Trial By Fire Was the Pathway and Learning Curve for This Shop Owner. Once Kathleen Jarosik from Xpertech Auto Repair in Englewood, FL bought the business from her former husband she went from the background to the foreground of the business. Trial by fire was the norm. Her story is one of renaissance as she knew there was a better way. Working with her business coach, industry colleagues and association members, Kathleen started her turn around. She is actually doing what she loves to do...

The Qualities of a Good Partnership or How to Make Partnerships Work. Partners and brothers Vinnie and Anthony Lucido from CoAuto, Community Conscious Car Care in Reno, NV and partners Shawn Kline and Jeremy Austrum from Next Generation Auto in Baldwin, WI., share how they make their partnership work. They share advantages and disadvantages of having a partner, the role of each partner, and the qualities of a partnership. They say that knowing each other’s communication style or DISC...

Ask for help. Offer help. Reaching out to help your peers. Become the fly on the wall at ASA Northwest’s training event, ATE, and listen to an enlightening panel discussion with Butch Jobst, the ASA Northwest Chairman of the Board from B & B Automotive in Aberdeen, WA, Brian Smith the ASA Northwest Immediate Past Chairman of the Board form Gig Harbor Automotive Service in Gig Harbor, WA and Bryan Kelley the ASA Northwest Chairman-Elect from Valley Automotive Electric in Covington, WA. The...

A Perspective on the Value and Future of Technician Training. Listen and learn from Ryan Kooiman, Director of Training at Standard Motor Products, Jeff Masterman, the Manager of Technician Training Development and Wayne ‘Jerry’ Bishop, well known instructor at Standard Motor Products. Listen to a discussion on daytime training, augmented reality, the future of training, hands-on, case studies, course development and the importance of the fundamentals among others. If you are a shop owner...

The Dreaded Come Back: The Keys To Prevention. Comeback prevention starts at the front door. It is all about communication. Writing enough information to the technician the better he/she can handle the diagnosis. To improve the end product and to reduce comebacks, you must build quality into the repair process. Quality control checklists at the end of the repair can only do so much. Quality, not quota, is the strategy you need to adopt to reduce comebacks. You should always be looking to...

Philanthropy on Steroids: CarFest – An Industry And Image Game Changer: Built With Hearts and Hands. Mark Colaw has owned Seymour’s Garage since 1985. This episode is about Mark Colaw’s passion: Carfest. This is, by far, the most comprehensive philanthropic event I’ve ever had the pleasure to cover as a podcaster. This event goes miles and miles to improve the image of our automotive repair community and presents the industry in our most positive light. Mark explains the impact Carfest is...

Is The Industry Ready For A Diagnostician Learning Platform That Is Deeply Connected To The Industry? Diagnostic Network, Scott Brown’s new venture, will be a learning platform and open and deep channel of communication for diagnosticians and aspiring diagnosticians while connecting the industry that provides the products, services, information and training to the marketplace. If you earn your living in the aftermarket, and for that matter serving the motoring public, you’ll want to give...

The Rule of Holes: Know When To Stop Digging Knowing your break-even point -- the point at which total cost and total revenue are equal is important to running a business. It is not just good enough to reach your daily break even, you must exceed it if you are to stay in business. Knowing the break-even point is helpful in deciding gross margin on parts, labor rates, setting sales budgets and preparing a business plan. If you do not reach your daily break-even then there is a great...

Technology Talk, AAPEX, ADAS, CES and More. Chris Gardner, MAAP, is the Vice President or Programs and Member Services for AASA, the Automotive Aftermarket Suppliers Association. AASA is the voice for the Aftermarket Supplier Industry. Chris also manages all things technology for the association and that is where we spend most of our time in this interview. An interview highlight is Chris’s view of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that he has attended for the last three years. He’ll...

You Cannot Ignore Your Role in The Automotive Technology Education System. Go inside the Vision 2018 Studio with the Educators Think Tank. Join Rick Escalambre, Retired Instructor Skyline College, and educator of the year 2017, Scott Brown from Diagnostic Network, Matthew Shanahan Assistant Professor, Automotive Technology, College of DuPage and Tim Dwyer, from Consul Labs. This is a great slice of what automotive education is today. A very open and transparent discussion that will help...

