230: Working For Yourself Or Someone Else, With Donnie Sanford

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Hey, what's going on?

Automotive World welcome to another episode of the Automotive Diagnostic Podcast.

My name is Sean Tipping.

I'll be your host once again for today's episode.

Thank you for joining me On the show this week.

I've got Donnie Samford joining me.

Donnie's been on the show before.

He works in the parts industry and he's recently made a transition from owning his own store to managing a store and working for someone else.

And that's going to be the topic of our discussion today is some of the pros and cons of both working for yourself, owning a business, entrepreneurship because we talk about that a lot on the show right, and I'm sort of biased that direction because that's what I've done but also the other side of it is working for someone else, working for a company, being an employee.

What are the benefits to that?

What are the reasons you might go that direction or stay in that place versus running your own show.

Right, and it's good to talk about the other side of things.

Since I mentioned, I talk a lot about the doing your own thing, but there is a right time and place for both, so that'll be the focus of our discussion.

We're also going to talk about some key stuff, but always good to get to talk to Donnie.

So with that out of the way, let's jump into the episode.

All right, good evening, donnie.

How's it going?

I'm good.

How are you?

Sean, I cannot complain.

Really busy.

Actually, this morning was interesting because we had nothing on the schedule.

Like when we got up today there was nothing, which is very odd.

We haven't had that.

I don't even remember the last time we've had that, and so it's kind of nice, though we just all I told Steve was like, just hang out at home, we'll give you a call if something comes in, and it was just a nice leisurely morning.

I went to the bank and got some stuff handled, got a few other things handled, and then everybody called all at once and said we were like booked out a day and a half.

Like all of a sudden I'm like what were all of you people doing yesterday?

I'll take it, I guess, however it comes.

That's awesome.

It always comes in waves, Like at the party store.

We'll sit there and it's like quiet and it'll trick you because you're like okay, well, I'm gonna start this project, I'm like cleaning up or something back there.

And then I swear to God, they get together and they're like all right, us three are gonna rush the counter, you two call on the phones.

You know, it's like it always happens in big waves all at once.

Yeah, it's weird how certain jobs or certain things will come in waves too, and I've experienced that my entire career in the automotive field.

We're gonna just get three or four of the same thing, and it's not.

I'm not working in a dealership either.

You know I've been in the independent world, seeing all makes and models and then all of a sudden I get you know three or four of the same make with the same problem.

The programming is no different, right?

The Ogea stretch, where all we were doing was the TCMs and the Ford Focuses and Fiesta's and stuff like that and just like every other call, was one of those, and then I think it was parts driven on that one, but then we wouldn't see any for a really long time and then there'd be another big wave, and I think it was just when they could actually get modules.

But what was bad I had in the height of the backorder.

I had one.

I had to send it to down that shop down in Texas to get rebuilt Like it was the only one I could find.

They were the little Ford Fiesta's underneath the battery yeah.

Transmission control module yeah.

Are they back in supply?

now, you know, I am not sure, I don't know.

I know they had just an insane backorder, but I haven't been doing as much of them recently.

I think I called them and was like do you know anything on these?

I said the only place I'm seeing is eBay and you said if you get one from eBay, get five.

I'm going to need five.

Yeah, those are so bad.

Well, number one they didn't differentiate between Fiesta or Focus, because they look the same.

They bolt up, they plug in and they will actually work.

But you got to do some trickery to get it to happen.

But if you get a Focus in a Fiesta or Fiesta in a Focus, it won't work.

There will be no comm between the cluster and the TCM and you won't be able to program it, it will just boot you out.

But the other thing, even if you did get the right one, it's whether it communicated.

And I had one where I was actually cloning them on the bench.

So I was like plugged into the module on the bench and all I did was cook power and ground up to it and the programming device turns it on.

A little puff of smoke just came out of the connector when it turned on.

I don't check my connections, because I was like, did I screw something up?

I'm like, no, this is how it's supposed to be hooked up.

And as soon as I saw that, I ripped my connections out of the thing and yeah, so those Chinese-y ones left a little bit to be desired.

I guess.

So I'm going to have to be doing the worst doing in the world.

See, the smoke coming out.

Yeah Well, I mean, I'm glad I didn't buy it.

I tell all these shops hey, you're going to do eBay, amazon.

It's a roll of the dice For me.

People trying to provide their own keys seems to be one of the worst too.

I've got some of my regular keys.

I won't do no.

Well, I tell people hey, I'm going to come out and we will attempt it, but I'm charging you full price if your key does not work right, and it's nothing to do with us.

And that happens because I got burned on it too many times.

And so I tell them hey, I guarantee you my keys will work, and if they don't I'm not going to charge you anything and there's warranty on them.

I know where they came from blah, blah, blah.

But yeah, people buy them off of Amazon.

Is that for shops or is that for that's not any walkout like walking like regular on the street people?

So a key work is tricky because I try to keep it to business, to business only, and I'll try to only do it through shops.

Well, of course, invariably your number gets out there, hey you know, especially in like an all keys loss situation, because that is good money and so that's usually where it is, where people are providing their own keys.

Or if a shop is called me in for a customer job, yeah, they want to supply their Amazon keys for it or whatever.

And if you're trying to do a Nissan, you know the stupid Nissan keys.

Every single one looks the same but it seems every single vehicle has a different FGC ID on those things and I've been beat up with that.

I'm like I have.

I have a fricking stack full of these Nissan keys and it seems like every time I get one, I'm like I don't have that one.

What the heck.

Like none of these will work.

No, all the FGC ID I'm working on, I'm going to be able to submit that.

Dude, if, if there was a device if anybody out there listening knows of such a thing, I can't find it that would pick up a signal from a key, from any remote that's broadcasting, you know, electromagnetic wave, and come back and give you an FCC ID.

That would be the coolest fricking thing in the world.

I would go buy one right now, click so, send me a link if you got one, but I haven't been able to find one.

You could tell the frequency, but that's that's where I run into.

A problem is, the key will have the same frequency, but it's a different FCC ID, and so the car just doesn't deserve it, right?

I've got a customer that we go out to.

He's insanely smooth.

I mean I wish, like next time when you visit, I wish to come here.

This is one of the guys.

You just he's one of those guys.

If you walk in next to him and you just start, he starts talking and you start feeling smarter about stuff.

Where you start feeling stupid or how everyone would look at it.

He started out his career at our local GM, did it for years.

He was their drivability.

He is so good with electronics.

Then he's he's on his own, his shop is out in the sticks and and he does a lot of hot riding, rebuilding.

He does rebuilding hot rods for people.

He does the dealerships bring him things like when somebody can't figure it out, they bring it out to him.

But now he's kind of gotten on a thing I can't really talk about too much.

They got it under wraps.

Like I go out there I have to let him know I'm coming, whether stuff's in the shop I can see or not.

And he's they got a new battery that they've created and he's on the end on it.

I mean I was back to where I was going before I went down that rabbit hole.

He, I was talking to him about that and I was like man, how can I do this?

And he got on to the long thing about, well, the body going through the body controller, the ECU, is where that signal goes, and we were hashing that out and you know that would be the thing.

He said, that it's going to be in the stream, and then the FCC ID is on our national register and that's about as far as we got.

Okay, yeah, yeah.

We'll need to figure this out.

It would be I wouldn't have something to do with that.

Well, it's, it's, yeah, that's.

I have a lot of keys in stock because I ordered the wrong one or I couldn't figure out which one the car needed ahead of time, so I just ordered both and then I've got the, the one that didn't work.

Now that one's in stock and I'll probably never use it because it'll be some, like you know, japanese made thing that doesn't come to the States, or something like that.

