Old and newer techs leaving and hardly any new ones willing to replace them.

[Auto Doc's]

Jack of all trades about covers it.

I stopped doing free estimates and taking in random customers or "emergencies". Now I only rely on a network of known good customers referrals. Business has been steady without too much hustle and bustle.

Anyone who is referred to me already understands that my time is not free and all parts costs (over $50.00) will be paid up front before any work begins. if they cannot deal with that, they can go elsewhere.

Some are a little shocked and expect for me to pay for everything to fix their problem machines. That's not happening anymore.

It definitely reduced the number of abandon machines sitting that were already repaired along my money and credit accounts being tied up by slow/no payers.

 

[Tiger Small Engine]

Jack of all trades about covers it.

I stopped doing free estimates and taking in random customers or "emergencies". Now I only rely on a network of known good customers referrals. Business has been steady without too much hustle and bustle.

Anyone who is referred to me already understands that my time is not free and all parts costs (over $50.00) will be paid up front before any work begins. if they cannot deal with that, they can go elsewhere.

Some are a little shocked and expect for me to pay for everything to fix their problem machines. That's not happening anymore.

It definitely reduced the number of abandon machines sitting that were already repaired along my money and credit accounts being tied up by slow/no payers.

New potential customers that “have to get equipment fixed” immediately I can not and will not help. They can keep calling until a shop will jump through hoops for them. I have a minimum diagnostic charge so they at least have some skin in the game.
I only work on four brands of handheld equipment, so I don’t get stuck with loads of off brand equipment that won’t run often because of compression issues.
The longer you stay in business, the more selective you can be. Every week someone calls about a minor repair and implies that “it will only take 20 minutes” when I say I am a month out on repairs. So essentially they want me to bump them up over all the other customers to make $30 bucks. Not how I do business. Once your customer base is established the repeat business and referrals give you plenty of good business.

 

[StarTech]

I had some new customers just to test my abilities before becoming good customers over the years. Handhelds are usually done near cost as they tend to bring more profitable business. They are fairly easy to do here as that what I was limited to when my brother had the business in 2008-09 and I was using the funds to pay for the internet and office supplies. At first it took a long time to get the repairs done but now most are under an hour. I actually took a PU load of 2 cycles my brother refused to look at as he was just going junk out, repaired 3/4 of them and made a profit. Of course I wrote a lot in labor at the time as I chalk that to learning the repairs.

Now I don't do advertising as that usually brings in the deadbeat customers. You know those who wants something done for nothing types.

If customer wants a rush job here it costs them 1-1/2 times the normal shop rate. If they come by on Sundays, its 2x so most will wait for normal business hours.

Most customers don't really know what is involved in a repair. I had one that insisted it only took 30 minutes to remove and install a horizontal CC shaft drive engine. So I ask for him to prove it; I even offered to let him to use my tools. He declined of course and he is no longer a customer as I barred him from the shop.

And I just barred another customer for trying an old con job. I don't do work before approval and he just called wanting to know if I had the equipment ready after two weeks of him not approving the estimate. He assumed I was stupid enough to do the work without approval. The equipment was return just like it came in except it had UV dye in the oil.

Now I had to program my phone so it doesn't ring after hours just so I have my peace of mind. Leave a message or I don't call them back. I just demand my private time.

 

[Auto Doc's]

Hi StarTech,

Back when I was a JD service manager, I used to tell my more opinionated techs that I would gladly make them manager for a day if they wanted to see if they could do the job better than me. They knew that I was not joking and quickly backed off with all the gripping and complaining.

It's kind of funny, it seems like everyone wants to be "in charge" until they actually are actually put in that position.

Self-employed and being their "own boss" to many seem like some kind of ideal dream.

Being a self-employed one-man operation, it only takes a short time and a near empty bank account to figure out that "window shoppers", and the phone estimate type people will burn up all of your time if you let them. Mix in a few telemarketers and product vendors trying to make a sale and there goes a majority of the time that you could have actually been working on equipment for paying customers.

Equipment problems are simple compared to people problems. Eliminating distractions, time management along with good record keeping makes all the difference. The phase "Don't suffer Fools" comes to mind.

Most of the younger generations (past 40 years at least) have seldom been taught good management skills, work ethics or raised in or around a hard-working family.

