DS phone line not working?

[blcknspo0ln]

I've been trying to call DS for the past hour to order parts before the mailman comes, but i keep getting a busy signal..

what's going on guys??

[gtluke]

nate's on his teen chat line again.

brent has 15 minutes to answer the phone or i'm giving out his cell number :)

[blcknspo0ln]

HAHA... no it's all good, i'm on the phone with him now

just took forever :roll: :lol:

[Nate Crisman]

It's going to get worse soon guys. When brent leaves, Im shutting off all but one phone line and running the place completely by myself. Downsizing the business.

I will be answering the phones maybe 2 hours a day, the other 6 hours I need to spend doing book work, ordering product, processing orders, packaging boxes, and making shipping labels.

If Im real busy, the phone will just ring and ring, oh well.

Plan to rely on online orders for sales and email for tech support.
I can afford to lose every single phone sale and a portion of the online sales, and as long as I have no employee's I will make more profit with far less aggrivation. So that's my plan.

I can't continue to pay employees $24,000 a year to sit and answer everyone's tech questions anymore. sucks, but reality is when the phone rings 9 out of 10 times it's tech questions that don't lead to sales. Answering the phone is a big loser business wise.

No more installation or tuning labor, no more fabrication work, no more hand made parts either.

DSMotorsport hasn't turned a profit in the last 2 fiscal years, this is my last ditch effort to make it work before I hang up my keyboard and call it quits. Frankly, Im sick of working 40 hour weeks with no paycheck and mounting debt/bills.

Sincere Thank You to everyone that did call and order parts. I have no problem providing tech support to real customers. Unfortunatly, there are alot off assholes that ruined it for all the real customers. Once Im by myself and handling tech support via email only, everyone will have to provide a customer name or invoice # before getting any tech info. Im not going to spend my time helping out freeloaders who bought thier AFC's on ebay and don't know how to wire them up, or need to know what spring they need in thier fake Tial WG bought on ebay.

Sorry for the rant

[CollegeDropout]

tech support are what forums are for. you should have a seperate phone line for tech support and just answer it when you like and not have to be worried about it being a customer. btw nate, can u order parts for non dsms? (clutches, etc..) im just asking for the future. its sad knowing one of the only honest businesses left may go belly up. i reccomend you to everyone i meet nate, im trying my best.

[gtluke]

lol thanks for broadcasting brent's salary :)

[91tsiguy]

No biggie, that's unfortunately part of the reason I'm headin out. It's a great job and all, but I just live too expensively. The other part is to not put that college degree to too much waste, and I'm moving out on my own in the next month or two, putting me twice as far away from DS.

PS: the phone lines "not working" or being busy is from customers who don't know how to use the menu system we have, hang up, and then the phones are stuck busy by the disconnected tone.

[Utah Joe]

dont worry nate, at worst you can come and get a job with me and weaver. Far less stressful and (normally) at 5 pm, work is done!!!!

[gtluke]

yeah right utah. nate would have to wake up in the morning and drive somewhere. anyway nate is mr. mom don't forget.
not that i've even unpacked my alarm clock yet. its only been a month.
my job rules.

[Nate Crisman]

yeah right utah. nate would have to wake up in the morning and drive somewhere. anyway nate is mr. mom don't forget.
not that i've even unpacked my alarm clock yet. its only been a month.
my job rules.

yup. MR mom duties are what keep my from just closing the business right now and getting 9-5 job. My end of year goal is to have the business downsized enough to be able to function out of my home/garage and not need a rented building and all the overhead attached.

Idealy I would like to keep the business untill Alex is in school, like 3 more years. To mke it 3 years though, I have to figure out some way to make it profitble. Increasing sales isn't going to work, so cutting expenses is the only way. Slash payroll, slash utilities and equipment, slash rent and overhead.

[DSMmaniac_Big_O]

So for me, I'm sticking with my baby, just like i'm sticking with DS all the way to the end.
I hope the end is in the far far distant future, Nate. I also tell all the nOobs and everyone I meet down here, about DS and how great the service and shipping is. I hear shit about Jeff's shop and poeple just complain about John(not so about his shop, but him in general :P )I like the guy, we hung out a couple times. And don't even get me started on the shit that going on with SBR... :lol:

But besides the stupid idiot on EVOM(whch doesn't count to me) I've never heard one bad thing about your shop or you. So screw it, if you have to piss some people off, by not answering the phone, to stay in bussiness, so be it :!: I'll just e-mail all my orders to you like a week in advance, so that by the time, you actually get to it, it would've been the day I call Brent to order it :P

