Car Count Daily

Welcome to another episode of Car Count Daily. My name is Ron Ipach but you can call me Captain Car Count because that’s all I’ve done over the past 20 years is help auto repair shop owners, just like you to get and then keep all the top quality customers that your shop can handle.

Now today I want to talk about the number one thing that is afflicting every shop owner that I’ve ever come across and that’s the lack of time to get anything done. If you’re like most, if you’re like everyone else – there’s not enough hours in the day to get everything done that you need to get done. You go into the office, you have the best intentions in the world to go into the office early in the morning and get things done and before you know it, you get sucked into that vortex and you’re running around putting out fires every single day and you never get anything done. By the time the day ends, you look around and say what the heck did it do, you know you had big plans and they all fell part when you get to the shop.

Let me give you some tips that I use to get a lot done every single day. I do things first thing in the morning. Why do I do things first in the morning because my day hasn’t been planned for me already and you know what I mean. Every time you have a conversation with somebody, every time you have a phone call, every time you check an email, somebody else has a plan for you. They have questions. They have things that they want you to do and it just kind of distracts you from doing what it is that you really, really need to do. My suggestion is you do it first thing in the morning. For example, today marks the 600th day in a row that I’ve worked out. 600 days. Now I never thought I get this far into it. My initial thought was, I was going to go 30 days, then a 100 days and here I am today. I graduate at 600 days in a row and you know how I’ve been able to do it, I do it first thing in a morning before my day gets cluttered with everything else.

How do you apply that to your shop? Well the first thing in the morning that you do is work on the most important thing that you have to work on. Not the least, the most important thing, so what I suggest you do is either if you can do it at home or go to the shop, if you can just figure out the most important thing you need to do and then off your email, turn off your phone. Hang a sign on the door if there are other people that are coming in. I mean I’ve used this sign on my door for a very, very long time to let people know that they are not to disturb me because if they disturb me, that screws up my day.

You know look, there’s always these things that are going to come up and get you sucked into the day. We want to eliminate those as much as possible until we get that one most important thing done every single day. Let everybody know that come hell or high water, they have got to leave you alone because nothing’s more important to your business than getting something done. At least one thing a day. If you do that, at the end of the year, every business day you got 200 things that you’re actually getting done. A lot of people let these temporary situations that they come across, these temporary fires, a problem with a customer, a problem with an employee just dictate what’s going on with their day. I find that if you tackle that big thing first and then the rest of the day can fall by the wayside but at least you got that one major thing done.

When you start off productive, there’s something else that happens. You feel better about your business. You’re a lot more energized and you’re more likely to get your shop to the next level. It’s not a matter of if but when you’re going to get disturbed. It’s not a matter of if things are going to go to hell and hand basket, it’s when. That’s a typical thing of running an auto repair shop. That’s why I say do it first thing in the morning and you’ll get a lot done. There are plenty of other times to go around and putting out those fires but you’d have to find that time. If you don’t have the time, then simply just get up earlier in the morning. Get up 30 days, 30 days that’d be nice. Get up 30 minutes early in the morning and get your day started off right. Get in the habit of getting that one thing done and you’ll be amazed at how much further ahead your business will be because you’re actually making a dent in that big giant project that you have of an auto repair shop that you’re trying to get to the next level.

I really hope this helps. I know it’s helped me. I know it’s helped countless other people that I’ve talked this strategy to. Do that thing first and you will see some amazing results. I hope this has helped. If you like what you’re seeing or even if you don’t like what you’re seeing, go down below this video and let me know your thoughts. I read every one of them and respond to as many of them that I possibly can, so I’ll just see you on the next episode of Car Count Daily.