good you know as my first job out of school you know i was progressing and land rover prepares you for anything well if if you can keep a land rover running for a quarter million you can work on the space shuttle Well, and that's the thing that like coming to work for Land Rover and that's what we'd say if we could work on that Hey, we can work on anything now. oh yeah, you got this What do they have more failure points oil leaks or electrical problems? Yes, I'll tell you what I was I was in there that was 2001 and we were doing they had a big issue with the valves getting carbon on the valves and
00:17:23
Speaker
we'd have to ream out, take off seal cylinder heads, ream out the guides. um And we were doing that left and right. I mean, it'd get to the point where one of the techs there, he has a shop now.
00:17:34
Speaker
We started a shop together kind of back in 2005 or so, but we'd have races but who could pull the car in get the heads off, Ream them out, get them back together. guys do two-a-days?
00:17:46
Speaker
We didn't do two-a-days. We get two-a-days. It was good. You're trying to. We're trying. Yeah. you know and And then there was time we'd go in the weekend and we'd work together. you know And it's like, okay, we're both going to go on this car together.
00:17:58
Speaker
Let's knock it out. Two guys on it and lead by noon. Everybody's all hunky-dory. He's doing the left side head. I'm doing the right side head. And just knock it out. And you know you're driving it back out. The heads are still warm.
00:18:10
Speaker
you know when you're putting it back on yeah so it's like you know but that's kind of where i came from it's crazy because when leith recruited me uh down in houston you know i wanted to go to bmw um but they have they have their step program so they're like well we only hire from the step program i didn't want to go to ford i didn't want to i've always kind of like wanted to be more of a the higher-end cars and he's like well we got land rover available So that's why went because i was like, all right, well, that's a high end car. Everything else they have special training for that they recruit out of.
00:18:43
Speaker
um But when I met my wife um and moved to Fayetteville from the Cary area, ah her uh, Ant worked for a dealership down there, um, for 30 some years and happened to be a BMW dealership.
Challenges at BMW Dealership
00:18:58
Speaker
So kind of full circle around. Now I'm at the BMW dealership that I kind of tried to move out here for. So how long were you there? 15 years. Uh, and I was the shop foreman when I, when I left, what made you decide to leave and go out on your own management?
00:19:16
Speaker
That's a common story. We've heard that story before, right? Well, and the worst part is, you know, I think these events that we're at right now is kind of one of the reasons I left there is because, you know, as a shop foreman, I was trying to build up a better shop.
00:19:29
Speaker
You know, we have a whole lot of people coming in and it's not necessarily that they're not good, but they're not getting the proper training. You know, yeah they just. dispatch keeps giving them the easy stuff because they can't do the hard stuff when they need to get the hard stuff and learn on it so that they can learn.
00:19:44
Speaker
Um, and I was trying to build ah good techs and there just happened to be, they were hiring somebody. Uh, today's the age of Facebook. I looked on Facebook. He left off three BMW dealerships off his resume.
00:20:00
Speaker
Why you going to leave off three BMW dealerships off of your resume resume? It's obvious, you know, and, uh, you know, full circle, we, we kinda, I talked to him, we went out to, there's a training facility out by, um, set Monroe, um, Hendrick big time in there. And they had, uh, some BMW reps out there and all the shop foreman and kind of just kind of trying to tell us, Hey, why don't you build your own techs, send them to the technical community colleges and BMW had a program that you can hire,
00:20:36
Speaker
um You can send college kids or, you know, right out of school, go to a BMW program two weeks, to come back to the dealership for two weeks. Then you go back to their program for two weeks Yeah, what was that? ah Associates in Applied Science or something like that? I don't know what BMW. It was actually through BMW. it was through BMW. Okay, it wasn't independently. Yeah. and um But so we did that and we hired a couple of guys. But when I went to their onboarding,
00:21:01
Speaker
right we went on to their onboarding i was getting my check to go to atlanta and the manager sits there and uh he hands me the check and says oh and by the way you know that guy you didn't want us to hire he starts monday me and the other service director we run the show here not you
00:21:23
Speaker
Make sure you know where you stand in the pecking order. Well, and the thing is everything happens for a reason, right? So that was Friday night. Yeah. yeah I go home. fix the cars, not you. Bye. but And i'm trying to make I'm trying to make the shop a better place. Sure. Yeah, sure. You know, I'm trying to make this a a good place to work.
00:21:41
Speaker
You know, people that know what they're doing. But yeah I go home and, ah you know, all I'm doing is stewing about it with my wife. And I'm just upset. And one of the guys that used to work there texts me.
00:21:52
Speaker
You know, he just starts texting me out of the blue. How's everything going? What not? You happy at your job? Right? And so... You know, I started telling him, and he's like, well, you want to come ah over where at his new job, you know, and fast forward, I left um because all that happened.
00:22:13
Speaker
So, but it's just kind of like some the management, they just don't think about. So you're in the shop form position. you're You're assisting people in repairs, obviously, when the going gets tough. how Roughly how many hours a week you turn.
00:22:27
Speaker
Just roughly. it It doesn't really matter. Even before I was the shop foreman? When you were the sharp shop foreman. So I would ah really wasn't turning it that many hours. Gotcha. You turned 20-ish. Right. 20-ish hours week. Yeah. So you're producing 20 hours a week worth labor.
00:22:41
Speaker
You're expediting things. you're You're turning the hours. They're not showing up billable on you because you're assisting, but you're turning the hours that the others can't. and they don't want to see the sign on a bad hire and want to tell you to get f'd right that's just shut up and do what we tell you that is how i know that you can suffer head trauma and run a service department because that is not intelligent the the worst part about that though is that we had a really good shop at one time yeah like almost everybody in the shop
00:23:17
Speaker
was good. Yeah. And everybody worked together. You know, a lot of shop culture, you have little clicks and nobody gets along. One time we had ah shop that was just amazing. That's bad decision. make Right. And well, they brought in different management and everybody one by one. And I understand, i understand the other side.
