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Is it just me? or does it seem that lately there are a lot of businesses being started that insert themselves into the flow of existing transactions only to harvest your profits and lesson the margins of those doing the work and accepting responsibility (us). I am referring to technology companies: Repair Pal, Openbay, CarFix and now Blockchain to mention a few. It is frustrating to me after having built a business (brick and mortar), purchased equipment, hired employees, provide training, accepted full responsibility and risk, supported my community only to have a startup backed by money hungry venture capitalists attempt to erode our profit margin. I find the statements from co-founder Vladimir Lupenko of Blockchain in this months Ratchet & Wrench extremely arrogant: "The repair industry is huge, and people always get cheated" "We use reputable and undisputable technical data to set the market and price rate". Vladimir goes on to say "Based on our contractual agreement , the repair shop will have to provide the service at the price we have calculated". As good shop owners, protective of our future, we best rally against this technology, this Wolf in sheep's clothing. My research of these companies leads me to believe that no good will come from their involvement in our businesses. We, as independent shop owners, are operating in an industry some see as ripe for consolidation and this technology is just one of the signs. I ask that anyone reading this post refuse to participate. The involvement of these companies is not a 'quick fix' for a shop needing car count. Their intention is to drive down your prices, recruit price shopping customers only and mine your data base for their benefit. If our industry sees their existence as a threat and together, refuse to become a member of their organization, they will disappear. Without shops to refer to they lose all value to the consumer and will not be able to return a profit to their investors. To read the complete article, follow this link: https://www.ratchetandwrench.com/articles/5504-how-blockchain-technology-could-affect-your-shop To support this research here is a seperate article from this months Ratchet & Wrench magazine discussing how to price your services for long term health and growth: https://www.ratchetandwrench.com/articles/4841-how-to-price-to-gain-customer-loyalty?utm_medium=email&utm_source=utm_code

Car Count Daily | Episode 2 Click Here To Subscribe For Daily Car Count Daily Tips Straight To Your Inbox Click Here To Subscribe For Daily Car Count Daily Tips Straight To Your Inbox Hey shop owners. Captain Car Count here, sometimes known as Ron Ipach, and welcome to yet another edition of Car Count Daily. Today I'm gonna get a little serious with you, because I need you to understand one very, very important concept. This concept is so important that the survival of your business and shop management hinges on you understanding what we're talking about here today. What we're gonna be talking about here today is the number one thing, the number one most important thing you could possibly do for your business every single day that's gonna make you more money, give you more time off, make this business a success. Do you know what that is? Let me give you a little bit of a hint. Captain Car Count. What is it that I talk about every single day? Car Count. Marketing is the number one thing you gotta do, because whether you realize it or not, and I'm sure you do realize it, if you don't have a customer in your shop that's giving you money, guess what? You're not making money. You need to focus on getting customers in the shop, because that's what's gonna make your business happen. It doesn't matter how good your technicians are, doesn't matter how good you are, doesn't matter how awesome your location is, or how nice you are, and how you bend over backwards for customer service. That doesn't matter if there's not a car in your shop. You can't make any money on a car that's driving past your shop. You have to do something every single day within your shop management to get that car that's driving by your shop to stop at your shop and get it up on a lift, because then you have a chance of making money. If you're not making money, you're not in business. Right? So that's why I say the most important thing you need to focus on every single day is your marketing. That's why we have this Car Count Daily thing going out to you every single day, because I need you to focus on it. There's a lot of ways to get customers in your shop, but it all starts with you. You have to have focus, you have to understand how important it is to get those cars in your shop first before you can actually get those cars in your shop. So this is a daily thing. Every single day, focus on this number one thing. Now I get it. There's a lot of other things to focus on, but that all comes later on after you get a car into the shop. You need to get enough cars in the shop, so it's focus, focus, focus on the most important thing. Every time I go to a conference and I'm asking shop owners, "What's the number one thing you need in your business?" They all say, to a tee, they all say, "I need more cars in the shop." If that's the number one thing you need, and I'm telling you it's the number one more important thing for you to have, that's why I'm saying it's the number one job you need to be focusing on every single day. What gets focused on gets achieved. Focus on that marketing, and the rest of the business and shop management can fall into place after that. Let's work on the marketing. I'm gonna be here to give you a lot of ideas day in and day out. Stay with me, stay with me day in, day out, and watch these videos, and I'll give you plenty of ideas on how to boost those car counts every single day.