Key and Hyundai are terrible.

Yeah, they seem to have multiple options for every single one of their vehicles and even using repair link and stuff like that, I've I've had a tough time.

I actually had the dealership sell customer the wrong keys.

Fcc wise, right, you can see it was the same.

The physical key was the same, but I could not get the remote programmed in.

But I could program the old one in this.

Again, it was a customer supplied key.

But they're like, yeah, we're buying it from Kia and couldn't get it to work, but the old one, what I'm like it's, it's got to be this key.

So I ended up, you know, searching and searching and thinking around and I'm like this is the other key that they list.

Tell them you need this part number.

They did came back.

It worked fine and so obviously the car Can identify the FCC ID right.

I don't pretend to know exactly how it works within the structure of the message.

Maybe that's step one and to figure in this out, but obviously the car can make that determination because those two Kia keys they were both, I think they were both three 15 for the frequency.

The frequency is the same, but something within that message is different, that's to the FCC ID, that number that you see on the back.

So what is that?

It must be readable.

Somehow Can you translate it from a message.

I don't know.

I was looking at that could be wrong.

So please, somebody else I believe right.

So you have the RFID, is the signal.

Now you have FCC gives the instructions.

So like you would think about it like Morris coded be like dot, dot, dash or dash, dash, dot is what that's doing.

I could be wrong.

I've been trying to unlock this mystery because it aggravates me and it wastes me a lot of time.

You look so silly.

It was one of the surprising challenges for me getting into keys right, like the cutting of them.

I actually was surprised by how quickly I was able to pick that up.

Now I think the technology involved in today's machines is a big part of that not me, but it's like the stuff that's out there right now.

You can figure out how to cut keys pretty dang quick, but it's the other, that's that little stuff that's hung me up and been a sticking point and yet getting the right keys because they have multiple options for one.

But yeah, if anybody out there is listening to this podcast and you are, you know, somebody who's an expert on even just like radio frequencies, I would be.

I would love to have somebody on the show that, like, really knows that stuff well or has a lot of experience in it, cause I actually find it really interesting just the fact that you press a button on a key and a little three volt battery sends out an electromagnetic, magnetic wave like at the speed of light to your car and then it responds to it and like that to me is pretty crazy that that just works and it just life, is that?

it can know the difference between all the one you know and like this bullet and it's me just even get fascinated with how the chip works.

You know when we point in and the coil and that's what gives it energy to fireman, you know, right, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then the anti-theft portion of it too.

Obviously there's a steep learning curve there.

I know you've been doing a ton of keys lately and it's just like every new cars and new challenge in somewhere or another to do these keys.

I had three to do today and one was that Ford truck Didn't work out.

I was telling my really customer came to me and it had a I believe it'd be an ECU problem.

And then they took it to them, they called me, and then the other one was just a Honda.

Obviously I knocked out pretty easy but yeah, but the keys is it keeps you.

I think it's why I kind of like it.

It you got to really use your brain sometimes, yeah, or know some smart people, they can help you out for sure.

That's, that's been my move.

So I'm always calling you.

Of course, my calls have gotten less and less and I think I'm getting a little better.

Yeah.

Yeah, that time I called you and that guy had shoved them wires into the ODB and it was crazy.

It wasn't your, you know.

Facetime me, let me see what's going on?

Yeah, I do that with my employees.

Sometimes I'm just like it'll be easier if I could just see what you're doing.

Oh man, yeah, the keys been going good, you can keep leashy, I hadn't you know?

When we took that class I bought one and I got kind of motivated.

I got to where I could do it, but oh, such a, I don't know, that's not really my jam.

Yeah, you know it's.

I enjoy it because it's kind of like a puzzle.

But I was on a Toyota a couple of weeks ago where it's all keys lost and it's 20 bucks to get the key code legit.

You know, through NASDAF and yeah, you got to file some paperwork.

But what does that take you?

Five minutes once you have the information.

And I already do have the information.

If I'm doing all keys lost, I'm getting all that stuff anyways.

But I'm not going to help people steal cars.

So what's 20 bucks to just have the code, especially now that the temperature is dropping in Minnesota?

I am pretty much strictly a code Smith once the temperature gets below freezing Cause.

Doing leashy when you can't feel your fingertips is not fun.

Time is money and Yup Yep.

If I had a demo science and I could just go up there and feel so content that I can just do it, it would be a different story for me.

I know it takes hours that I don't have.

I would rather do something like I like to play with the last show on the table with the electronics instance.

I'm going to use that time that way.

Yup, yup, I know, I totally, I totally understand it In a situation where locks have been changed.

That is one point where it's nice to be able to do that, and I've run into that a couple of times.

Luckily not a whole lot, but the key is in Hyundai's again is an example where that happens quite often actually, because these things are stolen so often.

So they're changing over lock cylinders and things like that, and so you can get that cut code fairly easy for one of those, but it's not going to work cause they changed it over.

So what do you do now?

And I actually did find what was that on.

It was a newer Kia and these things are so unsecure.

You can leashy the lock cylinder, the ignition lock cylinder.

Most cars you can't do that.

There's the sidebar or whatever.

So you can't do the ignition.

I wish you'd have the ignition in this thing.

Ha ha ha.

Look, that's pretty easy.

Something right that's the key is the ones you can use the USB drive and make a historic.

Is that the one?

I?

That's very possible.

I haven't seen that Somebody's seeing something.

Somebody was telling me that about them, that you can use a USB.

I don't know.

I was like, oh, it's kind of crazy.

I had a scion today that, nothing like you know, I got a little amp on my phone and the key didn't look like anything like what the customer had and I went to UHS, I went to Transponder Island, I went to a couple different and none of the keys looked right to what the customer had.

That's all I'm asking Maybe some aftermarket key or something?

Oh, that's what I said.

But he said that was the factory key he got.

I was like, ah, I'm probably just gonna take one of my generics.

I got the blade and I'm just gonna take one of the generics up there and make it.

It was wildly.

There's probably something he gave me the VIN but Repair Link wasn't very much help on that one.

Yeah, sometimes it doesn't.

Sometimes calling the dealer actually has been pretty helpful for finding out part numbers and stuff like that.

And I do use websites like UHS all the time just for to see what key do I need, because you don't even need an account.

You go on there and search and I'd say 95% of the time they're pretty accurate as far as the options go and what you might need the part numbers, the FCC, all that stuff.

So, yeah, it's actually a pretty good resource, even if you don't order any keys from them.

It's really good information if you're trying to figure that stuff out.

That's the key is figuring out the right info for what.

The key is what goes for the car, what's it supposed to have?

Yeah, yeah, but even with one car you can have so many different options for a particular key.

It's like is it a push button starter?

Is it not a push button start?

What's the button configuration?

Fcc, ad, frequency, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And so a lot of times I have my guy doing the phone so I'm like just have them text, take a picture of the key and text it to you so you have, like you can see, the physical key, or here's the buttons it has, here's the configuration, and that way we can't mess it up, cause that's another one where you can make a key, you can do everything right, it's all great, but the buttons aren't the same as the one that they had or have.

They're not happy and they don't want to pay that fee, even if it's too many buttons, right, like you can say, oh, I'm just gonna get the one with all the buttons and then I'm covered no matter what, and they don't like that, so I don't know.

You can take a little like acetone and wipe off the white part but when we took that class, I always get that one.

I take some acetone and wipe it off, but that's exactly what happens If it doesn't fit in exactly right, like it's like I'm not paying.

What's going on?

What's this button do it's like?

Well, it's.

Yeah, yeah, I have a remote start now.

It doesn't work, what the hell.

Yeah, yep.

