Print

Email

One of our primary contributing editors, John Sweigart, recently provided us with some thoughtful input. He said that shops “need to start fixing the business process that fixes cars.”

That struck a chord with me. Other contributing editors chimed in on this topic as well, and when you read over the collective diatribe, you find one resounding thought: that shops must find a way to become better businesses, fast!

Not earth-shattering news to you? Perhaps not, but well worth repeating until everybody accepts it and is inspired to do something about it. Because (and here’s where another piece of cliché advice fits) we, as an industry, are only as strong as our weakest link. Every struggling or failing shop (or business, for that matter) creates an opportunity for the industry to evolve. The industry, though, doesn’t necessarily have much (if any) control over what direction that evolution takes. And, while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it does leave the industry exposed to perhaps being unable to control its own destiny.

The weakest links either go out of business or are purchased. The industry can’t control their fate, nor can it control the destiny of new players in that market area or region. Thus, the industry is exposed to the dynamics of simple economics and the concept of “only the strong will survive.” John Sweigart, like me, cares a great deal about the viability and sustainability of our industry.

And so, it’s incumbent upon us to deliver some hard medicine from time to time. While John’s monthly article delves into the intricacies of effective and efficient shop process management, my job is to bring a broader perspective of the state of our industry to light. Whether I’m capable or not is certainly debatable. But what’s not debatable is the fact that the more of you that fail at running your businesses profitably, the more susceptible this industry becomes to the desires of entities who may not share the same interests or goals traditional shops have held for some 80 years or more. And no, don’t automatically assume I’m referring to insurance companies alone.

Yes, insurance companies may be guilty of not necessarily having your best interests in mind as they seek to impose their business model on your livelihoods. But make no mistake: if you fail, they fail. Insurance companies need the best of you to succeed, and economics and demographics suggest that the number representing the “best” of you is much greater than 25,000.

So, what’s the point of all this? Well, it’s to remind each and every one of you that, no matter where you’re located or how big or small your operation may be, you’re all interdependent upon one another’s success. For every shop that fails, your business is impacted in very subtle ways. Change happens, lessons are learned, processes are refined, ideas are shared, and you end up doing something different than the way you did it before. The evolution of this industry is taking place, right before your very eyes. Your job is to stay keenly aware of everything that’s happening. Stay open-minded to new processes, ideas or thoughts that may enable you to be better at what you do. A shop failure in Oregon does have an impact on the success or failure of a shop in Maine, and so on. Capacity must keep in step with demand, and vice versa. When this dynamic is unequal, it exposes the weakest links. When those links fail or are replaced, new rules and practices enter, and the evolution marches on.

Stay open to new ideas. Learn as much about new processes as possible, strive for maximum efficiency daily and assist your peers (even your direct competitors) as much as possible. Why? Because (time for one last cliché) it’s better to compete with the devil you know than the devil you don’t!