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The Gearbox Podcast brings on industry professionals to explore the day-to-day operations of owning and operating a shop. From common frustrations to industry-wide shifts, this podcast covers it with fun and insightful conversations.
Jimmy Purdy [00:00:13]:
Welcome to the Gearbox podcast, where we dive deep into the dynamic world of automotive repair and ownership. I'm your host, Jimmy Purdy, an experienced technician turned shop owner with a passion for sharing insights, stories, and conversations with industry leaders. This is the Gearbox podcast. Well, I really enjoy your. Your stuff that there, especially your. Your blitzes you put out.
Chris Cotton [00:00:38]:
Oh, thank you. Gosh, we're on, like, episode 170 something right now. And when we first started it, everybody was like, we want to do 25 minutes or less. Like, all the shop owners are like, hey, I'm doing this while I'm walking my dog. I'm doing this on a quick trip to the gym. Don't. Don't get too long. So I think every once in a while, if I have a guest, I don't ever do it by myself, but if I have a guest, I'll get, like, to an hour or something, but just.
Chris Cotton [00:01:09]:
It's just me. It's just, like, the quick in and out, and it's kind of weird how it started. It started out as, like, a private podcast that we emailed out to everybody, and then the. Whatever the rules and regulations change that we could create our own, and so, boom, here we are.
Jimmy Purdy [00:01:27]:
Yeah. That's awesome. I mean. I mean, you know the. How the shorts are just blowing up like crazy. So I like how you made it like the blitz, right? Like, it's. It just made sense. It was pretty cool.
Chris Cotton [00:01:36]:
Yeah. And, you know, I fell into that, right? Like, that's. That's just one of those accidental things. Like, we called it the weekly blitz because I have a background in football and everything. Now, hindsight is like naming your auto repair shop, right? Like, if, you know, some people name their shop, and then, like, five years later, they're like, oh, I wish I'd given it a different name. Like. Like, people look for it, and it gets confused for, like, football podcasts all the time. But it is.
Jimmy Purdy [00:02:01]:
But doesn't everybody regret? I mean, so I named the shop shifting gears, right? And it's like. It just seemed like the best thing at the time, right? And it's like, right, and we did a lot of transmission rebuilding, and I still do a fair amount, but not as much as I did when I took over. And it's like, have the same problem. It's like, well, if you want to be more auto repair, or it sounds like a motorcycle gang, or it sounds like. I mean, you can just take, like, anything and make it seem like. So, what do you want to be named? Like, Carfix? Well, not that. That's a bad name.
Chris Cotton [00:02:31]:
But, I mean, well, and that's the other thing, you know, with my company, autofix, like, if to do it over with, I'd have probably done it. I'd done it differently. But I think what happens is the shop owners are like, oh, this is a cool name because it's, you know, it talks about this or that, but you. No offense to any non auto repair people out there, but you really kind of have to dumb it down for the consumer, right, when you're naming a shop and. And think about what the consumer might want to hear or see or read versus what, you know, maybe a gearhead might want to see. Yeah, I think.
Jimmy Purdy [00:03:04]:
I think we all do that, though, right? We target for. We. We, like, target for what we want to be or, like.
Chris Cotton [00:03:10]:
Right? Oh, yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:03:11]:
Like. Like, we're going to. We're going to market to ourselves, and it's like, that's like the worst thing I do with the podcast radio show. I do it. I mean, it's so hard to get away from it because that's the only. It's the only people we surround ourselves with, right? It's the podcast we listen to. It's the information we listen to. So we're, like, hardwired to, like, almost market to that group of people, and it's like, well, you got to think like a consumer.
Jimmy Purdy [00:03:32]:
Well, how the hell do you do that? I've never been able to afford to take my car to a shop, so.
Chris Cotton [00:03:36]:
Right, yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:03:37]:
Reason why I'm a shop owner, you know?
Chris Cotton [00:03:39]:
Right. Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:03:40]:
To do. I mean, I don't know. Names are. That's. That's tough. That's definitely a sweet spot there because you just think about all the different names, and then you reach out to different companies, right. That have, like, different, like. Like, autofix coaching company, right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:03:56]:
It's like.
Chris Cotton [00:03:56]:
Right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:03:57]:
It's like, oh, man, how do I find this online? And you're trying to, like, use the right Google algorithm to find the, you know, Google your. The coach you want to use or the shop you want to find. And it's like, who, what does it even really matter in this day and age?
Chris Cotton [00:04:12]:
Yeah. And things like websites are still important, but for the most part, people are searching on Google. They go to Google my business. There are some other great products out there now where you can schedule online. So people are going to your Google my business page and scheduling online without ever even looking at your website. Now, the googlebots and everything might have picked it up on the backside and made sure that youre made sure that your name came up first. But outside of that, you know, it's just weird. It's like, I remember when we had our shop, you know, gosh, I'm dating myself.
Chris Cotton [00:04:50]:
Internet was kind of just becoming a thing. And I went on and built a website and we had a snow day, and so all the employees stayed home. I went to work and just told people and made phone calls. And while I was there, I was like, oh, I'll build a website. Then shortly after that, Facebook became a thing. So I built a Facebook business page, and we ranked at the top of the search rankings for years without doing any Google Adwords or anything else, just by having a homemade website and a Facebook page.
Jimmy Purdy [00:05:18]:
So back in the easy days, I guess with the simple days, now you gotta have freaking, you know, the x, right? And then you gotta have Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok. I mean, now what's the latest one? Not the latest one, but, well, you've.
Chris Cotton [00:05:38]:
Got threads for meta and then all these others. Like, there's so many different ones, so many tick tock. Yeah, everything. And like, you were talking about YouTube shorts earlier are my YouTube shorts get ten times the amount of views the podcast gets? Which is kind of weird because I always thought, oh, somebody will go to the short and then go to the podcast, and that'll increase the YouTube views on podcasts. But it hasn't. Like, it's, it's crazy. Like, I'll drop a YouTube short, or usually I try to do three at a time, and each one of those will have over 500 views at the end of the day. So I don't know if that says a lot about our attention spans as Americans now.
Chris Cotton [00:06:25]:
Like, okay, I want to, I want to listen to Chris for less than a minute because that's all I can, can take, I guess.
Jimmy Purdy [00:06:31]:
Yeah, with no substance. Well, you never know. And it's one of those things where it feeds the beast and it helps. Like, later on, I feel like, where they might save that. I really like that. And they save it. And with the anticipation. It's like most people that buy a book, they buy the book because it's like, once I buy it, then maybe I'll actually read it.
Jimmy Purdy [00:06:49]:
But it sits on the shelf for six years before they actually pick it up and read the thing. But at least it's like, in the back of their, it's in their head space. And I think that's the important thing.
Chris Cotton [00:06:56]:
Is like, well, I have people all the time. They're like, oh, I've been listening for two years, and, you know, I finally got up the courage to call or whatever. I went to as, excuse me, I went to Seema last year and was working a booth, and somebody came up, is like, oh, I'm a longtime listener. And then, so we started talking, and then now he's a client, he's doing great things. And then I just had somebody towards the end of last week, they're like, hey, I was searching for specific help. I think they were looking for how to do, like, fleet pricing, fleet contracts, and I had done some of those and done some YouTube shorts. And so that's what the shop owner, that's what she was looking for. And she found my YouTube and she goes, I just binge watched your stuff for like six, 7 hours and then was like, why don't I just email him and reach out to him? And then that's what she did.
Jimmy Purdy [00:07:48]:
Um, if you could actually do that, you know?
Chris Cotton [00:07:51]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because it's weird because it's like you're on there and it has the website, but then, you know, you have to go to the website to book a call. But anyway, you, you know, people get, you know, people go down the rabbit hole of the podcast or watching videos or whatever, and next thing you know, 3 hours has gone by.
Jimmy Purdy [00:08:08]:
Yeah, but it's, it's great information, and it's definitely one of the things that really helped me get out of the, I mean, I feel like maybe we're always in kind of a hole, but, you know, get out of, start understanding how to start climbing out of it. You know, it's just that free information and, like, without that, you can't even start building the foundation to afford that coaching company or forward that next step, you know, so it's like, it's so valuable and, yeah, I mean, anybody that puts out that information, it's just awesome because I know how much it helped me and was able to get my stepping stones, and I did the same thing. I listened to, to a lot of those kind of podcasts, a lot of that YouTube video stuff. And once I found that company that I listened to, it was happened to be at Apex. I'm like, I'm ready to go. And it's like, well, you want to hear? I'm like, I already know, like, right, yeah, I already know, like, I'm good to go. And it's like you, you, on the other hand, don't have that kind of information. You're just putting it out there, putting it out there and you're gaining these clients without even knowing it.
Jimmy Purdy [00:09:09]:
And I feel like that's for all social media marketing. It's not like a direct return on ROI. Like, you just don't know how many people are actually viewing or if that's even of any substance to you until finally they come in. They. And it's like, yeah, do everything you said, like, well, that was an easy sell, huh?
Chris Cotton [00:09:25]:
Right. Well, and that's it. I mean, it makes the sale way easier. And, you know, people that are like you said, oh, I've been listening to you for a year. Yeah, I'm just ready to get going. And then you just start and you go. Every once in a while I have somebody that'll call me and set up a session, and they're like, talking to four other coaching companies and they get on and they're like, convince me why I should choose you. I'm like, if you don't know by now, then you shouldn't choose me at this point.
Chris Cotton [00:09:55]:
Like, if you're just coming in through it straight out of nowhere and you haven't listened to any of my content, you don't know me personally, then I'm probably not a good pick, or one of my coaches is not, are not a good pick.
Jimmy Purdy [00:10:06]:
Interesting.