So you made some changes in what over the last six months to a year.

August one was the date we switched.

Okay, okay, maybe we start with that, if you want to just kind of share with the listeners.

You were on a podcast.

I don't know how long ago was that, that was over a year ago, I think.

So, yeah, yeah, probably even more.

Anyways, you had originally come on and we were talking about parts because you owned a car class, right?

Uh-huh, I owned a car class auto parts store.

Yeah, so what's happened since then and where are you at now?

Oh man, so yeah, so we came on and we talked about the relationships between the parts and the shops, right, and how you know.

So I was a business owner, which you know, like I always do, when you were talking about going from teaching to do, and I was telling you, hey, like you know, working for yourself, I've always thought that's the way to go.

But, and I'll say this, you're kind of bling and I was at vision, you know, to train, and I ran into one of the guys from Napa, you know, at the corporate and we were just well, it also started.

I was in because while I was there for the key, I had some time, so I took a couple other classes just to do it.

I took the one with Scott Shotten and now took another Miss Fire class, and it's like just happened to be the one that I was sitting next to a guy and it was a Napa auto.

He was like, oh, I'm a Napa auto carrier, you know, so I'm talking to him and he was telling me about it and just had a really good feeling about it, you know, and I was like, huh, and some of the things I was, you know, talking about some things that I've been struggling with.

And then another class.

I sat next to another shop and they were Napa auto carriers and you know just, and I was like huh, and really it came down to me and I'd been trying to grow In this business.

You've got to be.

I was a single store and I wanted to be a multi store, right.

So I wanted to because kind of the way parts work is, you guys know you have to have a lot of stuff, so you have to, and you can do that.

If you have multiple stores it's easier, you can stage things, you can spread things out.

So you have one thing here.

If you have it over here, also you don't have to wait for it, you can get it from your other store.

There's a lot of things to do and, just trying to go, I'd worked with another.

The carcass had worked with me on taking over another store.

It didn't work out and it didn't go well with me and that owner, like feeling kind of went back on it.

I mean he shook my hand that he was gonna sell to me and didn't.

And then we were gonna do another, the corporate store they talked about.

Let us do that.

And then COVID hit and that didn't really work out and I was like and I was stuck right, just stuck in between these two stores.

So I went 12 miles this way, you know, we would argue over territory.

I went 12 miles another way, we'd argue over territory.

Absolutely was frustrating me and but all in all, my store was doing good, very successful, was really like I said, if you'd have asked me Eight months ago, seven months ago, I would have said no way, there's no way.

I wouldn't be sitting here wearing a nappa shirt, you know Not owning my business.

And I even said on your first podcast I mean, I'm not.

I even said I don't ever like bash another brand.

We sell probably 80 to 90% of the same stuff.

Now some product lines, do you know, between your rotating elect rules and things like that, they are different, right, but you know, a lot of times those things Breaklines jump from brand to brand a lot, a lot of things do so you don't you do a disservice by really bashing another brand.

It's always the people and you know people buy parts from people, usually mostly right.

So, talking with Napa, to get back to my story, they had a plan to get me a couple stores and then the guys named Bill Hayes, great guy.

I hit it off with him like he took me to lunch, was talking to me and he just kind of was like you ever thought about selling?

Because I had mentioned those things about, because they had a plan so we can get you some more stores if you want.

But he said, if you ever thought about selling, just kind of threw it out there and us, and because we talked about there is a Multi-store owners that are in my area and they own a majority of the ones around, and I said I didn't even bring that same boat.

He said you thought about it.

I was like now everything's for sale, right and and so and, but I didn't think really that much about it.

But bill, kind of like you know, just sit down and talk to him like you know, because you're gonna, and he put me in touch with them and it's Miller auto or Miller auto or supply, and Just talking to him on the phone they say really good to talk to.

We went and had lunch and you know we kind of have a lot of the same like thinking business-wise, you know, and just it really came down to I really felt like we just I don't, just I felt like, man, that's what a good organization.

So it's we were.

You know, I never sold a business before either, so that was kind of an example like we kind of worked out terms and you know, they were really easy, they were really great to work with in this business like I don't Know, it isn't like one of those things where you like I'm fascinated with business too, I love like business, all things about it, and it was so that was another thing that's kind of fascinating for me.

Actually going through that process of selling the business, mm-hmm, it's not like where you think like well, I got you know, last year we did 1.3

million sales, so take that times three is what things do.

A lot of this business is your equity.

You put in your parts and Hmm, that's that's where.

And you know, I know some part store owners, you know, and that's what, that's the way it goes.

You know Met a really good guy at one of our conventions.

You know need had his stores for years and that's what transfer and go over to his children.

They were gonna buy all the parts off of them and all that.

You know it's an asset based.

You know, okay, cuz any other store to pop up, get a storefront, they can roll in and do I feel, and they made me a really fair offer.

I mean, they made me an extremely fair offer.

It wasn't like you know, I still got to work.

I mean it wasn't like that kind of credit.

It was a really fair offer and you know wanted to keep me on and it's been.

I will say like it hasn't been, like you know there's been some struggles, like, but you're gonna have that right, you're gonna have yeah, they came in and I.

Had been operating for five years, I really felt like I had.

I had things locked down and we switched After we we pulled the trigger on August 1.

We changed in that, for they came in, they pulled things off the shelf and I basically felt kind of like I started from square one again.

You know, I was at down on the first day, I like, because some of the stuff had been moved and you know things were not where.

You know, for like five years I've been able to say, oh, you need this right here, you know.

So that kind of got disoriented me and it was a new computer system.

I had to learn.

But it's been a great the thing.

Uh, the main difference I'm experiencing is I was their 17th store, they acquired and Okay, so it's a pretty good operation, still a family run business.

Yes, family run business.

It was started here.

We'll pull down in Eldon, missouri, and I can't stress enough how great they've been.

The main thing before for me was you know, when you own the business, right, like, and Nothing ever comes to you it's easy, right, like, it's always that thing, right.

If it was easy, we got solved, right, uh-huh, yeah, but I always like when they before it was always.

And some days you feel like you're handling nothing but problems, right, and which you know I love being a problem solver and you know, now I have People, you know we have a district manager, we have things, and just like you know, and I will say this they've, they've let me remember.

They told me we let you use run store like you've been running it, and you know they got a plan for me to do outside sales.

Um, they were really uh, they really like the key stuff so far.

I mean they said run it like you've been running and I mean I, okay, you know, um, it's been going really good, you know.

So I, and now, if I, like, I have an issue, it's like I can call somebody.

Sure, yeah.

That ends up the line a little bit.

So I mean that's nice, uh, you know, but I've always had the mindset that I work for myself, even when I'm working for somebody else, right, like I've always.

Okay, you know you, I do a good job, just because you need to do a good job, you know, you know.

So I, I was in the army for a long time.

Uh, you know, I own my own cartilages.

I've worked at places, I worked at a bank.

Um, you know, it always comes down to how you are, but it is, it is nice, like being a part and I have more parts and availability on things.

I have more resources to solve problems, which that's what the name is and uh, yeah, it's been really good.

Like we're, we're hitting our stride, we're starting to get out there.

Like I said, we're getting another person in and I'm really excited about where things are going to go.

Well, that's cool, man.

That's.

That's good to hear.

And, um, yeah, congratulations on on that.

That's that sounds really good.

Um, and that was the reason what one of the reasons I wanted to have you on here was, you know, I put out a lot on the podcast, you know, doing mobile and doing my own thing, and I talked to a lot of people who were doing the same, and so a lot of my Discussions and content is biased in that direction of Doing your own thing, being being an entrepreneur, and I mean, there is definitely a case to be made for or just having a job and working for

somebody, and that is the right move for a lot of people.

