It's Offical. Briggs files Chapter 11.

[Hammermechanicman]

The small shops struggle while the 2 JD/Stihl dealers near me are right now are booked for service 6 to 8 weeks and both are looking for techs.

 

[bertsmobile1]

The small shops struggle while the 2 JD/Stihl dealers near me are right now are booked for service 6 to 8 weeks and both are looking for techs.

We are drifting off topic again but that is probably more to do with the small shops than the JD dealers .
I started doing what the dealers won't like
Overnight servicing for contractors - I now have all but 1 of the 22 contractors who live or work in this region .
Free pick up & delivery - I picked up all of the cheapskates as the dealers charge $ 45 each way
Keeping service parts in stock for all of my customers mowers - routine service & minor jobs done same day
Repairing the "unrepairable "
Price matching with on line retailers for parts .- previous owner added 100% to 200% on parts.
Not adding on all of the stuff that used to be included in labour like "Work shop sundries , work shop fuel , grease , standard nuts bolts & washers "
Just finished a job for a new customer who was charged $ 18 for grease with a spindle replacement.
He came to me because I was open on Sunday and the glass fronts only work 1/2 day Saturday

 

[tom3]

How many people work in your shop? And sounds like a management nightmare to me, but my management skills are right at 0 (zero).

 

[bertsmobile1]

How many people work in your shop? And sounds like a management nightmare to me, but my management skills are right at 0 (zero).

Just me , myself & I
In theory I am mobile , in practice I try to do as much at the workshop as I can.
But not having a retail presence means I can open whenever I like and being on 1000 acres with a very busy street and no other houses for 1/2 mile , no problems with making a bit of noise.
Contractors have a gate key so when finished the mower sits by the gate with cover over it & they pick it up at the silly hours that contractors start work in the morning .
If I end up running late then it gets delivered on site.
The franchise shops all open between 7 & 8 am and by that time 1/2 the contractors are on their 4th job.
Thus they are happy to pay a premium price to get immediate service, I charge overnights out at $ 100 /hr ( against the normal $ 60 ) which is nothing when comparred to having to reschedule your entire day or have a crew sitting around for 3 hours picking their noses waiting for a shop to open.
For the same reason I keep the 10lb rolls of trimer line that each of them use so if they run out it is just a matter of a text & it is sitting on the courier bin when they drive past.
There are 12 pegs on the fence for the chainsaw chains , same story.

As for weekends, most residents mow on the weekend so it is on the weekend that they need blades , starter rope & the like .
Or of course "the moungrel thing won't start & her mother is coming for dinner "
Some weeks the gate does not get unlocked from Monday to Friday.
If possible I go riding at least one Tue-Wed-Thurs once if not twice a month.
Not happening right now because I am crook but that was the formula that worked really well and tripled my turnover the first year.

 

[Hammermechanicman]

Sounds like you have a good plan. I have a couple contractors that mainly bring me chainsaws. I don't have space or want to have a large inventory of parts so i really can't service contractors like you do but i get the occasional it won't start can you look at it tonight call from them. The JD dealer i get parts from wants to hire me as a tech. They have a mobile mower service truck that is outfitted really nice with a lift, compressor, air conditioned. The owner can't get a tech to do mobile service. The truck just sits. He has lots of customers willing to pay stupid high service rates for onsite service. Some how i didn't retire to get a jiob making a third of what i was making. I too am a bit of a niche business. I work on stuff the dealers don't want to work on. Older equipment and carbs. Working from a shop on my property with very little overhead so i am doing fine but guys like me with a commercial storefront either become a big shop selling mowers or close. Some of the car dealers are getting in to it too. The only Kubota dealer in the area is a car dealer's "powersports" division. Parts markup is ridiculous.

 

[bertsmobile1]

My grandfather who was a good businessman always used to say
" you don't survive standing on the field of honour by yourself facing an army of 1000 "
Took me a long time to work out what he was saying but the same advice has served me well all my life.
Every time I have started a business I look at what the opposition would not do and compared this to what the customer wanted.
At one time the delivery company had every small production house because we would run a separate account for each job they did.
So a TVC might run 2 weeks and a movie might run a full year and we did not bill them till the job was finished because they did not get paid till the job was finished.
Our magazine publishers had about 14 individual accounts that thy paid weekly, one for each magazine they published and one for promotions, accounts & circulation.
Easy for us we just printed pages on their printer in different colours .
The accounts manager & office manager were over the moon because every other courier service would only put a job code against each job & bill monthly so they had 2 people full time breaking down the account so they could assign the costs to each issue of each magazine .
Service industries should provide the service a customer wants not force the customer to choose which one you offer is the least worst for them to use.
And mower repair is a service industry, not McDonalds so no use brain washing them into believing what you are selling is what they need.

