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Legal Disclaimer: This article is written for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional financial advice. Please reference section179.org and a professional accountant for advice on financial planning and filing taxes.  

As 2020 comes to an end, you might be thinking about all of this year's expenses and wondering what you might be able to write off on your taxes. You may even be considering whether or not to make a big purchase, weighing the tax deductions you could get if you bought it this year versus next.

Is it worth buying that new lift before the year ends? Or should you put it off until 2021?

What is Section 179?

Section 179 of the IRS tax code allows business owners to write off the entire cost of a piece of equipment, renovations, or other assets in the first year instead of writing off an asset a little bit at a time over a five, seven, fifteen, or thirty-nine year period. To give an example, if a shop owner buys a new tire machine, they could either write off the taxes over a seven-year period, or they can use Section 179 to get the entire deduction in the first year.

What Type of Costs Qualify for Section 179?

• Tangible business property, including machinery and equipment
• Leasehold improvements
• Computer software*

*Is Tekmetric Eligible for Section 179?

Generally speaking, off-the-shelf computer software that has been purchased outright is eligible for Section 179. Because Tekmetric is a web-based software and does not make users sign a contract, it is not eligible for section 179, but it does qualify for a standard tax deduction.

Smart partnerships can change your business for the better. They can streamline processes, reduce costs, boost profits, bring your auto repair shop to a wider audience, and help you grow by leaps and bounds. On the other hand, not all partnerships are worth pursuing.

If your partnership is not a two-way street, you may be getting taken advantage of.

Generally, there are three types of partnership situations:

1. Mutually beneficial: everybody wins
2. Lopsided: One partner wins, the other loses
3. Mutually harmful: Both partners are worse off

A mutually beneficial partnership is the only one worth pursuing and keeping. But sometimes it can be challenging to know exactly what kind of arrangement you might find yourself in with any given partnership. The best way to mitigate any risk of entering or staying in a harmful partnership is to consider all sides of the arrangement and assess the partnership as a whole.

To assess all aspects of your current partnerships, or to determine whether or not a partnership you’re considering will be mutually beneficial, Tekmetric has put together an Auto Repair Partnership Accountability Self Assessment.

Here's how to use this assessment:

The assessment questions are in bold text below. They are thought-provoking questions you may want to ask yourself about the partnership.

Below the questions, we included typical answers or responses you may have. Remember, some questions are more open-ended than others, so the answers might not always be a clear “yes” or “no”.

The "Guidance" section provides helpful tips and deeper thoughts to help you think through certain aspects of your partnership.

We hope these guiding questions help you grow your business and enter strong, sustainable relationships with accountable and trustworthy partners.

Partnership Self Assessment

1. What type of partnership are you assessing?

• Shop Management System Vendor
• Parts Supplier Program
• Marketing Partner
• Another shop
• Non-profit
• Investors / Finance
• Legal Partner
• Technology Partner
• Other

Guidance: Assess the scope of your partnership. Some partnerships are limited, focusing on a very specific aspect of a product or service. Others, such as a merger or acquisition, can dramatically change your business.

Tek-Tip: Date before you marry.

If a partnership has the potential to be a major game-changer, take the time to enter it properly, form a stable foundation, and build it up from there. If you start on the same page with mutual trust, you can grow at a pace that is healthy for everyone.

If you don’t see the partnership growing beyond a limited scope, you may want to reassess the relationship and ask yourself whether or not it is worth it.

2. Is the partnership essential? If so, what makes it essential? Does it improve a process, help sell to customers, decrease workload, cut costs, bring needed financing, etc.?

Yes or No

Guidance: If the partnership is essential to your business, it’s that much more important to make sure it’s mutually beneficial. Otherwise, you may find yourself dependent on a partnership that may not always be there for you and need to pursue other options.

If the partnership isn’t essential, consider why you would keep the partnership or enter it in the first place.

If the partnership hinders your ability to do something essential, reevaluate how you can either adjust the relationship, end it, or replace it.