Chris Cotton [00:10:08]:
What we do is relationship based coaching. I fought with this for a long time, trying to figure out the word for it, and it actually hit me at STX. I was sitting there Monday night, I flew in, I was having a steak, and I'm like, chris, why? Why has this been so hard? And it just popped in my head and it's like, well, what you do is relationship based coaching. I used to say concierge type coaching because we really try to, we keep our coaching client load really low as compared to some of the other coaching companies. And so we really work hard on that one on one personal connection, and it just kind of struck with me. So there's going to be a little bit of a lag between the time we record this and the time it comes out. But by the time this comes out, everybody should see a lot more information from autofix on relationship based coaching. What it is.
Chris Cotton [00:10:59]:
I just did a blog post on why you should fire your coach. And everybody was like, Chris, what the heck are you doing? I'm like, well, you know, sometimes you outgrow your coach and it's time to move on. You know, just like employees, there are certain people that will get you to certain milestones in your repair shop, but that can't get you to the end. So, you know, we're interesting way to put it.
Jimmy Purdy [00:11:21]:
Yeah.
Chris Cotton [00:11:21]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:11:22]:
And I think it's getting, getting the different, the different angles. Right. Or the one thing I've come to realize is what you think your shop's going to be when you open it is not what it becomes.
Chris Cotton [00:11:34]:
Right. Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:11:35]:
I mean, does that make sense? Like, yeah, for me anyway. Like, it's just like really, really weird and kind of maddening because you spend so much time doing your, your vision and your mission statement and you don't. And no one ever tells you that you're going to change it. Every year, almost.
Chris Cotton [00:11:49]:
Right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:11:50]:
Depending on the tides and, like, what's coming in. Like, and I really, really, really want to work on these vehicles, you know, this type of vehicle. I want to do this type of repair, but then this other repair is coming in a lot. Right. And I'm, and I'm, and I'm spending all this money trying to mark, I'm like, what? Just go with the flow. Like, right. You know, and then, but that's not what I wanted to do. It's like, so what, you're a business owner now.
Jimmy Purdy [00:12:10]:
Like, it's time to make money and. But then the technician side of you. No, that's not what I want to fix, though. And then you have that technician, manager, entrepreneur kind of like fight going on in your head and you've got to constantly try to, like, you know, appease one or the other. And it's just interesting. They say that because it is, it's true. It's like the coaching company that you might be with is fantastic for four years, but then just the market changes or whatever changes. And now it's like, or you get more employees or you grow like you wanted to, but it's not what you thought it was going to be.
Jimmy Purdy [00:12:38]:
And that's, for me anyway, like, it's definitely not what I thought it was going to be.
Chris Cotton [00:12:43]:
Right. Well, you know, most shop owners let me, I had so many thoughts. You know, one thing is, as a shop owner, you can't be so inflexible that you can't roll with the punches and pivot and go into another area. You know, people that are stubborn and hard headed and don't want to change, those are the ones that call you after five or six years and they're like, hey, I'm going to go out of business really soon if I don't do something now. And you're like, great, how much time do we have? And they're like, oh, I'm probably a month from going out the end of.
Jimmy Purdy [00:13:14]:
The month and it's the 20th.
Chris Cotton [00:13:16]:
Yeah, yeah. And then, and then they're like, but I've been listening for three years and I knew I should have done this, but I just never did it. So don't, don't be that person number one. And, and number two, you gotta roll with it. You gotta be flexible. I don't know how many times. Well, and here's the other thing. Like, technicians are great, and I'm not a technician.
Chris Cotton [00:13:38]:
Like, I technically, like, I wouldn't even try to google and do, do something to your car because that's not who I am. I'm not a technician. I don't have the patience for it. I am like a, I'm like the typical AdD ADHD entrepreneur. And, you know, there's a funny story. When I was younger, my dad would take me to the wood shop and we would work on carpentry stuff, and he would take my brother to the, to the garage and work on car stuff. And, like, one day I was sitting there holding a flashlight. My dad was wiring up some brakes on a trailer, and I'm getting frustrated because I don't have a clue what's going on.
Chris Cotton [00:14:18]:
I was probably maybe eight or nine, right? Like, I'm, all I know is I'm smart enough to hold the flashlight. And hopefully you're doing that.
Jimmy Purdy [00:14:25]:
Right. We've all been yelled at.
Chris Cotton [00:14:27]:
Well, no, right? Like sandwich, beer, flashlight. Right. So I asked my dad, I'm like, dad, why? What are you doing? Can you explain some of this to me? And just serious. As serious as anything I've ever seen. He just, like, stopped what he was doing, and he looked over his shoulder and he wasn't even looking at me. Like he was looking halfway between the wiring and me. And he just kind of cocked his head and he said, son, if I teach you everything I know, plus everything you know, you'll know more than me. And then just turned around and went back to wiring up the brakes.
Chris Cotton [00:15:00]:
And that's it. That was the conversation. And I turned off the flashlight and went in the house, and then that was it. I never went out to work on cars with him again. Um, so anyway, I'm the first person you want to call to fix your auto repair shop with, the last person you want to call when it comes to fixing a car. So.
Jimmy Purdy [00:15:15]:
Especially wiring and trailer brakes.
Chris Cotton [00:15:16]:
Yeah, wiring, trailer brakes, for sure. Um, so the, so the one thing I want to come back to, though, because I started talking. I started talking about technicians and how great people they are. They want to help people. They want to make sure they're not screwing people. They want to make sure that the customer's getting everything right. But when a lot of people step aside. I had this conversation with the shop owner or a wannabe shop owner last week.
Chris Cotton [00:15:40]:
He's like, oh, well, I can do it better. I can do it cheaper, I can do it this way, I can do it that way. And I'm like, well, what's your business plan? And he's like, why do I got to have a business plan? I'm just going to start doing cars in my garage and everything be fine. I'm like, until it's not, I go, what happens if your homeowners association shuts you down? Or I, you know, had this situation a couple years ago. Great technician, started a shop. All of his friends wanted to come to him, but they were all broke. So what did he do? He let all of his friends charge stuff to him at a reduced rate, and he never got paid, and he was out of business in, like, 45 days. You know, he bootstrapped it, started it, thought he was helping out all these people, but everybody was just taking advantage of him.
Chris Cotton [00:16:24]:
Yeah, they don't.
Jimmy Purdy [00:16:25]:
They don't see it that way either.
Chris Cotton [00:16:26]:
Yeah, they don't. And then when you have somebody who's like, oh, I'm charging $65 an hour for labor, and then you try to hire them some technicians and get the technicians some training, and you're like, hey, you know, if we do the math on this, our labor rate needs to be 149 an hour. And, oh, I just can't do that. It's. I mean, it's been done a thousand times correctly.
Jimmy Purdy [00:16:49]:
And I think I've always seen, like, that technician opening a shop thinks they can hire other technicians that will be just as skilled as them and willing to ride that wave like they are. Like, come on, man, let's do this. I'll pay you 30, $40 an hour or whatever. It's like, well, your labor rates 85 an hour. Yeah, I'll split it with you. What do you mean, split it? You think he's going to be 100% efficient, right? Not even on a good day, right? And it's like, so, yeah, it's like your. Then your effective labor rate starts dropping down, and it's like, well, I'm not making any money, and he wants more money, and it's like, just turns into everyone hates each other. I mean, I'm sure you've heard it a hundred times.
Chris Cotton [00:17:25]:
What happens is, at that point, they reach out to somebody like me. And I'm doing the math, looking at the income statement, because about half the time, they don't have an income statement. And I'm looking at it, and let's just say, for instance, their labor cost for the week was $3,000, but they only collect. They only collected, like, $4,000 in labor. Well, by the time you get everything in there, like, they basically made nothing on all the labor that they sold.
Jimmy Purdy [00:17:56]:
Hopefully, they don't know.
Chris Cotton [00:17:58]:
Yeah, well, you know, and then those are the people that don't pay the state tax because they're like, oh, we're gonna have our sales tax. I'm just gonna keep that. I'm gonna pay it next month when I have all the money I have. Or, you know, they don't pay the IR's. People like that get in trouble just because they're short on cash. And it's a. An easy fix. Like, I, you know, I've had people that have come to me, and, you know, I look at their parts margin, and it's like 11%.
Chris Cotton [00:18:27]:
And I'm like, how are you pricing this? What are you doing? And we get in and look at it, and I'm like, you're actually losing money. Because by the time we look at comebacks and you're given 3% on your credit card and everything like that, you're basically breaking even or losing money on your parts margin.
Jimmy Purdy [00:18:45]:
Yeah, and on parts margin, I mean, that's a touchy subject. I think, for most, especially new shop owners, like, getting into it, right? Like, they want to just buy the. Because they know that their, their customers or clients, they'll go down to the part store and they can match it and they'll see, oh, you're up. Charge. I can get this part for, you know, for the x amount, and you're charging me more. So everybody wants to give parts away.
Chris Cotton [00:19:06]:
At cost, which is, which is great, but your labor rates got to be $300 an hour. So you can. If you can sell your labor for $300 an hour, then knock yourself out. Like, I, like, I guess that's okay. But the whole, the whole parts thing is just this huge web of lies, right? Like, especially when it comes to dealer parts and everybody else. Like, if. If you have an account at a dealership, and I have an account at a dealership, the same dealership, we're both in the same town. Chances are we're probably going to be buying at different levels.
Chris Cotton [00:19:42]:
And then depending on if you're their customer or if you can walk into their counter and get a part. All of us are going to have different pricing and then, and then we have the other intricate web allies on top of that where they put your cost in there. But in order to make you feel better about the cost you're paying, they throw this magical list price out there that has absolutely nothing to do with anything. And so it's just out there. And so you have these people that do all that.
Jimmy Purdy [00:20:10]:
But, yeah, list.
Chris Cotton [00:20:13]:
Yeah, yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:20:14]:
And I've had, I've had other, I've had other shops say that I'm ripping people off because I'm selling dealer parts over list. And it's like, why are you even looking at that?
