FROM THE CEO
Start with Your Associations
challenges each of us our facing these days, many are defying the will of the economy and prospering throughout the country – yes, even shop owners. Wherever we look, there are shops
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in real trouble and owners wondering what will happen to their business. However, in that very same town you can find shop owners making it work and seeing success. What is causing the difference? Last year, ATRA studied shop
demographics to see if regional issues or years in business were defining conditions for success. We discovered that neither factor had any measurable effect on business. Yet all too often shop owners point
to these kinds of outside influences to explain their business slowdown. The city has had a lot of layoffs, or nobody in this town as any money, or the low- baller down the street is getting all the work. If you look for it, you can find a lot of outside causes to poor business. Of course, these problems do exist
and do affect business, but they are not the whole story. We have found shops that are staying busy and even expand- ing under the exact same conditions. This begs the question: How do they do it? I make an effort to attend as many
business events as I can, whether or not they are directly related to transmission repair. And I discover each and every
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here is no question that the past few years have been tenuous, to say the least. In spite of all the
time that I’m not the only one – I see people I know hoping to pick up a new idea or make a new contact, even at events outside our industry. And these are the types of business owners that are seeing success. Yes, the first factor that so quickly
differentiates successful shop owners from struggling shop owners is their attitude – whether they still enjoy the business and are excited about their work. They associate with others who also approach their business with a positive attitude, and the fastest way to find people like that are at business events.
And nowhere will you find a great-
er concentration of the most success- ful people in the transmission repair industry than at ATRA’s Powertrain Industry Expo. The shop owners and operators who come to the Expo every year are experiencing the same difficult economy you are, but they refuse to let it get the better of them. Attending the Expo is the first step to turning your business around – who better to talk to than shop owners in the exact same situation you are? This is your opportunity to rub
elbows with the best of the best, and find out how these shop owners remain optimistic and profitable. One of the biggest obstacles to success is a poor attitude, and if you surround yourself by negative thinkers, they will only reinforce your bleak business outlook.
by Dennis Madden
members.atra.com www.atra.com
Associating with thriving and cre-
ative shop owners is one of the most sure-fire ways to pull yourself out of a slump, and that is the goal of the Expo. To ensure this Expo brings shop
owners the inspiration they need to turn business around, we have added a special element this year: a panel of past Expo attendees who applied what they learned from past What’s Working programs and achieved breakthroughs with their businesses. These are the people you have
been reading about in GEARS: Mario Jauregui; the Vess brothers, Gary and Gerald; and Zach Evans. They have been where a lot of shop owners are right now – their businesses were doing okay but not performing to potential. We will examine their methods and combine them with other ideas to help you build a plan that will work for you and your shop. The key to finding business suc-
cess is not looking for outside forces to blame. Positive thinking and aggres- sive action are the first steps to getting your shop back on track, and the ATRA Powertrain Industry Expo is the place to meet with industry professionals and set yourself on a path to prosperity. Discover how Mario, Gary, Gerald
and Zach applied what they learned from What’s Working and turned their businesses around. They made it work; now it’s your turn. Reserve your spot at the expo today!
GEARS April 2010
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