Hey everybody! First of all, this is Chris Cotton with AutoFix-Auto Shop Coaching here.

I don’t know where this one’s going to go. I’ve gotten these thoughts rolling around in my head and instead of jotting it down and trying to come up with a structure, I’m just going to talk about it and we’ll see what happens.

So, if I’m to give this a title, it’s one, always be recruiting, have a deep bench, and make sure you got good players on your team. All right?

And so what spurred this on or what brought this up is I listen to a couple of sports things in the morning while I’m reading news and checking up on current events, and checking up on current events, things like that. And everybody’s talking about Dak Prescott, everybody’s talking about Deshaun Watson, and I’m like, “Maybe the solution is pretty easy, pretty clear. So my thing is, okay, he doesn’t want to stay in Houston. Dallas can’t figure out their mess they got going on. They got way too much money in there. And I’m no salary cap expert but maybe if I knew more about the salary cap, I’m damn sure I could figure it out, right? I’m that smart or smart enough, I think, that I can figure it out.

So, quickly, maybe Dallas, maybe Jerry Jones needs to trade Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliot for Deshaun Watson, and everybody’s happy. Maybe they could figure that out and make it work.

But, anyway, what’s this got to do with auto repair shop? I tell that story to tell this story.

One of the big lessons I learned early on was I would have a technician or a service rider come in, maybe they moved in from town or somewhere else, who were just looking for a job. And they came in and they’re like, “Hey, I’m looking for a job.” And instead of taking a deep breath and doing the right thing, what I did was, “Oh, I’m not hiring right now. Thank you.” and just let them go.

And I could have turned away some really great people. And in fact, I know a couple of them, I kind of knew later on as they worked at other shops in the area because I passed on them like an idiot. They went somewhere else and did great things.

The important thing out of that is you need to always be hiring, always be recruiting, because you don’t know who’s going to walk through the door and you don’t know who’s going to be in market.

It’s kind of like marketing for oil changes and things like that; you don’t know who or when they’re going to be in market. So if we’re always capturing people that are in market, then great. So I learned that lesson from turning people away.

And after that, I would tell them when they come in and say, “Hey, I’m looking for a job.” I would be like, “We’re always looking for great team players and great assets to the company and the team. Let me get your information. Let me get your resume. I’m not really hiring right now but I’ll go ahead and take you through the steps and the process. And if we’ve got room for you, then great. If you’re too good to pass up, I’ll find a spot for you. And maybe you’re an upgrade and somebody else needs to go.”

If you got like problem-people in the shop, you really shouldn’t be putting up with that. And other issues going on.

If you look at your auto repair shop business like a sports team and you’re always keeping in your best players on the field and you’re actively recruiting and hiring for a good bench, you can always move players into starting positions, right? Some people you can bring in, some people you need to let go.

As a shop owner, you got to put your big-boy pants on, or big-girl pants on if that’s the case, and keep the winners and sometimes you got to get rid of the losers. It sucks, but you’re an owner. That’s what your job is; to make sure you put the best people on the field, on the court, in your shop, all day every day, so they can be great people for your customers.

Have a great day, everybody.