Chris Cotton [00:20:23]:
Right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:20:23]:
Yeah, that has nothing to do with, with anything. Like you said, it's like what? It's like a fairy tale number. It's like put your margins where they need to be. Right. Well I don't know how to explain that better.
Chris Cotton [00:20:34]:
Yeah. Ten to twelve years ago you could actually request that the dealer not add the list price on there and like some of the jobber warehouses, like you could be like, hey, I don't want people seeing list. Like we're going to, we're going to do it, we're going to enter it, it matrixes it and it goes out. What I would say to those people is the only reason you're not able to get more than dealers list is because you're just not, like, you're not putting any effort into it. I've got, I've got euro shops that only buy dealer list parts or only buy dealer parts and their margins are 50% plus. And it's because they don't pay attention to the list. They matrix their stuff and then they have great service. Like these are some really, really nice facilities.
Chris Cotton [00:21:14]:
Like facilities you would want your, your daughter, your wife, your mother, your, even your mother in law to go into. Um, and, and that's the value. Like people want to go to those places because they're just, they're great at what they do, they have a great reputation and you know, people usually complain about price when they're pissed off about something else. And so if you do everything else.
Jimmy Purdy [00:21:39]:
Really good, usually has nothing to do with the shop, usually something personal at home.
Chris Cotton [00:21:43]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It could be something at home, but it's almost, you know, the way you made them feel like if you didn't get their car back to them when it was promised or, you know, I don't care if you use, I don't care if you gave the parts away if you told somebody that the bill was going to be $247 and when they came up, it was like $447, and they weren't prepared for that, they're probably going to be pissed off about it. Whether you, you know, whether you didn't do the estimate right or, you know, broke a customer. Broke apart on a customer's car and then tried to charge them for it or whatever. Like, you know, usually people, they instantly.
Jimmy Purdy [00:22:21]:
So soon you're ripping them off.
Chris Cotton [00:22:23]:
Exactly. And there's so much stuff out there now. Gosh, like, I'm not. I'm going to give this, like, 2 seconds, but I want to talk about it anymore. The stupid tire show on Netflix is pretty good. It is not good. Like, that is like, like, you're going to have half the people that want.
Jimmy Purdy [00:22:40]:
Car wash was always my idea. I wanted to do a car bikini.
Chris Cotton [00:22:43]:
Car wash. Half the people that watch that on Netflix are going to think that that's really how shops are ran. And I'm going to tell you, maybe some shops in the country are, because there are some sketchy places out there, but 95% of the shops in America are not ran that way, and that's not how they are. And I just. The very. Somebody was like, oh, it's pretty cool. You got to watch. I'm like, no, no, no, no.
Chris Cotton [00:23:07]:
I will never watch, and I will never give that another minute of my time.
Jimmy Purdy [00:23:11]:
Yeah, it was a little over the top, but I mean, I mean, to your point where, like. And I hope. I hope you're right. I hope, like, most, the majority of shops are not like that. I mean, I worked in shops that were almost exactly like that, except we didn't sell tires. That would be the only difference. It's like, so I've been there, and I know, and it's like, and that's why the importance of, like, spreading awareness and, like, make people understand, like, effective communication. I think that's the most important thing.
Jimmy Purdy [00:23:39]:
Pricing correctly, knowing what you're supposed to be pricing and why and where that money's going. Not that you're just gonna go buy a condo or a yacht or something, right? Like, no, this is just, this is just like, the bare minimum, the COVID costs, and. And then you start realizing, like, wow, I've upped my prices a lot, and I'm. Now I'm able to actually take a paycheck, right. I think. I think in your mind, like, everyone gets wrapped up with raising their labor rates right there. There's. There's the coaching stigma right there.
Jimmy Purdy [00:24:09]:
I don't want to get a coach. All they're going to do is tell me to raise my rates, and then I'm gonna lose all my customers. And it's like, until you realize that $10 an hour bump in your labor rate, which is pretty significant for your bottom line, is only adding $30 to $40 on most people's repair orders.
Chris Cotton [00:24:26]:
Right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:24:26]:
And I don't. I don't know why. For me, it was really hard for me to compute that and understand that I'm just like, $10 an hour. It's like, do you understand what you like? You give everyone a raise, like, right.
Chris Cotton [00:24:37]:
Well, and we have, and we do, and that's the point. Um, but I will tell you, and. And I've repeated this several times, and. And several other people have asked me about this, like, oh, all you coaches want to do is. Is raise the labor, fix the parts, margin. Yeah. Because that's all the stuff that screwed up. That's the easy stuff to get.
Chris Cotton [00:24:56]:
And the stuff that's. That's the stuff that's going to keep you in business long enough for us to do the rest of the stuff that needs to be done. Um, 90% of the shops that reach out to me are under the labor rate, where they should be. Like, 10% are good or maybe even a little high, but 90% of them are. And we're doing the math on it. We're taking our actual costs from the technicians. We're adding our taxes and our tax and benefit load to it, and then we're doing the multiplier for it. And I'm like, you're too low, so everybody can complain about the coaches and adding that.
Chris Cotton [00:25:32]:
And there was an article a couple of years ago where a big guy in the industry put that out there, and I started to do a podcast rebuttal to it, but then I recorded it and watched it back, and I was a little hot, so I was like, yeah, I'm going to delete this and put it in the bin. And I wrote a blog piece to go with it. But, I mean, if 90% of the shops in America are undercharging on their labor, that's one of the things that has to be fixed. Like, and. And it's the easiest thing to fix. Like, I had a shop owner several years ago. He was. I want to say he was in the mid sixties.
Chris Cotton [00:26:09]:
This was, like, maybe three years ago, mid sixties on his labor rate. He's like, Chris, I'm. It was one of the guys, Chris, I'm going to go out of business. Um, I've got, like, a month maybe, to fix this. And he was also one of the ones that was barely breaking even on the labor rate. And I was like, look, we did the math. In order for you to make money, in order for you to just survive at this point, we need to get to, like, 118 and some change on the labor rate. And he's like, I'll never do that.
Chris Cotton [00:26:36]:
I'll go out of business. I'm like, you just told me you're going to go out of business anyway. So at this point, you have nothing to lose. So we went from the mid sixties to, like, 119. Nobody noticed. Nobody said a word. And it finally got. I mean, as far as I know, the guy's still in business today.
Chris Cotton [00:26:53]:
But it righted the ship enough that a year later, we were actually working on employee handbooks and Aflac for employees and some of the good fun stuff that you can give to your people, but you can't do any of that without charging properly. I had a lot of clients that went to STX. They closed for a week or sent half their shop this time. And then they're going to send the other half of their shop to vision in March to get the training they need to make sure that we can do what we do. And to jump backwards to the tires thing. We spent 30 years. I've been in the industry over 30 years. I started in 1992 writing tickets.
Chris Cotton [00:27:42]:
So 32 years we've been trying to get rid of that stigma in the industry. And I think we were finally making headway. And now we'll see how many steps backwards this takes.
Jimmy Purdy [00:27:52]:
Just a Netflix show. No one pays attention anyway.
Chris Cotton [00:27:55]:
Gosh, I don't. I know. Is there. I don't know if there's a way to figure out how many people have watched that on Netflix. There's got to be a way to see how many people have watched it.
Jimmy Purdy [00:28:04]:
But I think for me, for where our shops at, anyone that watches that, I think it. When they come into our facility, they realize the difference. And it's not that I think that helps, you know, if anything, I don't think. I mean, everyone's got to get their car fixed, so it's not like they're like, I'm not gonna go to shops anymore, if that's what it's gonna be like. I'm never going to a shop again. Like, oh, well, good luck, cuz. Uh, you. Your shit's gonna break.
Jimmy Purdy [00:28:32]:
Like, you gotta. Well, gotta get it. So when they walk into an actual facility, that's not that they're like, oh. And then they see the sticker shock price and they're like, well, I get it. Like, I could either pay that to come here or I could go look for the economy shop that's going to be that tire shop. So I think it's, I don't know, maybe for the industry. Like you said, as a whole, it's not a great thing, but it's great for the shops that are elevating the industry.
Chris Cotton [00:28:55]:
Yeah, but, you know, in that same vein, we haven't talked about it. Like, there's a ton of misinformation. Like, like, I don't go, I don't go through a day where there's not somebody and, you know, they're just doing it for clicks. It's clickbait. Right? Like, somebody's like, oh, I went to the d, I went to a repair shop and the guy said he couldn't fix my car because he didn't have the right scan tools. And then you have, you have all the people on there. It's like, oh my God, I can't believe this person didn't have the right scan tool for that. And then you have the shop owner get on there and it's like, well, you know, I wanted to get it, but, um, I, I'm not able to bootleg it from, from Chrysler or GM or anybody anymore.
Chris Cotton [00:29:33]:
So I just stopped paying for it. And then now I don't have it or because I can't get it for $10. You know, why would I ever pay $300 a month for it? Whatever. I don't know. And then you've got these seemingly made up videos of, typically they're young women, not bad looking, doing some sort of a video where the dealership did me wrong or this person did me wrong or this repair shop did me wrong. Now, I'm not saying some of that's out there, but mostly it's for clicks, right? Like people are doing that to get clicks and the views and it's controversial. So again, you know, we're not only fighting the tie, it's just, excuse me. It's just misinformation, I guess so.
Jimmy Purdy [00:30:15]:
Yeah. And that's, that is the other bad side about the social media and like, believing everything that's, that's, that's handed to you. And I have that problem with, with, with technicians in the shop today. They, you know, like look something up on, online, on YouTube or on a forum and they take it verbatim, right. And it's like, this is just supposed to be information gathering. You're supposed to look at, like, three or four different resources and come up with your own conclusion. And I think that's the problem with this clickbait of the misinformation, is, is they're taking this information and they're just running with it. Right? Like, you put.