Right, entrepreneurship and doing the business owner thing is right for some people, but definitely not all, and vice versa.

And, um, you know, I just don't, I don't talk about it much like, yeah, working for someone, you know, but you know you, you made that transition, you know, from one to another, and I guess, yeah, that's sort of the sort of stuff that I'm curious about is like the decisions that went into that, what you miss, what you don't miss, and I mean, obviously, like you're saying, Like you, you have to be the resolution to all the problems as a business owner right.

It's eventually going to fall on you.

If nobody else it can or is willing to solve it, and you might still be able to reach out for outside help, but it's not.

You know, within your business, like you know, you are the, the tech support and the HR and You're trying to solve everything, and so it is.

It's a ton of responsibility.

You know you can't turn it off, um, you know you're gonna go home and wait for me.

You probably still do work, or at least think about it.

You know, I was checking in, thinking about whatever tomorrow where, if you, you know, just employed by somebody and I can say this because I was for a number of years hey, I clock out, I'm done till I come back here.

I'm not thinking one bit about it.

Um, I haven't got that, still haven't got that, I, but I've been, oh, I've always been that way, like where I don't.

You know, it's like I never was that guy.

I wish, thinking about it anyway.

And uh, you know, like, we just went to colorado and I was like, you know, I hope everything's going good at the shop.

You know how's things going, are they doing this or they doing that?

You know, um, I still have that.

I think the biggest struggle for me, where I struggle is, you know, I was the whole picture.

Right, my shop was the whole picture.

So if I wanted to do something, this is what I did.

Right Now, my shop is a part of a large organization, right, so there's a big picture and I'm one dot in that picture and you know, so, I always have to kind of I, I try to put a lot of thought into, because I think sometimes I'm just used to like Right, you know, like, when it's in front of you, you're the most important thing, right, where is sure, when you got multiple things, you know, like, I imagine they're probably calm down, dude, like you know, that's not important, but it's important to me.

Yeah, yeah, try to put a lot of thought.

I gotta get that key made for that Silverado you know, you know, or just on things like you know, when you solve or when you have this, you know, and I can pull the trigger before I'm still got.

I mean I'll tell you they haven't.

I hope I haven't done anything, I'm still here.

So, but that's kind of cool is is there's a great bit, there's a bigger picture than what's what my store is, and you know like I got.

You know when you feel like you know I mean there's like you know, just because this place needs this radiator right now and I need something to go get it.

You know like, well, you know, calm down, there's, this place needs an engine, this place needs this, this place needs this.

You know, and sure, yeah, yeah, but by large, yeah, it come down for me.

Just, I really think it was a really good fit and I think it was a good deal for me, it was a good deal for them, it was a good deal for Napa Probably went, a good deal for car quest.

But hey, have you ever been faced with the challenge of sourcing?

Installing and programming a used control module in a vehicle.

I know a lot of us have.

It seems to be happening more and more often today with the volume of control modules on vehicles, the cost of some new ones or even the availability of new control modules in some cases used may be the only option.

So what do you do here?

I strongly recommend checking out sj auto solutions and tommy oliva.

Tommy offers a cloning service for use control modules to make these things plug and play For the vehicle that you're working on.

In a lot of cases he is also able to source the control modules if you're Not unable to locate one for the vehicle that you're working on.

But once you get connected with tommy, he's going to offer Fantastic support from start to finish to make sure that that control module is going to work in your application.

He's also got tech support that he offers through his website, along with some free resources there as well on information about how to use control module programming.

So make sure to check out sj auto solutions.

I can't recommend that enough.

Did the employees at the store stay?

Did everybody just transfer into NAPPA or how did that?

work.

Well, it's, everybody stayed.

Oddly enough, my one employee and he's been with me for a long time, he actually left me, went to work for them for a couple of years and then came back, oh yeah.

So he kind of knew you know and I was you know, and he's been really good with it.

You know, everybody's just kind of rolled right along.

It was a little frustrating sometimes, like when a lot of the people struggled, same as me, you know, I had to go get some sodas and some lunches here and there to keep everybody, like you know, keep that morale going, because you know it's when things have been really easy for you.

Like you know, like the simple things, like you know, it's like, oh, I need this, I'm just got this, anything, just like you know, like permatec stuff's right over here, you just grab it.

Well, now it's not there, yeah, and this is the display, and it's so, and it's like, oh man, so.

And then, like you, go in, there's a lot of pressure when customers are in front of you and you call or you're trying to find something.

The computer system's a little bit different and there's been.

It's just different the way you look things up.

I like it, but I'm really used to the other system we had.

You drill down in categories, you drill down to it.

This one's more like a Google search and it's taken us all a little bit of time to, you know, learn the system and then learn that.

And yeah, and I feel like this, this last month we've really we've.

We're really kind of back, you know, or I kind of feel really confident.

Okay, well, that's good.

Yeah, the growing pains anytime you add something or make a change or whatever.

Yeah, I've been going through that.

My new key machine is it's.

It's nice, it works great, but I'm having to kind of learn everything over again because it's a totally different brand.

What's that man?

Who's he talking about that?

Which one did you get?

I got the.

Triton.

I got the Triton, I've been looking at those, and so it's.

It's really nice tool, but there's just little quirks to it that are different than the XOR stuff, and certain things it will do, certain things it does differently, and so you just have to, you know, fumble your way through it.

But that's exactly what it is.

It's like this key would have taken me, you know, 10 minutes before.

Now I'm here for a half hour, you know, kind of screwing around figuring all this stuff out, but yeah, it's like you do that a few times and then you're back up to speed to where you were.

But it's always that, that period of time when you're transitioning kind of sucks.

That's exactly right.

It might call it muscle, muscle memory on what you do.

Yeah, for for me, a lot of the part that I like owning my own thing running the show is is being able to call the shots on stuff, and that goes across a lot of things like whether or not I want to take on a job.

You know how much work we want to take on in a day, like what time are we done?

What's our last job of the day?

Um, saying saying yes or saying no to certain things.

All that stuff, even even when it comes onto what tool are we going to buy or what jobs are we going to pursue more.

All this stuff, I really do like being able to call those shots and I think that was one of the biggest hangups I had of working for somebody else, especially a shop, cause you very often at least I very often did not have a say in that sort of thing.

You know it's whatever they decided to take in the door, whenever they decided to take it.

You know that's that's what.

That's what you're going to be working on and, yeah, there was some room for you to you know, plead your case of hey, I don't want to do this, um, but at the end of the day, it's, it's what they would take in.

You know, it's that intermittent misfire that only happens once a week, you know.

Or this big, rusty, one ton van that they want you to do breaks all the way around on.

It's just like I mean, yeah, okay, this work right, it shouldn't complain.

But I really do like the ability to just say, nah, I'm good, we'll pass on that one, maybe I'll do any breaks anymore.

Hell.

No, I don't do any breaks at all.

I should.

I put brake pads on my van, so I guess I'm lying there, but I don't.

I don't do tires.

I have somebody else do the tires for me.

I never do another tire again.

That was the stuff we get right.

It's slow and like I haven't talked about a firestone you get the oil changes and then you get the snow tire changeover.

That was that was the absolute worst.

So the snow tire changeover we get those and I think you got paid.

You got paid less than a normal set of tires, which wasn't even that much to begin with.

You got like six tenths for a set of tires.

You got less for a snow tire changeover, even though you're doing the same thing.

It's off anyway, I miss any of that stuff.

Like so, like with diagnosing, like you know, I love I do a business, like in all of its.

Like you know, I like running my own business but I'm still a part of it.