00:23:36
Speaker
understand the I'm in charge side, but like, yeah, you were in charge of the hammer and you decided to smash your hand with it. Right. Moron. Yeah. Yeah. Like that's not a good idea. Just because you're in charge doesn't mean all your ideas are great. Well, that means are you a boss or a leader, right? That's what we learned about yesterday. Right. so Well, you know, i was I was over talking to one of the guys the other day.
00:23:56
Speaker
um And at one time we had like eight or nine master techs in that shop out of like 11 people. Which is a great number in a modern dealership. Now they probably have 12, 13 people in that shop.
00:24:08
Speaker
I think they have one master. I would tell you that I have definitely been a boss rather than a leader many times in my career. There was a time when every technician in my building was master certified and that is not the case anymore.
00:24:22
Speaker
Um, and a lot of the changes that I've made in the last year, uh, ran some of them off and they didn't want to work on Saturdays. They didn't want to give up DBI they, uh, didn't like a dispatch being managed by someone other than Right.
00:24:36
Speaker
right Uh, and these are really high competency technicians who are good human beings. They just didn't want to work in the system that I'm putting in place. Um, it doesn't mean that I think it's not the right system.
00:24:49
Speaker
Uh, it's just, I have to find different people, uh, to, that do want to work within that system. So I hear what you're saying. Like I can envision like a couple of the people that have left my business in the last year.
00:25:02
Speaker
I'm surprised they haven't already opened their own shop and, One day, if they're sitting down on a couch for a podcast and they say, what made you leave that place and go up I'm going to show management. Boss wanted to fucking give Diag away, you know, or whatever it might be, right?
00:25:17
Speaker
So. Well, you pay them, so that's a bullshit excuse. Well, I mean, I'm sure that the other side of the coin for a lot of things that I've done doesn't come off quite as rosy as I portray it, right? Because there's. Sure. There's three sides to every story. Yeah. Right. Yeah. so Sure. Sure.
00:25:32
Speaker
And I'll also say, though, I should circle us back to saying that it all happened for a reason. I was there 15 years. I would have never left. I've always kind of had in the my head that You were comfortable. right You were getting paid. right You had, um until management stuck their nose in it, you had the team around you that you were very comfortable with working with.
00:25:55
Speaker
The shop culture was like, let's all get along and help each other. yeah yeah you weren't You weren't going anywhere. right You were going to die right in bay three of the BMW dealer. And in fact, one of the meetings that I had,
00:26:08
Speaker
prior to with the service director there, one of the things he told me, you're always going to be here with me. So, you know, then that's kind of why I feel like I kind of look at it as all. said that like, where are you going to go? Or he said that like, we're a team together forever.
00:26:24
Speaker
Not as where are you going to go? But basically he thought that he was taking care of me well enough. Gotcha. That, hey, you're going to be here as long as I'm here. Well, I mean, most management doesn't know the opportunity that's out there for certain people. So you hear that all the time. i don't understand why he left. I was paying him. but but but but but I'm totally fall into that. i've totally Because I'm umm a money motivated guy in a big way. And so it's like, he's not going to go anywhere.
00:26:50
Speaker
He's got a salary of $120,000 year plus bonus or whatever might be Right. And like, Well, he can go make almost that much or that much or maybe more than that and works somewhere that agrees with i've seen his methodology. I've seen some W-2s that blew my mind. And I thought, I'm like, these most of these shop owners don't know what some of these guys are making. cause i'm talking to a lot of technical guys that are not these people you see on the Facebook forums. People that are too busy.
00:27:17
Speaker
improving their skill sets and keeping up to waste their time doing this. What's your excuse? Because you're actually pretty good at what you do and you also waste an enormous amount of time Facebook. not very good at what I just know a of people, um Networking.
00:27:29
Speaker
Yeah. So anyways, like, you start seeing some people's W-2 income and people are like, oh, man, 48 bucks an hour top pay. I'm like, yeah, I freaking thought 48 was probably pretty good too. A guy making $237,000 for doing support.
00:27:48
Speaker
But I mean, there's also YouTubers making millions of dollars a year, but there are millions of YouTubers and there are a handful of ones doing that, right? Yes. Yes. Every time my kids want to be a YouTuber, the boys, the boy, oh my gosh, the other day, the boys finally said, yeah, I want to be a YouTuber when like when I grow up Ron says, I want to be YouTuber when I grow up, but I think I need to be a mechanic so I can make money until I get famous. And Sam goes, yeah, that's a good idea.
00:28:16
Speaker
yeah ah Child labor. Free. Yes. All right. So you left the dealership because tone deaf management. And you... The dude was texting you. You went there. How long were you there before you opened your shop?
00:28:30
Speaker
So I left the dealership. It was... what the the The Friday was before Valentine's Day 2020 was my last day. Oh, man, another COVID starter, huh? Right. so And I went to work for this company. His name was Aztec, doing mobile ADOS calibrations for the the body shops. yeah um I was in Texas for two weeks for training. Come back, you know, it's...
00:28:58
Speaker
March 1st, somewhere in there. during peak covid right During the honeymoon phase, it was great because you weren't touching wrenches. You're like, oh, this is great. I'm getting paid to push buttons. This amazing.
00:29:09
Speaker
I'm driving around with a with with my friend, kind of like the onboarding process, riding with him for a couple weeks before I started my own van. um And yeah, I still remember it was like April 7th.
00:29:20
Speaker
All the body shops were drying up because nobody's driving. So nobody's hitting nothing. So they laid all of us off. you know, except for maybe one in each market. Sure.
00:29:31
Speaker
And so that's why I kind of say it was kind of a blessing because that's the only reason ah got out from the dealership. I'd still be there today probably if that didn't happen.