Jimmy Purdy [00:30:47]:
I'm sure you have information out there. I've done the same thing watching other coaching companies, free information. And I just take that and I implement that directly into my shop.
Chris Cotton [00:30:56]:
Right, right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:30:56]:
Or what about the. What about the. Well, I called around and checked labor rates around me, and I upped my labor rates because I was the lowest in the area. Like, what, what kind of, like, where did you get that from?
Chris Cotton [00:31:08]:
That's the Oreo method. Right? Like, I'm gonna, like, I'm gonna call ten shops. I'm gonna average them all together. I don't want to be the cheapest, I don't want to be highest, but I'm gonna be at the one in between. And again, if you're out there listening, and that's how you do it, there's actual formulas for this to tell you what your labor rate should be. You don't have to do the Oreo method. And then the other thing is, like, people into my town used to call me when we had our shop and we had caller id so we knew who it was, and then they'd ask what our labor rate was. Do you think I ever told them the truth? No, I mean, like, seriously, I have the same conversation.
Jimmy Purdy [00:31:43]:
Yeah. And, and I mean, it's a small town, so when they call, I can recognize their voice, and I'm. And I tell them, what do you want to know for? And it's like, well, I'm thinking about up in my labor rate this year. I just want to know where you're at. And it's like. And I just explained to him, look, you, you. And here's what you do to get that, that number. Oh, well, where were you? And it's like, you're missing the point.
Jimmy Purdy [00:32:02]:
I'm trying to give you this information that's extremely valuable, that cost me a lot of money to figure out. And you just want to, you know, throw a number out there, and it's like. And then I have a variable labor rate, so I don't have. And that's what I saw. I don't have a standard labor rate. It's all. It just depends on what comes in and where. Where we need to be to make that, that.
Jimmy Purdy [00:32:20]:
My, my labor gp. Right. And it really even can come down to which technician I'm giving the job to. And I think I get. I get a lot of pushback on that, too. It's like. You mean you change how much you charge the job depending on which technician? It's like, yes, because they're not all as efficient as the other one.
Chris Cotton [00:32:37]:
Right. And it can be.
Jimmy Purdy [00:32:38]:
I don't know if that's right or wrong, but it works for us.
Chris Cotton [00:32:41]:
I think it's interesting that's also for different skill levels. Like, if you have somebody that's super great at steering and suspension and. And brake repair, and that person can do a ten hour job in like 7 hours, which even you in California, if I remember correctly, you're in Paso Robles. Yep. Or Paso Robles is what I like to say. But when you. When I got out there, that's how I, that's how I wanted to say it, being a Texan, but I got there and all the gringos were like, no, it's paso Robles and Robles.
Jimmy Purdy [00:33:13]:
Yeah, with a Robles.
Chris Cotton [00:33:14]:
And then it's, um. I always want to say Avia beach, but it was. No, it's Avila beach. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, so that, that's, that's beside the point. Um, but, you know, if you have technicians that are quick and everything, like in California, you got to pay by the hour. You got to pay your technicians by the hour. So it makes sense for you to do things differently there than what somebody does in Texas and everywhere else.
Chris Cotton [00:33:39]:
The other thing is, is like, um, if we could get everybody in the, in, in Paso, to be honest, what are. How many shops do you have there? Independent shops?
Jimmy Purdy [00:33:52]:
Oh, I would say in the fifth. Right. Right around 15.
Chris Cotton [00:33:55]:
Okay.
Jimmy Purdy [00:33:56]:
I can think of it right off the top of my head.
Chris Cotton [00:33:58]:
So if we could get all 15 of those shops, to be honest, all of their business structures are completely different. There's not two of you there that have the same rent, that. That have the same overhead, that have the same technician costs. Like, you're all different because you're going to have somebody that's paying above board, then you're going to have somebody down the street that's paying cash under the table or whatever, because that's just the way it is, typically everywhere. Even worse than California for some reason. But anyway, none of those shops have the same basis for being a business. So why would you let another shop determine your labor rate? Makes no sense whatsoever.
Jimmy Purdy [00:34:42]:
Yes, it makes. It makes less sense when you break it down like that, too.
Chris Cotton [00:34:45]:
Yeah. And so the, and here's the other thing. We're talking about misinformation and then shop owners calling other shop owners trying to set their labor rate. Like, I love the Facebook groups.
Jimmy Purdy [00:34:58]:
But.
Chris Cotton [00:34:58]:
About half those people in those Facebook groups shouldn't be telling anybody how to run a business.
Jimmy Purdy [00:35:03]:
Like, point to.
Chris Cotton [00:35:04]:
Like, every time I get in there, I'll. And I'm not allowed in most of those Facebook groups. I'm in a couple groups. But when I'm in a group like that, I'm doing it as Chris Cotton, former MSO, not as a coach. And so I don't ever mention where I'm at, what I do, anything else like that. Now, if you click on my link and go to my profile, you figure it out. But the couple of ones that I've been in, I just read the stuff, and I'm like, no, absolutely not. Like, there's, in 100 years, I would never tell anybody to do that.
Chris Cotton [00:35:38]:
So if you're in those groups, great. But I think you'll probably know, hopefully, the people to listen to the people, not to listen to stuff like that.
Jimmy Purdy [00:35:47]:
So information gathering, right? And that just goes back point. Like, listen, you know, hear it, understand it, and then implement it with other forms, but don't just, like, copy, cut, paste. And I think, and I think we're kind of, we're wired that way, for one, as technicians, like, as, you know, you want to find a solution to the problem, right? It's got to be. It has to be linear. It's got a check engine light, there's a code, and there's got to be a part that's broken. You replace the part, and then the code goes away. It's very linear process, right? And it's like, I feel like we're wired that way and moving into, like, a shop owner position, for me, that's really difficult to rewire my brain and then, like, unwire that and go fix the car, then come back into the office and then, like, rewire back the other way because it's not linear that way.
Chris Cotton [00:36:33]:
When you.
Jimmy Purdy [00:36:33]:
You look at, like, problems in the business and you can't just like, what, why are my GP, you know, why is my parts low? And you look, first thing, oh, I'll just up, up it to this, and I'll just make sure all my parts now have this markup on it, right? And it's like, that doesn't work, right. You have to, like, build a system for that problem, and you can't just, like, repair that issue. It's very interesting and frustrating all at the same time.
Chris Cotton [00:37:00]:
Well, most shop owners don't have enough. Number one, they don't. They wouldn't know what to do with the information if they had it. Number two, that's fair. They're not gathering any information at all. And one thing that I've always said that I learned from my coach was, if you track it and measure it, you can fix it. And I still run across shops that are doing tickets on pen and paper or using quickbooks. Like, I would almost prefer somebody use pen and paper over quickbooks.
Chris Cotton [00:37:32]:
And either that, or they're doing. There are some great shop management systems out there. They have that, but they don't have an income statement. And you can't run your business off of one or the other. You have to have both. There are things that you can glean short term from the shop management system, but there are things that you can glean long term. And by long term, I mean within a month or 45 days, if somebody. If you're out there waiting more than two weeks, in my estimation, for your income statement from your bookkeeper account, and that's way too long.
Chris Cotton [00:38:04]:
But, you know, I don't know how many people have been like, hey, I use so and so, and our parts margins, like, 54%. And then I do the numbers off the income statement. I'm like, eh, you're closer to, like, 29 or 30%. And they're like, well, how can that be? And then I go into all the different reasons, like, okay, you know, somebody could be stealing. You know, core's not getting returned. There's. There's ten different things to look at once you're. Once those don't match up.
Chris Cotton [00:38:30]:
The other thing is, shop management systems in your state, especially, are terrible about recording the labor margins correctly, because if you're in California and you're paying somebody hourly for 40 hours a week, and you have them down at $20, just to make the math correct or make it easy for me. But that person only bills out 20 hours. Well, then it only records that technician for 20 hours cost in the shop management system, because they've all, they've all. As far as I know, there's not one shop management system that's. That's doing this correctly, even though I've complained to multiples of them and I've asked them to fix it because I had a shop actually down the road from you in u slow, our labor margin was all messed up, and we couldn't figure out why. And that's why is because he was paying the technicians with overtime, like 45, 50 hours a week, and they were billing out 20, 30 hours a week. And so his labor costs were actually double what the shop management system said. Interesting.
Chris Cotton [00:39:41]:
By the time you added the tax and benefit load and everything else in there.
Jimmy Purdy [00:39:44]:
Yeah. And I think that's why it's important to have multiple facets of, like, tracking that. Right. So, like. Right. We have a composite that we put together. You know, we have. We use, you know, what's.
Jimmy Purdy [00:39:56]:
Quickbooks. Right. That goes in there. We do the p and L, but every month, that's what we do. We put the composites in. We look at what the shop management system put out, and for some reason, they call it proficiency in our management program instead of, you know, proficiency or productivity or whatever you want to call it.
Chris Cotton [00:40:15]:
Which one do you use?
Jimmy Purdy [00:40:17]:
We're with Shopware.
Chris Cotton [00:40:18]:
Okay.
Jimmy Purdy [00:40:19]:
So, yeah, using. Yeah, different. Different names for that stuff, too. Really throws everything off. But I think back. Back to your point on, like, parts markup that I think. So I've gotten this multiple times. Wherever they tell me that they're running a 50 or 60% parts GP.
Jimmy Purdy [00:40:39]:
Right. And it ends up actually just. That's what their. Their markup is. And, yeah, I think a lot of guys get really confused of, like, what they say. They're actually at, like, a 20 or 25%. And I've had a couple, you know, they get into. They slowly turn into arguments.
Jimmy Purdy [00:40:55]:
No, no, no, you have. That's different. Do you have. Do you have a way of explaining that to get people to truly understand the difference between what your markup is and what your margin is?