And you know, like I said they, if it wasn't such a good, I just got a really good feeling and just kind of hit it off Like I got the same and I like I was able to jump on board with them and hopefully help them grow this and expand this and help their organization, you know.

So that's.

You know, like I said, I think you know I kind of got to watch, like making sure that.

You know, you know, also, for me, I'm always I think about things now, like in this last couple of months, like it's tough when you have employees, like it's how make the joke all the time.

I mean, like I went to, I went and got a college degree in business, right, but I think I should have took they all the time.

I should have took gymnastics in psychology.

You know I majored in business.

I should have took gymnastics and psychology because I feel like I'm always jumping out, jumping through my ass and talking people off of inches.

That's my job and it's like get at the office and at the shop and it's like whoa, everything's always ah and you know the business sign this.

Like I watched the, I think that was the thing that shocks me the most, right, so like I came into this, you know, I retired, opened up a parts store.

I'd always worked on my own cars, I'd had a little the D tag and had a car dealership while I was going to put myself through college and you know, I worked at a lot of parts.

I did a lot of things.

I thought like I know this, but it was an eye opener.

But it's different.

Like it's, there's a lot more involved and just like I see what really gets me is like the mechanic world.

What I see the mechanics have to do.

Like I've walking into the shops every day.

I really I do enjoy it.

That's one of my most fun part of the job is being out there and being in the shops and talking with them.

And but the recognition, like the diagnostic stuff that I see you guys do, is like get to you lawyers and doctors, you guys, the stuff you're pulling off like I see people do, it's like they and you don't get paid like them and you should.

I mean the amount of work and research and studying that I see see people doing and stuff pulling off.

It's just like it's amazing, you know, and they don't get the recognition you deserve for what happens.

You know, because it is so funny.

I saw shop the other day like they pulled off, like us.

It was like a tip of module and you know they figured out there's comms going in, not comms going out, and they done all this work and you know, in the end I think the customer was mad at him and it was like because then it was the module wasn't working.

It was, it was something crazy about the way it was reading and I was like the way they broke it down and actually, but it took two days longer than what they took a day and a half I think, and you know the customer okay.

You know, and just you see that and you're like do they even understand what they just did to pull that off?

And I guarantee they didn't get as much diet time as it took.

You know, and that is so like that.

That does blow me away with.

You know, I've always been super impressed with that, with the shops, like what it takes to diagnose these vehicles today.

It's a it's no easy task, as you know, Right.

And I think that's what's driven so many people to start doing, you know, this type of thing that I'm doing on their own is because, whether it's recognition or compensation or combination, it's not there, you know, in in the shops, or it hasn't been there in the shops.

And there's obvious exceptions and people doing really good stuff, but as a whole, it's very much so.

True is that the compensation for the people who are doing really really good stuff wasn't there, so they've gone out on their own.

And so now, you know, you rewind 15 years ago and there was some mobile guys, but it's very few through, nowhere near the amount that there is now.

But that's that's exactly.

It is the what's required to do, the part of the job that we do, and it's it's just, it's created this need for people to do it and it just didn't work inside of the, the shop systems that existed.

And right, Because you could come in because, like the, why doesn't the model work in a shop that repairs that?

Because you see it so much and you just what you?

You do it a lot, so you're quick with it.

Right, so you can knock out more than they can.

Yeah.

Yeah, and so you know the flat rate pay scale, you know, didn't work.

It works great for part-hanging and repair work, but not so much for diagnostic.

And I think there was definitely a time I mean, I know there was when I was a tech where you could be great at part-hanging and just okay enough to get by on a diagnostic and even use the part-hanging ability to your advantage because you can swap all three or four components real quick to figure out what it is you know.

And so you didn't.

You didn't need that to be successful, unless that's really what you were focusing on, like, bring me all your diagnostic work, I want to do all of it.

If you're just a repair shop, you could get by, but it just more and more and more.

If you have a repair shop, you got to have somebody be able to tackle that stuff, whether it's inside or outside of your shop, and the model pay just didn't keep up with what was required to get the whole vehicle done.

But I mean, of course I'm biased because I do it, but I think the idea of specialization in the different areas is it makes total sense, right the whole.

You don't have a house repairman, you have a plumber, electrician, an.

HVAC room for a painter, blah, blah, blah, right.

Same idea with the car.

It's just, the car is mobile, so you bring it to a shop.

But hey, having somebody come in to do a specialized service for it, I don't see it as a bad thing, I see it as a good move by another business owner, right.

And so you'll have the shop where maybe they shouldn't be in business, based on the skill level that you're coming in to help.

But then you have the opposite too.

You have these guys who are very smart.

They just have realized hey, I have guys with ex skill sets that can hang carts and bust out work and that's what they're best at, or that's what they're most suited to.

That's what they want to do.

Let's keep them doing that and then we'll call Sean in to tell them what part to get at it.

In a lot of cases there's a lot of shops they go to.

It's not that they can't, it's that efficiency-wise and how they have their structure set up, it makes more sense for them to throw parts at it and to pay me to tell them what part to throw at it.

And so they're utilizing that skill set to increase their productivity and even to take on jobs that they wouldn't have otherwise.

Right, they can update that Chrysler Invotainment System now.

Say sure, yeah, bring it in, we'll get it programmed, and not even have to think twice about it.

They don't have to check their subscriptions, they don't have to update through this or through that, they're just yep, we'll take it, and then they call somebody who can and they make it happen.

And we see, that's one thing I got thought about, that like if you had a shop, like you said, your moneymaker is on your hanging parts right and doing those great jobs, not pulling off the oil changes.

I see them.

Everybody always tells me the oil changes are not profitable.

But I would look at it too like that.

Because am I going to spend four hours or five hours like working this car?

Because in the end on that one truck we did call a guy that we knew that was mobile.

He's the one that saved my bacon on that key five, I was telling you, or that key that didn't start, I took it down.

He helped me rework it with a hot rod, hot and rare guns and I called him up there.

And because the shop can get back to doing the stuff that's profitable and everybody in this day and age, everyone's shorthanded, everyone's shorthanded.

So to have one of your people doing that, you can have them doing those money jobs and knocking that out.

So it makes total sense.

I get it.

I get it, but I do say in all some of the stuff I see like the best word for it, but how, just what it takes to fix a car, is just crazy these days.

Yep, yep, and, like you mentioned, the average person driving a car has no idea.

I actually, it wasn't even that long ago.

I was out over the course of a weekend, just out meeting new people, having fun, you know events or whatever.

And of course the topic is what do you do for a living?

Okay, and I have found explaining what I do to people.

They're like, they're like a little confused about it.

Like the question I'll get is like oh, the shop just can't do that stuff.

I'm like no, and there, and then the other thing was, and I got this three times in a weekend.

They're like oh, I thought you just plugged in the computer and it told you what was wrong.

I'm like well, not exactly.

And so, yeah, the average person and hey, I don't necessarily think that they should have to, but the average person just doesn't understand what goes into.

I didn't.

And I was figuring out repairing these you know, five years ago, when I opened this up, you know, I thought, okay, I work on my own car.

You know, I do a lot of this stuff.

I had my dealership, you know, and I had a guy that works for me.

He wasn't even, he was fairly a part changer, you know, but he would do like the, you know, I would send him over to get stuff.

I outsourced all my mechanic work when I had my car.

But just knowing, you know, I was always calling and doing and you know, I really thought I knew it.

But man, what it takes to get a car and also, like I don't think as a business you could, you'd have to be a really high level, like all the subscriptions for each of the different ones and everything you need to do, it just makes sense to just have one person because, you know, unless you were seeing all these things all the time, it just would not make sense to me.

