39 minutes ago, Jay Huh said:Not sure if I understand the question but in Jan my car count was 178 and Feb was 179. My ARO Jan $159, Feb $238 (hired master tech and his apprentice and they do awesome inspections - reason for the jump in ARO)
Now March was when I increased Adwords budget and started campaigning like crazy bc of the new shop. Yelp ads I kept at $425 and I boosted Adwords from like $1000 to $2000-$2500, also spent $50 on a couple small Facebook campaigns. March car count was 261 with $229 ARO. March was also when my second shop became fully open. 55 out of 261 cars were from the new shop. March of LAST year my car count was 129 with $229 ARO
I broke a lot of records in March, total sales, GP and car count. Previously my record total sales for the month was low $40's. I was like $200 shy from $60k in March, and that's with nearly $10k sitting ($2400 head job just booked out today). Only thing that I have really seen work is Google. Yelp brought me a decent clutch job so far this month. Word of mouth is good too, got a $1,000 timing belt job coming Wed that is a referral.
What I noticed after opening a second location is that my first shop started ranking better on Google (could be my imagination....) but if I type in "auto repair durham nc," I am #6 on the list and the ones before me have been open for YEARS. It's just now been a full year for me. If you sort by ratings of 4+ stars, I am #3 on the list. I think having more than one locations gives a perception of less risk for the customer and they are more likely to try out your shop.
You are calculating everything by total sales from all locations? It may help if you do more of a breakout per location.
I was mainly interested in how fast you are getting your stores up and what kind of car count and ARO you are seeing from them. I see that you are opening #3 which is impressive. I am in the middle of expansion myself. I have a very robust plan that I've been working on for the better part of the year but I am always looking to improve it. As you probably are aware since you've expanded, getting the car count and numbers up when launching is extremely crucial for cash flow.
Your number seem extremely low for 2 stores, how are you handling the expenses? It might be just a different in area that I am not taking into account.
Thanks for sharing your numbers by the way
Edited by mspecperformance
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Jay Huh
I have the stands you are talking about. They were $1900 and I used them twice.... I actually had a 4 post and it was just much easier driving it on the 4 post than setting up the stands.
Now if I didn't have a 4 post, I would've used the stands no problem. My third shop I just moved into doesn't have a 4 post so I am thinking of taking my stands over there when I get an alignment machine. If a 4 post will not fit, then 2 post with stands is fine.
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mspecperformance
Jay, what kind of marketing are you doing especially for launching the new shops?
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PAPShop
We have a Hunter scissor lift. Besides alignments and the repairs related to them, we do oil changes on the lift and we do inspections on it. In a pinch we've done brakes also.
I would think that monkeying with the stands would create inefficientcy in the shop, as opposed to drive on - drive off situation.
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Jay Huh
I'm mostly doing google adwords, that seems to work the best. I tried a couple facebook campaigns and I pay Yelp as well. My new shop was actually busier today than my old one - my third one opening next week I think will be busy from the getgo bc of the location.
All my adwords ads links to my specials page and I have a really high conversion rate: carmedixnc.com/specials
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Jay Huh
4 post lifts/alignment lifts are GREAT for quick oil changes. Also good for heavy trucks, ours is rated for 18k lbs and we've had some pretty big trucks on there
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mspecperformance
What has been your experience with car count and ARO for your first month up to 3 months?
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mspecperformance
Did you flush mount your alignment rack?
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carolinahigear
Hi, XRAC! In February we took delivery of a new Hunter alignment machine and 16,000 lb. capacity scissor lift. We had an older scissor lift that we moved to a different bay. We love our new machine and lift as we can turn out alignments quickly and also do longer trucks than previously. Alignments are now being performed in and out in 15 to 20 minutes. I am very pleased with our new machine's performance and capacity!
Hi-Gear
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Jay Huh
Not sure if I understand the question but in Jan my car count was 178 and Feb was 179. My ARO Jan $159, Feb $238 (hired master tech and his apprentice and they do awesome inspections - reason for the jump in ARO)
Now March was when I increased Adwords budget and started campaigning like crazy bc of the new shop. Yelp ads I kept at $425 and I boosted Adwords from like $1000 to $2000-$2500, also spent $50 on a couple small Facebook campaigns. March car count was 261 with $229 ARO. March was also when my second shop became fully open. 55 out of 261 cars were from the new shop. March of LAST year my car count was 129 with $229 ARO
I broke a lot of records in March, total sales, GP and car count. Previously my record total sales for the month was low $40's. I was like $200 shy from $60k in March, and that's with nearly $10k sitting ($2400 head job just booked out today). Only thing that I have really seen work is Google. Yelp brought me a decent clutch job so far this month. Word of mouth is good too, got a $1,000 timing belt job coming Wed that is a referral.
What I noticed after opening a second location is that my first shop started ranking better on Google (could be my imagination....) but if I type in "auto repair durham nc," I am #6 on the list and the ones before me have been open for YEARS. It's just now been a full year for me. If you sort by ratings of 4+ stars, I am #3 on the list. I think having more than one locations gives a perception of less risk for the customer and they are more likely to try out your shop.
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xrac
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