Your employees think differently than you do, and this can cause extreme frustration for you.  The first step to getting your employees to think more like you (the owner) is to understand exactly why they think the way they do.  After you understand why, you can take steps to shift their thinking.
Download the free supplemental PDF Why Your Employees Think Differently Than You Do, and What To Do About It here.

This is an except from the all-inclusive online course, How to Hire Great Automotive Employees.

Shout-out to Angela Gilham of Age of Detail In Tacoma, Washington, USA

Have you ever looked at your balance sheet?  Did it make sense?
Download the free PDF that goes with this episode.

Do you regularly use your balance sheet to make business decisions?  You should, and I talk about why in this episode.

Most automotive business owners focus on their Profit & Loss report, but without knowing what’s going on in their balance sheet, they're really ignoring a very important tool to help them track how their business is doing, and to get to their financial goals.

So I’m going to break down this report and make it easy for you.

No you don’t need an accounting degree and you don't need to be a wiz at math.

Here is the free PDF download that contains the real-life net-worth tracking chart mentioned in this podcast.
Join the waitlist for my next online course, "Calculating and Tracking your Net Worth".

The only way to know how you're doing financially, and therefore improve, is to measure and track your net worth.
You can’t make the best decisions for your life without the most accurate information at hand.

When you start regularly tracking your net worth, you’ll start to think about how your everyday spending habits will affect your next quarterly calculation.

You may start to feel a little more guilty about your daily $10 coffee habit; or your trend of buying a brand new car every couple years.

Since you’ll want to see your net worth grow, you’ll WANT to make the small tweaks and changes in your daily spending.  It won’t feel like sacrifices.  You’ll actually enjoy the feeling you get from saving your money MORE than the feeling you get from buying that new car.

Believe it or not, it’s cathartic, and it becomes FUN!  It’s a game!

How do you do it?

Your net worth is simply your assets minus your liabilities.

Asset: anything you own that you can sell for money, 

Or anything that produces money for you,

Or actual money.  

Liability: anything you owe, line of credit, car loan, house, credit card, personal loan from friend, etc.

To track your net worth, you'll make a spreadsheet which you'll enter all your assets and all your liabilities so you arrive at a final number.  You'll also have a space to make notes each quarter to provide clarity on major expenditures.  See the examples below to get an idea of exactly which assets and liabilities we're going to keep track of.
Lastly, you'll have an equation that calculates your progress since the last quarter.

Asset examples:

Personal Cash in bank (not pocket money) DON'T GET CAUGHT UP IN THE MINUTIA!!!!!   Let this be easy.  No fancy math, just basic arithmetic.
Checking account, savings accounts (for emer, annual taxes, known large expenses like CPA, roof, paint house, car, etc.) Don’t have any savings??  We’re going to address that.

IRA balances.

Possible rental properties.  What could you sell them for today?

Balance sheet of your biz (will include biz cash, inventory assets, and debts)

No clothes, furniture, belongings, etc.  

No “toys” hobbies, kayaks, motorcycles, boats, homebrewing equipment, competition BBQ trailer, RV travel trailer, Author Robert Kiyosaki calls these “do-dads”

We don’t count your house or your cars as an asset because you’ll need these no matter what.

Liabilities examples:

Home mortgage

Car loans

Toy loans, personal loans

Credit card debt

The point here isn’t 100% pinpoint accuracy to compare people against each other… it’s to measure YOUR progress in all the meaningful areas of YOUR life.  When you do this over a couple years, you’ll see what’s important TO YOU and what’s not.

Once you've arrived at your final net worth number, think forward about how to improve by the next quarter.

After a few quarters, you'll see how your decisions affect your final net worth.  This is fantastic because you will naturally and easily transition your decision-making into the most profitable decisions you can make in any given situation.

Book suggestion: Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.

