From Technician to Shop Owner, a Road Well-traveled

Sal Garcia states with pride that he resides less than 50 miles away from his birthplace. He’s currently the owner of Fremont Auto Center in Fremont, California, a shop that’s equipped to accommodate 5 technicians, 2 estimators, and 1 service advisor. Fremont is currently in the process of expanding to suit full capacity. Garcia’s journey to shop ownership has been full of ups and downs, but his innate talent, desire for continuous improvement, and understanding of the value of maximizing your resources, has lead Fremont Auto Center to a position of success.

From a very young age Sal Garcia showed skill and talent for the mechanical aspect of objects. “My parents knew that I was going to be a mechanic, just not what type,” says Garcia. So, for him, it was not a question of choosing a career path but choosing the type of mechanical field that he would follow. Garcia received his California SMOG certification before finishing high school and has continued his educational journey throughout his career up to becoming a master technician. 

Understanding the Importance of education

It’s not uncommon at all for a technician to take the leap and start his own shop. But all too often the technician lacks business acumen, in-depth shop management knowledge, leadership skills, and gets lost in the day-to-day running of the shop. It’s then that the importance of proper education and training comes to hand. For some shop owners such as Tonnika Haynes, owner of Brown’s Automotive in South Carolina, it was delving into the internet and learning from peer groups and free resources. Coaching is an option that has shown to prove results time after time, however finding the right coach, or mentor, is not a straightforward process. 
Sal Garcia, a lifelong resident of the bay area, became certified as a smog technician for California regulations when he was still in high school. This allowed him to start working at shops at a very young age. This exposure and experience helped him realize that obtaining the proper training not only gave him opportunities but helped him differentiate himself from the rest at his age. Throughout his career, he’s been able to transition from different jobs relying on his skills as a technician, work ethic, and desire to do things right. 

The road to shop ownership

Garcia started his first shop at the age of 22. After working for tire centers, and a stint with a Volvo dealership, Garcia opened up on his own. “I was quite versed as a technician, but I didn’t know that much about business,” he admits. It was a tough start for Garcia, much like it is for many technicians that take the leap into shop ownership. One of the main hurdles that technicians face is understanding how to price their services correctly. Identifying and analyzing the numbers in order to set the proper labor rate according the customer base, demographics, and type of work become vital in the long term. “I started charging lower rates to get customers in the door, and for some bigger jobs I’d lower the rate a little bit. In hindsight that was a mistake. Many technicians have that approach and mindset,” says Garcia.

 
This first shop ownership venture lasted four and half years for Garcia, two in his first location and the remaining two and half at second and better situated location. “During this time I did take on some coaching”, says Garcia. Hiring a coach is common for shop owners, however the timing in which the hiring is decided is sometimes a bit late. When problems arise at a shop, coaching becomes a way to solve the urgent issues rather than to attack issues that are preventing actual growth and ease of operations. According to Garcia, “I learned a lot of things from that early coaching and only implemented some.” Many shop owners admit that implementing change is difficult, and more so when they have firm and concrete procedures in regard to how their shops should operate. Putting trust in a coach and sometimes making radical changes to the day-to-day operations isn’t simple for shop owners no matter how much experience they have.

By this time, Garcia had earned a reputation of being able to fix cars that nobody else could tackle. “I was fixing cars that were referred to my shop without even knowing where they were coming from”, recalls Garcia. This situation that Garcia experienced made his ego get in the way of running the business and ultimately, he decided to close the shop and return to working as an independent contractor. In his situation, given that he didn’t have any family that relied on him financially, he was able to be a “true” independent contractor with the ability to choose where and how to work. 

In the late 90’s and leading up to the early 2000’s the technology industry was a very attractive prospect for many young people. Garcia was not immune to this attraction and decided to go back to school so that he could find his way in this industry. Being an independent contractor and working with the guidance of Mike Hunt as an associate of ESI, it was impossible for him to maintain a fixed residence and therefore attend school. For Garcia that meant returning to the dealership world. “I joined a Mercedes-Benz dealership even though I had only worked on maybe 1 or 2 Mercedes ever”, states Garcia. His belief that if you understand the basis of a system, how and why it works, you can work out any issue a car can have, maintains true to this day with Garcia.

Fremont Auto Center, from paper tickets to DVIs

In 2017 Garcia “reopened” Fremont Auto Center. The shop had existed since 1989 with the original founder who had been looking to retire. Only a few doors down from the shop Garcia had worked for as an independent contractor, the shop’s previous owner was winding down and had taken 6 months’ leave of absence to care for his health. Upon taking over, Garcia determined that the name and reputation of the shop was strong enough to keep, even though the name rights had not been registered with the county for some years. Lucky for him, the name hadn’t been claimed, so he was able to keep Fremont Auto Center denomination.

Taking over a retiring shop is not an uncommon path into shop ownership. In this case, aside from the name, the 2,500 square foot space, 4 lifts, and a few random pieces of older equipment, Garcia was basically starting from scratch. As he recalls: “When I looked through the paperwork all the customer information was hand-written, in the owners original handwriting and there were no computers.” With his previous experience, Garcia’s first step was to install a shop management system. As an owner-operator, Garcia soon realized that he needed to hire the right staff, and with that hiring came the inception of the DVI. “When the new technician came on board he had experience with DVIs, and insisted that we implement them in our operation. This had the immediate effect of raising our ARO buy $200 dollars”, as Garcias states. 

“After implementing the DVI and observing the effect this had on the ARO I really started dialing in and looking at the numbers,” says Garcia. This change in mindset allowed him to look at entire set of new metrics, things like productivity per bay, and technician efficiency. Even as a small shop, these KPIs matter, and owners can really look at the parts of the business where there is room for improvement. 

“My role in the business has evolved. I used to be about 30% of technician, and as of recently, I’ve left the shop floor to the technicians and I only advise them when they need help”, says Garcia. Optimizing the running of business has allowed owners like Sal Garcia to “level up” and participate more on an advisory role. In the case of Fremont, Garcia is actively looking for a second location and believes that he can achieve revenue goals of up to $20,000 dollars per bay per month with the right staff. He pays his technicians with a tiered bonus structure based on their goals. As he says proudly: “I love to give my techs really big checks because their work is based on productivity.”