00:29:42
Speaker
And what made the transition from that to, and by the way, I love the name Brian's motor works because you're a BMW, especially shopping. You can have BMW on your, yeah, I love it.
00:29:52
Speaker
That's right. Think about that. And they can't come, they can't come trademarking you because it's just my fucking name, man. Right. Right. Everything about putting an ATM on there because they dispense cash. Yeah. Yeah.
00:30:05
Speaker
Yeah. there And, and so that's a, And apologize I apologize, already thrown off. I forgot what your question was there. It was my fault. Talking about transition from calibration work, mobile work. Oh yeah. So I've always, you know, my family owned a business always, you know, so it's always been a goal of mine to own my own business, but I was just never in the position to
Starting a Business During COVID
00:30:29
Speaker
be able to. And,
00:30:31
Speaker
Money-wise, you know, it takes takes money. It takes working capital for sure. be Because of, i mean, this might be a bad thing I did. I don't know. um Because of I lost my job because of COVID, I could dip into my 401k penalty-free.
00:30:47
Speaker
So it was just kind of like, you know what? That was maybe the time. And that's kind why say everything was kind of meant to be. And so now you've been in business for three or four years. Yeah. So my, I had to build the shop during COVID, which was another ordeal because all the prices, they were low when I started. $90 sheets of plywood. Yes. Or like $200 oil changes. So, and, and it was bad because I, I,
00:31:15
Speaker
When I started, when I got the architect ah to draw up the design and everything, prices were low. And I had a neighbor who was a builder that was going to help out and he guaranteed me, oh yeah, we can we can do this at this price, no problem.
00:31:29
Speaker
Well, prices started going up. It was 50% more by the time it was. Yeah. Or more. And and he's, he kept telling me, Oh yeah, the trusses are ordered. The trusses are ordered. And I'm just like, you know, for me, it's like, I got to get this built. Cause I got to get making money.
00:31:43
Speaker
Um, so finally it was like October of, uh, yeah, late October, uh, 2020 that I just said, forget it. And I started ordering the materials and then me and my dad built the shop.
00:31:56
Speaker
You went full Amish. We're going build our own barn. Only thing I didn't do is put the trusses on. i hired that out. But, but yeah, it was like, we just got to get this done. I've been following along for last couple of years on Facebook as you, between cars, when you have a few minutes, you're working on, uh, continuing to develop the, the building and everything else. And it's a slow process and that's a problem. A lot of it would have been finished, but because the COVID prices, you know, I ran out of money and it was just kind of like, I got to get working.
00:32:24
Speaker
So, right. got to recover some of that spend. Like you don't have a choice. Right. Okay. The, the, The drywall's not on. doesn't matter. Right. We got to start spinning wrenches because I see like we're going to get paid. And that's why I say i didn't I don't have heat or AC in the shop.
00:32:38
Speaker
And I'm okay with that because I see my end goal. I know where I want to be. But when we talk about hiring techs, it's kind of like, you know, I can work in there because i see the end goal, but I can't for somebody else. Or it's going to be hard to get somebody else.
00:32:50
Speaker
That'll see that goal as well. Probably easier to get an 18 year old kid to work in that than it would be a 40 year old master tech. Right. So. Right. Be a very cantankerous master tech.
00:33:01
Speaker
Yeah. Complaining about the temperature. Yeah. Well, you know what? Just get a, you know, and an oil fired AC unit. Oh man. I couldn't believe when you sent me that. Waste oil air conditioners. Waste oil air chiller they have. It's basically dehumidifier, kind of. Sure. You know what, man?
00:33:20
Speaker
That's all we need. We don't need it cold. Don't get that hot. When it's 100 degrees outside, if it's 80 in the shop, it feels but amazing. True story. so Like I said, I don't have anything, so I'll take something. yeah yeah Do a swamp cooler in the interim. They make they just make everything clammy.
00:33:37
Speaker
They ain't that great. I was looking at that, um but then I hear too about all the tools resting up. It's better in a very dry environment. right You see them in Phoenix and Texas. They're great, but when it's a very humid environment, it's just kind of like a wet hair dryer.
00:33:52
Speaker
I've only ever been in one shop in Texas. I assumed they all had air conditioning. No. I would tell you in Florida and Texas, there are fewer shops as a percentage that have air conditioning than there are in New York and Pennsylvania. Yes. I understand that now. You guys are pussies when it gets hot, and they're used to it down there.
00:34:07
Speaker
Pussies when it gets hot.
00:34:11
Speaker
Oh, it's 88 degrees. I'm going to die. high I got off the airplane here. It was 68 degrees. It hot as hell outside. almost stripped down. I almost stripped out on the little fricking Porter gate on therick the air near the airplane getting off that thing. I was like, holy hell, it's hot. What was I thinking?
00:34:28
Speaker
yeah ah So my buddy Harrison has got four shops and a body shop in Houston. Okay. I don't think any of them have central air in the shop, right? And they rock and roll, man.
00:34:41
Speaker
a Adams Automotive, the big shop that they always brag about, it's like 40-some lifts. Over half of them are outside under shade.
00:34:51
Speaker
You just, they're a grind, man. it's just They're just built different out there. Can tell you, I have talked to somebody who moved, who used to work in Pennsylvania, and now he's a shop foreman. Actually, he's just been promoted to owner ah at a shop in Texas, and he told me that it took him a year.
00:35:08
Speaker
But after the first summer, the second summer came, in he's like, oh, here we go again. I'm going freaking die all summer. He was like, This ain't that bad. if that just like how it was 19 degrees in Buffalo when you left and you're like, meh.
00:35:19
Speaker
Yeah, I literally wore a long-sleeved shirt. like if i If I went up to Buffalo and it was 19 degrees in April, i would be like, fuck this town. I'm never coming back. It was actually pretty nice day. There was no wind. The sun was out.
