The Good and the Great Manager
How important was it to the owner of the business to have a top-notch manager run it for him or her? While some would feel that the manager is the face of the business, the one that customers, vendors, and employees see and therefore need to believe in; others might think they are simply a go-between, just another rung in the ladder.
The Self-Determined Manager
The best managers intentionally create an environment where employees thrive and great work gets done. To become “self-determined,” you must make a choice to follow through every day and never, ever let up.
Fire Your Center Manager
Here’s the hard part: ask yourself, “Does my center manager meet those expectations? Do they have what I need them to have in order to represent my brand and conduct business in a way that makes me proud?”
Not All Customers Are Good Customers
In defining a good (or bad) customer, you need to determine the factors that matter to your company. It is important to consider and evaluate the specific factors that impact your business, and how it should view its customers.
Tools for the Excellent Manager: Shopping for Insurance
If you want to have some fun or wind up with a splitting headache, shop around for insurance. If you think new-car salespeople confuse and frustrate you, you haven’t seen any kind of razzle-dazzle ‘till you shop for insurance. Whether it be for business, homeowners or automotive the game is afoot as soon as you go onto any website and ask for an insurance quote of any kind.
If You Like It Put Your Brand On It
Our name is on a lot of stuff: stickers, hats, shirts, lanyards and, of course, pens. It’s also on some pretty niche stuff: Klement’s beef snack sticks (“Nice to Meat You”), VIN decoding mouse pads, beer mugs, bobble heads – and we come up with new, interesting stuff to brand all the time, partly because our favorite customers, vendors, and even our own employees really like cool, new stuff. Who doesn’t?
Tools for the Excellent Manager
I use the word integrity as opposed to honesty when talking about advertising because technically and legally an ad can be honest but at the same time can lack integrity if the offer is too difficult to understand, has too many hoops to jump through, only applies to a product in very short supply or one in which the offer has an end date that a consumer doesn’t have enough time to respond to.
Training: A Necessary Evil!
Why do I refer to training as a necessary evil? Because it is so necessary to the ongoing success of an automotive business, but so evil in the idea of getting employees to participate in it. For some unknown reason a high percentage of techs who have worked in the business for a few years and maybe had some previous training or picked up everything they think they need to know working in a shop, don’t feel they need or should have to attend any kind of additional training.
Making a Bad Choice the Right Way
This is a bad Reman U. I mean it. It hasn’t been thought through, agonized over, contemplated, speelchecked or proofreaded. I didn’t have a blinding insight nor did I have one of those everyday experiences that suddenly feels like an analogy for good work/life decisions. What I do have is a deadline, a commitment – ultimately, a promise. I would rather sign my name to a bad Reman U than break a promise. So, this is a bad Reman U, but maybe that’s a good thing.
We All Work in Customer Service
As luck would have it, the job I held next was primarily a glorified customer service representative position, except now, customers were called clients. I answered their questions, solved their problems, and provided them with statuses of projects. Although it wasn’t the right fit, I learned more about how companies interact with customers and clients, more of the inner-workings of a company, and how each role impacts another.
Insurance: How Much is too Much?
There are all kinds of insurances to be had depending upon what we want or need to protect. Some of it we are told we must have because it’s the law and some we want to because we sleep better at night with the feeling that we are covered if anything should happen. Unemployment insurance and worker’s comp are examples of insurance that’s mandatory in most of the United States and for most jobs, but not all, and the lines that are drawn are not always easy to see or understand. Sometimes they depend on the number of employees and even, to an extent, the types of work being performed. That’s why it’s important to consult with an insurance expert in your own state.
Managing Money: Bills and Taxes
Terry Greenhut gives suggestions for managing money. One important rule: avoid a tax audit.