Brent your the man, I wish you the best of luck. Hopefully, the next time we run into each other we can hangout and you can tell me all the secrets about DS(basically talk shit)cuz your a nice guy... :D

[Nate Crisman]

[quote="DSMmaniac_Big_O":31atr1kd] So for me, I'm sticking with my baby, just like i'm sticking with DS all the way to the end.
I hope the end is in the far far distant future, Nate. I also tell all the nOobs and everyone I meet down here, about DS and how great the service and shipping is. I hear shit about Jeff's shop and poeple just complain about John(not so about his shop, but him in general :P )I like the guy, we hung out a couple times. And don't even get me started on the shit that going on with SBR... :lol:

But besides the stupid idiot on EVOM(whch doesn't count to me) I've never heard one bad thing about your shop or you. So screw it, if you have to piss some people off, by not answering the phone, to stay in bussiness, so be it :!: I'll just e-mail all my orders to you like a week in advance, so that by the time, you actually get to it, it would've been the day I call Brent to order it :P

Brent your the man, I wish you the best of luck. Hopefully, the next time we run into each other we can hangout and you can tell me all the secrets about DS(basically talk shit)cuz your a nice guy... :D[/quote:31atr1kd]

It's not going to be any worse in lag time for online orders when Im alone. all in stock orders will ship out the same day. If I can cut my payroll and building/utilities/insurance on building/taxes out of the budget (well over $10,000 a month combined), that leaves more cashflow to put twards inventory. Right now, damn near every penny of the businesse's money goes tward paying overhead and very little gets put into inventory. Cutting those listed expenses should allow the business to carry more inventory and make it easier for me to pack/ship more stuff each day with less hassle.

you guys should see the shop right now, we have less inventory now, than when I first started the business only buying inventory on my personal credit cars.

once I get settled in, the amount of backorders should drop. customers that normlly use the online ordering system will not even notice that anything changed.

The only people that will be affected will be the ones that have to call on the phone and yack for 30 min. Not going to happen anymore, I can't spend my day talking on the phone when there is work to be done.

[twizzle]

eh...looks like nouri and tt are gonna be doin all the work from now on...since your gonna just own an online store in a sense...you should revise the site so it can at least contend with today's futuristic looking online stores. they seem to pull the most business. and your location sucked, no offense, but its a pain in the ass for alot of people in jersey to even get there... maybe, since your going the online route, you can offer parts for more cars...i think if you charged a slight amount more, sales would definetly increase profit....especially if you dipped into the newest 240 craze... these idiots are paying massive amounts of money for standard mods. you specialized in a very small car "group" and expanding that could easily help.

[gtluke]

haha nate will never change his mind on his website or location. i've tried a billion times. he is also not interested in getting into any other cars.

[rotorocker]

but you missed the part where he said he isnt even making a profit yet, he has no reason to expand and buy inventory for other cars. Anyways, best of luck Nate

[gtluke]

just don't forget all the things his business pays for that you and i pay for out of pocket. like all car expenses, internet, computers.... decent amount of normal home expenses, but it doesn't help him save any money for the future.

[Nate Crisman]

just don't forget all the things his business pays for that you and i pay for out of pocket. like all car expenses, internet, computers.... decent amount of normal home expenses, but it doesn't help him save any money for the future.

The things that are personal expenses that the business takes care of amount to a total of about $8000/year. Evo payment, insurance, gas, intenet access, dig camera, cell phone. Does the business need an evo...no. But the business absolutly needs phones, internet, a dig camera. Some of the expenses are grey area becuase I can share personal and business use for the same price.

My 2005 tax return is saying $41,000 net loss. Its not even close.
You can look at it like I took a $8000 paycheck and spent it on personal shit like evo, internet, cell phone. Or you can look at it as legitamate business expenses that just happen to benifit me outside of the business (mooching internet upstairs ect)

either way Im ~$33,000 poorer than I was on Dec 31 2004.


Im not getting into any new cars, Im not getting into any homo website that looks the same as every other online shop. I swear every dsm and evo vendor bought thier website premade from the same fucking place. pretty soon AMS is going to be getting calls from buschur customers becuase thier sites are exactly the same other than the logo on the top. :roll:

Fancy websites don't generate sales, good parts, competative pricing, and business reputation are what drive a parts vendor.

Sorry Im on the rag today and yesterday :evil:

[gtluke]

but frontpage make you look like you suck at technology. not something good in this field.

[Nate Crisman]

but frontpage make you look like you suck at technology. not something good in this field.