Chris Cotton [00:41:06]:
Um, so. So, one thing. I. I wrote a blog article about this, so it's out there. If you look, you should be able to find it. Um, and you didn't ask me this beforehand, so I don't have. I didn't. I.
Chris Cotton [00:41:18]:
It would have been easier for me to sketch it out beforehand and be like, hey, so, so if. If you take something for $50 and sell it for 100, you have a 100% markup because you took 50 and marked it up 50. So 50 50 of 50 is 100%, but if you do the math, you only have a 50% margin, because the math to figure out margin is the cost divided by the sale. And so if you take 50 and divide it by 100, that's 0.50. So that's 50%. So it's 100% markup, but it's 50% margin.
Jimmy Purdy [00:42:03]:
And that's where. And though 50% margin is where we want to be correct, not on the low side.
Chris Cotton [00:42:09]:
Yeah, yeah. I just did that for math because you, like, threw me under the bus there and I had to crawl. Crawl out.
Jimmy Purdy [00:42:15]:
That was pretty good.
Chris Cotton [00:42:16]:
Yeah. No, well, I've explained it enough that it should be all right, so.
Jimmy Purdy [00:42:21]:
No, and I get it. It's. It's the, you have to be at 100% on pretty much everything now. That's really hard when you get to, like, thousand or $1500 parts, you know.
Chris Cotton [00:42:32]:
That you're reselling if you're using the markup. Yes.
Jimmy Purdy [00:42:35]:
Yeah. So, I mean, then having that tiered style parts markup or matrix is the way to go. But I just feel like there's a lot of confusion when it comes to parts. And then, I mean, I've been at shops, too, where they just get a part and they're like, put $20 on that. Put, like, put $30 on that. Like, with absolutely no math or anything behind it at all. And it's like. Because they just don't understand it.
Jimmy Purdy [00:42:59]:
And math is like, oh, I don't know what to do. But it's. It's really simple. If you just understand, you're, you're, you're aiming for 100% markup, right? I mean, that's truly what we're looking for, right?
Chris Cotton [00:43:11]:
Yeah. If you put in those terms. Yeah. In order to get the 50% margin, you'd want 100% markup. Yeah. But then I'd even have to do. Yeah, I think you're. I think you're correct.
Chris Cotton [00:43:24]:
I might have to smoke the calculator a little bit to figure that out, but, yeah, that's, that sounds.
Jimmy Purdy [00:43:29]:
Break it down to, like, layman's terms. So, like, yeah, you know, the people listening and, like, that's all you need to worry about. You need to worry about making more, not less.
Chris Cotton [00:43:38]:
Well, what's even worse than that is I, you know, I've had a shop that was in trouble, and the owner never left his chair. And somebody come and be like, hey, I need, like, a timing belt, water pump, whatever. And he's like, oh, yeah, we did one of those four or five years ago. It's like $580 and doesn't have a vin number. Never looked it up, doesn't know what his cost is. And then that customer comes in and it's like, oh, crap. My cost on those parts for all that was dollar 580, let alone the labor tax, shop supplies, everything. And.
Chris Cotton [00:44:11]:
And then they really get into trouble. Um. Cause then do you go back to your customer and be like, hey, I told you 580 but it's really $1600 or out of honor, does the shop owner, whoever, eat it and, and go from there?
Jimmy Purdy [00:44:24]:
So, man, you just puts a feeling of like that pit right in the, in the bottom of my stomach because it's like I've done that so many, especially with transmissions reboot. Like, you get so used to, like the years going by. And it's, uh, it's $3,500, it's 4000 or what. And then you do the number and it's a $6,000 job and it's. Right, I can't do that. And then the vehicle's here and it's like, oh, man, I got to make this phone call right now. And it's so, it's so hard and the whole. What's the calling for an estimate on the phone? It puts, I think, new shop owners, especially in a really, really difficult position.
Jimmy Purdy [00:45:02]:
It's like the deer in the headlights, right? Like they want to give a number because they want to feel like they're doing the right thing.
Chris Cotton [00:45:07]:
Right? Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:45:09]:
But it always bites them in the ass every time.
Chris Cotton [00:45:11]:
It, it never works out. And one of the things that we used to do is like, hey, I'm sorry, can't give you an estimate over the phone. If you want to bring it in, we'll take it a look at it. That way I can give you an accurate to the penny estimate. And it's fair for you, it's fair for me. And if you're not willing to do that, then that's fine. We're just not the right shop for you. Um, but it, I mean, it's hard to, it's hard to train that out of people when, when, you know, the first thing is like, okay, our job answering the phone is to bring people in and how do we get them in? But you can't just tell them, you just can't tell them what they hear or what they want to hear, I should say.
Jimmy Purdy [00:45:46]:
Yeah. And then, and then like the, oh, so timing bell, it'll be between, say, 800 and 1200. Well, what do people hear?
Chris Cotton [00:45:54]:
800 every time.
Jimmy Purdy [00:45:56]:
And it's like, it never fails that you can listen, even listen to the, even listen to the phone call after that. Like, I didn't tell them 600. I told them 800 to 1200.
Chris Cotton [00:46:05]:
Right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:46:06]:
By the time they got in their car and drove to the shop, all of a sudden the $200 came off the minimum of what you told them for some reason. It's like every time I just, well, and as I get it though, it's like, hard when you're starting out, as.
Chris Cotton [00:46:17]:
Soon as those customers leave through that door, it's like they have a big magic eraser. And the minute they step out that door, everything that you told them, everything you talked about, has been completely erased out of their brain. And nothing. There's nothing there anymore. Um, and so, like, what you just said about the eight or the 1200, it's the same thing with labor rates. Like, I tell people all the time, if, um. If, if I told you I were going to sell you a diamond ring for your wife at $810 or $899, where should I rather be? Like, the customer heard the 800, but after that, they didn't really hear anything else. So if you're.
Chris Cotton [00:46:52]:
If you're going to be. If you're going to be 122 on a labor rate, you might as well be at 129, because the rest of that didn't matter. All the person heard was the one and the two. So.
Jimmy Purdy [00:47:05]:
Yeah, I could see that psychologically.
Chris Cotton [00:47:07]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:47:07]:
And I've seen that from other coaching companies where they say, make the number really odd. So that's very difficult for someone to do the math in their head. I don't know, like, if that is a tactic or if that really works. But, I mean, you shouldn't be selling jobs that way anyway. You shouldn't be like, oh, my, 137 99, and it's a four and a four and a quarter hour job. Like, why would you say that?
Chris Cotton [00:47:30]:
If you think about most of the people that coaching companies are talking to, that's exactly who we're talking to. People that have part numbers on tickets, people that have, like, oh, it's 10 hours at x dollars an hour. The psychology actually goes deeper than that. Like, I think that's the simple way to explain it. But what the studies have found is if you have, what I tell people is like, price it at whatever, and then what, what, what's your, what's your lucky number, Jimmy?
Jimmy Purdy [00:47:57]:
Lucky number? Yeah, let's call it twelve.
Chris Cotton [00:48:00]:
Okay, so if you wanted to be like 160 something, I'd be like, okay, make it 160. 912. Now I just like lucky numbers. Cause, you know, why not have lucky number on every ticket? You can't go wrong. The. The psychology goes back further than that. What they found is the marketing studies that they found is if you had some change hanging on the end, it made it look like you put more effort into developing your pricing strategy and people felt more comfortable buying from you rather than somebody that said, oh, they must have rounded up a bunch because it's dollar 130 an hour.
Jimmy Purdy [00:48:40]:
I see.
Chris Cotton [00:48:41]:
So psychologically, if you gave somebody 120, 912 or 130, the, the trust was higher on the person that said 120, 912 than 130. And so that's, that's the deep, that's the deeper side of that same thing.
Jimmy Purdy [00:48:59]:
But the psychology is so tough because you could look at it, you, I mean, there's so many, like they say so many ways to skin a cat, right? And you can look at it like so many different ways. And it's like, yeah, yeah. So different way. It's because you could say, like, well, well, the 130. And they're giving me all the transparency. So they're showing me the parts numbers, they're showing me how many hours they're going to work on it and they're showing me the hourly rate. All these guys, I really trust these guys because they're really showing me everything on that ticket and allowing me as the consumer to analyze and overanalyze everything on this ticket. Right.
Chris Cotton [00:49:33]:
I think, I think if you, I think if you polled people, though, and asked them, would you rather have pictures and videos from a great DVI or would you have, would you rather have a little bit more detail on the invoice that nobody ever reads anyway? Like, like, you know, people look at, people look at the estimate and then they go in and flip you a card. They don't ever look at the finished invoice. Typically. I think, I think I could be completely wrong. I think most people would say I'd rather have better pictures, videos and stuff on the estimate or the DVI versus a little bit better invoice.
Jimmy Purdy [00:50:09]:
But again, I'm, but again, I'm going back to marketing towards right people in our group. And it's like if I don't, if I walk into an auto shop, I want to see part numbers, I want to see labor times, I want to see labor rate. Right. I mean, not like really technically, but you see what I'm saying? Like, in my head, if my daughter goes somewhere, that's the things I want to see so I can analyze it. But right again, I'm marketing to the wrong client.
Chris Cotton [00:50:33]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:50:33]:
And you're right where it's like, no, no, no. You just put the price at the bottom.
Chris Cotton [00:50:38]:
Right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:50:38]:
And that's it. No one looks at that stuff anyway.
Chris Cotton [00:50:40]:
Yeah. Nobody.
Jimmy Purdy [00:50:42]:
Well, nobody that takes your car into a shop religiously is going to look at that anyway. They just want to know that you're walking in, they're going to smile, you're going to communicate with them, you're going to fix the problem, and then you're going to give them the car back in better condition than it was.
