Garage owner takes skills and training challenges into his own hands
Garage’s fortunes turned around with investment in premises and dedicated training room
William Street Motors in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, has been firmly put on the map and seen its fortunes turn around following its sale to new owner Ryan Ginifer.
Ginifer, an experienced garage owner, saw potential in the business, which although hidden from view to passersby, is in a densely populated residential area.
To date, £73k has been invested into William Street Motors including an extensive renovation of the building, construction of a dedicated training room, staff welfare room, new workshop tools and equipment, an MOT station, and IT infrastructure including a garage management system (GMS) and new website.
He said: “By the time I get it to where I want it to be, I could probably have bought another house!
“It’s all money well spent though. The priority has been investing in staff and training them to my level of expertise and professionalism. I’m passionate about apprenticeships. We currently have two apprentices in the workshop. It isn’t always plain sailing though.
“I soon discovered that what they’re learning in college, isn’t keeping pace with the reality of a fast-evolving automotive world. They do need to attend college and gain qualifications, but there are knowledge gaps to bridge.
“So, I decided to take matters into my own hands and build a fully equipped training facility just off the workshop. It’s quite something.”
Despite running his own business for 19 years, Ginifer also acknowledges the continual growth and learning required for garage owners too. He credits the success of William Street Motors to a shift change in his own knowledge.
He continued: “I’m a master tech and love my job. However, running the business is a different skill altogether. I used to value it by what was in the bank at the end of the month. We worked on whatever came through the door, including the unprofitable jobs.
“I wasn’t alone in this. Historically, it’s how most technicians who become garage owners are, especially those passed down through generations of families.
“These days though, there’s so much out there to help us run good profitable garage businesses. From training courses with people such as Andy Savva, GMS systems like Garage Hive, and automotive online specialists Garage Services Online, you can deploy it all.”
Crucial to William Street Motors’ success, has been the garage’s online presence. Ginifer appointed Garage Services Online (GSO) to build a website the day after he bought the garage. He’d used aggregator work provider websites previously but wanted an online strategy that worked smarter.
He concluded: “Even though we’re surrounded by chimney pots, people who’ve lived here their whole life didn’t know the garage existed. Thanks to the website, that’s all changed.
“Around 40 percent of customers find us via a Google search and it’s all our ideal work.
“We specialise in VW, Audi and Mercedes so it’s important that how we appear online, reflects the professionalism of the garage on the ground. I’m competing with main dealers for this work, so the website has to be good enough to compete with them in an online search. And it does, no question about it.
“That’s why it was so important to me that GSO are motor trade specialists. They only build and manage garage websites.
“Between the website attracting all the work we really want, our GMS managing workflow and profitability, and having the best techs coming up through the ranks, the garage is thriving. Turnover is already at £.5m and we’re well and truly on the map.”