Jobbers and WDs tell me shop owners are not interested in business management courses. This is true based on the fact jobbers and WDs sold seminars in the past and called them business management seminars or courses. They, in fact, were not. They were sales courses or product information seminars. This industry does not need another sales course. The jobber and WD have failed their customers. The trust was and has been broken and that is not fixed overnight. They sold the shop owners sales courses and seminars focusing on sales techniques making the shop busier through increased activity and selling more parts, forcing shop owners to work harder and not smarter. Sales went up, but income did not. The credibility of these jobbers and WDs is gone in many areas of the country.

Many shop owners, as licensed technicians, are nervous about approaching the real issue of shop business management on their own. I’ve heard from them “I will not understand, as I wasn’t that good in school at math and English.” “I’m a tech, not a pencil pusher;” “I would embarrass myself;” “That’s why I have a bookkeeper because business management is nothing but numbers and paperwork that bean counters have to understand and prepare for the government.” These reasons are seldom spoken to their jobber or WD — instead, they say to their jobber or WD “It is too expensive;” “I don’t have time;” “I don’t need another course, I know what I’m doing;” “No one can show me something I don’t already know;” or “That stuff isn’t worth it anyway, it’s different here.” To all shop owners clinging to these “excuses,” wake up and do the math. You bought yourself a job and you know it, and you are covered in debt that has increased your stress to undesirable levels, which is affecting your family relationships. Do you want to do something about it or not? If not, then please stop your complaining and whining and accept your future consequences.

Understanding real shop business management is easier than you think; however, you must work with it because it has not been part of your daily activity in your shop throughout your career. If you are a shop owner and a licensed technician, you can grasp and understand proper business management! However, the real question is do you want to learn? If you don’t want to learn, then no one can help you and you should wind down your business and get out now while you can as the next three years are going to be challenging to say the least!

If you do want to learn, then plan the time now and enrol into a proper money-back guarantee business course that is independent shop specific. I’m confident, if the course is the right one that allows you to study your own numbers in depth, you truly will enjoy it.

You did not create the current industry issues. This is just reality today. This business has changed and if you are going to remain in it for the next 5 to 10 years, you must clearly understand the business management side of it learning it from a CEO perspective. You cannot ignore this any longer.

The independent sector of the automotive aftermarket industry is at critical crossroads in its development. Without a proper business focus now, the net income will not be produced to obtain the right equipment, to upgrade facilities, to find, retain and pay the best technicians and service advisors and to provide management with a life.

It is time to stop listening to the emotions that have misled us, or the previous generation who worked under different circumstances. It is time to slow down and learn to do the math of each individual business. Math does not lie. Professional business development and business acumen will not let you down.

Consider where you will be three years and five years from now. Be honest. Will your current business methods guarantee that you will be here in a healthy and financially prosperous manner? Prove the math right, or prove the math wrong, but take the time to take the right look at YOUR math.