February is an excellent month to reflect upon from where you have come in the past three years.
How many seminars and business development courses have you been to during this time period? How many times have you gone, got the message, taken it away and either cherry picked it to death or really did nothing with it?
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This is the challenge for many within our industry; they have the desire to grow, but never take the steps to allow the true growth to happen. They end up living in a world of good intentions, where they talk a good story, but refuse to bring the story alive with behavior.
Oh, what are those three magical words? Behavior never lies!
The fact is most people find it very difficult to embrace an entire message, as they don’t feel comfortable with the change they will have to go through to see the message to fruition. This is the real reason why it didn’t work for them. The industry’s biggest enemy is the lack of self-discipline to execute.
In our complicated business in which you are dealing with changing technology, a “fluid” economy and a nervous consumer, business change is now a constant. It also means we as individuals must accept and be willing to change in order to make it work.
You most likely are a shop that has been exposed to a tremendous amount of knowledge to the point where it seemingly can be overwhelming. Slow down and ask this question when making a decision about implementing change: Will this feed my confusion or strengthen my clarity? You are maturing in so many ways of not only understanding your business so much better but also understanding your own entrepreneurial fears and insecurities.
Your business development is a journey and not a trip. There is no silver bullet in this industry and it always will be a minimum of a two- to five-year time frame to experience the rewards. Stay focused, take your time and keep your eye on the ball, remembering to take one transaction at a time. It is a process.
February is one of those months where one can fall into a negative pattern of thinking. Don’t allow this to happen to you. Take the time and review all the material you have been exposed to over the last three years and make a detail list as to where improvement is still required. Now draw up a plan to tackle only two changes at a time with a firm dateline for completion. The reason for only two changes at a time is that too many changes will overwhelm the staff. Remember, they are employees, not business owners so they do think differently. The reason for a firm dateline for completion is to keep you focused on the task at hand instead of using the words “I’m going to do this or going to do that without a firm timeline.” The thick forest and noise of the industry starts to distract you and before you know it, another year has gone by without the changes really required being implemented.
Working on two important tasks will help to keep you focused on the detailed required for implementation. Go for it.
Now the rewards for your discipline to implement the changes required are very measureable. Consider that any important change within a shop business will likely reflect with an increase in total billed hours. The shop is becoming more efficient and professional. Measure daily, weekly and monthly your average billed hours per RO. This measurement is where the meat is when increasing the net income of your business. Billed hours are your life in the vehicle service business. Walk, talk, breath and dream billed hours and watch what happens to the profitability of your business.
Times have changed and so must management routines. One item that should also be on your immediate list is looking forward into the balance of the 2015 year to determine what technical and management training still is required within your shop.
Too many shops today have a tough time looking and planning ahead. They are not implementing what they are learning. They’re reactive instead of being proactive. When a shop “vision” is in the process of being executed, development of the “team” is also mandatory, so on-going training must be evaluated properly each year. This is a proactive approach. Competent technicians now require 100 hours of training per year to stay level in their knowledge. Management requires six to eight days per year now. Times have changed and so must your processes as to how you look at and plan your business as well as training within your shop.
Now is the time to take inventory of your team’s competencies as well as management competencies and seek out the required additional training and development to ensure 2015 is a positive development year for your business that builds on to the last three years. Be prepared to travel — not all training will be in your back yard, so proper budgeting is also part of this process.
Don’t procrastinate on this topic, because the amount of change coming in the next three years will be more than the past five years, which, when one is not prepared for, creates tremendous stress personally and financially; stress that can definitely be controlled with the right planning.
Finally, discipline yourself to take a minimum of two hours a day to spend in your office totally undisturbed to allow you to think with clarity as to how you will approach the tasks required and how you will measure the results. This truly is working on your business, and now you are implementing what you have learned.