Honestly, I really don't care anymore. The goal is to do less sales volume. I can't do the current volume by myself anyway, so if I lose sales becuase of a frontpage website. fine..it helps accomplish my goal.

I hardly think it makes a differance anyway. I do suck at technology with computers. WTF does that have to do with car parts?

Besides..do you really think anyone at Buschur or Slowboy made that website...HA anyone with an IQ of 12 knows they just bought it premade and stuck thier prices and pictures into a premade site. Only shows they know how to spend $, it has no bearing on thier technology, in fact, I know Dave B barely knows how to make attachments on Evom forum, and didn't even know how to turn on the laptop at his AEM class. does that mean he's a bad parts vendor? He's probobly the most knoledgable dsm guru in the world.

Im really suprised at you luke seeing that you look down on people who "buy" thier racecar/performance car and don't know how to tune/build/work on it, yet brag about thier car. Do you respect people who say drop thier talon off...say "I want it to run 10's", have a shop build/tune it/design it..customer just pays his $10,000 bill. Did that guy build the car? No he's a fagmo who doesn't know a BOV from a wastegate yo.

Same with websites. Buy premade website = fag. Especially to buy the same exact website as 143 other dsm vendors that are direct competitors.

would you give credibility to Jegs if you bought summit's website and just stuck thier logo on top?

[MikeL]

Personally I would leave all of your personal/business expenses and issues OFF the internet, imo its a bit unprofessional, we don't need to know. I do agree that a "nice" website will bring in more sales than a homemade looking one, I've gone through a few designs with people before finding the one that "clicks" customers buying parts off the internet are at least somewhat tehcnical because they got there, and the ones that are expierenced will make a decision in less than 1 second if they like your site, which is often related to a feeling of "trust" ie, someone who spent the $ for a nice site "should" be less likely to rip me off. (of course this is referrence to people who don't know you or your reputation). Just my $.02 I hope things work out for you, I like being able to order stuff from people I know and can get stuff to me quickly.

[gtluke]

nate, normal people relate your ability to operate a computer with your ability to tweak/tune a car computer and your grasp on the whole "tech" thing.
i know this is not true, but what i'm saying is that a lot of people use this relation.
imports guys are techy guys, they frown on those that arn't one of them.
it is very aparent that its a frontpage site and tech people relate frontpage as a carburator, and you are trying to sell AEM level stuff.
us local people know otherwise, but trying to convice someone who stumbles on your site or clicks a link or ad will be the person who need the convincing to give you a call or place an order.

maybe what you can do is include some images or subliminal design to show your knowledge of the tech field. some screenshots of cad designed intercooler setups, some AEM maps showing up somewhere on the electronics page....

your webpage is your resume, and in this field technology is key. you already have the "backwoods" reputation but you need to show that you know the technology like the next urban blinger.

don't forget your general customer base is always going to be 17 year old kids. you need to impress them with bling and catchy names like slowboy or turbotrixxxxx with lots of flash and confidence.

import guys don't want what works, they want what is "the best" so you have to convince them.

i know that this isn't what you are about, but this is what the people in this thread are trying to say.
there is absolutely nothing wrong with the way your site works. its just that it doens't grab you and say THESE GUYS ARE FUCKING AWESOME.
appearance is a big part in this game. the hardcore fast dsm guys are not around like they were. they all drive G35s now.
you either have to stay with the rolling in of new people and generations or turn into metallica.

[DSMmaniac_Big_O]

I swear every dsm and evo vendor bought thier website premade from the same fucking place. pretty soon AMS is going to be getting calls from buschur customers becuase thier sites are exactly the same other than the logo on the top. :roll:

Fancy websites don't generate sales, good parts, competative pricing, and business reputation are what drive a parts vendor.

Sorry Im on the rag today and yesterday :evil:
I like being able to order stuff from people I know and can get stuff to me quickly.+1
Do you respect people who say drop thier talon off...say "I want it to run 10's", have a shop build/tune it/design it..customer just pays his $10,000 bill. Did that guy build the car? No he's a fagmo who doesn't know a BOV from a wastegate yo.

