Auto Repair Shop Owner's Daily Dose 24: Are You Unemployed?

Are You Unemployed? by Rick White, President 180BIZ

Are you unemployed? That's the question for today. There are a lot of shop owners going around right now really stressed out and wishing they didn't have their business. They think it's too much pressure. So, I’ll ask you again. Are you feeling like you're unemployed? Are you treating your day, your job, your position, like you're unemployed?

Years ago, I worked at a gas station and it wasn't a pleasant experience.  I never knew what the owner was thinking, and I just didn't feel safe and secure there. That’s what drove me to become the captain of my own ship. I bought a business so I could be my own boss. Do you know something?  What really made a difference for me was that I was the captain. Do you know how many people right now aren't working? And it wasn't their choice not to work. It was somebody else who made that choice. And that's what I love about owning my own business. That's what I love about being an entrepreneur. I own the business; I am the captain of my own ship. I decide where the ship’s direction.  

Over the weekend I was talking to a shop owner in Florida who said that he wasn’t getting any cars in. He said that there was no work and he didn’t know what to do. I told him to listen to your team at the front counter.  Listen to their calls with the customers.  This shop owner told me that his team is great.  They have no problems selling the work.  I, again, told him to listen to his Advisors.  Well, to make a long story short, he called me back today (three days later) to tell me that his Advisors were down in the dumps. His Advisors had a bad mindset. He then sent an email out to all his customers and became completely slammed with work.

The moral of the story is that your mindset creates your reality. Your mindset, if you are the owner of the business, creates the reality for everybody that works with you. You must do the biggest sales job every morning on yourself. It’s believing in where you're going, why you're doing it, and how you're going to get there. You need to sell yourself on that every morning so that you're not coming into your business like your unemployed.  You control the destiny of your business. You control the direction of your business. You control the destination of your business.

I was talking to another client last night who told me that he is located by the airport and all the businesses are closed.  I told him that he is telling me what’s not working anymore. I asked him to tell me what he could do to pivot and do something different. Stop staring at a closed door. Look for an open window. Do something, but recognize that you are the owner. You are the captain of the ship. You decide where this goes. Stop waiting for it to get better.

If this resonates with you, share this with somebody, and for those of you that aren't working, that you don't own a business and you're not working right now, I'm sorry about that.  I truly am. My question to you is instead of sitting there and waiting for it to get better, or sitting there and worrying about what is and isn't going on, what are you doing to grow yourself? What are you doing to make yourself more valuable at this time? Because there is going to be another side to this and it's not going to be that far away. How are you going to be more valuable? You don't get paid to show up. You get paid by the value you create. So what are you doing to get better at what you do? What are you doing to expand your capabilities so that you can go back to being able to do more and show up for the people that you work with? Just the thought.

For the business owners out there, are you walking into your business unemployed mentally?  If you are, I have a business tip for you. Stop that! Make a decision. You can fix this. You can adjust it. You can make it different and it's going to be your belief, your focus, and your expectations that are going to get other people bought in. Remember, there's something more contagious than this virus and it's your attitude and expectations. If you increase yours and really believe it with 100% certainty, you're going to have people coming in and that's what I want to see.

Tip for the day. I was talking to a client last night about expanding her audience. If there's one thing I'm going to die on a soapbox talking about right now, it's expanding your audience. We as an industry have done a terrible job at it and we need to use this incident to change that from this point going forward. Not to just get through this but to grow through it. This shop owner told me that his Facebook page hasn’t been used much. It's very sporadic. So, he basically discounted it.

There's an old Chinese proverb that I absolutely love. It goes something like this.  The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second-best time to plant a tree is today. So, I don't care what your Facebook has been doing up to this point, now is the time to start posting videos, boosting them, and getting out in front of people.  Now is the time to start to grow that audience by being the bright light, by being the calm in the storm.

I saw a lightning storm come in this morning. Lucky was lying next to me began to get scared.  I gave him a pat to let him know that it was okay.  Then suddenly he was very relaxed.  It made me think that this is what we need to be right now. We need to be the calm in the storm for everybody around us. When we are that way, we are going to attract people to us. So be the calm. Get out there and let people know you're there to help. Let them know that you're open and that you want to reassure them that you're going to keep them safe in the steps that you're taking.

Use your Facebook page. It doesn’t matter what condition it’s in. Facebook is really good. If you're good on Instagram, use Instagram.  Instagram videos are blowing up right now. So whichever medium you're comfortable with do it. So, that's your tip. Start using your Facebook right now. Don't wait for another time to start growing your audience. Do it today.

Go make a difference in your life and in the life of your team. Oh, and don’t forget your community. They need you more now than ever. Please step up and make a difference today.

God bless.