It's more attainable than you think.
BY GREG BUNCH
THAT WAS THE CLASS TITLE I TAUGHT AT VISION 2022 IN KANSAS CITY.
My class had over 200 students, and the positive feedback was amazing, and I was so grateful for the opportunity to share with so many incredible professionals.
My name is Greg Bunch, I own six shops in Colorado and own the Transformers Institute, a coaching, consulting, and training company dedicated to transforming the lives of automotive professionals and our beloved industry.
I have the privilege to be around the top 1% of the shops in the country through our Mastermind groups. To hear what they are doing to be the best now and well into the future is nothing short of amazing. I imagine that’s how the mastermind meetings of Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, Andrew Carnegie, and Thomas Edison felt about their mastermind groups that Napolean Hill wrote about almost 100 years ago.
You may feel 10,000 miles away from having a top shop, but I can tell you, it is possible to have a great shop that’s profitable without high stress and working long hours.
You can have it all: a healthy body, a healthy mind, healthy relationships, a healthy culture, and a healthy net worth. You can have employees who come to work every day, want to work for you, and buy into your “why.” You will have good days and bad, of course, and all the above comes with hard work, self-discipline, and a dedication to continued learning and transforming into a great leader in all areas of your life. True happiness comes from progress, not from reaching perfection. Perfection is not attainable and waiting to be “happy” until you get there is a receipt for frustration and depression.
HENRY FORD IS QUOTED SAYING:
“Two percent of the people think; three percent think they think, and 95% would rather die than think”.
Whether you agree with what I say or not, my goal is to get you into the 2% category as you read through my article. Our world is full of people who want everyone else to do the thinking for them. They are bound in fear and addicted to the dopamine rush of social media, television, and video games.
They numb themselves with drugs, alcohol, and other dangerous and unhealthy forms of self-soothing. They follow the next big “trend” and are always looking for the “silver bullet” to make their jobs easier and make more money without putting in the hard work to get there.
If you genuinely want to be a top 1% shop owner, the place to start is to look in the mirror, have an honest look at where you are, and tell yourself where you want to be. Take a few minutes and write down what you would like your life and business to look like in three years. What do you want that you don’t have? What do you have and don’t want? What experiences do you want to have? What do you want to learn? What do you want your net worth to be? How much time off do you want to have?
What do you want your shop to look like? Who do you want working for you? What do you want customers to be saying when they call? When they walk in the door? When they pick up their vehicle?
Are you working out of the same location? Do you have multiple locations? Are you working in the business or on the business?
Grab a notebook and start by answering these questions. Go ahead, I’ll wait....
Much harder than you thought, right? You probably said, “I’ll do that later, when I have time,” as you are hoping to grab a nugget out of this article and get back to work. Don’t worry, that’s reality for most of us. I am going to challenge you to take a few hours away from the daily grind and do the exercise above.
You will learn things about yourself and what you deem important. Being brutally honest with yourself is key.
I continue to challenge my own team and my clients that their goals are too small, and the timeline needed to achieve them are too long. So much more can be accomplished when people buy into the vision and have a leader who can get them there. With that said, take what you wrote out and schedule a time to go over it with your team, and possibly your key vendors.
- Share your vision and why it’s important to you
- Break down the steps needed to achieve your vision
- Allow your team to give ideas and input into the plan
- Create a scoreboard to track daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual progress
- Commit to at least 60 minutes a day to review your vision and act on the plan accordingly
That equals 70 hours a quarter! Imagine what you could do with 70 hours to work on building the business of your dreams! Remember a big part of your time has to be dedicated to training and leading. If repainting the shop is on your list, hire someone! That is not the highest and best use of your time.
If building an apprentice program is on your list, get your technicians involved. Learn how they got to the level they’re at. How could a solid plan help them get there sooner? What were their pain points? How can they participate in the vetting process and subsequent training of the apprentice?
THE TWO MAIN REASONS BUSINESSES GO UNDER ARE POOR LEADERSHIP AND LACK OF CASH.
Make sure you know your numbers and if you don’t know where to start by reaching out for help.
If you know you struggle with leadership, welcome to the club! Leadership skills can be learned and developed. I have found there are lots of wrong ways to lead, but also many ways to lead effectively.
Greg Bunch is the founder/CEO of Aspen Auto Clinic, a six-shop operation out of Colorado, and the founder/CEO of Transformers Institute, a training, coaching, and consulting company for the auto repair industry.