3. On a scale of 1 to 10, to what extent do you trust your potential partner? Does the partnership help address a weakness or enhance a strength?

1 = No Trust 10 = Full Trust

Guidance: You really should be able to mark a 10 without hesitation if at all possible. There’s no such thing as partial trust. Either your partner is committed to your success or they are not a good fit.

4. Does the partnership help address a weakness or enhance a strength?

Areas of strengths or weaknesses may include: Organization, speed, outreach, sales, cash flow, accounting, human resources, management, measurement, data analysis, process, network, assets, brand image, technical ability, ethics, revenue, lead generation, morale, product diversity, risk, etc.

Guidance: If the partnership helps you make up for a weakness or further bolsters a strength, then the partnership may be beneficial.

Tek-Tip: Keep an eye on your metrics!

Partnerships should grow your ARO, Car Count, GP$ and other essential bottom line statistics.

5. Are you free to choose your preferred tools and software under the partnership?

Yes or No

It’s important to not be limited by a partnership. If your partner is forcing you to use a specific tool that you don’t want to use or to buy something that you don’t need, the partnership may be parasitic and to the detriment of your business.

Tek-Tip: Negotiate, if needed.

You don’t have to accept a partnership offer at face value. If you’re offered something that looks good save for a limiting aspect or two, try asking for a compromise. A good partner will usually accommodate you.

6. How well does your partner communicate?

Consider all options below.

My partner is:

• Proactive (reaches out to me before I have to call them)
• Responsive when there is a problem or issue
• Inquisitive and asks questions that clarify or help get to the bottom of a challenge
• Thoughtful and honors my time
• Flexible and willing to communicate on my preferred channels or adapt to my schedule.

Guidance: Communication is key to a healthy, mutually beneficial partnership. Clear, open communication builds trust, keeps projects on task, ensures completion of goals, and maximizes everybody’s strengths.

Tek-Tip: Set up a good process and cadence for communication.

Getting on the same page when it comes to when and how different stakeholders communicate can help unify all members of the partnership so that they can act as one single team.

Consider setting up:

• Regular standing meetings
• Preferred communication channels tailored to specific needs and goals
• Project management systems and processes

7. Do you and your potential partner have shared goals related to customer success, innovation, growth, margins, etc.?

Think about your shared goals. It would be even better if you jot them down.

Guidance: You can only measure a goal if it is clearly outlined. For instance, "Increase customers per month by 30% in the next 12 months".

Tek-Tip: Use SMART goals.

Make sure your goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based.  (For more info, read Peter Druck’s "The Practice of Management").

8. Is your contract overly restrictive or overly lax?

What limitations are placed on your business due to the contract?

What parts of the contract seem too abstract, open-ended, or loose to protect you?

Guidance: Have your mentor, accountant, and/or lawyer look over the contract.

Tek-Tip: Get assurances.

An accountant or other financial partner should be able to look you in the eye and say they are confident that the partnership will make you money.

A legal partner should be able to look you in the eye and say that they would be confident defending from your side of the contract in court. Get their blessings before signing.

9. All things considered, do you feel like this partnership is mutually beneficial or benefits one partner more than the other?

Consider the following.

This partnership is:

• Mutually beneficial
• Disadvantageous for my business
• Disadvantageous for my partner

Guidance: Your partnership should be mutually beneficial. If this assessment has called into question whether the partnership may be disadvantageous or hurt either you or your partner, it may be time for a serious conversation about altering or ending the relationship.

Summary

Be wise with your partnership choices. We’re always looking for ways to both help our partners and discover new capabilities through partnerships with other companies. Our partnerships have led us to offer shop owners more through integrations with marketing companies, parts suppliers, labor guides, and other trustworthy auto repair solutions.

To see some of our partners and integrations, check out our Integrations Page.

Are you looking for a shop management system partner? We’d love to work with you towards a mutually beneficial relationship with your auto repair shop business.