I mean, I couldn't see you as like paying for that subscription or you know, and then three times a year or something, yeah, where's?

you you'd have to specialize on one or a few brands which again kind of goes back to what I'm saying.

Is the specialization part of it really makes sense to to zero in on something specific and be really good at that part and then not have to worry about the entire car because it's too much, unless you have a shop set up well enough and a customer base right where you can have a person for each area of the car.

But I don't know, there's probably models out there like that, maybe in the bigger cities.

You know big cities.

So even like Fonzolo shop he's down in Red Wing, a couple hours south of me, and they kind of have that going where they'll their shop will take care of it all, from keys to ADF, diagraming, whatever, and Matt does a lot of the technical stuff.

And then they have people for the repair side of things.

But that's not an easy thing to replicate, right.

That's not just like poof, I'm going to do it.

That's definitely outside of the norm, you know.

But that goes back to being the business owner and making those types of decisions, right, like what type of work are we going to take on?

When am I going to pay somebody else to do this for me?

And you've got to like weigh all those decisions and try to figure it out on the balance sheet of what's going to make sense for the business.

And that's a big responsibility, okay.

Huge.

You know, just like when I took on doing keys, you know it was kind of bi-axe.

I kept having people walk through the door and my parts store asked me do you make keys?

And then, you know, I was like I didn't know how many times I could get asked this.

And so then we had those like doorman where you could buy them off the shelf and program, and every time I'd sell one of those I would end up out in the parking lot trying to figure it out because I was just going to return it with the package all tore apart.

Yeah, yeah, you know, then I started researching keys and then the way my, I kind of got that brain where you know, I like to figure things out.

And then that's how I happened to cross your podcast.

But I was researching keys and I saw this one that said key episode and I said what?

So I listened to it.

And then I got to listen to your podcast and I kind of I tell people all the time I kind of leaped before I looked, I went and bought all the equipment.

I was like, oh man, now I got to, you know, I started doing the math on it.

You know I started breaking it down Like, okay, so I got to sell so many keys to make this profit.

Yeah, and you do at least.

Like I had it down like 39 with the programming fee, like I, I'm like I got an Excel sheet.

I break it down like each of these keys, so much of this goes to payback, this you know.

And then, but man, it just takes you over because, well, this does this and you got to have this Yep, and then you run into something that it oh, I can't do this.

I got to buy this $1,000 tool to do this one job, yeah.

I'm like, why can't you not talk to this Dodge?

You know this newer Dodge.

Do you have auto-wassie?

Do I have auto-wet?

Yep, yep, yeah, yeah.

I do now.

Yeah, oh it never ends.

There's always something and I try to do that, like, yeah, what's my ROI on this?

And sometimes it's tough, you know that's been, that's been a tough call to make.

It's like do I get this tool or software or whatever, just to be able to say yes, and I'm not concerned about am I going to make my money back on it right away, or, if ever?

Or is that something that I just say no to because it doesn't make sense and that's see, that's tough one.

Like do you lose that customer?

Because you might, if that's the first time they call you or that's you know what they really wanted, we're expecting to get out of your services.

And you like, no, we can't do that or we don't do those, and then they don't call you.

And then, had they, they would have turned into an awesome customer.

Ton of work, right, that's.

That's usually my thought when I'm trying to weigh the decision.

But then, at the same time, if my key machine, you know, costs me four grand or whatever, that's a big chunk of change, like I got to make sure.

Well, I should say this actually, my ADAS stuff right now is kind of that for me.

It's like I spent a lot of money on my ADAS kit.

It's a lot of money for me, you got the top down, the top down, adas.

I did.

Yeah, I got the mobile top down one and I have to make sure that I'm making a focused effort to try to get those jobs, because they don't just walk in the door for me.

It's something where I've had to really kind of push and get out there and talk to people and get some more of these jobs because Are you getting it?

Are you starting to see it?

Yeah, it's slow.

It's not something that exploded quite like the module programming or even like keys.

You know, I was kind of looking we're almost to the end of the year.

I was looking at totals of stuff and keys have done really well this year, but all that stuff grew pretty organically.

Where the ADAS stuff I've really had to make an effort to push it and it hasn't grown quite as quickly as I like.

I think part of it is there's some bigger companies local to me that have already established themselves pretty well, and so that's been a limitation.

But again, it's like one of those things where you have to weigh the decision as a business owner and take on that responsibility of do I want to pursue this?

And then, okay, if I pursue this and it turns out to be a bust, you know that's not me and it's you're responsible.

Here's my thing too.

It's like at first it was just me, right, I was just on my own and if I fail it's on me.

Well, now I got a couple employees.

Yeah, that's when you're wearing the hat, right, yeah?

And so now you are responsible for their success as well.

Right.

Yeah, you got us.

Yeah, they need their paycheck.

Yeah, right.

Right, and you want the business to do well so you can continue to employ them and, you know, see them do better, like I want to see them both make more money next year than they did this year.

Okay, well, that involves the business being better, right, so that's a responsibility Obviously we all share.

But to be the lead on that, hey, that's me and I don't have, you know, somebody else to call to do that for me.

Like, I've got to figure that out, sean's got to take that on, and I guess the reason I say that is just for somebody to think about.

You know, if you're like I hate this job, I hate working, you know, for somebody, whatever, I want to go out on my own, well, that's the sort of thing that changes.

For you is like, wow, you got these big weights on your shoulder every day to make sure that, hey, this works out well and hopefully you can get the right team around you and that makes it so much easier.

By the sounds of it, you probably had something similar or have something similar with the team around you.

It's always.

You know, you're always building the team and the people.

Man, I know when I first opened the first year, I didn't even have myself on a salary right.

And you know people like, how'd you make?

I don't know, I have this thing, like you know I was.

You talked to me before.

I was always I'm, I have a real entrepreneur heart, right, you know that.

And you know I was telling you like, you know, hey, a ship is safe in Harvard.

I told you that a ship is safe in Harvard but it's designed to sail, right.

Yeah, you know I'm like, go for it.

And you know it's just.

You know there was times that first year, I know that my employees made more than me.

It happened a lot, you know, but these, you know it just, it comes, it starts building, it starts building, it starts building.

Things get a little easier, get a little easier.

You start doing the next thing, you know.

You know we turned into an S corp and you know me and my wife we had our checks and you know, kind of had it lined out.

But I know, yeah, there's some.

You know, business, starting a business, is rough, it really is.

Yep, yep.

It's going to cost you way more than you think it will.

You can sit down with a pen and paper and just say, well, I'll have this expense not to buy this, not to pay for this, and then, okay, well, then there's insurance, and then there's taxes of every kind you can think of, and then you have to wait when you have all the taxes.

This is another tax that you've got to pay on something else.

It always.

It's like when I describe it as like when you're playing checkers and you didn't see that and they jump you and you're like what the hell Like?

That happens all the time.

Yeah, yeah Right.

That's why I always think of things like oh man, I didn't expect that to jump, you know like I got hit when you?

Well, when COVID was raging and inflation went up, I had my parts increased in value, right.

So like the price of parts went up, right.

Okay.

So normally, typically in a normal year, like who cares?

But they went up so much that the value of my inventory went up that it ended up causing me about a $6,000 tax liability and right, because my assets went up.

I did not see that coming.

Right, I did not see that coming.

So then I got hit with hey, we owe $6,000 on because of this time.

Like that's not money, I cash flowed, I didn't cash flow that right, right.

All that stuff was on your shelf, yeah.

There's $6,000 that I got to come up with to hand over.

That I didn't think about Right, there's always it, but I was ready for it next year.

