Any small business owner can relate to the “highs” and the “lows” of growth trends; this is especially true for automotive shop owners. Sometimes, sales are up and sometimes they are down.
Or, perhaps, you’ve increased to a certain capacity in gross monthly sales and then suddenly it flattens? Or, maybe you just can’t seem to sustain enough income?
There are a number of challenges associated with running your own business and, typically, they can be categorized into four major stages. How you approach these stages and overcome the relevant obstacles are key to taking your shop to the next level.
Here are some tips on how to survive the four stages of development:
Tip 1 for Stage 1: Hire the right employees
If you’re in Stage 1, you spend most of your time working on cars. In this stage, you’re not just a business owner, you’re a technician, a service advisor and so much more. The downfall of this stage is that you’re limited by what you can handle because you are wearing too many hats. Either you haven’t hired the right employees or you haven’t hired a team at all. Regardless, it’s time to throw those hats away and hire a team that you can trust.
Tip 2 for Stage 2: Know and track your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
With this stage, the good news is your sales are increasing, but the bad news is your production is decreasing. Just like in Stage 1, you’ve got more than you can handle. But, the question is, do you have enough money to hire additional technicians? The key to moving past this stage is to know your numbers. Track your KPIs so you can see exactly what is going in and what is going out in terms of your shop’s financials, as well as your team’s productivity. When you know what your numbers look like, you’ll know how much work your team should be producing.
Tip 3 for Stage 3: Get Organized
A disorganized shop can mean chaos for so many areas of your shop. After you’ve stepped back to observe your production (as suggested in Stage 2) and you know which specific areas of your shop need the most attention, the next thing you need to do is organize. There are many probable sources to this stage … you may have low production, too many employees working in one area, or a combination of the two. The best solution to this problem is to get a plan together that will help you think about both your short-term and long-term goals.
Tip 4 for Stage 4: Identify your goals
If you’re feeling trapped in your business, then you know you’re in Stage 4. In this stage, you may feel like you’re doing all the right things, however, every time you take time off, the business falls apart. As an owner, your main objective is to make your shop operational. When you get your shop to this point, everything and everyone remains in control regardless of your presence. In Stage 3, you were asked to think about what your goals are so now, in this stage, it’s time to write them out and begin to take action.
Article courtesy Management Success.
