The weight a garage owner carries: 6:30am, dark and pouring down

You’re opening the shutter at 6:30 in the morning. It’s pouring down with rain. It’s Monday, it’s dark, and you’ve got customers booked in and staff you’re responsible for.

You walk in and you don’t know what the day’s going to be like.

If you’re an independent garage owner, you know that feeling. Most of the people whose cars you look after have no idea it exists.

I describe it in a minute and a half here.

Everyone expects something from you

You carry the weight. Your staff look at you and expect from you. Your customers expect from you. And you’re the one who has to deliver, whatever the day throws up.

The challenges you face as a business owner are huge. As a garage owner, I think it adds another dimension.

What it does to you, and to your decisions

It drains you. And when you’re drained, it doesn’t stay in your head. It shows up in the business:

• It affects how you manage, and how you lead.
• It affects how your team see you, or don’t see you.
• It affects your general business acumen, and your ability to make the right decisions.

That last one is the dangerous one. Tired owners make rushed calls on pricing, on people and on what jobs to take. Not because they’re bad at business, but because they’ve got nothing left in the tank.

Customers don’t see this bit

I know every industry says the same thing: it’s hard in my industry, people don’t realise. But I’ve been in this for many, many years, and I don’t think vehicle owners really understand how difficult it is being in the garage industry. Specifically in the independent sector.

I hold my hat off to every single garage owner out there that’s been in it, maybe retired or still in it. It’s very, very challenging.

Andy Savva

It doesn’t have to be you every Monday

Here’s the thing. The weight is real, but it isn’t fixed. When I talk about what success looks like for the owners I work with, I use exactly the same picture, turned the other way round.

Success is the owner who isn’t opening that shutter at 6:30 on a wet Monday, because there’s another team member doing it.

Getting there takes the right people, the right processes and a proper understanding of your numbers. None of that happens while you’re too drained to step back and look at it.

Where to start

1. Be honest about how much of the weight is sitting on you alone. Write down what only you can do today.
2. Pick one of those jobs, even opening up, and decide who on your team could take it on.
3. Take an hour away from the workshop to look at the business as a whole. The free Garage Healthcheck gives you a starting point.