‍Standing on the grid of the Indy 500 with 250,000 people around you and 33 cars on the grid—there’s nothing like it.

At the age of 13 I was working on semi-trucks. And when I turned 18, I opened up my first shop in the U.K. It was mobile; just me and a set of tools. 

In 1996, I got a call from Newport Beach, California that said “we need you to be a crew chief for the Indy Lights Team.” 

With no hesitation, I said yes. I was the crew chief for a two-car team for about a year. 

After moving from the U.K. to the U.S., I hopped around a bit. I lived in Oregon, Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan. I went from being a crew chief to replacing rear tires and fixing exotics. 

‍

In 1999, I worked my first Indy 500 race. And let me tell you: standing on the grid of the Indy 500 with 250,000 people around you and 33 cars on the grid—there’s nothing like it. 

As you’re waiting for the car to drive up, your adrenaline will start pumping. Everyone is in their position, and you’re in charge of changing the outside rear tire.

Formula One guys can do it in 2 to 2.5 seconds because they have a group of 20 individuals, but when you’re the only one on a tire, and everyone’s counting on you, you do it in 5 to 7 seconds.

I remember they put a heart rate monitor on me when I was changing tires at the Long Beach Grand Prix. My heart rate went from 180 to 230 during that wheel change. 

Judi Haglin runs Haglin Automotive alongside her husband, Dana.

And whether they’re in the shop or out of the shop, they’re always looking for ways they can give back.

One of their favorite efforts is volunteering with Pilots N Paws®, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that rescues puppies by flying them to be adopted.

Over the years, they've saved over 200 puppies.

Judi: Dana got his private pilot license when he was in school.

And after we got married, we were looking at buying a second house. We decided to build our home in the hangar, and eventually Dana got his airplane.

Giving back to the community is extremely important to us. Through the years, we’ve donated several vehicles to Justice High School for the highest achiever, and each Spring have sponsored an Erie High School student to participate in the Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership Camp.

Naturally, Dana started to look for additional volunteer opportunities. 

Tekmetric is a huge improvement over a traditional paper process for sure. Estimates are easy to draft, orders are easy to create, and work flows easily through the platform as cars move through your shop.

That's because there’s always a better way! Canned jobs in Tekmetric are particularly powerful, saving service writers time by simplifying the process of building job estimates. Less clicks means more time to focus on the customer and offer amazing service while selling even more amazing BG Products.

When you have the right tool that helps simplify your work, why not use them? You wouldn’t use an open-ended wrench when a ratcheting socket wrench cuts the time in half and saves your knuckles.

In our effort to keep growing Tekmetric so running your shop is even easier, our latest update to canned jobs now includes even more canned jobs for BG Products and services right in Tekmetric. Just enable the canned jobs you want to use, and start selling even more BG services right away! 

What are canned jobs?

Canned jobs are pre-saved job templates in Tekmetric that include labor and parts associated with common repair work done.

Instead of recreating jobs you perform on a regular basis, shops can create as many canned-jobs as they like to build estimates in just seconds. Just apply the right canned job and you're ready to send for approval.

In fact, shops find canned jobs so helpful, one shop running on Tekmetric has created over 2,000 customer canned jobs, and even uses at least one canned job per RO. 

The value of canned jobs is clear: making it easier for repair teams to provide customers with the best of the best. 

Simple, efficient, and reliable processes lead to more completed work and happier customers. And as we know, happier customers leads to even more customer retention, and better customer retention increases shop profitability.

In essence, canned jobs can even help you pay for Tekmetric. The profit generated from saving time, closing more repair orders and selling better service can cover the cost of the platform, and then some. 

Just why are canned jobs so powerful for your shop? That's easy:

• Make your jobs easier by simplifying your workflows for common repair orders into just a few clicks
• Shorten the time it takes to operate, get estimates built and approved sooner and move cars faster.
• BG Canned Jobs, using BG products in particular, enable your shop to offer more specialized service options for improved vehicle performance