00:35:32
Speaker
It was pretty nice.
Focus on Luxury Car Market
00:35:34
Speaker
it's all what you're used to. Yeah. But yeah I will say that you guys do have heat no for the cold and they don't have AC for the hot.
00:35:43
Speaker
Well, mean, it gets like 98 degrees in the summer too. How many days does it get? 98 degrees. Like one day is too many. Yeah. Yeah. Well, cool, man. So primarily BMW.
00:35:55
Speaker
Do you do anything else? So BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Land Rover, Jaguar. Try to stay inexpensive. Yeah. Do you specialize in third owner BMW five series?
00:36:06
Speaker
We already had that.
00:36:10
Speaker
Specialized in telling them to get lost. Have you ever heard Dutch tell the story about how he would intake third owner BMW customers? I think you just mentioned it yesterday too. so Oh my gosh. It's amazing.
00:36:24
Speaker
um I, you know, obviously with a little bit more delicacy after the first time I heard him tell that story, I started using it and I started training it It's the reality of that car was $90,000 when it was new. It's 10 years old and you bought it for $17,000. There's a reason.
00:36:39
Speaker
I've told multiple customers of ours to talk about where they're going to go, oh, i found this I found a deal on this car. I found deal on this car. I tell them, it is going to be, if you want to drive BMW, that's great.
00:36:50
Speaker
It will be less expensive for you to go down to the dealer and lease a new one than it will be for you to maintain that one, for to own that one. It's going to be less expensive for you. That's what Jim does. Jim likes jim likes having a BMW. He don't freaking buy them things. He'll freaking lease that.
00:37:05
Speaker
Well, i'd like I'd really like to ah have an RS6 Avant. I think that's just a beautiful car. i'm Sure. and But you'd love to lease it. Yeah. I don't want to own it after 60,000 miles. No, I want, I want to own it when it's new before it starts. These people are like, we had, we had a customer talking about getting an M5 and the thing had like 63,000 miles on it. And I'm like, Oh, it's just in time to start killing you. I go, Oh, it's due for rod bearings. And they thought I was joking. I go, Oh,
00:37:30
Speaker
Oh, no. No, that's a maintenance item. Like, you literally, you literally, at 60,000 miles on a V10 M5, it was an older M5. You know the deal. Older m five with the v ten you take the oil pan off at 60 000 you put a new set of rod bearings and it's like not like a joke it's like that's what you do because it will fail right like i'm i'm driving 2019 x5 the b motor here because the rod bearings on my n55 x3 went yeah so i mean it's just but and and i try to tell my customers like hey if you're gonna buy a used euro
00:38:09
Speaker
I'm an advocate advocate for CarMax because they generally are selling decent cars. And only if you're going get it with the extended warranty. get Max here. Because it's a good warranty um and you're going to have expenses.
00:38:26
Speaker
On the other side of that door right now is my hungover service manager, Xander. I know if noticed he wasn't in the morning panel this
Importance of Extended Warranties
00:38:33
Speaker
morning. First thing, I like Xander. Oh, yeah. He's he's solid. he's he's He's a rock star. I had multiple people who I called out via text this morning for breaking my service manager last night. Because he we were walking back into the hotel and he was like, think going to come down for one beer. I was like, uh-huh.
00:38:50
Speaker
I'm going to bed. And then I heard his door close this morning at 2.30. Yeah.
00:38:55
Speaker
But he I have multiple people people will come up to me this morning and tell me, man, that guy is awesome. Oh, that guy is fantastic. And he know drives BMW. He can't use a turn signal. I found that. Yeah. Well, I think we just heard the door closing and maybe he heard us talking about him, but he He bought an X5, right?
00:39:12
Speaker
right And we all made fun of him for that choice. And he texted me the other night. He was staying at the shop after hours, like 7 o'clock. He said, hey, the shop changed my oil. Guess what I found? I said, your turbo's leaking in. I said, yep, but he's got extended warranty. He said, $17,000 warranty claim. Just ring it up with everything else he's got. so Giddy up, buttercup.
00:39:33
Speaker
Yeah, and and the MaxCare, it's up to 125,000 miles. So, I mean, if you're going buy the Euro, that's the way to go if you're buying used. It's got to be somebody else's problem.
00:39:43
Speaker
Unless you can fix it yourself. But even if you you're and youre if you can get paid to fix it, you know? Yeah. Yeah.
00:39:55
Speaker
Do you deal with extended warranty um companies? Yes and no. i mean, I've had a couple of car shield run-ins, but I already knew the deal with them.
00:40:06
Speaker
And so now I've kind of got to the point when they want to sit there with the breakdown. I say, I don't care what your breakdown is. Just tell me what you're going to pay. What's the final number you're going to pay? Because my customer's paying the rest.
00:40:18
Speaker
That's all there is to it. Are you a TechMetric shop? No, shop where. Okay. Well... Should I mention that on this one? No, it's fine. It's fine. right We ain't like that. um But I will tell you, there's a company that we have started using to smashing successes, HubShop Solutions. And the reason I ask is because they only integrate with TechMetric right now. I'm sure that they'll work on others also over time. But um you make them a service advisor in your TechMetric account.
00:40:44
Speaker
And then you integrate with Slack. And they use Slack. And we already did as a company. But every time a DVI is marked complete... They get a notification and they come in and they build the estimate out, parts, labor, everything else.
00:40:56
Speaker
You tell them who your preferred vendors are. You tell them what your quality of parts are. You tell them parts that I will never use. you know Same thing for tires. what are its What's your desired parts margin? What's your desired labor margin?
Benefits of HubShop Solutions
00:41:07
Speaker
What's your desired gross profit per hour?
00:41:09
Speaker
And they know how you want estimates built. And they turn estimates in 15 minutes or less is is their standard. um And they also do your extended warranty calls for you.
