The husband and wife said they modernized the operations of the shop by coupling Hank Silva's old-school customer service principles with contemporary business practices.

Mike Silva, an Accredited Automotive Manager (AAM), said he constantly heeds the industry call, whether it's making an appearance on Fox 2's "Call a Mechanic" show, then fielding phone calls from AAA members, teaching an automotive service course through St. Louis Community College Forest Park, or serving his fellow shop owners at Alliance of Automotive Service Professionals of Missouri (AASP-MO).

Silva said those collective experiences have given him and his wife the confidence to run the five-bay 3,700-square-foot shop professionally and profitably.

"Sharing numbers with other shops was unheard of," said Linda Silva, who purchased the shop with her husband in 1993 from her father-in-law.

The Silvas eventually joined an R. L. O'Connor Bottom Line Impact Group and began learning to match their shop's performance with industry benchmarks.  "You have to balance the P&L monthly, weekly, and daily," she said.  "It starts with every ticket.  You don't want to find these things out at the end of the year."

Silva, who was a computer department supervisor for a natural gas company before working at the family shop, said that implementing a management system was one of the first steps in modernizing the shop.  The shop's R.O. Writer management system, she said, a far cry from a calculator and handwritten repair orders the shop used 14 years ago.

"It's a natural expectation on the customer's part," she said; the computer system shows customers that you're well organized and managing the business well.

The Silvas said that through their participation in the R. L. O'Connor group, which lasted a decade, they came to realize that labor time is a repair shop's inventory, an intangible that must be tracked. 

"We learned to manage our 'labor inventory' with time management," Silva said.  "Learning how to get a handle on it and manage it was key.  It can tell you so many things."  Tracking labor times may reveal flawed processes, a need for more tools, or training, she added.

Now, the shop's two technicians clock in and out on each job, Silva said.  The benchmark is for each tech to flag nine hours in an eight-hour work day, she said.  "It provides a system of checks and balances."

Other benchmarks the Silvas said they've keep their eye on are 50 percent markup on parts, 70 percent profit on labor, and an average of 60 percent gross profit on a repair order. 

Maintaining a healthy profit margin is getting to be a battle because of rising expenses, such as health care, Linda Silva said. 

The issues facing small businesses need to be addressed legislatively, she said, adding that this is why participation in trade associations is so vital, as they go to bat for the small independent businesses.

The Silvas said they've experienced how difficult it is to put the time into the business, raise a family, and still carve out time for training and association meetings.  To juggle those tasks, the Silvas said throughout the years, they've made family vacations out of industry training events, and their daughters, 17-year-old Leanne and 13-year-old Michelle, grew up with other "shop kids," who came to know each other year after year.

"They know what business is, and no matter what they decide to do, they have to take business classes," Linda Silva said.  "There's nothing wrong with profit. That's why you do it."

A recent event that the Silvas and their technicians attended was the Automotive Service Association of Missouri/Kansas' (ASA-MO/KAN) Vision show in Overland Park, Kan.  "I have an agenda when I go to Vision," Mike Silva said, adding that he has the techs look at the venders' latest offerings to see what they want to add to the shop.

During the show, Silva said, he signed up with WorldPac to take advantage of its extensive import OE brands and Web ordering system.  WorldPac's new St. Louis warehouse on Page Industrial Boulevard gives quick service, he said.

He said he also purchased a Corghi rim-clamp tire changer from Fenton, Mo.-based Automotive Technology Inc. a month after seeing it at Vision.