owner burnout

Jeff, I am not much of a worrier. That has led me into some very stupid situations, I tend to see how I can quantify the risk and push through. The times I have been kept up at night were when I would over extend myself and the cash flow was not there and I had payments coming up due and did not have the liquidity to make it, but somehow Good Providence always has come through for me.

I think working as a sole operator is the hardest thing I ever did. There were not enough hours in the day for me to do everything that was required, the second hardest thing was finding a complementary parter/employee to work with and be prosperous.

As a sole operator I would go through feast/famine times, I would market like crazy, bring in the work, and while doing the work, marketing would suffer, slowing things down, until I would get so slow I would have to market again like crazy and the cycle would repeat. Likewise, cash flow would suffer putting me in very tough spots.

I was finally able to see the pattern, and then I began to budget to get the right amount of volume to break from that vicious cycle.

Excellent thread gentlemen, every aspect of running a business, being a mechanic, and of course a shop owner is well covered.

I for one, hate to work, hate to turn down jobs, and hate to stay late. All of which I'll do from time to time because it's the best course of action to take in that particular situation.

The best advice, "You run the shop. Don't let the shop run you!" One of these days, after you've put in 6 or 7 days a week, 12-15 hours a day, and countless sleepless nights you're going to turn around and find your kids grown, or worse yet your marriage has fallen apart.

Find something outside of the world of cars, drop the wrench once in a while.... you're in business to make money, but you're also in business to provide for your family, and the one thing the business can't provide is time with your family unless you allow for that time.

Once you take that "vacation" away from the shop you'll come back to it with a whole lot better attitude.

This is such a great thread and something me and my partner constantly work on.

Our shop is only one year old, but coming from the law industry, I know all about burning out and it is NOT BENEFICIAL for anyone and any business. You might think, oh the biz wont survive if I dont pull in hours and hours and stay glued to my phone. What it really does is put you in a very negative state of mind which translates into how you treat everyone around you, how you treat your work, and just crappy situation for everyone. It is a marathon, not a sprint. Fresh mind is always needed. The quote I live by is "Work to live, not live to work" --easier said than done, I know. In my opinion, too many people think success is making millions of $$$. To me, success is being happy. If you are in this industry, like mspecperformance said, its because you have some type of passion for cars or just running a biz that contributes to the community. There must be something in there that you can reach and grab onto to see the positive...like "hey, i dont have to deal with a terrible boss everyday"

That said, here is what me and my partner do and it helps but we still have our days:

1) Closed on weekends. Although I constantly suggest to him to at least be open 1 day of the weekend and close one day of the week, he doesnt budge. However, our techs seem to be very thankful and also gives time for my partner to "reset"--he sometimes accepts dropoffs or does extra work on the weekend but other than that, he seems to be liking his weekends doing little things for the shop but not full days of work. Sometimes I come in and do extra cleaning so that its all ready by Monday.

2) Phone notifications! Something that stressed my partner out is that he would come to his phone and see so many notifications. I constantly go through them all with him and ask which he really needs. Sometimes, they are just notifications from FB groups that he adds and it defaults to "notify each time a person just says something in the group"--so I clean that up for him to minimize it as much as possible. Also, your emails...if you get emails from things that you NEVER read, get into the habit of unsubscribing!

3) Day-vacations: if you are still unwilling to take a vacation, think of things you enjoy that wouldnt take more than a day. Like my favorite thing is to take my dogs hiking...in which I tell my partner to put his phone away and we have great conversations. Or go to your favorite restaurant. Or see a movie (great distraction because you cant look at your phone or else people will get mad lol)...the point is.....dont look at your phone and try to distract yourself with something calming and enjoyable!

4) Accept help. This is something I still need to work on. During our 1-year anniversary party, over 300 people came and I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off...even though all my friends/family kept asking "Let me help, how can I help?" --sometimes its hard to accept help because you think, "I do it best" --well you cant do it all!

This is such a great thread and something me and my partner constantly work on.

