My Father was a chef in the Royal Air Force, so as a child, we moved around a lot, living in England, Wales, Cyprus, and Germany. In my late teens I moved to Cornwall where I settled down and made my home.
Like many young lads, I loved repairing cars, and so with a toolbox you could carry, an archaic mig welder, trolly jack and axle stands, I rented a small unit next to a filling station, and made it the village garage.
We specialised in Volkswagens and Audi’s and very soon had a solid customer base. The workshop flourished, we moved to larger premises, I took on more mechanics, Mot bay, tyre station, fuel station, car sales, and grew into Cornwalls’ largest independent VW Audi Specialist. But all was not well, I had started with nothing, I was financially overstreched, my premises was rented and in Cornwall our business was seasonal. In 1999, with a tide of supermarket fuel stations opening, our business joined the fateful closure of small petrol stations across the country. It was a bitter blow, and a grim lesson.
Running a large workshop was hard work and stressful, losing it all because of a failed fuel station knocked me for six….I was down but not out…
I decided to put my experience to work, and began assisting other workshops to improve their business’s. I found myself specialising in Mercedes diagnostics, constantly battling the inequality between the main agencies enjoying the official diagnostics software and the independents who could not access such a vital resource. It was a worldwide problem. These injustices continue to some degree, but now the role of independent specialists is being recognised.
As manufacturers move toward online sales, their reliance on independent workshops increases daily.
I realised that even when workshops had access to the software, its complexity meant that staff would often waste hours, if not days, just struggling to use it.
I could offer workshops a member of staff who was both skilled in the use of the software and experienced in automotive diagnosis. With a small fixed fee charge, payable after the session, and only then if the workshop was satisfied with the results, I suddenly found myself very busy, but remember, if you want a job done, ask a busy person.
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