You know it's like we got to do those things.

So then you know, we do our inventory always in December.

So this last year what we did was we did a build.

Where we do is you, we called it in Carcass, they called it a spin and you can, but you inventory is setting there, like I always in the parts business.

You look at what's sitting there on your shelf Right and I haven't sold this in three years.

It needs to go and put money in something else that's going to sell Right.

Also, what I did was went through my wife's amazing.

She helped me out.

She ran a report and I said X amount hadn't sold, it's good to go back.

We pushed it back and then after January we bought, you know, re-bought, like replace that.

We just did it right there at the end.

So it worked out.

So then we didn't get hit with that, you know.

And you know, talking to my accountant, she's like I was, like you didn't see this, like we didn't know it, like never had a year where prices increased like they just did.

You know, never had that.

You just don't feel it.

Yeah, that's.

I mean, that's a great example, because I would have never have guessed that was even a thing to consider if I was going to be opening up a parts shop.

I didn't know that they evaluated the parts that you have sitting there and then they tax you on it.

I mean, the government is your business partner as long as you're doing well.

No, they're there.

Whether you know, there's a lot of down jacket.

You look at your bottom line, like you know, and ran really good books.

You know, I've always been good about that, you know.

And we and you look at the end of the month and it's like yeah, says you made all this money.

You always you know, it's like what it's not here.

You know well, it's set in the parts set in Donnie's new key machine.

You know you get to like what I didn't make.

This, are you kidding me?

Oh yeah, you made it.

Yep, yep.

Yeah, I'm looking at end of year stuff and my van is it's almost a 300,000.

And I was like I'm going to get it to 300,000.

And then it's probably, it's realistically probably time for a new van for me.

But, financially.

It's a good time too, because then I you know, okay, end of the year let's get a new van and put that on.

So it helps with the taxes and stuff like that.

Another area where I hire a specialist because I need advice when it comes to that tax up.

So I have a tax guy.

Oh, you got to pay that, you know, you got to pay your accountant fees and that's totally worth it.

But just like, yeah, another, another expense like that, whereas an employee you don't, you don't, I mean you could have a tax person individually.

But that's what you know, because every month we were going through, you know, every month I sat down, I was going through, you know, looking, looking at the financials every month and I would go over it with our, with our accountant lady.

You know, and you know, and every month, hey, you're doing great.

You know you're redot.

You know this week it always gives you.

You gotta look at those things you've got.

That's one thing I always tell a friend of mine.

He's getting ready to retire and he's got a business plan.

So he calls me a lot and I told him I was like here's my, here's my.

I love business.

Right, I love donor business, but honestly, it just as a businessman, it was a good deal and it was the best move for both organizations.

Right, like, I really feel like, and I feel like it was the best move and we're both really stronger together.

Right, it just it was a great move as a business.

But I told my friend, you know what it's like.

It's like, it's not like, it's like being an MMA match, except for the fight didn't start in the ring with your opponent.

You know you start in the locker room when you start thinking about opening your business and then you got the people telling yourself like oh, I got to get this, I got that or that ain't going to work and self doubt.

Or, like me, like you go to set up and you got to get your building, it's got to pass code and you got to do something.

Like you feel like you're just fighting your butt off just to make it to the ring to start fighting.

That's what it's like to own a business, right yeah?

Yeah, there's.

There's a lot of buildup time to you know like you have to will it into existence and that's a tough period of time and if you don't really love what you're doing, I don't know how I would have made it through the.

You know the beginning stages of where.

I was at right, like get to the point of having enough work and having a, a system in place to hire somebody.

That took a really long time and a ton of work to get there, and that's that is definitely something to consider.

For somebody who's thinking I want to do this is like the beginning stages are not going to be easy.

It's going to be a ton of unpaid effort to yourself.

You know I mean in the long run but, like in the short term you're not going to be seeing all the returns for all the work that you're putting in and hopefully it works.

Like sometimes it doesn't work out, and then all that work you're not getting paid for it.

So you know that first year and a half you know, I think back now, like you know I was pretty, you know, headstrong.

You know I read a lot of the business stuff.

I know.

You know I'm always like going.

But I'll tell you, looking back now, a few things went just the wrong way.

I don't know if I made it, you know, I don't know.

Like at the time I wasn't, I didn't see it that way.

I was like, oh no, there's just no way.

This is not going to make it Like I have my vision.

It's going to work, and you know it does, and you know, but it does.

It's tough, man, owning a business is tough.

You got to fight for your business.

You got to fight to get paid.

Oh, yeah, yeah, you know, by and large, I've been really good with that.

But it's always.

I had my car a lot, you know, it's like always, it's like you know, just like this.

There's always somebody that you got to hound to get that, that payment for sure.

You know, we experience that same thing.

There's just there's.

I have a customer who will not pay the bill until they need something else from me.

And we're on them because of this, because we recognize the pattern.

But it's like this bill goes unpaid, unpaid, unpaid.

We send reminders to call them whatever, and then it'll get paid and we can see it come through on our QuickBooks.

It's like 10 minutes later they're calling us because they want something fixed.

Come on, man, I know right.

It just makes you like guys.

Am I gonna have to put you on like you pay me?

Right right, I mean, yeah, you gotta make those again.

That's a call as a business owner that you gotta make.

It's like how am I gonna handle this?

When am I gonna stop working with somebody?

That's another thing that I've had to do is a couple of times Just like sorry, hey, this doesn't work.

I am saying no to your business.

That was kind of a tough thing for me, but you've gotta make that decision again because that's okay.

This is what's best for all parties involved.

That's what's rough.

Like sometimes, when my guys would have, it's like I can sell all these parts, I'm like, yeah, but they're not gonna pay for them, so I'm not.

No, don't send those.

It's like those sales mean nothing if you don't collect on them.

It's actually worse because you know what you put for us.

You put gas and effort For, like you, you spend an hour or two out there messing with something where you could've been doing something profitable and it's hard to say no to a sale.

It really is.

It's hard to say no to a sale, but that's the best thing to do.

Sometimes, yeah, especially when it comes to you know what In the day.

We always hear it's a business, it's gotta make money and everybody's in business, and I had that the first year.

I struggled with that too.

Like you know, I'd have some.

You know some.

I just want to tell people all the time, like you know, you think you have a big parts bill, right, so people would go oh, the parts bill I owe you.

And it's like you think you have a big parts bill.

Try getting an $80,000 or $90,000 or $100,000 at the end of the month.

You know, holy cow, yeah, yeah.

And you know sometimes, you know people don't.

You know it's like it's a big deal when they don't pay you right off.

You know it's like how many of those people can you float?

I think I had a really good.

I met a guy.

He'd been in the parts business for a long time.

We were on one of our oh, like they had us at one of the resorts, like we were learning about stuff and we were taking a profitability in your store class.

He'd been doing it for a long time and I talked to him so was that?

I call him all the time and he told me that he's like you're the biggest mistake business owners make, especially in the parts business.

It's like $3,000 is a lot of money.

That's a lot of money.

He goes.

You know your part guys will push that out there and they'll think, oh, you know I'll do that and you'll carry it for 90, 120 days, but that's a lot of money.

And you only gotta think about it, cause if you get three or four accounts like that, that's tough.

You know You've got to keep control of that and that's one of the things you know I fortunately now that's kind of one of the big things.

Now I don't deal with that, you know.

I kind of, I mean I still try to, like you know, I want to make sure.

Just cause and that's where I struggle also is I don't know what I'm not really in my job lane, but on the other hand, I kind of feel responsible, like you know, I don't.

I want to make sure they get taken care of, you know.