Shout-out to Marcy and Alex Tran who own and operate Clean Car Custom Detail in Brenham, TX

This podcast is for automotive business owners who are serious about earning more profits so they can take home more money, and spend less time down at their shop.
I am the host, Jason Barker, a blue-collar millionaire who made my money operating a small automotive business since 1995.  I still operate that business, but now my dream automotive business is helping YOU achieve YOUR dream automotive business!
We won't talk about specific tools or products to use in your business, but rather how to get the most money and time without more time or stress from your automotive business.
It is NOT for the hobbyist who doesn't mind spending countless hours on their "art" project.  Those people do amazing things, and they build some amazingly beautiful and fast cars, but this is about business profits and time.
You should check out the website https://www.automotiveprofitsacademy.com/ to learn more and see some additional free PDF downloads and learning resources.

Jason talks about what it takes to get the most for your automotive business when you decide to sell.  What are buyers looking for?  What should you look out for?  What can you do prior to the sale to maximize your automotive business' sales price?  Should you tell your employees you're selling?  How do the different terms I'm willing to accept effect the sales price?  Should I only accept cash, or should I accept a down payment and monthly terms?  How to determine collateral.  How are the proceeds of the sale taxed?  How important is your local reputation, including Google and Yelp reviews?  How are automotive businesses priced based on their labor and parts sales?  High labor-based businesses like auto detail shops, car washes, and PDR businesses have a vastly different formula than more balanced businesses like auto paint and body shops, mechanic repair shops, or custom speed shops.  How do the warranties you've issued in your ceramic paint coating business effect your sales price?  What about transmission or engine or mechanical repair warranties you've issued?  Does your paint shop warranty its work?  Does taking cash under the table effect your sales price?
All these factors play a role in your business' sales price, so the more you know now, the more you can plan to help boost your price as high as possible, and to have a realistic idea about what your business is really worth on the open market.

Here is the free PDF mentioned in this episode, it's called "Selling Your Automotive Business"
https://www.automotiveprofitsacademy.com/

Jason discusses what the word "profit" should mean to you and your automotive business.  The word, profit, gets thrown around a lot, but until you really define what it is and how important it is to achieving your goals, it isn't really helpful.
Once you have a clear definition in your head what it really means, then you can really start to make progress on your financial goals.
We discuss how successful automotive business owners define profit, and how they use the word in their everyday lives.
This helps lay more groundwork for what we're building on in the Automotive Profits Academy Podcast.

Here is the free PDF download mentioned in this episode, it's called "Defining Profit"
https://www.automotiveprofitsacademy.com/

Next week Jason talks about selling your automotive business.

For automotive business owners, your unquestionable work ethic is your biggest asset... but it it usually a liability also, and it's probably holding you back from the profits and lifestyle you're trying to achieve.  We dive into how this happens, and what to do about it.  If you own an automotive business like a body paint shop, mechanic repair shop, auto detailing shop, tire shop, upholstery shop, or you do stereos, build race cars, tint windows, PPF, replace glass, or mufflers exhaust, brakes, diesels, carwash, fix transmissions or any other myriad ways we make money in the automotive industry, you will benefit from listening.  
Jason Barker discusses the time vs. money topic to achieve crystal clarity on what to focus on in your business and your life.
Jason also discusses the often-overlooked value of paying for online education courses.
There are actionable steps to take during this podcast so you can get started immediately seeing results in your business, both in terms of more money in your pocket, and in less hours down at your shop.
We talk about getting to the easiest profit wins first, like your free Google Business listing, firing your least profitable clients, keeping your prices up, saying no to unprofitable jobs, and knowing the importance of what financial numbers you need to know about your business.
Since this is the first episode in the Automotive Profits Academy Podcast, this is a broad summary of many topics that will be covered in much more detail in later episodes.
Jason also talks about how to find the time to do the small tasks that you'll learn about in this episode.  Time is always in short supply for us automotive business owners, right!?  So we find ways to identify time-wasting activities that you may not be aware of; like an excessively long commute, getting hooked on TV shows, checking your ever-cluttered email inbox, turning off your social media notifications on your phone, etc.  Also talked about is how to discover processes that can speed up common transactions in your business that are wasting your valuable time; like answering phones, and responding to client emails for pricing for example.

Here is the free PDF download called "Working Hard is the Easy Part" which goes into more depth about the topics discussed in this episode:
https://automotiveprofitsacademy.com