00:41:21
Speaker
So they call and sit on hold for 45 minutes and process it. And then they send you, here's your approval number. Here's hump the amount that was approved, parts and labor. Here's the customer's deductible. Giddy up. Say it's called Hub Shop.
00:41:32
Speaker
Hub Shop Solutions. And ah so I tried it out on my small shop for one week. And my Raleigh manager and my shop foreman were like,
00:41:44
Speaker
this is awesome. They both had their, they had concerns and they were both like, okay, it's been one week, go ahead and get it for the other shop. And so both Raleigh shops now have it.
00:41:55
Speaker
Uh, and the estimates are being built at the margins that we want and we have some, have had some issues with emotional discounting in the estimate building process with certain advisors, and they're no longer involved in the estimate building process.
00:42:11
Speaker
And they're told you can't fucking touch it without Mike's permission, so just call and sell it. And it's working, man. mean, we just had the best week ever that we've had in Raleigh this week.
00:42:24
Speaker
So five texted, $78,000 in revenue. Wait a second. was was that Weren't you busting Xander's stone? Yeah. Well, so they're still open today, right? So Xander said Thursday. Oh, that's the other. I'm sorry. the yeah store Yeah. The Garner store could potentially have its best week ever.
00:42:39
Speaker
i was like, I don't know, man. You're not there coaching them to land the plane. That's sort that's our thing is. Thursday morning, it's time to start landing in the plane. Because if you haven't submitted for payment from that warranty company by the end of the day Thursday, you're not going to get paid until Monday.
00:42:51
Speaker
Yeah. Because if you call them on Friday, they say 24 hours. yeah And they don't do it on Saturday. Yeah. They're not into exceptional service. True. They don't give a shit about their customers. They don't because they're not open at 3 a.m. on a Saturday.
00:43:05
Speaker
On Christmas morning. um so that But that's the real deal, though, is you've got to start landing the plane Thursday. if you want to If you want to close in. And it's frustrating because we've got... I like that.
00:43:18
Speaker
There's $130,000 approved sales in the building right now. We a lot of mid-air refueling. yeah Yeah. Yeah. Let's just sidle up to the tank or get ah get a fresh load because we're going to... We do a ton of mid-air. Top shelf, lots of mid-air refueling.
00:43:34
Speaker
um But, you know, when you see hay... I've got $40,000 of work that's done that hasn't been picked up because we didn't communicate clearly with the warranty company or with the customer or whatever it was. You know you need to start telling them. If they get a $7,000 bill, lot of people ain't got that. They need to move some money around or something. Don't tell them at 4.30 on Friday to come pick it up.
00:43:54
Speaker
You say, it's going to be ready Saturday morning. We'll have it ready to rock. So be ready to come pick it up or we'll bring it to your house. But let them know so that they can be ready. we do We deliver a few cars too.
00:44:06
Speaker
that for For multiple reasons. A, to get them off the lot. Yeah. and And B, sometimes makes it no it's just easier. Well, and sometimes you get people in loaner cars and they're not a big hurry.
00:44:17
Speaker
man What you just mentioned about, you know, they're not ready. They don't have the five grand. That hit me pretty hard this these last two weeks, especially as a one man shop. I'm trying to get the cars through the shop. Hey, this is a big bill.
00:44:30
Speaker
Let me knock it out. He's been bugging me about the car cash. I need that cash. Right. Yeah. And so then I finish it. Oh, hey, I don't have the money yet. I'm going to be... Can I make payments over time? week two.
00:44:42
Speaker
Well, and you know, that's fine and all. But as a one-man shop, I'm busy right now. I'm trying to juggle the cars in a certain way. So now... You need the cash flow so you can buy more parts. Or I could have just pushed his to the side and worked on somebody else's.
00:44:56
Speaker
And then the next one does the same thing. And now it's like, now I'm getting stressed out because, well...
Cash Flow Challenges in Small Shops
00:45:01
Speaker
have all this work and now I could have just focused on these other cars got them done and out and I have extra time to work on those other ones every day at 10 grand of what should be in the bank account sitting in the parking lot yeah right God knows it's it's every business that does large ticket items I have my snap on guy sold me some accessories for my toolbox and and as you know this is the nothing's cheap anymore right so he sells me 10 grand worth of stuff that goes on my toolbox right
00:45:32
Speaker
And it's going to come at the end of the month. So we're we're sitting there whenever he comes in. So he goes out he goes, I just went over whenever, whenever, whenever. whenever He's like, i was just I was just looking at some numbers, man. You know, i'm not I don't make a ton of money doing this, but I also don't like to put money out of my own pocket into this. Can we do the paperwork on yours now so we can so i get paid for some of it? Yeah, dude, no problem.
00:45:53
Speaker
He goes, because that stuff's going come while I'm on vacation, and they're going to bill me when it comes. You know, so it's any business that does large ticket items. you have to have whatever percentage that is it's not even really a percentage because you buy parts and pay bills and dollars anyways right got you gotta you gotta like you said you gotta land the plane on thursday that's a great analogy i've never we're terrible with that um and it's because it's bad habits because we've grown to the point where we can get away with it right it's overall it's a very small percentage of our well the thing that struggle with is is my advisors are all paid
00:46:33
Speaker
hourly, and they get a little bit of overtime, and then they get a percentage of shop-wide gross profit.
00:46:39
Speaker
And at a certain level, it's the same level for every person, that percentage goes up, and then they earn more money. And it's when we hit a certain revenue volume per week, there's a minimum gross profit, right? It's math.
00:46:52
Speaker
And I'm like, guys... All of those tickets, if they had picked up today, they're all done. they had picked up today, you would have gotten to the next level. And it would have you would have made $500 more this week or whatever it is. so Why don't you have the same level of urgency? So, now here's a question.
00:47:09
Speaker
At what time, at what point is there something tracked and there's some sort of bonus to the promptness between when the ticket is officially ready for pickup And they've got the customer. At what time, at what point are you bonusing the selling of picking the car up?
