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As we close out 2022, it's time to reflect on the past year. Review your accomplishments, the state of your business, your personal life, and things that could have gone better. The key thing to remember is that it's better to have a plan and goals instead of trying to fly blind. Establish your goals for 2023 and beyond. Include family time too, and time for yourself. It's not all about business. Having the right balance will actually make your business more successful. Speak with your employees too. Find out from them what went wrong, what went right, and what they would like to see in the coming year. While you can't always act on what your employees want, getting their perspective will not only help you create the plan moving forward, it will help to build morale, a win/win for all.

The past few years have been like a wild roller-coaster ride. What was normal in 2019 no longer holds true today. And while many of have a hard time sitting down and writing out of goals, I feel that now more than ever, shop owners need to plan out their future with clearly defined written goals. This is especially true for shop owners who plan to be in business beyond 2030. What are your business goals? Improve your existing shop? More locations? What plans do you have for your personal life? How much longer do you plan on working in the business?

No matter what the year has been, this is the half way point for the year and time to review your business plan for 2016. This is also the time when you review all your 2016 goals, both personal and business. Assess where you are and make the adjustments needed to achieve those goals. Dont worry about the last six months if it did not live up to your expectations. Make the needed course corrections to maintain your focus and make sure you align those corrections to what you need to achieve your objectives. Lastly, remain positive, know the numbers of your company and create strategies that are in line with your goals.

I was speaking with a shop owner the other day about an issue he is having with technician comebacks. After a series of questions, the reason for the comebacks became clear. At the start of the year he implemented a very aggressive growth strategy, putting a lot of emphasis on quotas, sales and labor production. The strategy also included increased bonuses for the service advisor and techs for hitting certain goals. Now, at its core, this is not a bad strategy. However, the focus was on quotas,sales, profit and production. What was lacking was a process to ensure that quality was maintained, and basing sale decisions on what is in the best interest of the customer. A focus on quotas instead of service quality, is a recipe for eventual failure. For example: Instead of setting a quota to sell 5 batteries this week and 10 sets of wiper blades, create a process that your technicians will test all batteries and inspect all wiper blades. This strategy will achieve the same results while maintaining a focus on quality and integrity. The bottom line is we all need goals. But we also need to maintain quality. So, when setting your goals, include a quality control process to cut down on mistakes before the customer gets his car back. Put emphasis on customer service and integrity. Celebrate positive customer reviews. And lastly, base all service and repair recommendations on what is in the best interest of the customer.

Source: Why technician pay incentive bonuses may backfire

Source: You have goals…but what about your employee’s goals?

As a shop owner, you have both business goals and personal goals. Goals are critical to your success. Setting goals is like planning out a trip. Each step is carefully outlined and mapped out. You know where you want to ultimately end up, and you know how you will get there. But what about your employees? Don’t they have goals? Employees may not have sat down and wrote out a detailed plan, but let me assure you, they have goals too. Employees care about their future, their kid’s future and also have wants and desires. My advice is to find out what those goals are, and here’s why. When employees know that you care about their well-being as a person, they will begin to align their goals with your goals. They see the bigger picture; that in order to achieve what they want out of life, they must help you achieve what you want also. But the key here is to make sure you as the shop owner make the first move. Sit down with employees, ask them about their future desires and dreams. Then begin to build your business around not just what you want, but what everyone wants. This also means that you must become profitable enough to be able to continue to compensate your employees at a level that they feel secure in their position. But, it’s never all about the numbers and the dollars. As shop owner, you are also a mentor. And the most important employee-related job you have is understanding your employees and helping them achieve their wants and desires. Motivational Speaker Zig Ziglar once said, “You can get anything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want”

As we head into the fall, many of are looking back on the year to determine the state of our business. While looking back and learning from the past is a good thing, we need to look forward and continue to push to reach our goals. For most shop across the nation, this year has been a wild roller-coaster ride. To be honest, business has always been challenging. You know the old saying, "If were easy, everyone would be doing it." What ever happened yesterday is gone. All you have is today and tomorrow. So, set your goals, adopt the philosophy of continuous improvement and work hard to make today better than yesterday, and tomorrow better than today.

2014: Time for Review, Time to Move Forward It’s hard to believe that another year has passed. I guess my father was right when he said the older you get, the faster time goes by. If you haven’t done it already, you need to reflect on the past year. What were your accomplishments? Did you achieve your goals? Complete your review and plan to move forward. Did you complete your2014 business plan? If you didn’t, you should do it ASAP. And it must be written down. A plan is not a plan unless is written down. If it’s in your head, it’s nothing more than a dream. It’s a known fact that those with clearly written goals and a clearly written plan are much more successful. That’s does not mean you will always achieve those goals. But the odds are far greater when you have a plan and goals with deadlines. And please remember; a plan is a live document. You must review it often, tweak it as needed and modify it when needed. Please include life needs too, don’t make your plan all about business. We all want to move forward in our life. But, just like taking a road trip, mapping out the way makes it a whole lot easier.