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Hello from Finland (Read 4,917 times)
PicoFin
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Hello from Finland
Feb 7th, 2012 at 1:18am
 
Hi there guys

Been hanging around here every now and then. Upgraded from a Fluke 123 to a 4-ch Pico 3 yrs ago, but sadly went out of business only 3 months after that, because I was seeing signs of burnout. After that I was working for another shop, was hired to do diagnostics which I also did, but not with the Pico because this was a true Bosch (and only Bosch) shop. As time went by my jobs got more and more out of what was initially ment to be, I ended up doing no diagnostic jobs at all and got all kinds of work I did not like, and this escalated when the other electrician in the shop did quit.

Tried to discuss this and get things back on track, with no success. Now I'm unemployed at the moment (because I want to). Need some mental rest after previous workplace, I am doing construction work at home ie building a garage to get my workshop emptied (all stuff is still lying there), and will probably go for a new, bigger workshop here in my hometown. Just need to build it first  Grin Actually I'm waiting the city hall to complete a split of a landlot, that would bring me on a visible place which my previous shop didn't have.

By the way, if anyone has got any thoughts about what a decent shop should measure, I will be glad to get comments. My old place was small, 150 square meters and only 3 meters to the roof making if almost impossible working on vans and campers. Didn't even have floor drain, so imagine the wintertime, every car bringing in a pile of snow.. Want to upgrade quite a bit from that, even if I did ok for 10 years in those circumstances.

I contacted a company making workshop designs, they said the optimal thing would be having a width of 21 meters, having a big door in the end, and driving in the middle of the shop and have lifts and floorspace on both left and right side. I think you lose a lot of squares having it that way, and told them so, but they told me floorspace is cheaper to build than having lots of big doors side by side on the lenght of the building. Still I am not comfortable with their suggestion, and want to think of other ways of doing this.

I aim for a shop with room for ~4 mechs with spacious workareas, so that would be at least 4-5 lifts and empty floorspace for cars waiting for parts and so on. All other rooms and areas will be defined by the needs, so only planning the true shop area is my concern. Since starting out from scratch, it would be a pain to notice something SHOULD have been like this or that..
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PicoFin
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Parainen, Finland
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Re: Hello from Finland
Reply #1 - Feb 7th, 2012 at 1:25am
 
Oh, and of course it would be good to know what type of work will be done.

Service and repair of european and asian passenger cars, but will want one liftplace to be able to handle vans, campers and small commercial vehicles. This place might also be the one where wheel alignments are carried out, so it will act for many purposes. One cleaner shop area where emission tests, and repairs concerning that matter will be carried out. This area might also be suitable for electricity jobs on vehicles like AC's, body electronics..

Rest of the shop is for oil changes, service jobs, repairs like brakes, engines etc mechanical stuff. No body repairs.

Oh yes, and of course, all this has I would like to build as cheap as possible, so I don't will need another burnout stressing with getting it all paid for. (Is this even possible?  Huh )
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Daniel
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Re: Hello from Finland
Reply #2 - Feb 7th, 2012 at 10:55pm
 
Hi PicoFin.
Welcome to the forum.  Smiley

An idea to a different garage could be a round one, like in this video:
http://www.eucnord.dk/Udviklingscentre/Autobranchens_Udviklingscenter/Sider/auto...
( starts halfway down the page by showing some photos)

It’s an education school for automotive, and I’ve been there for some supplementary training.

How do you think you will make it without getting burned-out again.? Have you got any anti stress tools to share.  Cheesy

Daniel
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Daniel R. Knudsen 
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PicoFin
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Parainen, Finland
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Re: Hello from Finland
Reply #3 - Feb 8th, 2012 at 11:40am
 
Daniel wrote on Feb 7th, 2012 at 10:55pm:
How do you think you will make it without getting burned-out again.? Have you got any anti stress tools to share.  Cheesy

Daniel


Hi

Could not see any photos in the place where the link took me???

Here are a few ideas of preventing car workshop stress:

a) learn to say no
b) learn to say no
c) learn to say no

That is, if and when you are fully booked, use idea A when you get a customer in with a very urgent matter wanting you to stop your work and have a look at his car. When he still is saying it would be utmost important to fix his vehicle, and rather right away, use idea B. After this, when he wants you to take a tiny winy little look at his problem right away, use idea C. If it is a tough one still claiming for immediate attention, ask him how he would feel if he himself was one of those who actually booked a time for their car, and someone who just stumbled in would pass all of those? Or, ask him to suggest which of the booked jobs would be the best one to be left alone, to his favor? These guys cause you a lot of headache, especially if they get what they want. Because, if they manage to get their foot in for that little quick look, they will herrass you all the way wanting the car ready as fast as possible, and at the end they start whining about the price they say is lots too high, and every other shop nearby would have done this cheaper. Wonder, why didn't he go to those in the first place? If one of these get pissed of, and doesn't become a customer of yours, be happy. You don't want these anyway.

d) do not book your schedule 100%. Leave room for lunch, coffee breaks, and even after that leave empty spots. Because some things need more attention than you initially thought, and then when you are overbooked it makes you work too long days and even weekends. This might of course happen every now and then that you really need to but try the best to avoid it, or at least keeping it to the minimum.

e) don't work late nights (on purpose)

f) don't work weekends (on purpose)

g) don't underestimate the value of your work. Charge for it. If you work cheap for your friends, you will have lots of them. When you need favors from those friends, you won't see them around.

About customers: this guy has nailed it:
http://www.pumaracing.co.uk/customer.htm

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Daniel
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Re: Hello from Finland
Reply #4 - Feb 8th, 2012 at 12:32pm
 
Thanks for the ideas. I have tried to say no for years, but I guess I’m not good enough.  Roll Eyes
Must practise more. Haha
Have to work more on g) too….

PicoFin wrote on Feb 8th, 2012 at 11:40am:
Could not see any photos in the place where the link took me???


It’s a flash player movie and it starts halfway down after a few seconds.
Here is a screen dump:
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Daniel R. Knudsen 
WWW WWW sengeloeseautogaard  
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PicoFin
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Parainen, Finland
Parainen
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Re: Hello from Finland
Reply #5 - Feb 20th, 2012 at 11:57am
 
Now I could see it, using Internet explorer. For some reason Firefox does not show this? Nice, but maybe "a little" beyond my budget..  Grin
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kennyp
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Re: Hello from Finland
Reply #6 - Feb 21st, 2012 at 12:25pm
 
interesting guys i know excactly what you mean dan i just cant seem to say no i'd feel like i would be loosing a customer to someone else and also with price thing i under sell all the time. "a busy fool" springs to mind  Smiley 

i just cant help myself though  Smiley
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