00:47:28
Speaker
I don't know. It's just an idea. I would think that it's self-evident that I make more money if people pick their cars up. Because they can sandbag 30K worth of jobs for next week and freaking boom. And crush it. So I don't think I have anyone who thinks that way, but there's 100%. Do you know? That's 100% a way to manipulate that. Yeah.
00:47:50
Speaker
And there are people out there who will find the way to manipulate any paper. Man, when I worked at the dealer, if I was if i was on a week, we had tiered. to Every 10 hours, it was tiered. yeah You had a bonus, a dollar per hour bonus that went back to zero every 10 hours.
00:48:04
Speaker
Man, if I was on a week and it was Friday morning and I had 48 hours, I was going to flag the two hours for that day to get me to 50. And then nothing else. And I was going to actually sandbag.
00:48:17
Speaker
And next week I was going to run. Next week I was going to run, run, run, and run a 75, 80-hour check. And then by Monday at noon you finish the four quarters you were dragging your feet on and you've got 20 hours already. Yeah.
00:48:27
Speaker
All damn day. Because you start getting them tiers, right? And it's it's all math, right? They're like, okay, well, this business is based on 40 hours of production. I can pay them at 50. I can pay them plus $4 an hour. 60, I can pay them plus eight.
00:48:40
Speaker
70, I can pay them plus 16, right? And then we capped. It wasn't plus 32. capped at plus 25. So I've got some guys are like, it's not that significant. Sure. I've got some guys that are, I'm saying that one. Yeah.
00:48:52
Speaker
And I was freaking, I was sandbagging stuff all the time. What, what type of compensation did you have in your career as a technician? Flat rate.
00:49:03
Speaker
Any guarantees or anything? No. any tis Guarantee you don't turn no hours. You won't get paid.
00:49:11
Speaker
No, and I was always one of the most efficient techs, so i never that never became a thing. So if if you hired a tech, would you be like, don't worry, you'll never be paid flat rent? It's kind of the way I'd want to go.
00:49:23
Speaker
um mean, especially seeing how a lot of shops are nowadays, it's like I just want to take care of the tech, not have them have to worry about I got to slam out this car, maybe do it wrong, whatever, just to turn ours.
00:49:35
Speaker
I just want them to have to come to work, do their job, not worry about am I going be able to feed my family. So let's say... you know, 40 hours at $40. That's a B tech, right? Sure. decent quality. Which is like 80 grand a year. Yeah. It's like $83,000 a year. So let's say you put an ad out for, whatever terminology you want to use. But what we're talking about is is, is a good run of the mill line tech, B tech, uh, $83,000 a year salary plus benefits.
00:50:01
Speaker
Um, they come in. What is the minimum level of performance that is acceptable for that person before you have to let them go because they're a drag on the P and L?
00:50:14
Speaker
see This is all stuff that I need help with. yeah That's okay. we Because that's why that's why that's why evil shop owners love flat rate so much, right? Because if they don't produce, they don't cost anything other than the bay space.
00:50:25
Speaker
If you have plenty of bays, then fine. Now, if you've got three bays and the parking lot's full, then you have to have production out of each bay. um But flat rate passes the risk on to the technician and salary passes the risk on to the owner. Yeah.
00:50:42
Speaker
And so tech say, I need, just give me salary or give me 50% of the labor or some of the other crazy shit that you hear out there, right? Okay. But the higher amount of risk that is passed to me, the higher the minimum level of acceptable performance.
00:50:57
Speaker
Like your flat rate, pure flat rate with no guarantee. And you're going to turn 22, 23 hours a week if it's a good quality. And I got plenty of bays. Okay. mean, I don't know why you're happy with that, but okay.
00:51:08
Speaker
But if you're making $100,000 year salary and you're turning 25 hours a week, you got to go. Right. It gets to a point where you pay somebody at a certain level.
00:51:21
Speaker
And this this is making a lot of assumptions. We have to remember that. so There are always exceptions. So many shops don't have their front end together. Yeah. They don't have, they can put John Q. Super Tech in there, who's turning 80 hours week at his previous job. He'll come in there and turn 33 hours week be like, oh, I hired this guy. He was supposedly so good. He don't turn no hours. And they got like a 9% closing or up front. Yeah, you suck ass and you make him stand there and twiddle his thumbs because, oh, the parts are coming, parts are on the way, parts are on the way. And he's standing there not doing anything, right?
00:51:52
Speaker
Happens all over the country. Yeah, absolutely. I have a friend that ah he's got this shop and he offered his techs whatever way they wanted to be. If you wanted to be hourly, you're hourly. If you want to be flat rate.
00:52:05
Speaker
yeah Well, and and the problem is he'll call me and complain. Well, that the one tech that picked flat rate, he makes good money, right? But then he does something wrong and has to go backwards.
00:52:17
Speaker
And then he complains that, hey, well, I'm not getting paid for this. Well, it's kind of like. Oh, you did get paid it the first time. Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah, that's an accountability issue. that's And, you know, there's there's advantages and disadvantages to both, right? What did somebody say if you pay hourly? You have to manage effort or ethics. Effort or ethics, right? And the other the thing I like about hourly is being of, so where it's an advantage for me as compared to Mike, I'm i'm of a technical background.
00:52:48
Speaker
If I decide i need a job done a certain way, It can be because I said so because it's not negatively impacting their efficiency. If it negatively impacts their efficiency on the job, who pays for it?
00:53:01
Speaker
Wilco Auto Care pays for it. If it's, not right? The guy's flat rate and the way I want him to do it negatively impacts his efficiency on the job, he's paying for it. So i like I like the because I said so factor of hourly.
00:53:17
Speaker
Modern leadership. Because I fucking said so.
00:53:22
Speaker
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Wilco Auto Care.
