Talkin' Paint Podcast #1 - Standard Operating Procedures (PILOT)

(00:00) Hey everyone my name is Gabe Fletcher and welcome to Talking Paint this is going to be our first pilot episode been wanting to create a podcast for a very long time I finally felt like now is probably the perfect time we’re getting ready to head into a you know unknown financial situation here in our country and I feel like there’s a lot of people who could really benefit from getting some useful information so a little bit about me I operate a shop in Pottstown Pennsylvania Ceramic Pro Pottstown AKA total detailing

(00:47) we’re an elite dealer for ceramic Pro we install all of their kavaca ppf window tint and their ceramic Coatings we’re one of the largest and fastest growing shops in Pennsylvania inside of our industry uh I also operate a marketing agency called detailing growth we are an agency that focuses on working with auto detailing ceramic coating window tint and paint protection film shops that want to grow their online presence through web development search engine optimization and pay-per-click services if you’d like a free audit of your

(01:26) business’s online presence please visit us at detailing growth.com so for those of you that don’t know I operate a detailing and film Business mentorship program that serves about 10 clients a month we keep it capped so that way you can make sure that everyone gets all the attention that they need to um so it’s a very limited program and one of the biggest challenges that I see detailers and installers have is transitioning from being detailer an installer into being a competent business owner this is

(02:08) usually made apparent by the amount of damage control that they say they’re having to do in their shop and this is usually because of the lack of a robust training program and always to and always having to redirect and instruct their staff uh all the time which brings us to the point of today’s podcast and that’s having standard operating procedures in your shop having Sops you’re going to hear us refer to standard operating procedures as Sops just for short having Sops allows you to be profitable and less

(02:49) prone to risk all it takes is one slip or one Mis detail because an employee didn’t fully understand what they needed to do or or how they were to react to a specific situation it may end up costing you thousands I run a shop and I know for a fact that the employee that doesn’t understand your Sops is going to be the first one to cause damage standard operating procedures or Sops are a set of step-by-step instructions that outline tasks necessary to complete a larger task they provide clear and concise

(03:30) Direction on how a task should be performed and ensures that everyone in your organization is on the same page while Sops are usually associated with larger businesses in a corporate setting these are crucial for businesses in this sector of any size your standard operating procedure doesn’t need to be written in a manner that says walk to bucket pick up bucket move bucket and so on your sop should be written in a manner that is so long as somebody has all of their brain cells that they can read it and understand what you’re

(04:10) asking so you need to elaborate a little bit a great example is an sop for prepping your wash process like prepping your equipment in your buckets you could begin your sop by writing step one take three five gallon labeled wash buckets and place them in the wash bay under the faucet step two use faucet to rinse the buckets ensuring that all debris is removed step three Place grit guard into bottom of the bucket with the feet touching the bottom step four fill the bucket to the fill line that’s inside with warm water so

(04:59) you see the idea isn’t to write it for a 2-year-old or a mentally incapacitated person but to write it so that your directions are clear and they make sense and I get asked a lot Gabe can you send me your Sops can you send me some sop templates no and the reason I say no is because your Sops need to be written according to your business and if you need help writing an S so you know I’m happy to help the people that work with us inside of our agency and mentorship program and if I have time I’ll answer messages and you know

(05:39) give somebody a head start and point them in the right direction but for the most part you’re going to need to do it yourself the biggest and most profitable benefit to Sops is that they help to improve efficiency by ensuring everybody knows exactly what needs to be done and how it should be done this can save a lot of time and frustration and ultimately lead to increased productivity in your shop because if everybody knows what they’re supposed to be doing in their shop and they know what the person next to them

(06:14) is supposed to be doing you’ll be able to turn your shop into a profit Center take example paint correction paint correction is subjective to many and lots of people follow many different different methods mindsets and ideologies different detailers have different experience levels and they all have different expectations when it comes to paint correction and most of the time those expectations change when they come to work for a shop and this is especially true for those that have come from working in a body shop or a dealership

(06:55) because now you’re working in more of a higher-end detail shop and things are changing even more so this is true for people that have gone to YouTube University so to speak I’m going to take a snippet from Ivan um Ivan is I can never pronounce his last name I think it’s Ivan lroy and Ivan’s been a part of the industry for a very long time he’s got more years under his belt working for product manufacturers coding manufacturers and running high-profit shops more so than anybody else that I’ve come across in the