So right, but it's nice not to have to worry about that in regards to your paycheck at the end of the month, you know yeah.

Yeah, cause that's what I always tell people all the time.

Like you know, like the, when all my parts will come to do, I can't say like get you next month, you know I can't, that's my lifeline, you know I had to have that.

So you know, and there was shop.

It is business.

Part of business is, you know, you do you have to kind of look at that and assess it.

You know I had one shop that did take up behind I was just starting out and I let it go way too long cause I really wasn't confident enough into going in there and saying like I need my money.

You know it's a hard thing to do it shouldn't be, but it's a hard thing to do, like I need my money.

And same guy I thought I'd talk to him like that's when I was having that discussion and he spun me up on me and said hey, you know, they need their money from the customer, they get their money from the customer and they need to give it to you.

You know that's just the way this thing rolls and you know that's when you just gotta, you know if you gotta keep hounding them.

And you know what, I went and talked to them and, honestly, it was really good for me because it broke my fear of that.

I went and had a discussion.

It was something yeah, we're having this right here, but we got this in place and they came through.

And you know what, I've never had a problem with them.

You know, never had a problem with them, since it was just kind of a honestly, if I had went and said something earlier, it'd probably gotten taken care of earlier, you know.

So I'm like I kind of felt bad, like why didn't I bring this up to like how'd you let?

How did it get this bad?

You let it go this bad?

And I'm like, oh, I did it Right.

You know, I was like I don't know, I kind of figured it, you know.

Yeah, it's, I've been lucky there.

It's like you say, though, like I haven't had one individual customer that's been really bad about paying, like just there's like the one I mentioned, but they do add up right.

It's like, oh, all of a sudden I got 10, 15 of these unpaid bills.

Like that's.

that is a decent chunk of change, and so now you got to sort it through and call these different people.

But if you can really say, if you set something up, I have like Firestone Tires Plus they're they take like 30, 40 days to pay, but they always pay.

So they're just gonna wait for it.

But and you know, and there's a difference, when you know that's the deal, like you know you're waiting on that money, you can plan for it, you know.

Plan it, yeah, yeah yeah, absolutely.

But yeah, it's a tough.

That's what business is.

It's fun, it's exciting, it's stressful, it's crazy, but it's.

Yeah.

Owning your own business is a different deal.

It really is.

And, like I said, if you had to talk to me, like I said a few months ago, I'd sit and do away.

This just turned out.

I mean, sometimes, as a business person, you look at it and you're like that's a great offer.

You know, yep, yep, it's a good offer and I was also really for me.

I wanted to be a part of their team.

They're doing some exciting stuff.

I feel it's.

You know they're growing, they want to grow and you know, yeah, like I said, it's nice to actually have other people there's.

I've met some people that man, you know, in this business, knowledge is everything and just some really smart people that've been doing it a long time and you can.

It's nice to say, hey, have you seen this?

Yeah, I've seen this.

You know that's because of this.

Yeah, oh yeah, nice.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's, we have a.

Like I said, it's, it's a.

Yeah, I'm really excited.

Like I said, I would never have guessed I'd been there, like I just from a random bump in at vision to now.

Yeah, yeah.

Yes, well, yeah, it's crazy how stuff works out.

You know, same thing for me.

If you would have rerouted rerouted five years ago, there's no way I would have been able to tell you exactly what I'd be doing in the way that I'd be doing it.

And then, oh, yeah, yeah, you'd quit teaching to run your own mobile business and have two employees and be like whatever.

No way, but that's that's.

I know what it was.

I know it was because I know the first time I hired, like I hired somebody right off the gate and then I had to.

I couldn't get everything done and I needed to get done.

But I'm looking at the books and the books don't really say I could hire somebody.

But you know, I remember making that call.

Like you know well, the first one I kind of cheated my wife.

I got in there and I was like invoicing and doing all this stuff that's a whole other one person job and I was just gonna try to do that all myself and I couldn't.

So my wife's really good at that stuff.

So I basically, you know she kind of hit it around.

She wanted to come into work and I was like she wouldn't, you know, wouldn't be a part of it.

And I'm like, yeah, here you are Now.

You know she's been she's 50-50 owner on the business with me.

She was, and you know she came to work with me every day and you know we made it happen.

She took care of the back end and all that financing, you know, and you know the statements and things like that and she's really good at that.

She also handled a lot of the inventory stuff and you know I did the sales and the counter and that.

So I kind of cheated on that one because I could never hire what I got because I wasn't paying her, I wasn't paying her, my, you know, we took a, we took a huge pay cut then the first couple of years, so, but then it came, it got to where it was like man, I need one more, I need somebody else to be able to grow.

And you know, and I remember when we were talking about it and I was like we can't afford that, we can't afford it, and you know we just finally just said you know, sometimes you got to go backwards to go forwards.

You know you got to go back.

And then it works.

And you know, it just took a leap of faith, got it, boom, you know honestly.

And then now it's like, oh yeah, that's the yeah, we got to have that.

Yeah, yeah, you wouldn't be able to live without it.

And yeah, same thing for me.

Well, first, I've heard a lot of the guys who do mobile that I know doing the same thing you did, where they get their wives involved for answer the phone, invoicing whatever.

So you're not alone there.

But yeah, when I first hired my first guy to run the second van, I'd gotten to the point where I was overwhelmed with work and so I knew I needed to do something.

You know whether it was start turning stuff away or jack up my prices enough to drive some people off, or I decided to hire somebody, but that first couple months, like you say, the expenses of it didn't make any sense.

And so there was a rough period where I'm just like, man, this is costing me a lot for what I'm getting out of it.

Well, you got to be willing to take the hit there and be prepared for that financially.

To get through to the other side, and now we're doing way more than we ever did before and I couldn't see doing this without him.

And then we added a third guy and that was even tougher financially because he wasn't out fixing cars.

Yeah, he's not generating revenue, right.

Not directly right.

But you're generating more revenue because you're out there more.

Yep, right, we can focus on what we're good at, and then he can make us more productive in a lot of different ways.

Everybody, and they've given him a bunch of roles with marketing and things like that too, that are helping.

But again, same thing Takes a little bit of time and then all of a sudden it's like OK, well, sometimes you put the need in front of yourself and you just put it into place and then you make it happen, right, like it forces you to be able to afford it, because, well, it's here I made the decision that it's needed for this business or it's beneficial to this business.

I'm now going to make it work, right, you find a way to not only make it affordable but make it profitable.

And then you're like, ok, well, this was an awesome decision.

Why didn't I do this sooner?

But it's tough.

There's that period.

You've got to make the right decision, you've got to get the right person, you've got to have everything in place, and then there's still a really tough period before it's profitable to you.

Although sometimes she's as bad as me because she's in the parts business too oh.

OK, yeah.

She'll talk to you, but she does like that.

We do like to kind of quiet at home.

My girlfriend's eyes glaze over when I start talking about this stuff.

So it's awesome.

Now, when it comes to actually working in a fictional car, it's like she's out Like she couldn't tell you anything, but she can tell you where something goes for it, like in, how it's catalogued and where it's back back there.

And it's like me, that's my least concern.

Tell them, running around there like an idiot trying to find it, like really I lose this.

Well, man, I really do appreciate you having me on again.

Yeah, same here, thank you.

Yeah, yeah, it's good to catch up with you too.

All right, that's going to do it for today's episode.

Thank you for Donnie joining me on the show today.

Really appreciate it.

Also want to say thank you to everybody out there listening and offering feedback on the show.

Really appreciate that too.

But with that out of the way, let's all get out there.

Start fixing the world one card at a time.

230: Working For Yourself Or Someone Else, With Donnie Sanford

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