 

[Tiger Small Engine]

I had some new customers just to test my abilities before becoming good customers over the years. Handhelds are usually done near cost as they tend to bring more profitable business. They are fairly easy to do here as that what I was limited to when my brother had the business in 2008-09 and I was using the funds to pay for the internet and office supplies. At first it took a long time to get the repairs done but now most are under an hour. I actually took a PU load of 2 cycles my brother refused to look at as he was just going junk out, repaired 3/4 of them and made a profit. Of course I wrote a lot in labor at the time as I chalk that to learning the repairs.

Now I don't do advertising as that usually brings in the deadbeat customers. You know those who wants something done for nothing types.

If customer wants a rush job here it costs them 1-1/2 times the normal shop rate. If they come by on Sundays, its 2x so most will wait for normal business hours.

Most customers don't really know what is involved in a repair. I had one that insisted it only took 30 minutes to remove and install a horizontal CC shaft drive engine. So I ask for him to prove it; I even offered to let him to use my tools. He declined of course and he is no longer a customer as I barred him from the shop.

And I just barred another customer for trying an old con job. I don't do work before approval and he just called wanting to know if I had the equipment ready after two weeks of him not approving the estimate. He assumed I was stupid enough to do the work without approval. The equipment was return just like it came in except it had UV dye in the oil.

Now I had to program my phone so it doesn't ring after hours just so I have my peace of mind. Leave a message or I don't call them back. I just demand my private time.

You can always make more money, but you can’t make more time. I work hard and steady 5 days a week. I push myself and strive for excellence in service, communication, turn around time, and value. I don’t need customers adding to my work load by wanting after hours special treatment or “rush jobs”, so I simply have basic business rules such as regular hours. If the customer cannot abide by them, I can’t help them. There is too much good business to be chasing bad customers.

 

[StarTech]

I do have regular hours and have insisted customers coming during those hours. Yes some got overly pushy and those are out of here. My time off duty is my time, not theirs; as I got my own place to take care of.

And I can be a real A-hole if I having a bad week, I try to be nice but some just want to push their luck.

 

[Hammermechanicman]

I have my business phone number through GoDaddy Smart Line. Rings to my phone starting at 8:00AM and rolls to voicemail at 8PM. I will accommodate folks dropping off or picking up till 8 since my shop is 100 yards from my house. Not sure why some folks think a broken mower is an emergency. 99.9% of my customers are great but you still get that one joker in the deck. I have found the people wanting an estimate over the phone really need to have a different shop than mine do the work. My reputation and work quality is more important than the dollar but i refuse to be taken advantage of.

 

[StarTech]

Those are usually the ones that wait until someone raises enough cane before they try to get things repaired. Otherwords they wait until they are in deep trouble.

 

[Auto Doc's]

So how do (or can) we flip this problem around against our current entitled society that is hell bent on having everything done with garbage cheap parts and think mower mechanics are just beggars with a hobby?

The few (new) equipment dealers that are in my area seem to think they can charge what the car dealers do for labor ($150.00-180.00hr) in their repair shops, but the technicians are still hovering at around minimum wage.

Training is mostly OJT in the small engine shops with a few OE product training video lessons thrown in so they can maintain their dealership license status to sell new products.

The general public is getting shafted, especially at the big box stores who sell "licensed products" but have to refer them to the dealer for warranty work. After the OE warranty runs out then the aftermarket warranty that the customer possibly purchased kicks in and the fun really begins.

The aftermarket warranty companies play lots of denial games and often want to pay for used or cheap aftermarket parts or deny the claims and dispute labor times according to some imaginary "repair time matrix" they've cooked up.

One of two things usually happen; the shop takes a loss, or the customer takes a loss and pays the difference. The warranty company wins in most situations because of their shady contract the customer purchased.

I once worked as a JD service manager, and I know the reality of the situation across several product lines that we dealt with. I finally walked away from the JD dealership in 2010 and have seen things get much worse working as an independent contractor in several of the competing dealer shops I get called into.

Equipment dealer shops are reluctant to call in outside help until it becomes a full-blown emergency with an irate customer and they just cannot figure out the problem(s).

Fortunately, I do not have to chase work very much and my (older) customers do not hesitate to have me resolve their small engine problems. If it is just not worth fixing due to costs, I give them the harsh reality then it's up to them to save it or let it go.