 

Our shop is only one year old, but coming from the law industry, I know all about burning out and it is NOT BENEFICIAL for anyone and any business. You might think, oh the biz wont survive if I dont pull in hours and hours and stay glued to my phone. What it really does is put you in a very negative state of mind which translates into how you treat everyone around you, how you treat your work, and just crappy situation for everyone. It is a marathon, not a sprint. Fresh mind is always needed. The quote I live by is "Work to live, not live to work" --easier said than done, I know. In my opinion, too many people think success is making millions of $$$. To me, success is being happy. If you are in this industry, like mspecperformance said, its because you have some type of passion for cars or just running a biz that contributes to the community. There must be something in there that you can reach and grab onto to see the positive...like "hey, i dont have to deal with a terrible boss everyday"

 

That said, here is what me and my partner do and it helps but we still have our days:

 

1) Closed on weekends. Although I constantly suggest to him to at least be open 1 day of the weekend and close one day of the week, he doesnt budge. However, our techs seem to be very thankful and also gives time for my partner to "reset"--he sometimes accepts dropoffs or does extra work on the weekend but other than that, he seems to be liking his weekends doing little things for the shop but not full days of work. Sometimes I come in and do extra cleaning so that its all ready by Monday.

 

2) Phone notifications! Something that stressed my partner out is that he would come to his phone and see so many notifications. I constantly go through them all with him and ask which he really needs. Sometimes, they are just notifications from FB groups that he adds and it defaults to "notify each time a person just says something in the group"--so I clean that up for him to minimize it as much as possible. Also, your emails...if you get emails from things that you NEVER read, get into the habit of unsubscribing!

 

3) Day-vacations: if you are still unwilling to take a vacation, think of things you enjoy that wouldnt take more than a day. Like my favorite thing is to take my dogs hiking...in which I tell my partner to put his phone away and we have great conversations. Or go to your favorite restaurant. Or see a movie (great distraction because you cant look at your phone or else people will get mad lol)...the point is.....dont look at your phone and try to distract yourself with something calming and enjoyable!

 

4) Accept help. This is something I still need to work on. During our 1-year anniversary party, over 300 people came and I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off...even though all my friends/family kept asking "Let me help, how can I help?" --sometimes its hard to accept help because you think, "I do it best" --well you cant do it all!

oh my goodness. I am tethered to yelp and fb on my phone so when I get a complaint or ANYTHING from yelp my anxiety level goes through the roof. I really do need to take that off my phone and let my Service Advisors handle that. I take things way to personally and I am sure a lot of you guys do too!

Anyone ever get the feeling of being burned out from your shop. Ive been open for a little over 4 years and its just worn me out. Between the long hours, lack of quality technicians,dealing with taxes insurance bills...ect, excess of unreasonable/cheap customers and the general "all work, no play, little reward" has just broken me. How do you all deal with the "burned out" feeling

 

thanks for all the feedback. I took a bit of advice from everyone and implemented a lot of changes, some quick fixes and some for the long haul. First thing was I took a 4 day weekend, no phone, no talk of the shop at home. Just spend 4 relaxing days with my family. That was a big relief and cleared my head and gave me insight on what to do next. Also designated 12-24 to 1-2 as vacation, closed, no work, calls get sent to my cell phone and im taking appointments for when I get back.

I basically hit the big "reset" button and went back to how I ran things when I first opened. Let my 2 techs go and went back to just me doing everything myself, comebacks have stopped.. Stopped taking in as many big, time consuming jobs(engine swaps/rebuilds) and focused on bringing in more "gravy" easier said than done but with less stress and aggravation its easier to sell the easy work, my mind is focused on that and not the 30 other things going on. Plus now I have a little extra time to do some marketing/advertising.

I keep less hours. As long as there isn't pressing things that have to be done, shop closes at 6 and 615 im gone. Saturdays are slowly being phased from 9-1 to 9-1 by appointment only. So i can take in what I want or if I want the weekend off then I just don't book anything.

I plan on staying a 1 man shop for at least 6months, long enough to be able to interview and screen for a new tech. I want to hire someone based on that he is perfect for the job, not just a body to get things done.

I feel a lot more focused and don't dread coming in. Time to have me run the business, not the business run me. Its a slow process but getting there one step at a time. Thanks again for all the advice

Those are a lot of changes for 5-6 weeks!!!