Chris Cotton [00:50:54]:
There's two things they want to know. How much is it going to cost and is the estimate accurate, and when am I getting my car back? If you can deliver those things, if you can over deliver on those two things. Shouldn't ever have any issues with anybody. Like, it's. It goes back to the oopod or the. The under promise, over deliver. You know, we. It's really hard with the systems we have now, but with the older systems that I had, we always overestimated by 10%.
Chris Cotton [00:51:25]:
And then if we were able to do it and under, then we gave that money back to the customer. And you don't ever get any questions when that customer comes to the counter. If you told them, hey, it was going to be a. They come in to pick it up and it's like, oh, um, it's, you know, we were able to save you a little bit of money. It came out to $923. They want to know how fast they can pay you and how fast they can get the hell out of there because they think you messed up and you're going to come back and charge them that extra 100 something bucks. Yeah, yeah, but we. That.
Chris Cotton [00:51:54]:
It's. It's a last. It's. It's a lost art, and most people don't do it anymore. And this is where people get into trouble when technicians break things and stuff like that. When we had our shop one, because we had that little bit of fudge factor left in there, if I called you with an estimate, I never called you again until it was time to pick up the car under any circumstances. My service advisors were not allowed to communicate to you again until the car was ready to go. Um, because I don't want anybody, you know, there are some coaching companies out there that I don't quite agree with.
Chris Cotton [00:52:29]:
Like, they'll do an estimate, get some of it approved, and then call back and get more of it. No, not in my shop. Like, I, like, I want to. I want to give the customer the full story, let them make a shoot, an informed decision, and then I want to fix their car, get it back to them. Hopefully less or not hopefully less than what I told them and then faster than what I told them, and then if we can do that, we can make everybody happy.
Jimmy Purdy [00:52:56]:
Yeah, it's a tough thing to pull off. Mean, for us, communication is key, and I think that was one thing that really was like a light bulb for us in the last year, you know, over the last six years of seven years, however long it's been now in the last year, is like, just communicating and just really, to go against your point, I guess, is over communicate to a point where we're, we're calling them at the end of the day and saying, hey, we don't have anything new for you. I just wanted to call and say hi and let you know we're still working on it and we'll be in touch tomorrow. So we do, like, no update updates and like, and I guess that's, I.
Chris Cotton [00:53:33]:
Don'T know if that's the, and that's fine. Like, if, like, like, I think that's great news. Like, I don't ever want to call three times with bad news. Like, oh, we got, we did this. And then you have more bad news. And then, oh, more bad news. And then, now what's your chance of actually getting somebody on the phone? Right? Like, most people, they have a text, they get email, you know, I don't know. I guess if people are waiting for a phone call, they might answer, but most of the time they're not to back.
Chris Cotton [00:54:02]:
Go back to your communication thing. I'm a firm believer probably 95% of the issues in the shop, like employee issues, things like that, and even, I guess even external customer, employee or customer issues, all come down to communication. And, and that's typically improper communication, miscommunication, lack of communication. But if your communication is really on point and you don't have any shrinking violets or anything else, if you're communicating, usually your shop runs really, really well, and if your shops running really, really poorly, it's probably because of communication. A communication issue.
Jimmy Purdy [00:54:41]:
Yeah. I just, I've just found that it's more important, which is really weird. It's more important to talk with the clients than it is to actually fix the cars, right? To an extent. I'm not saying you can't, like, not fix car like, you gotta fix car, but it's like, it's really, really strange coming to that realization of like, okay, well, as long as I'm out in the shop and I'm fixing cars, I'm doing the right thing. Meanwhile, the voicemail is getting loaded up with tons of people that are upset. Right, right. People just stopping by all the time, checking in. Like, I mean, how many times have you had customers just, hey, I was in the area and I wanted to stop and check in.
Jimmy Purdy [00:55:22]:
It's like, that's a red flag. Like, you're doing something wrong. You know, I think you have maybe a, like a small population of people that are retired and they genuinely are just like stopping by because they have literally nothing else to do.
Chris Cotton [00:55:35]:
Right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:55:36]:
Yeah, but if you, if that becomes a pattern, it's like you need to communicate more. You should be calling them well before they're ever stopping in. And I didn't, I just never realized that it was like, wow, people are just a pain in my ass. And it was like, oh, it's me. I'm too focused on fixing the cars instead of taking care of the client. It's really. What? That doesn't make any sense.
Chris Cotton [00:55:57]:
Yeah. You know, I'm sure there's probably studies out there. I'm sure I could probably figure this number out. But number one, you know, for the most shops, for the most part, most of our shops are productive and efficient and they're doing the best they can. Typically the issues are like parts. Parts is a whole nother podcast, by the way, but we won't get into that. Outside of that, the next biggest gains in our industry are going to come from the service advisor side as far as being productive and efficient, being able to handle the volume of communication that's needed. And like what you're talking about, if you're not doing like 10:00 and 03:00 follow up calls or even just texts, then those people are going to call you, hey, I haven't heard back.
Chris Cotton [00:56:46]:
I haven't heard back. And, you know, if you say you're going to contact somebody by 10:00 a.m. on the issue that they brought their car in for and you, if you haven't called them back at 1001 and that person calls, then you can't be all shocked that they're, that they had to reach out to you because you failed on your end.
Jimmy Purdy [00:57:02]:
Yeah, this goes back to trust. I mean, it's, yeah, it's those small little things to build trust and, and.
Chris Cotton [00:57:11]:
You know, our, our customer bases are changing rapidly and drastically. You know, as far as the communication things goes. I've got a couple of shops where they don't even answer the phone. Like, if you call them, they don't answer. Like, you don't even get an option to leave a voicemail. Basically call up and say, hey, you know, they go through a message and say, we're, we're helping our customers that are already here. We would love to have, we'd love to have more information about what you need. Please text this number or send us an email and somebody will get back to you as soon as possible.
Chris Cotton [00:57:45]:
And so there's no inbound phone calls for these shops and they're very successful shops, but they've trained their customers to be like, hey, if I want in or if I have something I have to text to get into them or shoot an email, I can see that.
Jimmy Purdy [00:57:59]:
I could see that. I mean, it's just the state of that we're in right now. I mean, obviously everyone's, everyone's looking for employees, right? And everyone, you know, technician shortage, which means a service advisor shortage, which means just, just an all around skilled labor shortage. That's what it is.
Chris Cotton [00:58:17]:
I don't even know what skilled like, you can take. You can take somebody that's nice and great with customers and make them a service advisor. Like, like, they don't have to have any technical abilities. I didn't when again, I told you what my background was. So imagine me writing service, not knowing what these things do. I had to learn that and then be able to have confidence in myself to, to sell it to people. And you can take anybody. I had a lot of great shops that picked up great service advisors during COVID because they were getting laid off from restaurants and hotels and places like that.
Chris Cotton [00:58:54]:
So, you know, as far as that goes, those people are out there and I really think I'm fine if you disagree with me. Technicians are hard to come by, but it's not impossible if you're a great shop. People want to work for you. Most of the people that I see that are really, really struggling with technicians, I ask them like, well, have you hired any technicians this year? And they're like, yeah. I'm like, well, how many? And they're like, 15. And I'm like, and none of the 15 still work there. What's wrong with you? Like, it's not a technician problem, it's a you problem.
Jimmy Purdy [00:59:27]:
Yeah, I'll agree with that.
Chris Cotton [00:59:30]:
I think.
Jimmy Purdy [00:59:31]:
I think I found myself to be guilty of that. And again, it goes back to just thinking everyone I hire is going to be me. Right? I just think, like, they should have this mindset. And on your service advisor hiring, you know, someone from out of the industry, I think that works about half the time because half the people don't have operating procedures in place or they want someone with technical ability to be able to sell a job based on technical stuff because they feel like that's the right thing to do.
Chris Cotton [01:00:01]:
Right.
Jimmy Purdy [01:00:02]:
They don't want a salesman. They don't want someone just selling them. They want someone to explain to these customers what is wrong with their car. Why? But you know what? It's your business, so if that's what you want, then.
Chris Cotton [01:00:13]:
Right?
Jimmy Purdy [01:00:13]:
Good luck finding that fit.
Chris Cotton [01:00:15]:
Yep.
Jimmy Purdy [01:00:16]:
I don't know.
Chris Cotton [01:00:17]:
Well, that's why you have to do a better job hiring and going through the steps and whatever, and just, you know, hey, this is. This is what I'm looking for. You have to know what you want first, and then you also have to know how much time you're going to put into that person. Like, I was the worst one back in the day. Like, how many times did I just hire somebody that I thought should make an excellent service advisor? They came in the first day, and I was like, hey, here's the phone script. There's the phone. Good luck. And then didn't talk to him for, like, the rest of the day.
Chris Cotton [01:00:43]:
Those people are going to fail every time. If you don't, like, spend, like, you know, I've got shop owners now that they'll have a technician for three days before they even let them into the shop to work on a vehicle. Like, they're going through. Like, they sit up with the service advisors and learn how the service advisor writes a ticket. They listen to the phone to see what kind of. What we're doing. They go through our inventory ordering process, and then they go to, like, a mentor that shows them how to. How to, you know, do a DVi if they've ever done one.
Chris Cotton [01:01:12]:
Used to. Soon as that box got in the bay, man, we threw him out. There was like, hey, here's your ticket. Get after it. You know, which is great. I think it's great. I think it's. The industry's great and it's shifting that direction, but it's kind of like the perception.
Chris Cotton [01:01:26]:
We have a long ways to go.
Jimmy Purdy [01:01:27]:
It's a different. It's a different generation than used to be. And not that it's good or bad or whatever, but it's like you said, you have to just mold what you want. And it goes back to, like, the beginning of this whole conversation is like, you have to be flexible. And I think when we start the shop, we want to raise or we want to grow this shop the way we. Or the way I learned it, right? Like, the way I learned to work on cars and the struggle I went through and how I was, like, kicked to the side or not given any big jobs, and I was only able to do this. And then finally I got my first transmission job. And it's like, that doesn't work anymore, but it's, like, in my head, that's when I started the shop, that's the culture I wanted to build.
