How can I shield myself from the public?

[Laneco]

Originally Posted by john walker's workshop

post a sign out front with your contact info and a big "do not pound on the door" sign. i am in here working and i do not want to be disturbed. i will respond to your message as soon as i can. sorry for the inconvenience, but i need to get work done. just be up front and see how that flies. not much you can do about the phone solicitors, other than don't pick up any 800, blocked, out of area calls. if it's important, they need to leave a message.

Ummm... John? I've been to your shop. The picture of the gun and the scary message directed toward the theives kept me from pounding on the door. I was seriously wondering if you were going to shoot me.

I assure you the sign on your door is MOST effective - LOL!

angela

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by Laneco

Ummm... John? I've been to your shop. The picture of the gun and the scary message directed toward the theives kept me from pounding on the door. I was seriously wondering if you were going to shoot me.

I assure you the sign on your door is MOST effective - LOL!

angela

I saw that sign too, but John was expecting me.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by MRM

Freddie, it should be apparent from your many, many complaints about how hard your business is to run, that you are pursuing a broken business model. Your business plan just doesn't work. You have the choice of taking real stock of what you do and why you do it that way, and then make fundamental and meaningful changes.

You decided to go the route of having the absolutely smallest overhead and lower prices with fewer services. This is a good and valid strategy, but it's not working. Here are a couple of points that you should consider.

First, I can tell just from reading your posts that your pricing is out of whack. You need to raise prices and reduce your work. You are killing yourself doing work that costs you money to do. Raise your prices and get more selective on handling work. Don't confuse working with making money. Many small business owners (I suspect you included) think they have to be busy all the time or you're not going to make it. This is not true. You need to be [I]profitable[I] all the time - not busy. If you chase away half your customers but make twice as much on the ones that remain, you will make twice the money with half the work. Don't be so afraid of having down time that you fill your time with unprofitable work.

Second, figure out where you make your money. Then focus on that. Specialize in what you are most profitable at.

Third, do not be penny wise/pound foolish in saving payroll. Pay someone to do stuff that frees you to be more profitable. Your most valuable comodoty is time. You only make money if you're working. If someone takes you away from working, it costs you the amount of your hourly rate. If you pay someone ten bucks an hour to cover your phones and do your books, but you're able to bill an extra two hours a day at $80 an hour, you're foolish to not take on the additional overhead.

Fourth, consider repositioning yourself into a specialty independent shop of some sort that charges a premium but limits your work to something difficult or unusual. Increase your rates to make up for the reduction in work you see. Spend enough to make your place professional and look nice enough to atract the higher dollar work, but don't go crazy.

Above all, raise your damn rates. There is nothing worse in this world than not getting paid for the work you do - except when you pay someone else to work for them. If you do work that is not profitable, you are paying someone to let you do their work. You are far better off doing nothing than taking on unprofitable work.

As usual, MRM makes a very logical argument. nuff said.

[porsche4life]

Originally Posted by MRM

Don't be so afraid of having down time that you fill your time with unprofitable work.

A friend of my dads runs trucks in the oilfield.. He quoted a job and they countered with what someone else would do it for. He informed that if he was going to be sitting at home broke, he didn't want to be tired to....


Just doing work, for something to do is a bad idea. Do what is worth your time monetarily, and nothing else...

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

You need a gatekeeper. You'll say you can't afford it, but it sounds like you can't afford to not be with one. Your time is precious and should be spent maximizing revenue. Get some car-knowledgeable front office person to deal with the phone, deliveries and walk-ins. I bet you'll make more money this way too.

Agree with Rick. This buffers you so that you can do the important stuff that no one else can do, and she can shuttle the valid important calls to you.

Joe A

[Rikao4]

my shop..
sign..
big dog..
gatekeeper...
everything is by appt.
if you want ask or hang..
come Sat. that's when they work on their personal toys..

Rika

[GH85Carrera]

We have customers call for a quote and then whine and want a better price. We know what it takes to do a job and make a profit. I told one customer if we did the job at the price they wanted to pay it would be faster for us to just mail them a check for the amount we would loose on the job and not bother with all that work for a loss.

They went with another company, spent a bunch of time and money (over 50 grand) and ended up with a product so bad they went to court. The customer lost the lawsuit, and had to pay for the job and the legal costs and ended up with a crappy product that cost them way more than what we would have charged.

For some reason we did not have much sympathy.

[porsche4life]

People will recognize high quality work eventually. Dad used to have a competitor here in town, that ALWAYS undercut him, sometimes by as much as half. But after a few years when all their low grade materials went to crap, and their shotty workmanship was blown to the ground by the OK wind, the other shop went out and dad has more work than he cares for. He is now very picky about who he works for, and is making more money than ever...