Same with websites. Buy premade website = fag. Especially to buy the same exact website as 143 other dsm vendors that are direct competitors.
http://www.miamidsm.addr.com/phpBB2/images/smiles/MachineGun.gifDam, nate don't hold anything back... :lol: Tell em' why you madhttp://www.miamidsm.addr.com/phpBB2/images/smiles/Grrr.gif

Talk about keeping it real, wow. Well, I do some freelance graphic work which includes your basic lame/jane made in PS and/or dreamweaver website. I must say IMO a proffesional/tasteful website will bring in revenue, not a flashy site like Buschur. Infact, to take your point futher, has anyone noticed that half the pictures and features don't work on that site. You go through shit like, their stage one,stage two and three and under the description it reads the same thing for all of them. Jezz, at least Nate updates the site regularly and speaks for himself. And your reputation perceives you, that why I come back. Just my .02

[DSMmaniac_Big_O]

nate, normal people relate your ability to operate a computer with your ability to tweak/tune a car computer and your grasp on the whole "tech" thing.
i know this is not true, but what i'm saying is that a lot of people use this relation.
imports guys are techy guys, they frown on those that arn't one of them.
it is very aparent that its a frontpage site and tech people relate frontpage as a carburator, and you are trying to sell AEM level stuff.
us local people know otherwise, but trying to convice someone who stumbles on your site or clicks a link or ad will be the person who need the convincing to give you a call or place an order.

maybe what you can do is include some images or subliminal design to show your knowledge of the tech field. some screenshots of cad designed intercooler setups, some AEM maps showing up somewhere on the electronics page....

your webpage is your resume, and in this field technology is key. you already have the "backwoods" reputation but you need to show that you know the technology like the next urban blinger.

don't forget your general customer base is always going to be 17 year old kids. you need to impress them with bling and catchy names like slowboy or turbotrixxxxx with lots of flash and confidence.

import guys don't want what works, they want what is "the best" so you have to convince them.

i know that this isn't what you are about, but this is what the people in this thread are trying to say.
there is absolutely nothing wrong with the way your site works. its just that it doens't grab you and say THESE GUYS ARE FUCKING AWESOME.
appearance is a big part in this game. the hardcore fast dsm guys are not around like they were. they all drive G35s now.
you either have to stay with the rolling in of new people and generations or turn into metallica.Screw that, Nate's keeping it real. Although I agree with posting some AEM maps and the CAD comment though!

[gtluke]

well yeah we know that because we know nate.
my point is getting more people that have no idea who he is to get to know him.

but i bet his site weeds out a lot of retards who only look for the bling and reputation. i know nate wants nothing to do with that so maybe its helping him.

[BP95GSX]

Nate, you can work for me if you want. I'll give you $35K a year and benefits for you and the family. Working on exotics is stressfull at times though. :)

[BP95GSX]

[quote="DSMmaniac_Big_O":3mm7d46v] So for me, I'm sticking with my baby, just like i'm sticking with DS all the way to the end.
I hope the end is in the far far distant future, Nate. I also tell all the nOobs and everyone I meet down here, about DS and how great the service and shipping is. I hear shit about Jeff's shop and poeple just complain about John(not so about his shop, but him in general :P )I like the guy, we hung out a couple times. And don't even get me started on the shit that going on with SBR... :lol:

But besides the stupid idiot on EVOM(whch doesn't count to me) I've never heard one bad thing about your shop or you. So screw it, if you have to piss some people off, by not answering the phone, to stay in bussiness, so be it :!: I'll just e-mail all my orders to you like a week in advance, so that by the time, you actually get to it, it would've been the day I call Brent to order it :P

Brent your the man, I wish you the best of luck. Hopefully, the next time we run into each other we can hangout and you can tell me all the secrets about DS(basically talk shit)cuz your a nice guy... :D[/quote:3mm7d46v]

I thought everyone loves me. ?????????????????????????

[atc250r]

One very simple and very small thing that I think is turning some people off to the site is the fact that it's almost February and the "December Specials" is still proudly displayed on the top of the page. If I was just some schmuck who stumbled across your site while looking for parts for my DSM I would wonder if the business is still even operating. I'd also think that if you are slow to keep your website up to date then how slow will you be to ship my parts? I don't want this to come off as some kind of "bash Nate" post, it is simply some constructive criticism. I go out of my way to buy from you whenever possible and I'd hate to lose you as a vendor. I also think that despite you not wanting to add car lines or move your location those two things would help a lot, especially if you decide to continue doing the mechanical end of it. I'm gonna send you a PM about a couple of things Nate.

John

[Nate Crisman]

John N: Thanks for the offer, but I have no interest in working on cars. I also have to watch my son during the day.

John R: I will make it a point to keep up with the sale page. AFter reviewing last years data of monthly sales, it seems they don't do very much for for price sales. Most of the customers that buy the item on monthly sale do not become regular customers, nor do they buy normal priced items at the same time. One of my decisions to make is to continue the monthly sales or not. Most of the time my data shows Im just giving away a discount for no future benifit. Maybe Ill just rephrase it to say "monthly sale" or "discount sale" or something so that If I go a few weeks late on chnging it, it's not so obvious. Thanks for the tip.