(07:36) industry uh he runs the detailing or detailers Business Academy um he’s currently retired uh he travels the country in this awesome RV and toes I think he Towes a Mini Cooper behind it and it’s like when you see him he gets out with like the round Morpheus glasses and he’s got the super long beard and he’s got a bow tie on he gets out of this mini and it’s it’s like watching something out of The Twilight Zone I’ve never I’ve never seen somebody as interesting as Ivan and I I love him for
(08:08) it because he rocks it loud and proud because that’s his brand right that’s that’s him and Ivan’s run several highly profitable detailing businesses and he’s worked for some of the biggest names in the industry like optic coat and Optimum products he’s somebody that I look up to and who many other people within our industry trust Ian on more than one occasion has referenced having too many options because as detailers that are in kind of the higher tier and uh are involved in the online social world you know we

(08:50) all like to buy different products and test them and we all have our own say oh this is what we use for this and this is what we use for that this is the best that’s the best when you’re running a business that’s not ideal he says that when it comes to machines polishes compounds he followed this method in his shop to create a standardized workflow that thrived on Effectiveness and profitability each detailer had a cart they had a 5-in polisher one polishing pad one cutting pad one polish one compound this simplified their process

(09:33) so much that the chance of that team producing errors was significantly reduced and it streamlined the process so much that they were turning after implementing that system those shops R turning twice as many cars and you as a business owner that should matter a lot and that’s because they had a standard operating procedure for paint correction ction in place standard operating procedures are also one of the best ways that you can protect yourself from claims surrounding worker injury if you have Sops laid out that explain

(10:10) safety hazards and how to deal with them such as spill the chemicals or broken equipment or uh a dangerous situation in the shop everyone having the knowledge on staff to know how to deal with an emergency or potentially dangerous situation that’s that’s highly highly beneficial to you because let me tell you that if you get an employee your staff member of yours that gets hurt in the workplace that’s going to sting because rest assured that your workman’s comp is probably going to drop you as soon as

(10:47) they have to pay that claim I think one of the biggest reasons that you should create Sops for your shop and your workplace is shops that have Sops in place have a major L positive work environment because when you have a process for everything employees are less stressed workflow is better and employees feel like they’re being productive and they’re getting their job done effectively so setting up Sops for your shop is going to provide your staff and team with a really positive environment because who wants to come to work and

(11:25) just deal with chaos all the time now I’m guilty of it sometimes my shop gets a little too busy because I’ve packed the schedule or we’ve had jobs carry over that were big and we had to redo some stuff whatever that may be like chaos is never fun but having an sop in place to help manage that chaos and to help workflow be more efficient and productive that’s huge and I think a Hidden Gem surrounding Sops is that you get to tell your clients that you have Sops in place for everything in your business this

(12:03) points to you having a well-run well oiled business with clear and concise instructions that you can show your potential customers how much of a professional shop you are and those Sops also point to how much you care about the quality of the work that comes out of your shop this helps you to stand out from competitors and build a very loyal customer base because if you can build loyalty and Trust customers will come to you even when it is more inconvenient for them to have to bend and change around your schedule and your needs as a

(12:44) business those loyal clients will come to you over and over and over if they can trust you and that kind of touches on uh another part you know having Sops in your shop is also going to increase employee retention because ultimately an employee that’s happy when they come to work every day because they know what they got to do and they know that their teammates know what they have to do in order to support them that staff member is going to want to stick around because the environment is going to be so positive and so well oiled that they’re

(13:22) not going to want to work anywhere else I’ve seen it I see it in my shop all the time like staff members and employees they want stability and Sops are a direct route into stability so that said we’re going to close this one out if you think that you’re ready to move your business to the next step and you’d like to get on board with our mentorship program you can find more information at detailing growth.

(13:55) com my name is Gabe Fletcher I hope that you enjoyed this podcast episode I hope to see you and hear from you and hear about what your thoughts were you know please I’d love to hear them whether you post on Facebook or you post in one of the Cross uploaded areas on YouTube and SoundCloud and apple and whatever it may be I want to hear from you and we want to hear your suggestions on things that we could cover to help you in your business so thanks again for listening I’ll see you in the next one