How To Get Value From Recorded Service Calls Listen and learn from shop business coach Rena Rennebohm, from the ACT Group, Keith Williamson, president of Williamson’s Repair and Tire in Bondurant, IA and service advisor Lauren Giver, from Los Gatos Auto Service in Campbell, CA. Listening to just one side of a customer call does not do justice in improving and training your service advisor. Service advisers need quality training, no different than technicians and business owners and the...

The Trip To Vision KC 2018 was 9,000 Miles. One Way. There’s nothing too hard if you are determined to work hard enough. Do not underestimate your talent; you may never know where it will take you. Words from Taurayi Raymond Sewera. He is a shop owner from Zimbabwe, Africa. Taurayi is the only ASE certified technician in Africa and is building a new 20 bay shop he says will be opened by August 2018. He employs 12 technicians and will fix anything with an engine from a lawnmower to a...

The Road to Great Technicians We talk so much about solutions to the technician shortage. Here is an episode that will get you to realize that there is so much more than filling the seats in trade schools. It is about what happens when we hire a new tech. The trend is to grow our own technician, but can we outline a career path for our new recruit? You need to be involved in creating a ‘Road to Great Technicians. Joining me in studio at Vision 2018 is Donny Seyfer Executive Officer of...

Shop Owners Must Do’s: Daily Actions that Matter: Why Routine Matters. We had a very deep discussion on critical daily actions that will keep your business compliant and running smoothly. You’ll walk away with a strong sense of discipline in building a daily task list that you stick with. Without proper planning and a strong checklist, that you are accountable for (or that you delegate), too many slips through the cracks and eventually crashes into your well-intentioned routine. Bambi...

Stronger and Better Because of the Challenges He Faced Scott Pelava a fellow shop owner from Lonsdale, MN has had an interesting road to success; sometimes rocky. Many shop owners can relate to tough times. Scott had the ‘grass was greener syndrome’ that happens to may shop owners and he faced some hard realities that running a business was different than being a tech. Scott shares a very personal story of almost losing everything because of a plethora of circumstances he faced. Through...

Without Customers You Have No Business. One of the most important jobs of a service professional CEO is to be a marketer; to make the phone ring. In this episode Ron Ipach, co-founder and President of Repair Shop Coach will share with you a very simple tactic that he says could double the number of visits from your customer. Ron is known as ‘Captain Car Count’ and he received that moniker from one of his customers many years ago and it stuck. Ron has some very simple strategies on how to...

How to Become the Employer of Choice. Join Ryan Clo from Dubwerx in Cincinnati, Dwayne Myers from Dynamic Automotive in Frederick, MD and the Director of Training at RLO, Barry Barrett. You have an opportunity to listen to three of your aftermarket colleagues who will share their perspective on becoming the employer of choice. We opened up some great thinking pathways to help you create and improve your position in the marketplace when it come to attacking and keeping great talent. We...

The Shop of the Future: Are You Prepared? Have you thought about how you will do business in the future? Well the mission of this panel was to stretch the boundaries and serve up plenty of thoughts, concepts and changes coming that you need to be fundamentally be prepared for. So happy to be able to present this audio recording from Vision 2018. With me are shop owners, Summer Gurerro from Affinity Automotive Services, Inc in Wichita, KS, Keith Williamson owner of Williamson’s Repair and...

Why Don't Shop Owners Bring the Same Level Of Curiosity They Had As Techs To the Business Side Of The Business? Mike Bennett from Mike's Kars in Gettysburg, PA is a full-time business coach for ATI. His personal light bulb moment was when he realized he needed more training on business and leadership. That training changed his business. As Mike prospered he realized that he wanted to share his success by coaching other shop owners. Mike say the best employees are empowered and understand...

The Power of Strong Financial Statements No question that knowing the value of your Profit and Loss Statement helps you grow a strong, viable and profitable company. Many shop owners have not gotten intimate enough with the value of their financial statements. The episode with Maryann Croce from Croce Transmissions in Norwalk, CT, Mark Roberts from Schertz Auto Service in Schertz, TX and Bob Greenwood, AMAM, president of Automotive Aftermarket e-Learning Center show the power of an...