00:53:26
Speaker
Intense. The intense, most intense fellowship is because I said so.
Flat Rate vs Hourly Pay Debate
00:53:31
Speaker
yeah but and there's there's reasons that you you know how this is there's reasons you would want a certain job done a certain way that may not be the prescribed way in the manual you know i don't want you pulling this apart because all this shit is going to break we're we're not going to be able to get it this part's discontinued don't touch that shit do it this way well that way it takes longer i It's going to take months and we've got to push the car out we've got to order a part from Timu to put the thing back on the road because nobody stateside has anything. Timu Diesel injectors for the win, baby. 66 bucks, baby.
00:54:08
Speaker
Are they still going to be 66 bucks, though? They're to be 66 times 124%.
00:54:14
Speaker
Ooh, scary. There'll still be 30% of the have the cost of a good part. You can still buy three sets. You buy one set.
00:54:26
Speaker
you Well, you're you're going to buy 10 for a V8 engine. Can you buy Teemu injectors and then rebuild them before you install them? That's a good question. i want to order I want to order one to see if an actual injector shows up or a little model. Like a middle-term agent. Remember the jack stand the guy ordered and it was like the jack stand was the size of a cell phone? Oh, man, I got this jack stand for $6 with a little model jack stand inside of a cell phone.
00:54:52
Speaker
Yeah. It was for his NASCAR scale. There's advantages and disadvantages to flat rate versus hourly for sure. Jim and I came from a flat rate environment. I had worked at dealerships flat rate. Him and I both worked for Goodyear back it was Gemini service, which was straight flat rate.
00:55:09
Speaker
um We liked the because I said so factor. I think that it is telling. that all of the technicians in the world who have a big voice, who spent their entire career in flat rate, hate flat rate and want something different.
00:55:26
Speaker
Not all of them. Like Blaine is one of my guys and he, and you've talked to him before. He was a champion for flat rate. Ironically, he's no longer paid flat rate, but he sees the value and in the purpose. But if,
00:55:41
Speaker
i've I've said this many times before. If a front end ran the way it was supposed to, if you could guarantee me three bays, a Pro Cut brake lathe, and a front end that ran the way it was supposed to, I will freaking put all the risk on me.
00:55:54
Speaker
you will You'll be paying me a quarter million bucks a year because I'm gonna haul ass. but I've got a Pro Cut if you want to buy it. It's collecting dust in the back. Oh my gosh, I'd be killing it there. It's seven minutes ah it's seven minutes a wheel just anyways yeah that's another conversation um if you could guarantee me that but i i have low faith in people's ability to do that all all i've got to witness is people failing to do that i can't call them and tell them we need more time oh well this is this is the rust belt it's too you're not getting extra money to drill out those bolts
00:56:33
Speaker
Man, this isn't after we've started the job. Oh, the bolts, that manifold bolts broke. That one's already missing. I need an extra half. Oh, no, no, no. this is This is how you work up here.
00:56:44
Speaker
I'm not going to work flat. I ain't working for free. Right? How many places did I work? You know, stupid, like stupid things. Cabin air filters, air filters, wipers. Well, you say that you're not going to pay me hourly. You're going to pay me flat rate.
00:56:57
Speaker
What i do with a wiper? Set them on the hood and tell them to jump? I know it sounds stupid, but like you get to a point over the course of the year, how many sets of wipers you put on, never got paid for How many of this did you never got paid for How many times do get paid 0.1 for inspecting a clapped out vehicle that took you almost 20 minutes? So how much should you be paid for install wiper blades?
00:57:21
Speaker
Probably 0.1. You should probably get six minutes to put a set of wiper blades on. Okay. so And if your labor rate is $220 an hour, so you're going charge a customer $22 labor to install wiper blades? This is why hourly is so great.
00:57:34
Speaker
um I'm just talking from a pure business perspective. I understand. Here's the thing. You're talking to me from business business perspective. I'm the technician. That's not my fucking problem.
00:57:45
Speaker
so It's my job to put the cars, the parts on the car. It's your job to figure that out. So I would argue that there's not an easy answer that. You're wrong. ah Wrong. think ron what you did. You're wrong.
00:57:57
Speaker
Oh, I sat in the Dutch for a really wrong time. Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. labor bomb Labor guide bump. Because a labor guide is a suggestion, right? And it's wrong sometimes. And it's right more often than it's not.
00:58:11
Speaker
But the labor guide doesn't consider rust and it doesn't consider all the other complicated factors. It considers that it's a technician with all of the right tools in the right environment who's done it 10 times to figure out.
00:58:23
Speaker
Sure. Right. 100% agree. So that's why you put a labor bump in. And maybe that bump. There's some software. Yes. And I could deal with that. If there was a labor multiplier where I was getting paid 1.2 for everything I touched, I wouldn't be talking to you about putting wipers on and putting air filters on. Well, that's what we do. Okay. so So that's, you know.
00:58:43
Speaker
Just like when people bring up, well, my technician doesn't want to estimate. He doesn't want to add the parts and the labor to the work order. Okay. Cool. Do you pay him straight book time or what's the deal? Oh, I pay him straight book time. It's not part of his job, man.
00:58:58
Speaker
If you're paying a guy without a labor multiplier or a bump, right? Okay, so you're paying him just the book time. Okay, let's go look up replacement. Does the book let's go look estimate repair? that does You go in the book and you look up left front wheel hub replacement on a 2017 Ram 1500.
00:59:16
Speaker
At what point does it say, say go to parts tech, but procure part at appropriate price, assure it's at appropriate margin, add go into all data, add the labor time, submit, and then wait. It doesn't say that.
00:59:33
Speaker
It doesn't. If you want to it now, if you want to pay your guys times one point, we'll say 1.2. I'll tell you what, for 12 minutes on the hour, i will add all the parts or for hourly. I don't know what else the difference Do whatever you tell them.