Jimmy Purdy [01:02:12]:
And then I realized that's not going to work. So I have to change my, my, my primary aim. I got to change my goals and my mission statement and everything. And that's a hard thing to do because it's like you went all in on this thought and now that's not working and it just, you know, goes back to just that whole thing of, like, gotta ride the wave.
Chris Cotton [01:02:32]:
Well, interesting, you know, about. And if you go to my YouTube channel, you can find it and just read all the comments on there. I did, I started a survey about 18 months ago, and what it was was a survey for technicians that are leaving the industry, like, like not thinking about leaving, but have already decided I'm leaving the industry. Screw it. I've had enough. I'm out. And so I did a YouTube short. I did a YouTube video on it and I asked, I go, why are technicians leaving the industry? I want, I want to know.
Chris Cotton [01:03:08]:
And so we've had over a hundred responses so far. I don't know how many exactly, because I haven't looked in the last day or two. But what I found is that over half the technicians that are leaving the industry are leaving from the dealerships, having never worked in an independent repair shop and they've been ruined by the dealership. So I'm going to challenge all your listeners. If you're in an independent shop and you have a buddy that works in a dealership and they're even close to thinking about leaving, try to get them into a good independent repair shop and see if that doesn't change your attitude and see if we can't keep these people in the industry. The other thing that shocked me in this, I asked ten questions, and the very last question was, did anybody try to stop you from leaving the industry? And about half the people said no. And so that means somebody decided that they wanted to leave and nobody tried to pull them aside and say, hey, you know, I'm sorry, you're looking at leaving, why are you looking at leaving, you know, etcetera. And then one of my other questions was, have you ever worked in an independent auto repair shop before? And it was like, no.
Chris Cotton [01:04:27]:
Over half the people. So at least half the people leaving the industry are leaving from dealerships just because, you know. And if you go and look through all the comments, I, I originally wanted to reply, but I felt like if I started replying to some of those comments, I just get everybody stirred up. It's pretty interesting to see why people are leaving and how they feel like they've been treated and things like that. And I don't know you and I haven't talked about it, but I talk about it all the time in my podcast. I want everybody in one of my shops to be either making 100 grand a year or on the path to make 100 grand a year. And I feel like if you have a shop that can do that and take care of your customers, then everybody's happy and your only problem is what's next.
Jimmy Purdy [01:05:16]:
Yeah. Maintaining the margins and I think, I mean, and for us that's, that's a, you know, minimum. It's like as the bar gives, very. Especially being California. California, like it's.
Chris Cotton [01:05:25]:
Right.
Jimmy Purdy [01:05:26]:
I mean that should be the bar for everybody. I mean it's, it's, it's not an easy job.
Chris Cotton [01:05:31]:
Absolutely not.
Jimmy Purdy [01:05:32]:
Every day it's hard on your body, it's hard on your mind, it's hard on your psych. Psyche, it's hard on everything. It's. I mean we are everything. You know, we're plumbers, we're electricians, we're carpenters, we're, we're all the skills wrapped up into one and then our, our product goes down the highway at 80 miles an hour. You know, like when's the last time you saw a house going on the highway at 80 miles an hour? Maybe the mobiles are manufactured but. Right, regardless, like, yeah, what's toe in that, that house down the road? Right, I. Right, so yeah, it's, it's, it's deserved of more income and I think people need to get out of their own way and charge what they need to charge and stop feeling like they're ripping somebody off.
Chris Cotton [01:06:06]:
Well, and, and also I've never had as, and I just did a podcast about this. I've never had as many, many shops switch up their work hours or their work days as we are right now. Like, like we've, we've had more shops convert to a four day workweek in the last 18 months to two years than in the ten years I was coaching prior to that. And what we're finding out is it's great. And one of the things on that survey is my body's worn out. I feel like. And then other people are like, hey, I'm in my mid twenties, I'm in my early thirties and I feel like if I do this another ten or 15 years, I'm not going to be able to do anything because I'll just be worn out. You know, when you're talking about recruiting technicians.
Chris Cotton [01:06:52]:
If you can say, hey, we're only open Monday through Thursday. Now, you have to understand, you're still open technicians. Still there. 10 hours a day.
Jimmy Purdy [01:07:00]:
Yeah.
Chris Cotton [01:07:00]:
And still getting 40 hours for the week. But they're in the hot shop one less day. They're commuting one less day. They can go with their family one more day. Every single shop. Every single one. Our productivity is increased by going to. To a four day workweek.
Chris Cotton [01:07:18]:
Every single one. We have not had one not do it yet.
Jimmy Purdy [01:07:21]:
Wow, that's a, that's a pretty interesting statistic, considering that we've been. We are planning on doing it next year in January. We were going to do it this year. And it's just like, it's a tough transition in your mind when you've done it for 15 years. For me, working eight to five, you know, five days a week, I wouldn't wait.
Chris Cotton [01:07:41]:
There's no reason for you to wait, like, figure it out. Do it now. And then any bugs you'll have in it will be worked out before then, don't we? Yeah. Whatever. Whatever the reasoning behind it is, I would tell you, go ahead and do it now. I have had people that have failed at it because they've tried it for two weeks and is like, oh, that didn't work. We're going back to our normal hours for whatever reason.
Jimmy Purdy [01:08:03]:
Well, that's the thing. You got to commit to it.
Chris Cotton [01:08:05]:
Yeah, you got to commit.
Jimmy Purdy [01:08:06]:
Imagine two weeks would be like any.
Chris Cotton [01:08:08]:
Sort of statistic at all. It's not even, it's not even close. And like I said, I did a blog article about it and then a podcast about it. And, you know, there's different ways. Just like each shop is individually with what their expenses are, the makeup of every shop is completely different. Like, I had, I had two brothers that own shops in Albuquerque. They both, both of them did it, but one of them decided to be, okay, we're going to be open from Monday through Thursday, and the other brother is going to be open from Tuesday through Friday. And so they answer each other's phones on the.
Chris Cotton [01:08:41]:
On the days they're not there. So that case worked out really good. Had another huge diesel shop in California that it was big enough that we essentially split the staff. And the staff only worked four days, but we were still open six days a week, Monday through Saturday. And so half the staff worked Monday through Thursday and the other half worked. What's that? Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Wednesday through Saturday. And again, part of the reasons we fell into that and did that is because some of the guys were like, hey, you know, my spouse is a nurse and she's off during the week and works on the weekend. Can I, you know, is there a way for us to work that? And we found out that we had like three or four people on the staff that were like, that way, and then we just had a couple more that kind of rolled into it.
Chris Cotton [01:09:33]:
Like, yeah, that's fine, I'll do that. But so what we found is if they work four days a week, that gives them one day a week off to do all their personal errands and everything else so you don't lose downtime for that. And then the technicians are working 10 hours a day so they're more productive because they're in the mental space to get those things and get those jobs done and get them completed instead of breaking again. If there's anybody out there that listens to podcasts, I'm big on eliminating starts and stops for technicians and service advisors, whoever, like, the more. The more time you have to start and restart a job. It used to be the data on that was like, it used to take you twelve minutes to get back in the right mind space, but it takes you almost 20 minutes now. Like, if, like if somebody stops you on a, on a ten hour job and you have to go do something, it's going to take you almost 24 minutes from the time you do that and get back to disbelief. Exactly.
Chris Cotton [01:10:31]:
And so here's the thing. Like, if you're in a shop and you're trying to do a high volume or just be productive, and if you pull a technician off of a twelve hour timing belt water pump job that he can do in eight normally, like, he would be able to knock that out in a day or they. And if you pull that person off to do four oil services because you don't have a productivity apprentice there to do those, then you just lost over an hour's worth of production for that technician, even though he's billing timeout for others, you know, now it's going to take him 12 hours or more to do that job he could have normally done in eight because you're interrupting him.
Jimmy Purdy [01:11:08]:
Yeah, absolutely.
Chris Cotton [01:11:10]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [01:11:11]:
Not to mention the stuff that goes on then comes back off because, like, oh, I forgot.
Chris Cotton [01:11:15]:
Right. Yeah, just totally.
Jimmy Purdy [01:11:17]:
Yeah, totally lost the workflow. And so you got to keep on. Yeah, I can't stand that. Sometimes you can't avoid it, but at the same time it's like, yeah, productivity killer. And that's the thing about hard thing about going to 10 hours is like reamping the entire schedule and making sure that the cars are lined up, that you don't have a no show, because that's the biggest fear, is, like, we get the no shows, and it's like, that sucks. Or, like, having to order parts. It's like, okay, well, now they're here for 10 hours, and we're waiting on parts or whatever. I mean, there's always obstacles.
Jimmy Purdy [01:11:47]:
I don't think they're ever going to go away. So I think, to your point, you just got to start it sooner than later and make it happen.
Chris Cotton [01:11:52]:
Well, hope hopefully you have processes and procedures for all those things already in your five day shop. And then when you go, and then a lot of people like, oh, what are my customers going to think? Most of the customers think it's great. Most of them say, I wish I had a job where I could, where I only had to work for four days a week. And so it's. It's like, it's not an issue.
Jimmy Purdy [01:12:11]:
So, yeah, they're not gonna be inconvenienced. Oh, you're inconveniencing me. Like, no, I don't think anybody looks at it that way.
Chris Cotton [01:12:17]:
Well, and so here's the other thing. Like, like, the way to think about that is like, telling people what your labor rate is and telling, you know, people the part number. Like, if somebody calls on a Thursday and says, hey, you know, I'm having an issue, I'd like to get it in. Whatever. We can't just vomit and say, oh, well, we're not open on Fridays. First thing out of the mouth. What we, what we need to say is like, hey, you know, I can get you in next Monday if you want to drop it off first thing or whatever. We have a drop box.
