Auto Repair Shop Owner's Daily Dose 66: The Devil is in the Details

The Devil is in the Details by Rick White, President 180BIZ

Today it's daily dose day number 66. If we have one more six, it'd be the sign of the devil. Right? And why am I saying that? It's because the devil is in the details. Some shops are getting busier now as every state lifts sanctions and stay at home orders to some degree. I'm seeing shops getting busier. But guess what they're doing? They've stopping their marketing. They're getting into “DO IT” mode instead of “GROW IT” mode. And that, my friends, is a mistake. Please learn from this that you must market your business every single day.

You must be intentional about getting in front of new people. You must be intentional about your message. Your shop does not have a big enough base. You do not have enough customers. You need more customers. Now is a great time to do that. Still, even though people are starting to move around more, there's still a lot of free time. There's still a lot of downtime. People are still consuming videos and social media. So, it's really, important that you stay with this.

Please learn from this pandemic that you need to grow your audience. You need to get a bigger audience to be effective. Now's a great time to do that again because:

1. People are still at home more.
2. There are some shops that are closed that will not be opening again.

Customers of closed shops will be looking for a new service provider. I want you to be on top of their mind. I want you to have top of mind awareness. So, when someone's thinking about getting their car fixed, they think of you.  They saw you on Facebook and know that you really care about your customers.  You need to market your business every single day until you die, or you sell the business.

Do not fall into old behavior. Grow from this. Learn from this and be a better owner. Be a better operator. Go from being an operator to an owner.  That’s a big difference.

• Operators work in the business
• Owners work on the business.

Think about your five to thrive. What are the five things you're going to do each and every day to help you grow your audience? Because if you don't have a big enough audience, you are going to be in trouble. Remember what I said yesterday? The problem with your shop was not this virus. This virus just magnified the problems you already had. Marketing has a huge part of this because let's face it, we're more comfortable fixing cars. Doing anything rather than getting in front of people.  But you need to talk to people and let them know who you are, what you do, and how you do it differently. Let them know why you are a value.

This is going to be your secret weapon. Your superpower is going to be present every single day. You're doing something to grow your business. I don't care how busy you are, I don't care how backed up you are. You need to market every day. Why? Because there is a lag between doing the marketing and getting the result. If you stop marketing, you'll be busy for a little while and then you're going to get slow. Then you start marketing again creating a vicious cycle with reactive marketing. It’s the most expensive marketing you'll ever do because you're reacting to a slow period. You're going to throw a whole bunch of money at your marketing to see what sticks and it doesn't work well.

You don't get a great return on it.  And because of that, now your shop gets a little bit busier. And then what happens? You go back into do it mode and get out of grow it mode and repeat the cycle all over again. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Look, these videos every morning, they make me nervous. I get a little queasy and I worry about having the right message.  I want to make a difference in your life, and I worry about all these things.  It makes me not want to do this to myself. I just want to stay in bed sometimes. But, no, I am on a crusade to help you grow. I want to help you with business ideas. And thought processes and mindsets. They're going to help you succeed.

Thank you very much for being here. Take care, God bless, and go make some money today.