00:59:46
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, really? For hourly, they'll do whatever you tell them. That's magical. All right. so So you're going to hire a technician later this year and you're going to pay him pure flat rate at $17 an hour.
00:59:58
Speaker
He's going to turn 100 hours a week for you, right? Well, Andy's going to 1099 him. Andy's got a bill.
01:00:07
Speaker
yeah I never knew how prevalent that was. I always thought it was just like a joke. No, it's not. It's amazing. it's It's not. There's so many very low bar tests to show that that's illegal.
01:00:20
Speaker
Yes. Whatever. People argue it to the death that they can still do it. and it's It's good until you're in like federal prison or whatever. I mean, is it like Club Med federal prison or Pound in the Ass federal prison? It's not the Martha Stewart. It's the El Chapo prison. Okay, copy.
01:00:36
Speaker
Which he did escape from, I think, right? Eventually, I think they dug a tunnel or something. They did. Have you ever watched that? They went full Shawshank Redemption. they They built like a little railroad line and they modified a four-wheeler. They built a tunnel to his cell.
01:00:49
Speaker
underground and the guards were getting paid off. So like the people, like the cellmates around said that you could literally hear the jackhammering all day and all night and the guards were acting like nothing. They all had AirPods in.
01:01:04
Speaker
And they ran them. They stuck them through the hole, put them on this little four-wheeler thing that they had modified on these rails. And they basically put an underground railroad in. They ran them out to this thing where there's a plane waiting and running. And he was from from in his prison cell to in the air.
Humorous Prison Escape Anecdote
01:01:21
Speaker
It was like 12 minutes.
01:01:24
Speaker
and But they got him again, right? they had good processes. Yeah. Follow the procedure. pay Pay the guards. Yep. So what is the next thing in your business development journey that you that you see on the horizon?
01:01:40
Speaker
I'm a mess. I just don't know. you know and that I just i don't know. and That's what I'm trying to figure out. That's all right. Is your wife involved in the business? No.
01:01:50
Speaker
Okay. No. Because that's normally a good step stool that you see in a lot of the startup shops is the wife starts to be a service advisor and run the books and that kind of stuff.
01:02:01
Speaker
And spells and she i means she's got her own job and she's usually up till midnight doing her own thing. So she's already got enough on on her plate. so understand I could never work with my wife.
01:02:14
Speaker
like There was a period of time where we talked about Her opening her own practice and me managing the business side of the pricing. And she just helping patients. And thank God we didn't go that route. It would have been a disaster.
01:02:26
Speaker
So we got to have some hours away from each other. So I i respect letting her have her hustle and you have your hustle. Well, when I started, when I lost my job, she's a real estate appraiser. Um, and she lost her help during COVID.
01:02:40
Speaker
And since I was there between building the shop, you know, I would go with her to houses and help her measure the houses and whatnot. So there was a good amount of time, even while I was started working, I was still kind of helping her. I'd work at both my shop and help her.
01:02:54
Speaker
And I was fine with it. but it was kind of the the same way for her. she was I thought everything was fine, but she's like, all right, we need our space. Go do your thing.
01:03:06
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. You were the annoying apprentice that didn't know what he was doing following her around. Like, get this guy. well the You were the guy. That's the reason I had my toolboxes like they are. I've made it i've made it so it's difficult to access me.
01:03:20
Speaker
I built a cove. Actually, there's 36 inches between the edge of the cart and the lift. i think i'm going to put a door in. And um i'm just I'm just kidding. And you know what? Honestly, I really like our guys, but it has lowered the interruption because they have to walk all the way around. they're like, I'm just going to look it up.
01:03:37
Speaker
You got like seven Mr. Bigs building a wall in your shop. I have a...
01:03:44
Speaker
I think my Mr. Big, I think I got the one side and two of the parts to it. We're at, it's pretty tall. I'm going invite Trump down because he's got this wall. It's impressive. ah Show him how to build it right.
Toolbox Purchases on Facebook Marketplace
01:03:55
Speaker
Yeah. be like, this is what you do. You call up Snap-on Tool Company and you write the check.
01:04:00
Speaker
and they will build you how much do you think snap on would charge to build a wall a border wall nobody knows what anything actually costs yeah right because like list price list snap on is the government contractor of our industry yeah well they literally are a government contractor also because they own everything right but yeah i don't know i don't know a 12 foot wide wall that is nine feet high and weighs about 3 000 pounds um list price is about $55,000 real street price is in the $20,000 range a little little under $20,000 yeah I sent you that
01:04:41
Speaker
was a maximizer box I think with two lockers in the hutch and everything and I said that guy's on crack yeah it was like $12,000 yeah we buy i buy when I'm buying marketplace toolboxes we buy boxes for $1,200 yeah we we don't pay people that kind of money Brian also cruises Facebook marketplace.
01:05:00
Speaker
I'm a horrible person. And sees toolboxes for sale, and then he finds out where they work and finds out what their payday is. And then he lowballs them two days before payday, right while they're running when they're out of money. Yeah, they get paid on Friday. They're out of money on Wednesday.
01:05:14
Speaker
So that $1,200 toolbox $800 Wednesday. in it works nice it works a lot sound i think that's I think that's probably a good point for us to wind down. What a scumbag human being. It's not my fault they make bad financial decisions. yeah What do you want me to tell you?
01:05:35
Speaker
Brian, thank you for coming, man. I appreciate it. ah Thank you for being a more reasonable Brian than what I normally have to deal with. Yeah, it was refreshing. That's right. I appreciate you having me out. Absolutely. That very cool. Talk to you soon.
01:05:47
Speaker
Thanks.
Conclusion and Listener Interaction
01:05:48
Speaker
Thanks for listening to Confessions of a Shop Owner, where we lay it all out. The good, 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.
01:06:01
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
01:06:16
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.
01:06:55
Speaker
Cheers.