[Nate Crisman]

well yeah we know that because we know nate.
my point is getting more people that have no idea who he is to get to know him.

but i bet his site weeds out a lot of retards who only look for the bling and reputation. i know nate wants nothing to do with that so maybe its helping him.

Frankly luke, I don't want to "get to know" more people.

One of the things that aggrivates me the most is when me, brent, and ryan would be in the office. Calls that comes in the customers always ask to speak with me. Im paying them both to be there and answer the phone, yet I still get stuck on the phone. We will seriously have "customers" and I say tht loosly, that will hang up and call again multiple times a day untill they get me, only to ask a stupid question like "what size Tbolt clamp do I need for a 16g inlet?".

If I could have my way, Id be totally annonnomous, I used to joke with Ryan that he should tell people I sold the business and Ill start answering the phone telling people Im Jack or Matt or something.

In my ideal world, Ill sell parts off the website and shut off all my phone lines. Then I will never have to deal with people, only paper and boxes. That would be sweet. :lol:

[gtluke]

yeah but look how much you used to sell compared to ryan versus the amount of phone calls you take.
if someone wants to drop like $2g's on a turbo/intercooler/injectors or like an AEM or something, they probably want to talk to you about it.

i'm not saying you need to get to know people. i'm saying they need to get to know more about you so they trust you and the products you stand behind. all of us here know that if you say that something is good or bad that its the god's honest truth. we also know that you refuse to sell junk. now random people floating around the internet do not know this. trying to convince people that you are the shop that they want to do business with is what i'm saying...
if you become a very familiar name and shop, people will trust you and buy from you.
there are a million ways to get this done.
you can win races
you can release insane internet videos like AMS
you can whore up all the forums
you can have great prices
you can have a customer base that worships you and spreads the word like wildfire
you can have a really catchy name and logo like turbotrix
you can offer things that nobody else can, or offer the best version of something.

but just having a website and phone number is not going to generate you more business, and its just going to be a downward spiral untill your customer base has moved on. you need to keep attracting new guys when the old one's arn't around anymore.

i'll tell you how i just spent like $500 on mustang parts this week, how i chose my shops. i'm writing this out because you havn't really been a consumer of auto parts in a while, so you may need to step out of your shoes and see whats its like trying to choose a person to hand over your hard earned money to.
i went to turbomustangs.com and looked at our sponsor/vendor list. when i could remember the guy's name/screen name from his shop name, i clicked on his web store. i took note of what he had, and went down the list untill i could narrow it down to the least amount of shops that i would have to order from to get the parts that i want. it took 3 shops. B&G custom turbo replied to my PM's with satisfying answers about flanges, so i bought flanges from him. he also ALWAYS helps the tm.com members with pricing and service. RPS is owned buy a guy that posts tech every day. even the same shit over and over for the newbs. stand up guy. i ordered as much stuff as i could from him. he also had great deals on V-band flanges. next was racing solutions who was having a sale on mandral bent stainless DIY header tubing.
personally i don't give a shit what their websites look like. infact B&G has the worste website i've ever been to. but the guy knows his shit and is always around.

i chose my shops on professionality and reputation. i bought from people that i was familiar with and who i was positive knew their shit and wouldn't risk their hard earned reputation on junk parts or shitty service.

i'm the customer you are probably trying to get or keep (but i don't have a dsm that needs parts). i'm almost definately going to order online. i won't call unless it doesn't show up and i don't hear from you in at least 5 days. if i have a tech question, its short and to the point. (this is my goal, what do i need? okay i'll buy that, here is my credit card number) and more than likely i'll PM you or email you the question and patiently wait for a response but i expect it within 48 hours.
i don't care if you have a fast car or not, but i want to know if your customers do and if your customers are satisfied. i always read the goodguy/badguy posts. i don't think there is a shop in the world with more "good guy dsmotorsport" posts. but not enough people know this.

in person or face to face you ooooze confidence. people believe every god damn word you say like you are writing the bible in front of them. your website, and internet postings do you no justice. i think you need to capitalize on your gift to convince people. but it seems that you want to get away from that. if you really don't want to answer the phone, you need to learn to get that confidence out there in a written and graphical form somehow. whore up some forums, make your website look like patrick bateman's business card, start posting up some sick video's.
hell nobody here has seen your 10.002 pass, get it up!
when you mod your car, or do progress... take a TON of pictures and comment and post them up on all the dsm boards. people LOOOOOVE that.
"putting methenol injection on my evo" and post 30 pictures and show it step by step. people love that shit.
i'd like to see you be able to run a retail dsm shop with 8.5 hours a day in it so that was my take one what needs to be done to keep or grow your customer base within your means.
i have to take a shit

