What's Your Auto Repair Shop Plan?

What's Your Plan? by Rick White, President 180BIZ

I'm bringing this topic up because I'm seeing this in a lot of different places and from a lot of different people. I'm talking both personally and professionally. I'm going to ask you a very simple question. What's your plan? I think 2020 was really a good jumping point. It's a new decade and it was going to be the roaring twenties. Then things happened this year with the pandemic and the racial incidences and the presidential race. It's really messed us up. So many people went into “react” mode instead of “create” mode.

Your future is not going to just happen. It amazes me how people are going into work every day, doing the same thing, and expecting it to be better or dealing with the overflow that they have right now. But there's no thought to growth. There's no fat to destination. It's completely reaction mode. Now I'm going to ask you as we're coming into the last quarter of 2020, not to give up on your goals. You may have goals that need to be adjusted because of what you went through. That's okay. But what I would love to see you do is adjust your goals so that you're using the last quarter of 2020 to springboard next year, 2021, to where you want to go. We must create within this stuff that's happening all around us, not react to it.

The biggest thing holding you back is the story that you're telling yourself. You're telling yourself that customers aren't buying because of the pandemic. Or they're not buying because they’re out of work. Or I'm too busy to do that. You’re in react mode.  When the wave that you're riding right now, the wave that’s keeping you busy, is gone what will you do then?  I guarantee it will happen. Are you going to wait until it's not there anymore before you do something about it? Or are you going to do things today that will help you get where you want to go? Do you hear what I'm saying here? Stop telling yourself lousy stories. Divorce your story and marry the truth. The reality is people are still getting their cars worked on. The reality is yes, you're busy right now, but I guarantee you, there is a slow dip coming.

Instead of being in react mode, you must be in create mode all the time. Have a destination that you're going toward. Once you do that, you're going to see some of the stress and confusion and dizziness come out of your life because you have a focal point. And that focal point is going to help you figure out what you should be saying yes to and what you should be saying no to. No is a beautiful thing to say. It really is. No is amazing. It's freeing. There's this thing called The Opportunity Cost. For everything you're saying yes to you're saying no to something else. You might be saying yes to that extra brake job. And you're saying no to time with your family. Be aware of what those costs are.

And don't go from fear. Some of you had some tough times through the pandemic. Some of you didn't. But I'm telling you, you can't hoard now to make up for the past, you can't hoard now to take care of the future. You've got to take care of yourself and your team. You must have a direction and then daily steps that will move you toward that direction. So here's what you need. There are four steps. It's simple.

1. Have a destination. Where are you going? Are you guys just getting in the car of your business every day and just driving around? That's what most of you are doing right now. You are better than that. Pick a destination. Pick something that excites you. Make it something that will challenge you and your team. Something that you can get behind. That's your destination.
2. The second thing you need to do is baseline where you are now. Step back and look at where you are now. Don’t tell yourself fiction. Don't tell yourself fantasy. In other words, fiction is making it worse than it is. Fantasy is making it better than it is. Give yourself facts. Not fiction or fantasy. So, step back, analyze your numbers, look at where you need to grow.
3. Then put a strategy together. If you put a plan together, guess what? That plan might not work. That's okay. It doesn't mean that the idea is bad. You've just learned one way that won't work. It doesn't mean you failed. You're in a lab doing experiment after experiment after experiment to find out what works for you.
4. And then the fourth thing is to monitor what you're doing. Raise your sensory acuity. Being aware of what's happening, not being so stuck in just do it mode that you aren’t able to step back and see if you are moving forward or backward from where you want to go. Don't let everything that's going on around you dictate what is possible. Step up above it, create where you want to go. You’ll find that it changes everything for you.

It's the story you're telling yourself that's holding you back.  If you don't really believe what you're doing is going to work, It won't. Henry Ford once said, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can't you're right.”

Just get a plan. That's what we're doing. We're spending the week growing the next two to three years at 180BIZ. And I got to tell you something really excited about it. Brenda has really stepped up. She's taken the reigns and the two of us are coming together and putting something that's just going to be amazing. That's what you need. You need something that will excite you. Something that will get you up in the morning. Something you will hop out of bed for, not roll or fall out of bed. Write something that gets you up, get you energized and you're there to take it on.

What’s your plan? If you're having trouble with it, reach out to someone.  It doesn't have to be me, but reach out to someone and get a plan, get control, stop reacting to what's going on. Everybody's doing it to some degree. And now I'm not just talking business. It amazes me how people want better relationships. And then they wait for it to happen. It doesn't work that way. If you want a better relationship, you must become a better partner. You must be more aware of where you're at. You must be aware of where you want to go. And then you've must have a strategy to get there.

That might be leaving notes. It might be sending flowers. It might be not taking that extra brake job that I talked about earlier so that you can spend some time with your significant other. Everything that's priceless in our lives didn't cost us a dime. Our health, our minds, our relationships. They don't cost us anything, but they mean everything when we lose them. So, don't let that happen. Have that balance. Have a plan for every area of your life.

I want to say thank you for joining me today. God bless and go make some money. Take care.