Auto Repair Shop Owner's Daily Dose 17: April Fools?

April Fools? by Rick White, President 180BIZ

Today is April Fool's Day and that's what I want to talk a little bit about today. Let's put the pranks on hold this year. What do you think? I think there is enough stress and enough crap that people are dealing with now. It's all this different stuff that we're dealing with on the inside. People don't need to be pranked. I want to make this April FUN Day. What do you think?

Starting today, April FUN Day, be on the lookout for somebody that needs a smile, somebody that needs a kind word, a joke, or that just needs just to get their mind off what they're going through right now. I really feel like today is a great day to step back and get people to laugh. I found a meme this morning and it made me laugh out loud. I almost fell off the sofa this morning. Here’s a shout out to Andrew Minkler of Bavarian Motor Repairs up in Maryland who posted it.  It says, “This quarantine has me realizing why my dog gets so excited about something, moving outside, going for walks or car rides. I think I just bunked at a squirrel.”  Come on. That's awesome.

Please look around you. Take your focus off of you. Take your focus off your concerns. Take your focus off everything else and just look for somebody else that needs help. One of the most vivid experiences I have ever seen was with my grandson, Brandon. He was probably three or four years old at the time. He was and still is a social butterfly; he loves people One day we were walking through Walmart and Brandon is holding my hand saying hi with a big, beaming grin to everybody that walks past us.  It was like people shaking their cobwebs off. Sometimes they're in a trance as they are going through the store.  Suddenly a little kid snaps them out of it, and they return the smile. Some even wave back. If you can do just one or two kind things today for someone else, you're going to make a difference in their life. You could be looking at someone that is on the edge and your smile, words of encouragement, or kindness could make all the difference in the world to them and change their path. We have no idea about the impact we have on other people. So, I ask you to make this April FUN Day. Will you do that with me? Let’s flood Facebook with kind and/or funny things. This is to get people to smile, to get people to laugh, to get people outside of themselves a little bit. What do you say? Let’s go bark at some squirrels today. Let's just make it fun.

Now I’ll give you a business tip. Every day I’ll give you a business tip, but before I do that I want to ask you to please share this video. Let's make a difference. Here’s your business tip today. There is a new Employee Rights Policy as far as paid sick days with the new CARES ACT. It’s on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/180BIZ. I have a link to this because it isn't easy to find on the government website.  Go through it and make sure you're covering everything all the requirements. If you have any questions at all, please feel free to reach out to me. I've been doing a fair amount of studying on the different programs and I have some thoughts that might help you. And if I can't answer the question right away, I will get you the answer. That's my promise. Your tip for today is to get that full file. Make sure you're following the letter of the law because you don't want HR trouble with everything else going on. Have an amazing day. Go bark at some squirrels and go brighten someone's day.

Thank you so much. God bless.