Chris Cotton [01:12:48]:
I feel a lot of times we over share and, you know, we need to give people the information they need, but sometimes they don't need all the information.
Jimmy Purdy [01:12:56]:
Yeah. Because how many times you call and you're. And you're booked up Friday anyway? And it's like, well, yeah, and they have no problem waiting till Monday anyway.
Chris Cotton [01:13:02]:
Yep.
Jimmy Purdy [01:13:03]:
You just feel guilty because it's like you want to work. You want to work hard, you don't want to. People know you're taking a day off, and it's like. So you have that feeling of guilt, like, well, I should be there, but we decided to take the day off.
Chris Cotton [01:13:14]:
But, well, but then it's like education, right? So, like, if I were you and I were going to start this, I'd like a couple of weeks before I would maybe start a campaign on. On social media saying, hey, you know, we're going to have a change to our, change to our hours in order to accommodate better training schedules, more work life balance. We're going to be open these days. The hardest part about that is figuring out what to do with the phone or whatever on Fridays. Like, that's the most important because you just don't want people to call up and be looking for you and not be able to get something. So they need to be able to get somebody or email or text or something and figure that out. And you can roll that over to an answering service. You can answer yourself.
Chris Cotton [01:13:58]:
There's a hundred different ways to do that. But I would start out with, like, an awareness campaign, just telling people, hey, you know, we're going to give you. We're going to be able to give you better service, we're going to be able to stay and work on your vehicle longer on the days we're here and tell them all the benefits of it, and then tell them all the benefits for your employees. And then make sure you put that video on your recruiting page, on your website so that when other technicians are moving into your area, they know that you have a four day work week.
Jimmy Purdy [01:14:27]:
Yeah, it sounds like a win win. What's the, what's the sweet spot you found? Because you'd mentioned where we talked about real quick about, like, the two weeks and then quitting, what's the sweet spot you found? When other shops commit to that, where they finally said, oh, this is working out? Because, of course, the first two, three weeks is probably pretty rocky, right? Oh, I don't think I should keep doing this. I don't know. But when does it get to that point where they're like, this was awesome.
Chris Cotton [01:14:50]:
I. Usually within about a month, like, usually, by the way. Yeah, usually by the end of the month, everybody is like, holy cow. And a lot of it's because the owner's like, hey, you know what? I don't come in on the day we're closed, and I might answer a phone call or two from the house, but it gives me more time at home and more time to do those things. And once the owner experiences, the owner's like, there's no way in hell we're going back to the way we were. And that's. I mean, that's really it.
Jimmy Purdy [01:15:19]:
Like, I mean, the owners know they could just leave whenever they want, right?
Chris Cotton [01:15:23]:
Yeah, but owners. Yeah, right, that's. You say that, but it's it's so hard to get an owner to separate from the business because they're like, oh, well, what do my employees think of me if I'm not there? What, what if this, like, I just had, I just had this conversation with the shop owner last week. She likes to ride her bike, but she wants to, you know, sometimes she can't do it before work, she can't do it after work. I'm like, well, if you need to cut out for 2 hours in the middle of the day and go ride your bike, it puts you in a better mental state. Number one, it lets you work through those problems and issues, and it also makes sure that you don't choke anybody to death when you get back to work.
Jimmy Purdy [01:16:06]:
So if that's an important one.
Chris Cotton [01:16:09]:
Yeah. If you're an owner and you need to leave to take your kids to school or something else, then do that. You shouldn't feel guilty. You should never feel guilty as a shop owner for anything. Unless, like, if you're blatantly putting the screws to somebody, then you're probably not somebody that's going to have a conscience or feel guilty anyway. But you should never feel guilty for being a business owner.
Jimmy Purdy [01:16:35]:
I think that's the best point. That right there. Yeah. Most people don't realize that the ones that take advantage of people have no empathy.
Chris Cotton [01:16:42]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [01:16:42]:
Fact that you feel guilty about it already puts you above everybody else. And it's hard to, like, comprehend that. And I struggle with it. I mean, I. It took me four years just to, like, stop to eat lunch. I'd go out in my car and eat my sandwich real quick while no one was looking at me because it was like, I can't. I can't show them that I'm stopping for lunch. I have to make sure I'm here before them.
Jimmy Purdy [01:17:00]:
I'm here after them, and I don't stop for lunch. And it's like, just the weirdest, like, why am I doing this?
Chris Cotton [01:17:07]:
Well. Well, my wife Kimberly, when we. It was weird. So I was the manager of the shop that we had before we bought it, and after we bought it, she's like, you have any idea how many hours a week you're working? I'm like, ah, maybe 60. So she started making me clock in and out. And if I woke up in the middle of the night at 03:00 a.m. and couldn't sleep, I showered, shaved, and drove to the shop because I could get more done in the 3 hours before we opened than anything else I was working almost 90 hours a week and not even being a technician. And I will tell you, being an owner is mentally exhausting.
Chris Cotton [01:17:45]:
And it's funny on my on site checklist, like, when I go and do an on site, um, one of the things, one of the things on there is, does the owner have a napping couch? Because if you're the owner that's always there and you don't have a napping couch, um, I don't know how you're doing it. Like, you need to be able to shut down sometime during the day, uh, especially if you're there 1212 days a week or 12 hours a day, five days, six days a week, like, you're going to burn out. You're going to treat your wife and kids bad, or your husband and your kids bad, and you're not going to have a very well rounded life.
Jimmy Purdy [01:18:21]:
They say. What does it say? Call porn from an empty cup.
Chris Cotton [01:18:24]:
Yep. Exactly. Well, and then I say this all the time. Like, being a shop owner is like being on the airplane when the. The things kick down. You know, you have to put your oxygen mask on first before you help anybody else out. If. If the shop's not on good financial footing, if you're not taking care of your employees, then your shop is not built to last.
Chris Cotton [01:18:46]:
But you, as an owner, you have to put that oxygen mask on and then save everybody else.
Jimmy Purdy [01:18:53]:
Great point. Well, Chris, this has been awesome. I really appreciate you taking time and.
Chris Cotton [01:19:00]:
Thanks for having me.
Jimmy Purdy [01:19:01]:
Yeah. And if you don't know Chris Cotton and do a shout out to your podcast. And I. What? You.
Chris Cotton [01:19:08]:
Yeah, so I. Yeah, I have a. I have a weekly podcast that comes out every Sunday. We also put it on YouTube. It's called the Weekly Blitz with Chris Cotton. You can get it. Apple, Spotify, you can go. Also, just go to Autofix, auto shop coaching and on YouTube and get to our YouTube channel.
Chris Cotton [01:19:29]:
We're on Facebook, Autofix auto shop coaching. And then the website is auto shopcoaching.com dot.
Jimmy Purdy [01:19:35]:
And that's through the aftermarket radio network. Still.
Chris Cotton [01:19:38]:
Yeah, it's still through the aftermarket radio network. You can get to it through there as well. And two, and two, I'll give them a shout out. There are a bunch of great podcasts. We didn't really talk about this. I thought about it, but. Versus when I was a shop owner, when I was a shop owner, the only way you could get help was to either have a mentor in the industry or pay for coaching. There's millions of hours of auto shop coaching help for shop owners.
Chris Cotton [01:20:06]:
Now that never existed before. And in the 30 seconds I started saying that there's even more. And 5 hours from now there's going to be even more content and everything on how to be a great shop owner. Also, I would love to have anybody as a client or we would, um, we're, we're not a great fix for everybody, but we'll, you know, um, I would love to talk to you and see how we can help you. And the important thing is that you get help. Um, almost call it going to night school. Right? Like shop owners need to go to train and go to night school, but your night school is either being involved in a peer group of 20 group or peer group 20 group of the same thing or coaching. Like that's, that's the way you get better.
Chris Cotton [01:20:53]:
That's the way you advance your shop. Sorry, that was way longer clothes than I wanted to do.
Jimmy Purdy [01:20:56]:
That's all right. How tip. How's that, how's that typically work? They call you do like a 30 minutes session kind of. Yeah, I'll do like a free analysis or how.
Chris Cotton [01:21:04]:
Yeah, absolutely. You can go in and go to the website, schedule a call, set up an appointment with me. It'll be, I'll be the one that actually does it. Has a questionnaire. Excuse me? Has a questionnaire. Goodness gracious, it has a questionnaire. In that questionnaire. It asks several questions.
Chris Cotton [01:21:28]:
Also you can send me a copy of your income statement, your business summary. So if you do it in plenty of time, I'll have time to look over that and I'll spend 30 minutes on the phone with anybody. That's awesome. And what I find a lot of times is some shops aren't big enough to really engage a coach. Let a coach yet. So I'll be like, hey, do these ten things and then reach back out to me and let's see where you're at. And so I have a lot of people that talked to me a year ago that weren't big enough, but now they are and they reach back out. So the big thing is I don't ever want a shop owner to feel like they don't have a place to go or there's no help or whatever.
Chris Cotton [01:22:05]:
There are plenty of great coaching companies out there that will help you, but you got to ask, this goes back to begin, to the beginning. You can't be that stick in the mud that thinks you know it all and you're not willing to change because if you knew it all, things would be better already and you wouldn't be having those issues.
Jimmy Purdy [01:22:22]:
You gotta ask.
Chris Cotton [01:22:23]:
You gotta ask.
Jimmy Purdy [01:22:24]:
Gotta freaking ask for help, man.
Chris Cotton [01:22:26]:
Yep, for sure.
Jimmy Purdy [01:22:29]:
Appreciate your time. Chris, this has been.
Chris Cotton [01:22:30]:
Hey, thanks for having me on. I really appreciate it.