Question for Shop owners/mechanics

[pmckechnie]

Here in NC, my business is at a standstill. It's not just me, all shops in the area are very slow. So far this week, we have done 2 oil changes, 1 monday and 1 tuesday. Are the shops in other parts of the country the same? What is wrong? If it was just me, I really would be worried and just hang it up, but it is everyone, well within 10 miles or so of us.
I have talked to some dealer techs and they say they are only doing warranty work.

Anyone have any ideas what is going on?

[stevebfl]

Well, I'm about done with my 26th year of running my own business and it always has been the same, business cycles that is.

We were setting records through December and January but by the first day in February it seemed to shut off like a spigot. The timing varies by year and the swing also can be yearly different, but it always happens. We went from 38k weeks to a 26k week first week in Feb. I usually see no difference in this pattern til after tax time; which shouldn't even matter the way people do taxes now. I guess with MB owners its having to pay the anticipated tax shortage on Apr 15.

My brother in law who is my tech at the MB dealership said that they had slowed down drastically in the last two or three weeks. Go figure.

pmckechnie,

My Dad opened a good sized independent shop right after world war II. His shop served, independently, as the service department for the Kaiser dealership, but that was a small portion of his clientele. He was just out of the military, so opened up with a bank loan. After a year or so, he hit a bad winter and business totally dried up in January. His banker, who is a long time family friend, begged and pleaded with him to hang on through the tough times and said that the bank would see him through financially. My Dad was only about 26 or 27 and was afraid of going deeper in debt and bailed out.

Later, he opened another independent shop on a smaller scale and made a living for a number of years with it. To this day, he says that if he had gutted it up and stayed with it in his first shop, he would have come out in much better shape.

I only tell you this so you can reflect. People that drive MUST maintain and repair their cars sooner or later unless everyone decides to start walking and I don't see that happening anywhere in the US anytime soon.

Best of luck,

[Wes Bender]

I never operated an automotive shop, but I did run my own business for a little over 20 years. I think every business is cyclic in nature. Some cycles are deeper than others too. Some businesses closely follow the country's economy while others lag behind it, both up and down. The business owner/operator should consider the potential of cycles in his business plan. If he doesn't, and spends all his profit in the boom times, he will be in trouble when times get tight. In a way, this is good overall for the economy. The stronger, healthier businesses will weather the storm, while the weaker, poorly-operated ones will fall by the wayside.

Just my $.02,
Wes

[Q]

Must be when everyone is trying to pay off Christmas on their credit cards.