COMING FULL CIRCLE: FROM MENTEE TO MENTOR

Next Article

‘Let Them Be Customers’

A shop owner shares his journey of becoming a coach in the industry

BY TESS OWINGS

Servando Orozco is the picture of success for an auto repair shop owner. He's amassed five locations in California with over 40 employees and earns close to $7 million per year in revenue. This didn’t happen overnight and the owner of Orozco’s Auto Service did not do it on his own. As a technician, he was sure of himself and confident he could fix any vehicle. Little did he know how different it would be opening his own location. Orozco struggled in the beginning as an owner and knew he needed help. After he got his business on track, he decided to pay it forward and coach other shop owners to help better the industry.

Backstory:

Orozco’s leadership struggles stemmed from the fact that he started as a technician and that’s what he knew best. After 10 years of working as a tech in a Shell station, he opened his first shop in December of 1999.

Problem:

“I struggled because I was a great tech but not a good business owner,” Orozco says. This is the same situation befalling many technicians turned owners. Fixing a complex vehicle and running a shop require different skills. Orozco couldn’t pay his bills, which frustrated him since he had fewer headaches and more money while working for someone else. Was this all a big mistake? He knew he needed to figure out what his future was going to look like and he knew he needed help getting back on track.

Solution:

Orozco contacted NAPA who suggested he look into Elite Worldwide for training. He did, and after joining the program, he was connected with a coach and began networking with other shop owners.

“To me, it was an epiphany,” Orozco says. “For years, my mentality was to work hard and make money, but I didn’t understand what it meant. When I worked with Elite, I found out the most important [thing] is not the goal, but who you become in the process.”

As part of the process, he learned the habit of writing down his goals and ideas.

“Back then, I wanted my kids and my wife to be proud of me,” Orozco says. “I wanted to be a good role model and the same for my business. During that process, I learned successful businesses are in the community.”

Orozco learned about ethics and values, processes and procedures and what it meant to be a good leader.

Aftermath:

When Orozco started the training program, he owned half of a shop and was doing $300,000 in revenue per year. After six months, he went from $36,000 per month to $100,000 per month. He now owns five locations and does almost $7 million in revenue.

After he realized how important it was to be in the community, he joined ToastMasters and Rotary Club, upped his marketing budget and started doing more fundraising. And after seven years of being coached, he decided to become a coach himself, which he still is to this day.

Takeaway:

“If someone is looking for help, help them,” Orozco says. “It’s like payback.”

Orozco understands that some shop owners don’t want to coach fellow shop owners. They see it as helping the competition. He says the only way to be successful is to help others and if someone doesn’t want to help, that’s their own arrogance.

“The worst thing I see in the industry is that they believe that they know everything,” Orozco says. “They have been doing things the wrong way for 20 years and they’re not willing to listen because of that mentality.”

The industry has a stigma and shop owners need to come together to change it. Learning from each other can help new owners learn how to treat customers, market properly and connect with the community in new ways.

“We need to raise the industry to another level, it’s better for everyone,” Orozco says.

By joining a training program, Orozco learned what it takes to be a good business owner and decided to pass that knowledge along, which has been an extremely rewarding experience. It has helped not only his business as a whole but also his overall outlook on the industry.

BY NOLAN O’HARA

Michael Mole, the general manager of Integrity Auto Repair in Savannah, Georgia, likens his shop’s philosophy on growth to a religious fervor.

It starts with belief.

“If you don’t have the belief right rst, then all the best practices in the world are irrelevant,” Mole says.

Mole has belief in Integrity Auto Repair—he says it can be among the best small businesses in town. at’s why Integrity Auto Repair is intentional about prioritizing growth when making budgetary decisions.

at’s also why Integrity Auto Repair is in the process of “signi cant expansion,” adding eight bays to one of its two locations.

“If you want to be growing, then it has to be what your focus is,” Mole says.

It starts with that philosophical standpoint—Integrity Auto Repair’s focus on growth makes a direct impact on the company’s budgetary decisions.

at philosophy is the foundation, and once that foundation is set, there are a number of other aspects to consider when managing a budget for a shop that’s growing and scaling.

Here are some tips and advice from Mole:

Make Sacrifices

Mole says a lot of owners and managers talk a good game about wanting to grow and hire more people, but that they’re not putting their money where their mouth is.

Mole says he and his business partner Craig Spinks, Integrity Auto Repair’s store manager, pay themselves modest salaries below market value in order to reinvest money back into their business.

“Our vision requires a certain level of focus and sacri ces that we’re willing to make because we think that we can be not just one of the best auto repair shops in Savannah, but we think we can be one of the great small businesses in our town,” Mole says.

Mole’s philosophy is that by reinvesting that money now, it will make Integrity Auto Repair well-positioned for success in the future.

Have Patience

By placing a focus on growth, Mole is making an investment in Integrity Auto Repair.

Most of the time, investments take time to pay o . After all, they’re not running a getrich-quick scheme.

“As we’re looking at the investment property standpoint, and even from a new hire standpoint, they don’t have to pay o immediately,” Mole says.

Mole notes that some of the investments they’re making are meant to make their business more well-positioned and more dominant ve to seven years down the line.

What’s Your Demand?

When directly making decisions about growth and expansion, it’s crucial to pay attention to a key metric: demand.

Mole says when making those decisions, like adding bays, they’re looking at how many phone calls they’re getting and how many clicks are coming in on the website.

ey’re trying to gure out what their demand is, and whether they’re capturing and maximizing it.

And if they’re booked out two weeks in advance, that’s a problem.

“I hate that,” Mole says. “I get so antsy … because that means that (the customer) is gonna go somewhere else, and they’re going to have a worse experience.”

Mole says when they’re booked out more than two or three days in advance, it’s time to start looking at adding someone.

Not Perfect Timing

While we may hope that everything in our lives will line up perfectly, falling into place at the right time, more often than not, that isn’t the case. e same is true when looking to hire.

However, if you’re building towards growth and managing your budget accordingly, then there are times when you should make a calculated risk and hire the right person at the wrong time.

Keep Cash on Hand

While it’s important to take calculated risks and make your budgetary decisions from a philosophy centered on growth, you can’t bet the whole farm. Mole notes the importance of keeping a certain amount of cash on hand based on your xed costs. He says at Integrity Auto Repair, they’ve never gotten below a month’s worth of payroll.

“If a hurricane hits, I can shut down for a month, bargain with all my landlords and power and all that kind of stu ,” Mole says. “But you can’t bargain with your people.”

Mole says he’ll sooner not pay himself before he gets below that number. However, he says the cash on hand number can be different for every shop, and it also depends on each owner and manager’s risk tolerance. It can also go up and down as time goes on.

But once that number is set, it provides a solid base for taking future risks.

“ e help you need is not going to come usually at the precise time you need it. It’s going to come either too early or too late,” Mole says. “You got to be ready to snap it up when those people are available.” at’s particularly true in the current job market, where unemployment is low and experienced workers are in high demand and nding jobs extremely quickly. Another step in being proactive in hiring is courting workers, something Mole likened to recruiting in college football. He says as a hiring manager you need to be active, willing to go out to dinners with good techs in your area and gauge if they’re a good t and would be interested in coming aboard.

“If you aren’t willing to recruit your butt o , then you’re not going to steal good talent away from places where they’re comfortable,” Mole says.

And if you’re not approaching your budgetary decisions with an intentional focus to grow your business, you’re never going to grow.