Date: Sun, 21 Apr 2013 23:00:00 -0700
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: BACK HOME SAFE! re David B's comments
In-Reply-To: <vanagon%2013042200531237@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
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actually ..
it's quite possible for someone to work 6 1/2 half days a week, have a
satisfying life , do excellent work and have adequate income. Perhaps
'many people' might have difficulty achienving that ..
but it's very possible. And really ...the 9 to 5 M to F system is
totally wasteful of time and energy .
Be self-employed, set your own hours, work when you want, choose
carefully who your customers are ..
and so on.
In fact, I will sell a business that does that regularly , to the
right person or pair/team ...either someone who will just drop a bunch
of cash and take over my business and they are on their own,
or ..someone who wants to train in on how to do that ...can't be just
'anybody' ...smart hard working clever person ..
or pair/team etc.
I will sell my business and train someone into the skills to do the
above, for up to a year of in house support, and they pay some
significant cashola. < tell you right now, must be fiercely committed to
perfect workmanship, excellent results and total integrity, and I wonder
if many people even get what 'fiercely committed' really is . >
Imagine controlling your hours, who your customers are, having a great
reputation and decent income..
not that hard at all for a smart hard working persondedicated to service
and actual , genuine, great results for their customers.
Hell ...it's easy to have tons of business just by doing excellent
work at good value with integrity and good communication ..... ..since
that hardly exists much in the industry anyway. I've been doing that
continuously some 30 yrs, since June 1, 1983 as Scott Foss Foreign Car
Repair and Consulting ( aka turbovans ) and I'm not starving.
It's like shootin' fish in a barrel if you do it right. There isn't any
actual competion in the car repair business for someone who will work
hard and do excellent workand deliver plenty of value and relationship
and trust. Particularly about actually producing The Result with perfect
Workmanship. Fwiw ...I have probobly invested 30grand in training
courses in the 80's about stuff like actual Resultsand Integrity.
Thanks for reminding me how valuable my business is really. A FEW very
good carrepair people provide that consistently - - .great value,
excellent results, plus relationship, integrity and trust. Do that
...and you can do just fine. And you don't have to charge $ 100 per hr
either.
Regular shops have no concept of spending people's money the bestway,
advising them usefully, attending to details ...
never mind the perfect workmnanship factor ( which is pretty rare in
the industry frankly ) ......do it like it really should be done ..and
you'll have more bizthan you can ever handle.
Thanks for bringing it up David.
Scott
On 4/21/2013 9:53 PM, David Beierl wrote:
> At 12:07 AM 4/22/2013, PB wrote:
>> I know EXACTLY what you mean about most mechanics merely doing what they
>> are told and not a bit more. Even for the smallest job, I always ask
>> them
>
> There are differing views about this. Some people would rather not
> pay mechanics' rates for gas-pump-attendant work. Or what used to be
> that when I was young, anyway.
>
> A lot of this ultimately comes down to societal expectations. A
> mechanic bucking the trend too far in one direction will go broke
> because his customers think he's skimping the job, and too far in the
> other direction he'll go broke because nobody wants to pay his rates
> for the job. Or he'll shoot himself because he can't make ends meet
> to his (or his wife and kids') satisfaction or because he's never off
> the job.
>
> That old saying "You just can't get good help any more" started when
> the help decided they wanted to live like real people too, and
> started jacking up the price and refusing to work six and a half days
> a week. As their expectations climbed, other people's had to drop to
> some extent, and personal servants (and gas station attendants) have
> largely priced themselves out of the market. People in the main
> would rather pump their own gas and check their own oil etc. (or not
> check it) than pay someone else to. They'd rather buy milk in the
> supermarket than pay to have it delivered.
>
> Yrs,
> d
>
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