 

[Hammermechanicman]

I always liked the way a friend once phrased it. In sales i need you. In service you need me.
Over many years people have wanted me to go into business with them. Usually when i asked to see their business model i got a blank stare or i got some wishful thinking scribbling. I could tell none of them would be successful. According to the Small Business Administration 90% of all new small business in the US fail within 5 years. Some of those folks who wanted to "partner" with me couldn't get an SBA loan (for good reason) pulled out all their retirement to start their dream business and went bankrupt. Just because you have a passion for something and are good at it doesn't always mean you can make a living at it. Some of my customers tell me i should open my shop in town and i would make a lot more money. True, but overhead expenses would be more than i took in for a couple years plus more headaches. A lot of failed businesses blame the customer. Never the customer's fault a business fails. A friend works for a bankruptcy liquidation company. He says the most advetising most companies do is their going out of business sale.

 

[StarTech]

It kinda strange about the SBA and bank loans. They won't loan to you; unless, you don't need money or at least was my case. Couldn't get a business when I first started or could get purchase loan for my home. Now I am constantly asked to borrow money which I refuse. The bank that refused my home loan keep sending letters saying they could reduce my mortgage payments so I went in. They couldn't lower it any at all. They would had to pay me since I paid the place off in less than 6 months. (with cash) The bank loan office jaw hit the floor when they found that paid the place off in less than six months. Yes it was rough to part with 75K as I needed it for the business but I survived that event.

And yes I don't advertise like some shops as mine is customer referrals. I feel it is the best advertisement of the quality of my workmanship. Without loans it is a change to make things work especially on large deals. I do currently have Visa card with a self imposed 2K limit which had upped 5 yrs ago from the self imposed 1K limit. Now that CU is merging with another (which I think is mistake as its profitability is lower) I will be switch to MasterCard. And I understand the CC is signature load that must be paid off every month. Matter of fact with the limit I make several payments every month.

The main thing with any business you got to keep up with all the changes and don't over inventory on items that are slow mover or that has become become non-movers. For manufactures they got keep up with the ever changing customer needs or wants. If you don't you go out of business by having excessive inventory on hand that you can't move.

Having currently 57K in inventory is a little excessive for my operation but it does give a chance to build up orders that have free shipping now. And like any I have make mistakes in buying inventory as some items are still there after 5 years.

Now with Briggs I don't know what went on that lead to them filing Charter 11 but I suspect it was poor management and not keeping with all of the market changes.

 

[ILENGINE]

It kinda strange about the SBA and bank loans. They won't loan to you; unless, you don't need money or at least was my case. Couldn't get a business when I first started or could get purchase loan for my home. Now I am constantly asked to borrow money which I refuse. The bank that refused my home loan keep sending letters saying they could reduce my mortgage payments so I went in. They couldn't lower it any at all. They would had to pay me since I paid the place off in less than 6 months. (with cash) The bank loan office jaw hit the floor when they found that paid the place off in less than six months. Yes it was rough to part with 75K as I needed it for the business but I survived that event.

And yes I don't advertise like some shops as mine is customer referrals. I feel it is the best advertisement of the quality of my workmanship. Without loans it is a change to make things work especially on large deals. I do currently have Visa card with a self imposed 2K limit which had upped 5 yrs ago from the self imposed 1K limit. Now that CU is merging with another (which I think is mistake as its profitability is lower) I will be switch to MasterCard. And I understand the CC is signature load that must be paid off every month. Matter of fact with the limit I make several payments every month.

The main thing with any business you got to keep up with all the changes and don't over inventory on items that are slow mover or that has become become non-movers. For manufactures they got keep up with the ever changing customer needs or wants. If you don't you go out of business by having excessive inventory on hand that you can't move.

Having currently 57K in inventory is a little excessive for my operation but it does give a chance to build up orders that have free shipping now. And like any I have make mistakes in buying inventory as some items are still there after 5 years.

Now with Briggs I don't know what went on that lead to them filing Charter 11 but I suspect it was poor management and not keeping with all of the market changes.

And you have to watch the fast moving inventory sometimes because it can go from fast moving to non moving in one season.

 

[Hammermechanicman]

And you have to watch the fast moving inventory sometimes because it can go from fast moving to non moving in one season.

One reason i keep very little inventory on hand. Essentially seasonal maint and carb stuff. Fuel line, starter cord and the like. I don't stock belts and blades, just too many to keep up with.
Like Star my advertising is business cards and word of mouth. Best bang for the buck in this business.