"I know what I have to make on everything we do to make money," Addis said.  "I don't ever upsell anything, I don't run coupons, and I don't do specials.  That stuff is the things the chain stores do."

Repair shops that offer a cheap oil change or brake work for next to nothing are out to get your money, he said.

  
"Places like Firestone will offer a $39.95 brake special (installation extra).  What they don't tell you is they charge $80 to install the brakes and typically put an estimate together for the customer for no less than $700," he said.

Addis said his philosophy is to be up front with his customers and avoid doing work for so cheap that he feels obligated to sell something that a customer may or may not need.

"That is the way I have done it since the day I opened and that is the way I will always do it, and I will probably never get rich off of it," Addis said.  "You see sting operations they run on the news all the time.  They have found that 50 percent of the garages they take their cars to try to sell you something you don't need.  So, I figure I'm in a good niche.  I will just tell you what you need and charge you what I have to to make some money off of it.  I am not the cheapest in town but at least I can sleep at night."

Addis does, however, believe in preventive maintenance and encourages customers to follow a schedule, rather than wait until something breaks. He said a friend recently wanted a transmission service because his Honda had started to slip.  When Addis asked him when he last had the transmission serviced, the friend said never.

"You can flush a transmission and it costs $80, if you wait 100,000 miles, you end up putting in a new transmission, and it cost you $2,000," Addis said.  "It shouldn't be hard to convince folks, but, for many, if the car still runs, they don't want to spend $80," he said. 

To keep customers up to date on preventive maintenance and necessary service, Addis said he mails out service reminders through his Mitchell 1 program.

"If we had a customer that needed brakes on their car but could not afford them at the time, we send them a reminder at a later date to let them know," Addis said.  "The Mitchell 1 program will also print the service reminder on your receipt the next time you come in and anytime thereafter.  Lots of people will forget about the services they need done, but once they receive a reminder or see it printed out on their receipt it refreshes their memory." 

 
Addis has been around the automotive industry for most of his life.  His father, Don Addis, purchased Sam's Service Center in 1974, but it was never Brad's plan to be involved in the automotive repair business.  Instead, he chose to go to college, where he received a degree in chemistry.

"I worked in a laboratory for three months and decided that it was a terrible job, and it doesn't pay very well either," Addis said.  "So, I came back and worked for my dad for about two years and then I opened my own shop, because my Dad and I got along a lot better not working right next to each other."

In 1998, Addis opened Brad's Auto Service just up the street from his father's shop.  Although his shop is substantially smaller than Sam's Service Center, he still stocks $30,000 in inventory, has five bays, four lifts, and employs three mechanics and one service writer.

Addis said he works on almost all domestic and foreign makes and models.  Since subscribing to Identifix Direct-Hit, an online diagnostic program, he feels more confident working on German makes and delving into issues such as climate control.

"I turn to it for things that I don't have a lot of equipment to diagnose," Addis said.  "Sometimes, you get involved with one of those hard-to-diagnose vehicles, and it is best to turn directly to Identifix to find out if 20 other shops have experienced the same problem.  It also works especially well with some of the foreign makes that we don't typically work on." 

   
Although Internet programs such as Identifix and Alldata have helped with efficiency and diagnosis, Addis said, local competition and dealerships have become a growing concern.

"I have seen a drastic change in the number of shops in this area," Addis said.  "It used to be 15 to 20 years ago if you were getting your car worked on you had two options, Sam's or Pete's.  Now there are a dozen shops to choose from right in this area."

The sheer number of shops in the area has increased the amount of price shopping going on, said Addis, who believes it is bad for business--too much time is spent giving estimates on the phone to customers who are only looking for the lowest price.

"It is the same reason I don't advertise in the Yellow Pages, I don't want to deal with price shoppers," Addis said.  "I have also tried radio, newspaper, and direct mail, all with similar results."

That is why Addis said he sticks to word-of-mouth advertising.  "It is the best type of advertising there is--if you do good work, it's free.  People will listen to their friends." 

 
Addis said his word-of-mouth advertising strategy has worked well, because he has developed a lot of long-term customers.
 "You have to work on building relationships with your customer, otherwise, you're not going to stay in business," he said.