[hecdws]

whats up nate. i hear all your gripes man. i try to get you buisness but all my guys like the cash and carry im sure you know that. i think location is what hurts you most. i think you gotta make money locally then on the web. and you need work on cars or atleast install what you sell. if you just want to sell online then work out of your house. just my 2 cents after 6 heinekens.

[twizzle]

im not even gonna say it... lol

[Nate Crisman]

whats up nate. i hear all your gripes man. i try to get you buisness but all my guys like the cash and carry im sure you know that. i think location is what hurts you most. i think you gotta make money locally then on the web. and you need work on cars or atleast install what you sell. if you just want to sell online then work out of your house. just my 2 cents after 6 heinekens.

the location definatly hurts the install work. But installs and walk in sales are insignificant next to the volume of product shipped out. The profit generated by installation and walk in sales is so little, that I have teetered on the edge of just stopping labor jobs all together over a year ago. Not to mention we can do 10 jobs without a hitch, and it only takes one mistake to waste the profit from those 10 jobs correcting the one mistake.

Since my time is going to be better spent on website/bookwork/phone sales and dailey opperations, Iv decided to stop taking labor and tuning jobs all together. Once I move out of the currentl building, walk in sales are also stopping. I hate that customers know where I live becuase they like to stop by and ring the doorbell at stupid hours, shout at the windows when dropping off a car, and basicly expect that Im at thier becken call.

[atc250r]

I think Hector's ideas on walk in work and installs is true in most cases but since you're in a remote location it isn't for you Nate. I also think that in a more populated area (or at least one closer to the highway) you would see an increase in those types of business. Of course you will also see an increase in your rent so it's kind of a catch 22. If you guys are having 10% of your cars come back for "warranty" issues then someone is doing something wrong. I'm guessing that number is exagerrated since I know you guys do good work over there. Although, you did have Luke wrenching for you :lol: :lol: . J/K Luke!! Also, Luke's point about self promoting more is dead on. Why have we never got to see that 10.002 run? That's the kind of thing you want smeared all over the place. Whatever you decide to do I'm sure it'll work out for the best.

John

[Nate Crisman]

HHAH I just re-read the whole thread. I am one bitchy mofo today. :oops: Sorry for ranting and being pissy. I guess I should be more appriciative that I actually have customers, rather than bitching bout how a few of them get on my nerves.

must be that Jan 24 "most depressing day of the year" stuff. :roll:

[Nate Crisman]

I think Hector's ideas on walk in work and installs is true in most cases but since you're in a remote location it isn't for you Nate. I also think that in a more populated area (or at least one closer to the highway) you would see an increase in those types of business. Of course you will also see an increase in your rent so it's kind of a catch 22. If you guys are having 10% of your cars come back for "warranty" issues then someone is doing something wrong. I'm guessing that number is exagerrated since I know you guys do good work over there. Although, you did have Luke wrenching for you :lol: :lol: . J/K Luke!! Also, Luke's point about self promoting more is dead on. Why have we never got to see that 10.002 run? That's the kind of thing you want smeared all over the place. Whatever you decide to do I'm sure it'll work out for the best.

John

Yes, it's more thn a catch22. Everyone seems to think "big business" is the way to make money. bigger shop, in the city, more employee's, more advertizing, bigger website, expand into more cars. That's simply not the case. The return on investment in my time and money always turns out poor when "going bigger".

As my business has grown over the years, selling more and more parts each year, it has made less and less profit. The overhead required to sell more parts ususally eats up every penny and then some of the additional profit generated by said increse in business.

Ill make the most money selling half as much parts, no labor, no tuning, no walk ins becuase it requires the least amount of overhead.

It's not like 10% jobs coming back for mistakes.

for instance...this week I did a tbelt job and installed a couple gauges. The car came back for a door creek/bent door detent. Obviously not related to the work done, but Im sorta obligated to check it out becuase the customer says it must have happened here.

I have a 2g NT-turbo conversion car that keeps coming back for tuning, every time I have to send it back untuned becuase something is screwed up with the situation. One time it comes in with a cat on it, next time it comes in with broken FPR, then it comes bck with broken fuel pump, now it's back with some hahn racecraft piggyback that's un-tunable and fuel pressure is all I can do. Iv wasted atlest 3-4 hours farting round with that car.

