As you deliver excellent service for your clients and word gets out, you'll acquire more customers, and your shop will grow. As a shop owner, you'll also use marketing, sales, and other tactics to grow your shop.
The growth of your shop may mean you'll need to expand. You may need to hire new employees, add more locations, or build onto your current location. Either way, expanding your shop can be what some call a "good problem."
Growing a shop, expanding, and opening new locations require the right team to be in place to ensure the process is as smooth as possible. Without the best people managing growth, your expansion could become a nightmare.
"It's important to understand cars, but I hire managers based on how well they deal with people. I want kind people who understand how to treat our customers and employees well, especially during an expansion," says John Yazak, owner of Scotsman Auto Body.
"I have a manager who's been at one of our shops for six years, and we've never gotten a bad review because of their great human skills. They do well with people, and it shows in how our customers respond. Car skills are important, but people skills are more important."
A good team requires a good manager who can lead and direct people most efficiently. There are specific traits managers need to have to oversee a shop expansion or new location—these traits can make or break a shop's growth.
Here's how to identify those traits in existing managers, how to find the people necessary for such a role, and what things need to be prioritized in overseeing an expansion.
Hire or Promote Managers with Good Communication Skills
Managers not only need to communicate, but they also need to understand how to do it effectively. Good communication makes employees feel valued, and customers understand.
“Management needs a marketing and customer acquisition strategy to attract new customers to the expanded operations. Staying focused on maintaining existing customer relationships during the expansion is critical. Delegating a team to help you through this process while you are absent from current operations will help. Each expansion is unique; additional requirements may arise depending on your circumstances. It's important to stay adaptable, seek guidance from industry professionals or consultants, and leverage the expertise of your team to ensure a successful expansion of operations” says David Caulfield, owner of Fix Auto Anaheim North.
A time of expansion means confusion as changes happen—effective communication is required to help navigate the chaos. One of the traits shop owners should look for in a manager who's right for expansion, and a new location is how well they communicate.
"You have to be able to effectively communicate desired requirements and project goals to all employees and contractors," says Tony Whatley, owner of 365 Driven, an automotive industry coaching company. "It's important to be clear on expectations, schedules, and the strategy to accomplish an expansion with internal and external team members."
Hire or Promote Managers Who Are in Control of Their Emotions
It's very easy for situations to turn ugly when emotions are involved; a time of expansion can bring out the emotions. Expanding means things will not go as planned, and you'll need a manager who understands they can't let their feelings do the talking. They need a good attitude no matter how frustrating things get.
"I don't hire people with bad attitudes; I hire people who know how to deal with people. We have a family business; I want the managers I hire to treat everyone the same way and with respect," says Yazak.
When thinking about the traits of a manager you want to lead, your expansion effects: emotional control, and stability should be high on your list. You don't want a loose cannon.
"The best managers have stable emotional control. Nothing ever goes perfectly, but with risk planning and mitigation, it can be greatly minimized. Learning to be patient and to not stress over things beyond your control will make this construction phase more rewarding," says Whatley.
"It's important to keep the morale up with the entire expansion team so everyone stays on track and performs. A toxic or stressful work environment usually results in a lower quality, rushed, poorly completed expansion."
Hire or Promote Managers Who Are Organized
Expanding or moving to a location is chaotic at times. You'll need a manager who communicates well and controls their emotions, as well as an organized manager. You'll need a leader that can manage everything in an organized way, even through periods of chaos.
When thinking about who should lead an expansion, think about someone who is organized. You don't need them to be a type-A, OCD-level organization person, but they should understand how to keep things in line and have a history of being organized.
Express the importance of organization when communicating with the manager you'll choose to handle the expansion. Ensure they communicate how vital the organization is to the rest of your team. Everyone should be on the same page regarding keeping projects, paperwork, schedules, contractors, and everything organized.
"Having founded several repair facilities over my career, there must be a strategic plan for an expansion to ensure success, regardless of the history and condition of the new location. Leadership needs to create a comprehensive expansion plan that includes market analysis, financial projections, resource allocation, and availability, and determine an achievable timeline to complete the project. I would highly recommend management has a handle on their existing operations before expanding,” says Caulfield.
Hire or Promote Managers Who Have an Entrepreneurial Mindset
The last trait you should consider is having a manager who understands and possesses an entrepreneurial mindset. Even though they're your employee, they think like an entrepreneur and take ownership of their leadership role. You want a manager with independent thinking and a self-starter.
Managing an expansion requires someone who doesn't need to be constantly supervised—an entrepreneurial mindset means they don't need to be told what to do. The entrepreneurial mindset in a manager is an extension of you as a shop owner but in one of your employees.
“Adding a location or building out an existing one, and your current site does not have its house and operations for top performance, you will be inviting grief and regret. Defining and documenting the goals and the purpose of the expansion is critical. It's easy to lose your way during an expansion dealing with so many obstacles; having the ability to reference your goals and purpose will reignite any energy consumed. Know why you are expanding and believe in it,” says Caulfield.
Let Good Managers Lead
You may already have an A-player on your team that fits the traits you're looking for, and you can promote them. You may also need to post the role on job boards such as Indeed, Monster, or LinkedIn. You can also ask employees or colleagues in the industry for referrals.
Prioritize finding a manager with the best leadership traits, and always take care of your customers and their vehicles during an expansion.
Once you've found a manager with all the traits you're looking for to lead your expansion, you should let them lead. There's no point in doing the hard work of finding the right leader and then micro-managing them.
