Hey guys, it’s Michael Gallini at EurAuto Shop in Plano, Texas.

Today, we’re going to go a little off topic and talk about ownership of a shop. And I’m going to give you guys five tips that I wish that I would’ve known coming into this.

First tip would be coaching. There’s tons of places that you’re able to find a coach, Facebook, Google, reach out to other shop owners.

So, a lot of us are going to be more than willing to give you the information. The reason why is that they’re a book of knowledge.

Most people that have, that do coaching, have had coaching in the past, and therefore it’s just a complete book of knowledge.

Why do you need it? Accountability.

You, as a business owner, have a vested interest in all of it as were a business coach is going to have a vested interest in the business, but not just in the business, but in you.

Financial backing would be the second one. You can get financial backing from the SBA. You can do it independently if you’ve got the cashflow to be able to do it. Or reach out to somebody that has an interest in maybe being a silent investor. It’s the key to making the day in and day out operations much easier instead of having to essentially rob Peter to pay Paul.

Number three would be location. Location, in my opinion, is super key next to the first two that I just talked about. You’ve got to get out, go through your community, drive around, go look at different areas. If you decide to specialize, go drive through the neighborhoods, look at the vehicles that are there. Because you can find a location that’s kind of off the beaten path, but the amount of money that it’s going to cost to generate the flow of work to come in is substantially different. How you can find it? I personally, I contacted a city inspector to see if they knew of any location that was kind of in the area of what I was thinking. And it just happened to fall sort of in my lap. Another way that you can do it is reach out to a local realtor or somebody that’s involved in the community.

People, would be my number four deal. The people that work for you, your employees, are very key to the entire operation of the entire business. You, as an owner, have to realize that you can’t do everything. How you can find employees? Indeed has worked for me. Other than that, it’s been referrals or even people that I’ve known in the past. The one thing that I will say about that is don’t mix friendship with business.

Number five would be business planning. Reach out to the local community college. They offer classes for business owners that you can go through and you can basically map out your entire business plan. I feel it’s super key in being able to do this and I wish that it was one thing that I would have done from the very beginning of ownership.

These are the five things that I would suggest doing if you have an interest in ownership of any business and especially the automotive business.

If there’s anything that I can personally do for you, feel free to reach out to me.

But if you’re not comfortable reaching out to me, reach out to other business owners. More than likely they’re going to be more than happy to point you in the direction or give you the information that they wished that they had from the very beginning.

Thanks for watching this guys. And as always, I look forward to seeing you guys and love talking to you all. We’ll talk soon.