I got a 2g here now tht is returned from clutch job. it's got new mster and slave, and new clutch. looks like either new master or slave blew up, Im going to hve to fix that for free.

stuff like that. We touch the car, then it seems anything that goes wrong..no matter how unrelated to the job we did, becomes "out fault" and I have to atleast look at it and waste time and aggrivation. I try to never tell a customer to piss off, even when I really should.

[DSMmaniac_Big_O]

I thought everyone loves me. ?????????????????????????John, like I said, I like you :P

[DSMmaniac_Big_O]

Maybe instead of labor and install, you charge people to use your lift and dyno and they can do their own work. Plus you can make them sign off a waiver, stating that any personal injury while using the lift, DS cannot be held liable for.

I have a friend with a warehouse/shop and if he installs a lift, we'll start charging people to use it, because hey, DSM's break... :P
I have to atleast look at it and waste time and aggrivation. I try to never tell a customer to piss off, even when I really should.Oh by the way Garry Marsh of Speed Injected (http://www.speedinjected.com) will tell you to piss off, no BS... :lol:

[Nate Crisman]

Maybe instead of labor and install, you charge people to use your lift and dyno and they can do their own work. Plus you can make them sign off a waiver, stating that any personal injury while using the lift, DS cannot be held liable for.

I have a friend with a warehouse/shop and if he installs a lift, we'll start charging people to use it, because hey, DSM's break... :P [quote="Nate@DSMotorsport":1em1k7h1]I have to atleast look at it and waste time and aggrivation. I try to never tell a customer to piss off, even when I really should.Oh by the way Garry Marsh of Speed Injected (http://www.speedinjected.com) will tell you to piss off, no BS... :lol:[/quote:1em1k7h1]


Where is this dyno hiding? I could have used that before. :wink:

[shane]

its on the roof next to the pool.

[blcknspo0ln]

i'm sure nate would never go that route.. having people use the dyno can only spell disaster. or even the lift. because if someone fucks themself or the car up, it's on DS to repair everything..

[garychios]

I feel your Pain Nate. I am actually calling it quits in the next few weeks. I give up!!! My carreer is not progressing as I like. I always believe that if you are not making 200K, you really cant live comfortably in NJ/NY/CT. Of course some people think otherwise just like other people think you are doing well and should not complain, but sometimes, enough is enough. I basically work to pay bills and I think you feel the same. I am actually making a major change and by next month, I will hopefully be a new person, and maybe evn go racing again.

Anyway, goodluck

Thanks
-Gary A

[BigT]

I feel your Pain Nate. I am actually calling it quits in the next few weeks. I give up!!! My carreer is not progressing as I like. I always believe that if you are not making 200K, you really cant live comfortably in NJ/NY/CT. Of course some people think otherwise just like other people think you are doing well and should not complain, but sometimes, enough is enough. I basically work to pay bills and I think you feel the same. I am actually making a major change and by next month, I will hopefully be a new person, and maybe evn go racing again.

Anyway, goodluck

Thanks
-Gary A


Dont you drive a porsche?

[twizzle]

lol nate doesnt have a dyno!

[BP95GSX]

I feel your Pain Nate. I am actually calling it quits in the next few weeks. I give up!!! My carreer is not progressing as I like. I always believe that if you are not making 200K, you really cant live comfortably in NJ/NY/CT. Of course some people think otherwise just like other people think you are doing well and should not complain, but sometimes, enough is enough. I basically work to pay bills and I think you feel the same. I am actually making a major change and by next month, I will hopefully be a new person, and maybe evn go racing again.

Anyway, goodluck

Thanks
-Gary A


Dont you drive a porsche?

HAHAHA. He's calling you out Gary. That's funny. :lol:

[BP95GSX]

I thought everyone loves me. ?????????????????????????John, like I said, I like you :P
Who are you?

[Dstarmotuner]

It's going to get worse soon guys. When brent leaves, Im shutting off all but one phone line and running the place completely by myself. Downsizing the business.

I will be answering the phones maybe 2 hours a day, the other 6 hours I need to spend doing book work, ordering product, processing orders, packaging boxes, and making shipping labels.

If Im real busy, the phone will just ring and ring, oh well.

Plan to rely on online orders for sales and email for tech support.
I can afford to lose every single phone sale and a portion of the online sales, and as long as I have no employee's I will make more profit with far less aggrivation. So that's my plan.

