Today’s successful shop owners, and yes, even those struggling, all relied on education to get them to ownership status. Some just have more education than others, and embrace learning more. But as shops as a whole move forward, education continues to be paramount.
And it starts from the top down: education for yourself in management or marketing; for your technicians on new technologies; and for the next generation and the one beyond that to get them interested in automotive repair as a career. This was the common theme as four industry players discussed automotive repair and shop ownership in Motor Age’s 2014 roundtable.
While the world of the independent repair shop continues to change, we could focus on a variety of issues you face from making the numbers work, keeping your employees happy, deciding if you truly need one more piece of equipment, the list goes on and on.
Our roundtable discussed vehicle technology, training, management and top issues today’s shops face as best we can. But the need for education quickly emerged, as Bill Moss, owner of Euro Service Automotive, Warrenton, Va., pointed out that challenges ahead lie in keeping up with marketing as well as the vehicles you repair.
Marketing has completely changed in the last decade with the further entrenching of the Internet. Most of our education regarding marketing doesn’t come from classroom that is sponsored by or founded by the manufacturer, it’s largely taught to us by people who have a vested interest in what they’re selling to us,” he explains. “The technology in marketing for a business owner is a constantly changing, shifting sand sort of scenario where you have to try some things to see what works and budget your money to get what you want.”
One way to continue learning about marketing (or management and technical skills) is to get out of the shop when you can. Donny Seyfer, manager co-owner Seyfer Automotive, Wheat Ridge, Colo., says “only a small portion of the people who do this for a living know what’s going on outside their brick and mortar building. So it gets filtered by the time it gets to them, so it’s inaccurate.”
By getting more people to attend training, conferences and events or even just reading more, the educational process can continue. It also will help reach the younger technicians, which is always there, according to Chuck Roberts, vice president of AYES and NATEF. He notes that while the requirements of dealing with vehicles’ technologies is changing, it means that there is some uncertainty in how quickly the need for qualified next-generation technicians is going to ramp up. But getting to the front lines of that education can help your shop stay ahead.
“We’re not involved very much with the educational system and the recruiting or at least telling the story we have to tell early enough in the education process to attract young people, motivated people,” Roberts says of many shop owners. He adds that individuals need to get involved with advisory committees of high school and post-secondary auto tech programs, or even a step further and involving themselves in career explorations of even middle schools. Tell the education system what we need in terms of an end product.
And once you hire those new technicians, Seyfer says it’s time owners teach more than just the automotive side, but financial responsibility, too.
“If you go to a tech school using the new NATEF standards, these kids are going to come out of the school with day to day skills that we can put to work and we should be able to pay them better because they actually generating revenue for us instead of just generating training opportunities for us,” he states. “If we teach the young people in our shops how to manage the money at a young age…and live on $15 of the $25 they’re getting paid, you give them the first five or 10 years, they’re going to be set for retirement long before the kids who went to college will. I don’t’ think we’re showing them the money in the right ways.”
Motor Age Technical Editor Pete Meier adds that overall, we need to change our thinking as a group. “Right now the educational side is producing more than enough people to take care of the attrition at the other end of the pipeline. The problem is that when many graduate from the programs, they don’t enter the field or they move on to something else. They found out that being a copy repairman pays a lot more and requires a lot less.”
He suggests an apprentice program approach, with solid mentoring in place for the younger technicians. That also would help with keeping pace with changing technologies on today’s vehicles. And before a shop can really focus on training those technicians, as the markets change, owners might need to look at where they want to be.
“I think the main thing to keep on top of is how do you envision your shop five years, 10 years from now. Do you want to be a specialty shop. I think education and investment doesn’t create a need, but it certainly reinforces a need for specialization,” Moss notes.
That could be anything: diesel, hybrids, certain car lines. “If it’s just new to my world, I need to educate and tool myself for it. If it’s outside of my world, I have friends I can refer (customers) to and know they’re being taken care of. I admire the multi-line shops who can do it,” Moss adds.
Staying productive also means making sure you’re ready to service the vehicles that actually are driven in your area.
“I don’t’ think that as a repair professional you have that luxury (of working solely on your favorite line). You really need to do a market study and see what’s in your neighborhood,” Seyfer says. “If you don’t know that, you may never know why you’re having a hard time making your business run.”
And for the technicians, Meier adds that most understand the need for continuing education, but there still are some who don’t.
“There are so many more I see that rely on what they learned five, 10 even 20 years ago and they’re trying to apply that to the cars they see in the bays,” he says. “You just can’t do that. Today on some manufacturers you can’t replace the battery without talking to the computer and having the tools to do that.”
But those who do recognize that it’s an exciting time to be in the automotive industry.
“There’s going to be some exciting opportunities for the young men and women who forgo the naysayers and pursue the careers here. Yes, I think some of the mentality is going to have to change as well,” Meier states. “Yes, you may have gotten by with simply changing tires and changing brake pads, but you can’t simply slap these parts on any more. You are going to have to adapt to those changes.”
Roberts agrees. “Recruitment and development is a process, not a problem being solved. I think that however you can involved yourself will eventually pay dividends.”
And while you’re focusing on the future employees, look at the future systems you want to work on, such as hybrids, electric vehicles or alternative systems. Seyfer says that once you find one, “get revved up and learn it.” That means going beyond the basics, mastering the pieces such as alternating currents on electric vehicles, for example.
That means getting out of the shop some, too, which Moss notes is the way to evolve your business in changing times.
“It took me a long time to become involved in networking, but I quickly learned there is a much learned between classes as there is in classes, just by talking to your peers and learning what’s working for them, what isn’t working for them,” Moss says. “The more we network, the more we learn.”
And there is a lot of learning from top to bottom headed our way.