I can't continue to pay employees $24,000 a year to sit and answer everyone's tech questions anymore. sucks, but reality is when the phone rings 9 out of 10 times it's tech questions that don't lead to sales. Answering the phone is a big loser business wise.

No more installation or tuning labor, no more fabrication work, no more hand made parts either.

DSMotorsport hasn't turned a profit in the last 2 fiscal years, this is my last ditch effort to make it work before I hang up my keyboard and call it quits. Frankly, Im sick of working 40 hour weeks with no paycheck and mounting debt/bills.

Sincere Thank You to everyone that did call and order parts. I have no problem providing tech support to real customers. Unfortunatly, there are alot off assholes that ruined it for all the real customers. Once Im by myself and handling tech support via email only, everyone will have to provide a customer name or invoice # before getting any tech info. Im not going to spend my time helping out freeloaders who bought thier AFC's on ebay and don't know how to wire them up, or need to know what spring they need in thier fake Tial WG bought on ebay.

Sorry for the rant

Higher me ill work for half that lol

[91tsiguy]

Higher me ill work for half that lol

Sure, you start tomorrow at 9 then. Directions are on the website. :lol:

[Nate Crisman]

Higher me ill work for half that lol

Sure, you start tomorrow at 9 then. Directions are on the website. :lol:

Im going to kick you in the nuts if someone rings my doorbell at 9am and your not here to stop it. :evil:

[chrisAWD]

trust me....on dialup :oops: , nate's site is by far the best. those other sites are basically worthless to me

[1gnasty]

Higher me ill work for half that lol

Sure, you start tomorrow at 9 then. Directions are on the website. :lol:

Im going to kick you in the nuts if someone rings my doorbell at 9am and your not here to stop it. :evil:
lol that would suck

[helite99]

Higher me ill work for half that lol

Sure, you start tomorrow at 9 then. Directions are on the website. :lol:

Im going to kick you in the nuts if someone rings my doorbell at 9am and your not here to stop it. :evil:
lol that would suck

yes it would suck, but part of me would like to see nate kick brent in the nuts. Sadly i dont know why, i like brent. But i can just imagine the reaction.. lol sorry brent

[gtluke]

nate trying to beat up brent:
http://www.timandshawna.net/tim_movies/napoleon_dynamite/napoleon_dynamite01.jpg

[rotorocker]

Brent: Since when, Nate? You have the worst reflexes of all time.
Nate: Try and hit me, Brent.
Brent: What?
Nate: I said come down here and see what happens if you try and hit me.

LOL

[91tsiguy]

I almost rang the doorbell this morning. Sooo tempting. :lol:

[1gnasty]

I almost rang the doorbell this morning. Sooo tempting. :lol:
do it do it 8) 8) :lol:

[Nate Crisman]

Ill be down to fighting weight in no time. 8)

[BigT]

I feel your Pain Nate. I am actually calling it quits in the next few weeks. I give up!!! My carreer is not progressing as I like. I always believe that if you are not making 200K, you really cant live comfortably in NJ/NY/CT. Of course some people think otherwise just like other people think you are doing well and should not complain, but sometimes, enough is enough. I basically work to pay bills and I think you feel the same. I am actually making a major change and by next month, I will hopefully be a new person, and maybe evn go racing again.

Anyway, goodluck

Thanks
-Gary A


Dont you drive a porsche?

HAHAHA. He's calling you out Gary. That's funny. :lol:


I'm not trying to be arrogant. Just curious if he drove a porsche. :lol:

[puremx69]

trust me....on dialup :oops: , nate's site is by far the best. those other sites are basically worthless to me

I don't mean to insult anyone personally or anything like that, but the fact of the matter is, dialup users are basically worthless to online companies...don't be offended, but it's the truth. A huge inferrence is that if you don't have enough money to spend on what is now the standard type of internet connection, how much money are you really going to spend on anything an online company has to sell? I didn't make it up, just something the business professors seem to all be teaching nowadays.

[turbo1913]

well since chris hasnt responded yet, i'll do it for him. not all areas have high-speed available yet so hence he has to use his crappy dialup, at least while at home. but since broadband is pretty much the standard now i can see why companies are building their sites around it and not expecting dial up users to use it.

[blcknspo0ln]

well since chris hasnt responded yet, i'll do it for him. not all areas have high-speed available yet so hence he has to use his crappy dialup, at least while at home. but since broadband is pretty much the standard now i can see why companies are building their sites around it and not expecting dial up users to use it.

what do you know!? you live in bridgewater :P